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Diabetes and Bladder and Bowel Control
This fact sheet has been developed to assist people looking for more information about diabetes and bladder and control
People with diabetes commonly experience problems with controlling their bladder and bowel. The incontinence refers to bladder and bowel control problems. This can involve accidental leakage, incomplete emptying, passing urine frequently (frequency) or feeling the need to rush to the toilet (urgency).
Poor control of the bladder and bowel is an important health problem. It can interfere with work, social activities or sexual and personal relationships. It is important that you seek help because these problems can be cured, treated or better managed. Talk to your doctor or call the Continence Helpline 0800 650 659.
Normal bladder and bowel control
Knowing how the bladder and bowel normally work will help you understand the problems you may be experiencing.
The bladder and bowel store and expel body waste. The bladder stores and passes urine (wee) regularly throughout the day. On average we should pass urine 4-6 times during the day and once over night. This will vary depending upon how much you drink, what you drink and how much you exercise and perspire. Your bladder should easily hold 350 – 500 mls. When it is around about half full you will start to become aware of your bladder filling. You should not go to the toilet at this point but put it off until the urge is stronger but not yet urgent.
The lower bowel stores and expels faeces (poo). The normal range for bowel movements is anywhere from 3 times per day to 3 times per week. The faeces you pass should be soft formed and easily passed with no straining.
The pelvic floor muscles play an essential role in giving us control over the bladder and bowel. When we hold on to go to the toilet we are relying on the pelvic floor muscles.
So when you go to the toilet you should feel in control and not have to rush or leak before you get there.
Check symptoms of poor bladder and bowel control:
Leakage of urine with coughs, sneezes, or exercise
Leakage of urine on the way to the toilet
Passing urine frequently
Getting up twice or more over night to pass urine
Frequent urinary tract infections
Feeling the bladder is not completely empty
Poor urine flow
Straining to get the bladder to empty
Rushing to the toilet (urgency to pass urine or open bowels)
Inability to control wind
Wetting the bed while asleep
Leakage from the bowel (or soiling) with the urge to open the bowels
Leakage from the bowel without the urge to open the bowels
Leakage from the bowel when passing wind
Diabetes and bladder and bowel control
There are four main ways that diabetes may cause problems with bladder and bowel control:
This is a key factor in people developing Type 2 (non-insulin dependant) diabetes. It is also a major risk factor for developing bladder and bowel control problems. The pelvic floor muscles support most of your body weight. Any excess weight further strains these muscles, weakening them. Weak pelvic floor muscles do not support the bladder and bowel as it should. If this happens you may notice leakage when coughing and sneezing (also known as stress incontinence) or the need to frequently or urgently visit the toilet.
Poorly controlled or long-term diabetes may cause damage to the nerves, (neuropathy) and commonly occurs in the feet. Similarly, it may affect the bladder and bowel. Nerve damage to the bladder and bowel causes loss of sensation so you may have little warning of needing to go to the toilet or lack of awareness of your bladder filling. Your bladder and bowel may not empty well, putting you at risk of developing urinary tract infections, kidney damage or constipation.
Keeping your diabetes well-controlled is the best way to prevent nerve damage or further damage happening.
Diabetes interferes with the immune system putting you at greater risk to infections. A common infection experienced by people with diabetes is urinary tract infection (UTI). It is the combination of the immune system changes and the poor bladder emptying that causes these infections and often they keep reoccurring. Treatment includes antibiotics and strategies to promote bladder emptying. In addition personal hygiene is particularly important and all women should wipe from front to back to avoid transferring bowel bacteria to the vagina. Cranberry juice (drink or capsules) may help prevent urinary tract infections
The medications used to control Type 2diabetes may cause loose bowel actions (diarrhoea). The combination of weak pelvic floor muscles and loose bowel actions may cause bowel incontinence. The medicines that can cause problems include Metformin, Acarbose and Gliclazide. If you are experiencing these problems talk to your doctor or diabetes nurse or dietician. Soluble fibre can help firm up the diarrhoea and slow down the bowel motions. Sources of soluble fibre are oats, barley, rye, peeled fruit and vegetables.
Preventing and managing incontinence
There are five things you can do to regain control of your bladder or bowel:
Eat a healthy diet rich in dietary fibre to avoid constipation. We need at least 30gm of fibre each day. Eat at least 2-3 serves of fruit, 5 serves of vegetables and 5 serves of cereals and breads.
It is important to get the balance right as just adding fibre to your diet without increasing your fluids can cause or make constipation worse. If you continue to often have constipation, see your doctor.
Drink 1.5 – 2 litres of fluid each day to prevent bladder irritation and constipation, unless otherwise advised by your doctor. Drinking extra fluids is recommended in hot weather or when exercising. Spread your drinks evenly throughout the day. Water is best. Limit caffeine, alcohol and fizzy drink as they may cause bladder irritation. Always have an extra drink of water following these drinks.
Keep moving. Aim to exercise for 30 minutes most days. Remember that walking is great exercise.
Tone up your pelvic floor muscles
Keep your pelvic floor muscles strong with a pelvic floor exercise program. These are muscles that gives you control over your bladder and bowel. Squeeze and draw up your pelvic floor muscles to control the urgency to go to the toilet. When you feel the urge to pass urine or open you bowels, stop, stand still or sit down on a firm seat. Squeeze and draw up your pelvic floor muscles. Think about something else rather than the urge. The urge should diminish or go away at this point so you can get to the toilet without rushing.
Practice good toilet habits
Go to the toilet when your bladder feels full or when you get the urge to open your bowels. Do not get into the habit of going ‘just in case’. Take time to completely empty your bladder and bowel.
To get into the correct sitting position on the toilet: sit on the toilet, elbows on knees, lean forward and support your feet on a footstool. To avoid kidney damage, if you think your bladder is not emptying completely talk to your doctor or diabetes nurse.
For all enquires: Continence NZ : Continence Helpline: Call 0800 650 659 National Office: PO Box 270, Drury 2247: Email: [email protected]
This document has been developed by, and remains the property of, the Continence Foundation of Australia
© Continence Foundation of Australia 2015
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| 0.906671 | 1,553 | 2.640625 | 3 |
The scarlet basker is described as a medium-sized libellulid, but its stature, which could well be taken for granted at a lonely pond, becomes apparent in the company of smaller odonates, namely the common parasols that float through reed beds and skim over garden pools. Males of the latterr, with their livery of colour that stops short of the tips of their stubby, fluttery wings, seldom stray far from wayside vegetation, defending territories spanning just a few square feet. Their manner of flight has a certain hesitancy which keeps the insects on a low and lingering leash, though these limitations of power do not appear to hinder the species' conquest of suburban habitats.
Look up a little and it's likely that the pond where dozens of parasols perch and prey is watched over by a rather larger odonate with colours that burn and somewhat angular wings with pointed tips and aggressive veins. The base of the hindwings bear a brownish patch and there are two diamond-shaped spots on the eight and ninth abdominal segments, which are plainly visible when the dragonfly stands to attention with its tail to the sun.
Urothemis signata insignata usually selects a prominent lookout well above the marshy understorey and offering a clear passage to all corners of his domain. When the two occupy the same line of sight, the bulk of the basker, with its near eight-centimetre wingspan, makes gnats of Neurothemis fluctuans, local populations of which rarely breach the five-centimetre mark. Males of the former dominate the scene, launching themselves into wide arcs and high sweeps to intercept similarly clad intruders or invite passing females, plain as they are in yellowish brown, to a parlance of signs. If she fails to see red and offers him her neck, the pair will sail around in a grip of passion before dumping their spoils into a nursery at the shallow end.
Another big, red dragonfly, but one far larger, and much less attached to its aquatic womb is the saddlebag glider, which is named for the hindwing markings that in related species were thought to resemble equestrian gear. In colour, pose and its preference for commanding perches, it superficially resembles a basker, but Tramea transmarina euryale has darker eyes, a brown, rather than scarlet, thorax, and thicker spots near the end of the abdomen. Among local libellulids, it is in breadth second only to the sultan, with which it shares a tribe and markedly expanded hindwing bases.
In flight, the glider eschews the wild dashes of urothemistines, achieving cruising height with minimal effort by riding updrafts that allow the dragonfly to maintain altitude and stay the course with just periodic flicks of their wings. The genus, having at its disposal such powers of dispersal, not infrequently wanders far from its breeding grounds, at times in the company of another, more compulsive, drifter, seeking waterbodies only to court and procreate. Keeping little faith to their lands of origin, these aerial tramps have established themselves in oceanic realms and invaded unoccupied spaces in the wilder fringes of this island, where they soar over fields and open country, sustaining themselves on the cloud of minute bodies that rise each day from a state of suspended animation to die in mid-air and swarm in the empty corners of suburban minds.
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Photovoltaics (PV) is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into DC (direct current) electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material. Solar cells produce direct current electricity from sun light, which can be used to power equipment or to recharge a battery. Today the majority of photovoltaic modules are used for grid connected power generation. In this case an inverter is required to convert the DC electricity to AC electricity. There is also a market for off-grid power for remote houses, rural solar pumping, isolated sites, remote telecom sites telephones, etc.
Due to the growing demand for renewable energy sources, the manufacturing of solar cells and photovoltaic arrays has advanced considerably in recent years.
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A cat fell from the 26th floor in New York. What happened to the kitten? Nothing.
The name of the cat is Lucky. Of course, with a name like that, it was no surprise that a miracle saved him. According to the owner:
“That’s the thing about Lucky Miraculous,” HOSTETLER told “GMA.” “He has been [lucky] since we got him.” Source
If the cat was really lucky, would it fall from the window? Does every miracle requires something bad happening before?
Actually, the cat would be more lucky if he had dropped the 7th floor and survived. Why?
Based on the records of cat falls, the rule “the higher, the worse” is not true. Moreover, a cat survived a 32 floors fall in the concrete, something like 450 feet, and only spent two days of observation and got a chipped tooth. Here is the figure everyone wants to see:
DISCLAIMER, nobody was throwing kittens out the window to calculate
the damage, these number are simply records of veterinary care
The majority of cats (90%) in this study survived (omitting the ones euthanatized by owners unable to afford treatment). The most common traumas of those who died were shock and thoracic injuries. The figure above shows that the frequency of injuries increase with the height but, instead of continuing and stabilizing at 100%, as would have happened if we were talking about people, it starts to fall! Cats suffer worst fates when they fall between the sixth and eighth floor.
Not all animals need to be afraid of gravity! Indeed, the vast majority of them, in number and diversity, do not. The damage suffered by cats that fall from different heights depends on two factors: the force that results from the animal’s mass and acceleration (gravity) F = Mxa and the area where the force is distributed F/A. Here lies the difference.
The larger the animal, the heavier it is, but the area it occupies does not increase proportionately. The size determines the weight of the animal, so the force it exerts when it falls increases in three dimensions, cubic. But the surface of the animal increases in two dimensions, a square relation. The greater the surface/volume ratio, the more air resistance the animal does and smaller is the final speed during his fall. Just think of a aluminum sheet dropping open or mashed.This means that ants, beetles, spiders and mice also do not need to worry about the height they fall. A fall of 1 foot or 20 thousand feet does not matter for them, since the final speed in fall is low and they distribute the impact in a relatively larger area. Meanwhile, any little fall for an elephant is dangerous.
When a cat falls, its terminal velocity (maximum speed in the fall) is about 60 mph, and the impact is distributed among the 4 limbs because the effective gyroscope that allows cats to turn during the fall and land almost always on feet, the vestibular system – hence the difference between a cat and a dog falling. Humans reach a terminal velocity of 120 mph and usually land on their head or legs, which means a more lethal fall, with more internal bleeding and head injuries.
When cats begin to fall, they stretch the limbs and increase their tension. When the height is greater, as in the case of higher floors, the cat has enough time to relax and let their limbs stay horizontally, increasing its surface, reducing the terminal velocity and distributing better the impact. By flexing the legs, they absorb the impact, as a spring. One of the most common injuries in cat drops is broken jaw, because the body relax as a whole and lets the jaw hit the floor.
Through their climbers history, the evolution of cats explains their nine lives. They need no miracle for that.
Diamond, J. (1988). Why cats have nine lives Nature, 332 (6165), 586-587 DOI: 10.1038/332586a0
This post was translated by Atila from the original published at the Brazilian blog Rainha Vermelha.
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English in Use/Adverbs
|General||Contents • Introduction|
|Parts of speech||Articles • Nouns • Verbs • Gerunds and participles • Pronouns • Adjectives • Adverbs • Prepositions, Conjunctions and Interjections|
|Other topics||Orthography • Punctuation • Syntax • Figures of Syntax • Glossary|
An adverb is a word added to a verb, a participle, an adjective, or an other adverb; and generally expresses time, place, degree, or manner: as,
- "They are now here, studying very diligently."
Adverbs can modify a verb, a clause, adjective or a phrase.
Adjectives are generally turned into adverbs with the addition of a ly suffix. Ly is a contraction of like, and is the most common termination of adverbs. When added to nouns, it forms adjectives; but a few of these are also used adverbially: as, daily, weekly, monthly.
Examples of adverbs are:
- "Jack is swimming quickly."
- "Unfortunately, he lost the race."
- "We told him to run much faster."
In the first sentence, the adverb modifies the verb swimming. The adjective quick has had a ly added to it to make an adverb. In the second sentence, it modifies the entire sentence and in the final example, the adverb much modifies the adverb faster.
Comparative forms of adverbs
Adverbs have no modifications, except that a few are compared, after the manner of adjectives: as, soon, sooner, soonest; long, longer, longest; fast, faster, fastest.
The following are irregularly compared: well, better, best; badly or ill, worse, worst; little, less, least; much, more, most; far, farther, farthest; forth, further, furthest.
Kinds of adverbs
Adverbs may be reduced to four general classes; namely, adverbs of time, of place, of degree, and of manner. Besides these, it is proper to distinguish the particular class of conjunctive adverbs.
Adverbs of time
Adverbs of time are those which answer to the question, when? how long? how soon? or how often?
Of time present: as, now, yet, today, nowadays, presently, instantly, immediately, straightway, directly, forthwith.
Of time past: as, already, just now, lately, recently, yesterday, formerly, anciently, once, heretofore, hitherto, since, till now, long ago, erewhile, erst.
Of time to come: as, tomorrow, hereafter, henceforth, henceforward, by-and-by, soon, erelong, shortly.
Of time relative: as, when, then, first, just, before, after, while, whilst, meanwhile, as, till, until, seasonably, betimes, early, late, whenever, afterward, afterwards, otherwhile, otherwhiles.
Of time absolute: as, always, ever, never, aye, eternally, forever, perpetually, continually, incessantly, endlessly, evermore, everlastingly.
Of time repeated: as, often, oft, again, occasionally, frequently, sometimes, seldom, rarely, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, annually, once, twice, thrice, or three times.
Above thrice, we use only the phrases four times, five times, six times, etc. Times, for repetitions, or instances, may be supposed a noun; but such phrases often appear to be used adverbially.
Adverbs of degree
Adverbs of degree are those which answer to the question, how much? how little? or to the idea of more or less.
Of excess or abundance: as, much, more, most, too, very, greatly, far, besides; chiefly, principally, mainly, mostly, generally; entirely, full, fully, completely, perfectly, wholly, totally, altogether, all, quite, clear, stark; exceedingly, excessively, extravagantly, intolerably; immeasurably, inconceivably, infinitely.
Of equality or sufficiency: as, enough, sufficiently, competently, adequately, proportionally, equally, so, as, even, just, exactly, precisely.
Of deficiency or abatement: as, little, less, least, scarcely, hardly, scantly, scantily merely, barely, only, but, partly, partially, nearly, almost, well-nigh, not quite.
Of quantity in the abstract: as, how, however, howsoever, everso, something, anything, nothing, a groat, a sixpence, and other nouns of quantity used adverbially.
Adverbs of manner
Adverbs of manner are those which answer to the question, how? or, by affirming, denying, or doubting, show how a subject is regarded.
Of manner from quality: as, well, ill, wisely, foolishly, justly, wickedly, and many others formed by adding ly to adjectives of quality.
Of affirmation or assent: as, yes, yea, ay, verily, truly, indeed, surely, certainly, doubtless, undoubtedly, assuredly, certes, forsooth, amen.
Of negation: as, no, nay, not, nowise, noway, noways, nohow.
Of doubt or uncertainty: as, perhaps, haply, possibly, perchance, peradventure, maybe.
Of mode or way: as, thus, so, how, somehow, nohow, anyhow, however, howsoever, like, else, otherwise, across, together, apart, asunder, namely, particularly, necessarily, hesitatingly, trippingly, extempore, headlong, lengthwise.
Adverbs of place
Of place in which: as, where, here, there, yonder, above, below, about, around, somewhere, anywhere, elsewhere, otherwhere, everywhere, nowhere, wherever, wheresoever, within, without, whereabout, whereabouts, hereabout, hereabouts, thereabout, thereabouts.
Of place to which: as, whither, hither, thither, in, up, down, back, forth, aside, ashore, abroad, aloft, home, homewards, inwards, upwards, downwards, backwards, forwards.
Of place from which: as, whence, hence, thence, away, out, off, far, remotely.
Of the order of place: as, first, secondly, thirdly, fourthly, etc.
Thus, secondly means in the second place; thirdly, in the third place; etc.
The conjunctive adverbs are those which perform the office of conjunctions. The following words are the most frequently used as conjunctive adverbs: after, again, also, as, before, besides, consequently, else, ere, even, furthermore, hence, how, however, moreover, nevertheless, as well, otherwise, since, so, still, till, then, thence, therefore, too, until, when, where, wherefore, whither, while.
The adverbs of cause: why, wherefore, therefore; but the last two of these are often called conjunctions.
The pronominal compounds: herein, therein, wherein, etc.
A short syntax
Adverbs relate to verbs, participles, adjectives, or other adverbs: as, "How blessed," except the following cases: independent adverbs, as "No," the word amen, as "These things say the amen," an adverb before preposition, as "All along", and much, little, far, and all, as "Thus far is right."
- A part of the text in this article, was taken from the public domain English grammar "The Grammar of English Grammars" by Goold Brown, 1851.
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- Psychology & the public
- What we do
- Member networks
- Careers, education & training
Many people find it's not easy being green
People who claim to be environmentally conscientious often contradict this stance through the way they behave. This is according to new research from Professor Joan Freeman, a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and Founding President of the European Council for High Ability, who found individuals who say they are green in their outlook may also lead environmentally irresponsible lives, Psychology Today reports.
Entitled Psychology for the Sake of the Environment and appearing in the book Natural Resources, Sustainability and Humanity, the study considers a number of psychological techniques used to influence behaviour and attitudes towards environmental issues.
According to Professor Freeman - who is also the author of Gifted Lives: What Happens When Gifted Children Grow Up? - people may not lead eco-friendly lives because they are unable to see the consequences of their failure to do so, while other individuals are in denial or remain apathetic.
Cultural influences are another factor, with Professor Freeman writing: "Filtering through generations when parents teach their children how to behave [and] it also spreads horizontally, as when a dominant culture will affect others."
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Our Emissaries Across the Solar System
Since 1957, humanity has launched thousands of spacecraft. These robotic emissaries follow in the footsteps of their predecessors—testaments to our long-lived desire to understand our place in the Cosmos.
There are currently spacecraft exploring Venus, Mars, and Saturn, as well as a comet and an asteroid. The Voyager spacecraft are hurtling out of our solar system, while New Horizons speeds out into the Kuiper Belt after its encounter with Pluto. Closer to home, we have probes in lunar orbit, a handful of solar physics missions, space telescopes, and a small army of Earth-observing satellites. In Earth orbit, the International Space Station continues to soar around the planet with a continually staffed crew of astronauts and cosmonauts.
Our space missions pages are your portal to news and facts about our ongoing exploration of the solar system.
Recent Mission Status Updates
ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli lander are in the final preparations for a launch as early as Monday, toward an October 2016 Mars orbit insertion and landing in Meridiani planum. Launch on a Proton rocket is expected at 09:31:42 UT Monday, March 14. A Breeze-M upper stage will send the spacecraft on to Mars, with separation at 20:13 UT.
Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2016/03/09 03:41 CST
NASA has decided to move forward with the InSight mission after its delay last December, setting a new launch date of May 5, 2018. That will put the landing on Mars on November 26, 2018. In order to launch in two years, one of its two science instruments must be redesigned.
Space Mission Timelines
Our Advocacy Program provides each Society member a voice in the process.
Funding is critical. The more we have, the more effective we can be, translating into more missions, more science, and more exploration.
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Pharmaceutical Sterility Testing
Essential things to know
By Steven Richter
Sterility testing of pharmaceutical articles is required during the sterilization validation process as well as for routine release testing. USP1 requirements employ sterility testing as an official test to determine suitability of a lot. An understanding of sterility testing is beneficial in terms of designing a validation process. The need to provide adequate and reliable sterility test data is an important quality assurance issue. Sterility testing is a very tedious and artful process that must be performed by trained and qualified laboratory personnel. The investigation of sterility test failures is a process that requires attention to environmental data as well as many other factors including training and sample difficulty.
This paper presents the general concepts and problems associated with sterility testing as well as the various testing methodologies. Most USP <71> sections are harmonized with the EP/JP.
Sterility testing is an essential part of every sterilization validation. Sterility testing is an extremely difficult process that must be designed and executed so as to eliminate false positive results. False positive results are generally due to laboratory contamination from the testing environment or technician error. The testing environment must be designed to meet the requirements of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) in terms of viable microbial air and surface counts. Growth media used in sterility testing must be meticulously prepared and tested to ensure its ability to support microbial growth. Procedures for sampling, testing, and follow-up must be defined in the validation procedures.
The official test, the USP (Volume 30) recommends testing 40 units per production lot. A reprint of Table 2 "Minimum Quantity to be Used for Each Medium2" is on the next page. Some of the quantities are not harmonized with the EP/JP volumes.3
For combination products, the ISO 11137/111354 standards recommend various sterilization validation sampling plans based on lot size and validation method. In cases where small lots (>1000) are manufactured, the sampling size depends on lot size.
Environmental Concerns Related to Sterility Testing
The sterility test environment is described in USP General Informational Chapter <1211>. The environment should be as stringently controlled as an aseptic processing environment. An aseptic processing environment (clean room) is used to dispense sterile pharmaceuticals into presterilized containers. A clean room is generally a room that delivers laminar flow air which has been filtered through microbial retentive High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters. The room is maintained under positive pressure and has specifications for room air changes per hour. An environment used for sterility testing should be similar in design to an aseptic processing environment; there should be an anteroom for gowning and a separate area for the actual sterility testing. The testing area should meet ISO Class 5 particulate control requirements (specified in USP chapter (1116)). Sterility testing should not be carried out under a laminar flow hood located within a room that is not maintained as ISO Class 5. Along with particulate testing in the environment, the laboratory must test for viable bacterial and fungal organisms ubiquitous to it. The sterility test technician must be suitably gowned in sterile garments that prevent microbial shedding into the room. The room should be validated in terms of particulate and microbial levels. The laboratory must have a validation and training program for gowning and sterility testing.
Our validation programs require that technicians consecutively test 40 simulated samples for both membrane filtration and direct immersion methods without a false positive test result under less than ideal environmental conditions. Isolator technology is utilized to create a sterile environment for one to test pharmaceutical articles. The validation required to qualify an isolator is extensive. The isolators are generally sterilized using chemical sterilization.
Many issues surround the robustness of the sterilization process. Qualifying and maintaining an isolator system for sterility testing may require extensive work. In testing pharmaceutical articles in a closed system such as SteritestTM, an isolator may not be the best cost approach to the environmental concerns. Most environmental concerns can be obviated by standard aseptic processing GMP's.5
The United States Pharmacopeia is a compilation of validated methods and official monographs for pharmaceuticals and medical devices. IT is broken down into the following sections: Monographs, General Informational Chapters, and General Requirements. General Informational Chapters <1000> series are not legal requirements. The Sterility Test (USP Section <71>) is categorized under General Requirements and is therefore a legal requirement.
For combination products, the ISO radiation sterilization microbial methods (11737-2 1998)6 describes a sterility test which is a modification for the USP method. This test is specific for the detection of aerobic organisms that have been exposed to sub-lethal sterilization cycles. This ISO sterility test method is recommended for the validation of both gamma and electron beam sterilization processes.
The method of choice for EO7 sterilized products is the official USP <71> procedure.
Prior to actual sterility testing, it is prudent to send an example sample to the testing laboratory so the laboratory can determine the appropriate testing procedure. Each product should have a unique procedural specification for testing. The procedure should be very specific in terms of which items (or vials/syringes) to test. The procedure must indicate the Sample Item Portion (SIP). The Sample Item Portion is the percentage of the complete product tested. Since medical devices come in all shapes and sizes, it is very difficult to test large and cumbersome medical devices in their entirety. Therefore, the test laboratory will determine a Sample Item Portion which is a portion of the sample expressed in fractional terms (i.e. 0.1 for 10% of the sample).
This number is used in gamma and electron beam dose setting methods. The SIP portion should be validated by sterility testing.
Combination products have unique challenges. A combination product is defined as one that has a drug component with medical device. For example, a drug coated stent. The agency's Office of Combination Products (OCP) would determine which regulatory branch (CDRH, CDER or CBER) is officiating the product. Official USP sterility testing of combination products is required for all sterile drug products. The drug product component applied aseptically creates the largest challenge to laboratory personnel. Biologics must be aseptically processed and cannot be terminally sterilized. In the near future, we will see more biologics that are combination products. Combination products sterilized by radiation are generally handled as medical devices following the ISO 11137 standard. For the most part, pharmaceutical GMPs would take precedent over 820 QSR8 requirements with all combination products. The more robust GMP9 requirement would assure reduced bioburden counts and consistent microbial populations during manufacturing.
The USP <71> Sterility Test contains two qualifying assays which must be performed prior to sterility testing. They are the "Suitability Test" (Growth Promotion Test) and the "Validation Test" (Bacteriostasis and Fungistasis Test).
The Suitability Test is used to confirm that each lot of growth media used in the sterility test procedure will support the growth of fewer than 100 viable microorganisms. If the media cannot support the growth of the indicator organisms, then the test fails. Secondly, a portion of each media lot must be incubated and assessed for sterility according to the incubation parameters (time, temperature) established by the method. If the media is found to be non-sterile, then the test fails.
The Validation Test is used to determine if the test sample will inhibit the growth of microorganisms in the test media. Stasis, in terms of microbiology, is defined as the inability of a microorganism to grow and proliferate in microbiological media. Media that is bacteriostatic does not necessarily kill bacteria; it simply may retard bacterial growth and proliferation. The Validation Test must be performed on each product prior to and/or during sterility testing. This test determines if the media volumes are valid for the particular product. Some medical products contain bacteriostatic and fungistatic compounds that may require special procedures and special media for testing. This test is similar to the Suitability Test described above, however, the product sample is placed in the media along with the microorganisms. Microbial growth in the presence of the test samples is compared to controls without test samples. If microbial growth is present in the sample and control containers, then the test is valid. The next step is to proceed to actual sterility testing. Suitability, validation and sterility tests can be performed simultaneously.
The USP describes three general methods for sterility testing: 1) Membrane Filtration, 2) Direct Transfer (Product Immersion); and 3) Product Flush.
Membrane Filtration Sterility Testing
The Membrane Filtration Sterility Test is the method of choice for pharmaceutical products. It is not the method of choice for medical devices; the FDA may question the rationale behind using the membrane filtration test over the direct transfer test for devices. An appropriate use of this test is for devices that contain a preservative and are bacteriostatic and/or fungistatic under the direct transfer method. With membrane filtration, the concept is that the microorganisms will collect onto the surface of a 0.45 micron pore size filter. This filter is segmented and transferred to appropriate media. The test media are fluid thioglycollate medium (FTM) and soybean casein digest medium (SCDM). FTM is selected based upon its ability to support the growth of anaerobic and aerobic microorganisms. SCDM is selected based upon its ability to support a wide range of aerobic bacteria and fungi (i.e. yeasts and molds). The incubation time is 14 days. Since there are many manipulations required for membrane filtration medical device sterility testing, the propensity for laboratory contamination is high. Therefore, in an open system, more sterility failures are expected when using this method. A closed system is recommended for drugs and small devices or combination products. Most pharmaceutical articles are tested using a closed system. In closed systems, the propensity for extrinsic contamination is very low.
Direct Transfer Sterility Testing
Combination products: This method is the method of choice for medical devices because the device is in direct contact with test media throughout the incubation period. Viable microorganisms that may be in or on a product after faulty/inadequate sterilization have an ideal environment within which to grow and proliferate. This is especially true with damaged microorganisms where the damage is due to a sub-lethal sterilization process. All microorganisms have biological repair mechanisms that can take advantage of environmental conditions conducive to growth. The direct transfer method benefits these damaged microorganisms. The entire product should be immersed in test fluid. With large devices, patient contact areas should be immersed. Large catheters can be syringe filled with test media prior to immersion. Cutting catheter samples to allow for complete immersion is the method of choice.
The USP authors understand that appropriate modifications are required due to the size and shape of the test samples. The method requires that the product be transferred to separate containers of both FTM and SCDM. The product is aseptically cut, or transferred whole, into the media containers. The test article should be completely immersed in the test media. The USP limits the media volume to 2500 ml. After transferring, the samples are incubated for 14 days.
Product Flush Sterility Testing
Combination products: The product flush sterility test is reserved for products that have hollow tubes such as transfusion and infusion assemblies where immersion is impractical and where the fluid pathway is labeled as sterile. This method is easy to perform and requires a modification of the FTM media for small lumen devices. The products are flushed with fluid D and the eluate is membrane filtered and placed into FTM and SCDM. This method is not generally used.
Bulk Drug Products / Biologics and Pharmaceuticals
Bulk Pharmaceuticals (APIs) are tested for sterility per USP 71 prior to release to the manufacturing processes.
Bulk Biologics are tested according to 21 CFR 610.12 for sterility testing. This method requires one media (FTM). The sample test sizes are listed in the document. Volumes are no less than 10 ml.10
Interpretation of Sterility Test Results
The technician must be trained in the method of detecting growth during the incubation period. Growth is determined by viewing the media, which is generally clear and transparent, against a light source. Turbid (cloudy) areas in the media are indicative of microbial growth. Once growth is detected, the suspect vessel is tested to confirm that the turbidity present is due to microorganisms and not due to disintegration of the sample; sometimes samples produce turbidity because of particulate shedding or chemical reactions with the media. Once a suspect container has been tested, it should be returned to the incubator for the remainder of the incubation period. Samples that render the media turbid are transferred on Day 14 of the test and incubated for four days. Growth positive samples require further processing such as identification and storage.
Sterility Test Failure Investigation
For every positive sterility test (OOS), the laboratory should perform an OOS investigation to determine the validity of the positive growth. This investigation encompasses the following items:
- clean room environmental test (EER) data;
- media sterilization records;
- technician training records;
- the relative difficulty of the test procedure;
- control data (open and closed media controls);
- technician sampling data (microbial counts on gloves and/or garments post testing).
The USP allows for a re-test of the product if persuasive evidence exists to show that the cause of the initial sterility failure was induced by the laboratory. Identification and speciation of the isolate(s) is a significant contributing factor to the final decision. If the First Stage sterility test can be invalidated by the laboratory, then the USP allows for Second Stage sterility testing. Second Stage sterility testing requires double the original number of samples tested. The Second Stage test can be repeated if evidence exists invalidating the test due to a laboratory error as above.
A detailed investigation may uncover circumstantial evidence to support a final decision. It is recommended that sterilization cycle data, environmental data, and bioburden data be reviewed prior to making any decision to release product.
It is recommended that medical device manufacturers qualify the test procedure with non-sterile samples.
The probability of a false positive can be calculated using John Lee's formula.11 The formula is based upon sample container diameter, amount of time container is left open and the room particulate count.
Sterility testing requires high levels of control with regards to GMPs, Good Laboratory Practices12, environment (aseptic clean room ISO class 5 or better), and employee practices. It is essential that meticulous technique be employed in the practice of sterility testing. Sterility testing is an integral part of sterilization validation as well as a routine quality control. Generally, false positive results are uncommon in testing drug products using a closed system. Combination products have challenges that should be planned into a robust QA program.
- The United States Pharmacopeia, 30th Revision, The United States Pharmacopeial Convention: 2008
- USP 30 Table 2 Minimum Quantity to be Used for Each Medium
- USP 30 Table 3: Minimum Number of Articles to be Tested in Relation to the Number of Articles in the Batch
- ISO 11137 Sterilization of health care products – Radiation – Part 2 2006: Establishing the sterilization dose
- FDA Guidelines 2004 "Guidance for Industry Sterile Drug Products by Aseptic Processing, Current Good Manufacturing Practices," September, 2004
- ISO 11737 ANSI/AAMI/ISO 11737-2 1998 – Sterilization of Medical Devices – Microbiological Methods – Part 2, Tests of Sterility Performed in the Validation of a Sterilization Process
- ISO 11135 1994 Medical Devices Validation and Routine Control of Ethylene Oxide Sterilization
- Code of Federal Regulations Title 21/Chapter I/Part 820, "Quality Systems Requirements: General," 2006
- GMPs CFR 201 Title 21 2006
- 21 CFR Part 610.12 Bulk Biologics
- Lee, John Y. "Investigation Sterility Test Failures" Pharmaceutical Technology, February 1990
- Code of Federal Regulations Title 21/Chapter I/Part 58, "Good Laboratory Practice for Nonclinical Laboratory Studies," 2006
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Seven Deadly Digital Sins I received a couple of requests for digital safety and citizenship resources appropriate for elementary school students. Here are some of my favorite resources for teaching digital safety and citizenship at the elementary school level.
PBS Kids offers the Webonauts Academy in which elementary school students can learn about safe online behaviors. When students have completed all of the Webonauts missions they will graduate from the Webonauts Academy. The educators tips page offers some practical suggestions for using Webonauts in the classroom or in a school library.
In an effort to teach children about potential dangers online and how to avoid them, the Council of Europe has offers a game called Through the Wild Web Woods. Through the Wild Web Woods is designed for students ages seven through ten to learn how to spot danger on the Internet and what to do when they do spot danger on the Internet. The game is available in twenty-four languages.
Professor Garfield is a free resource developed in part by the Virginia Department of Education. Professor Garfield teaches students how to be safe online, how to recognize and respond to cyberbullying, and how to decide if something is a fact or an opinion. These educational activities can be found in the free Professor Garfield apps; Online Safety, Fact or Opinion, Cyberbullying. All of the free Professor Garfield iPad apps use the same format. The format is a set of comic strips that students read to learn about the issues the app is focused on. At the end of the comic strips students play some simple games to practice recognizing good online behaviors.
AT&T's Safety Land is a nice game through which kids learn and practice recognizing danger on the Internet. The game is set in the city of "Safety Land." As students navigate from building to building in Safety Land they are confronted with a series of scenarios and questions to respond to. If they respond correctly to each scenario they will capture the cyber criminal and send him to the Safety Land jail. Students who send the cyber criminal to Safety Land jail receive a certificate that they can print out.
Digital Passport is an online program from Common Sense Media. The purpose of the Digital Passport program is to provide students in grades three through five with lessons and games for learning responsible digital behavior. Digital Passport uses videos and games to teach students about cyberbullying, privacy, safety and security, responsible cell phone use, and copyright. Students earn badges for successfully completing each phase of the Digital Passport program.
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When you visit an aquarium, you see different species of marine life in different 'sections.' They are usually surrounded by glass.
I want to build sentences like this:
I walked to another 'glass/section.' In it, I could see a many sting rays."
The shark whale swam from one corner of the 'glass/section' to the other.
There was a jellyfish in the middle of the glass. (OK, this one sounds weird).
I'm not very sure which is the best word to use here.
For example, this would be a 'section':
Is it right to say, for instance:
The people are looking through the glass.
There are many people in this section.
(I just need a general term that people would immediately understand. I need this for a novel I'm writing.)
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Nigeria has successfully launched two Earth observation satellites which could be used to monitor weather in a region seasonally ravaged by disasters.
The NigeriaSat-2 and NigeriaSat-X spacecraft were lofted into orbit aboard a Russian Dnepr rocket from a launch pad in the town of Yasny, southern Russia.
Nigeria collaborated with UK engineers on the project, and the satellites are being monitored from control stations in Guildford, UK, and Abuja in Nigeria.
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan praised the successful launch.
Mr Jonathan called the event "another milestone in our nation's effort to solve national problems through space technology".
The imaging satellites could have a variety of applications, including the monitoring of disaster-prone areas.
Nigerian territory stretches into Africa's Sahel, a belt of land on the Sahara Desert's southern fringe that sees extreme weather conditions.
The Sahel experiences severe droughts in the dry season and devastating rainfall in the wet season. Floods last year displaced about 500,000 people nationwide, with most of them in the Sahel region.
The satellites could also provide Nigeria with the ability to enhance food security through monthly crop monitoring, assist with burgeoning urban planning demands and, through the development of engineering skills, advance the country's technological capability.
Both satellites were built at Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in Guildford, under contract with the Nigerian National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA).
But 26 Nigerian engineers worked alongside SSTL engineers in Guildford to assemble the 100kg NigeriaSat-X satellite.
Dr S O Mohammed, the head of NASRDA, commented: "NigeriaSat-2 will significantly boost African capabilities for remote sensing applications, specifically for natural resource management.
"This high resolution satellite will also greatly enhance image data available to the Disaster Monitoring Constellation. Through a comprehensive training programme, Nigerian engineers have worked on the design and build of NigeriaSat-X, benefiting Nigeria's growing space industry and inspiring development of new technologies."
Is Tanzania able to do this? If 'yes' how soon. If 'no' then why. Give us your thought.
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Help support New Advent and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more all for only $19.99...
The place of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The word Calvary (Latin Calvaria) means "a skull". Calvaria and the Gr. Kranion are equivalents for the original Golgotha. The ingenious conjecture that Golgotha may be a contraction for Gol Goatha and may accordingly have signified "mount of execution", and been related to Goatha in Jeremiah 31:39, has found scarcely any supporters. The diminutive monticulus (little mount) was coupled with the name A.D. 333 by the "Pilgrim of Bordeaux".
Towards the beginning of the fifth century Rufinus spoke of "the rock of Golgotha". Since the sixth century the usage has been to designate Calvary as a mountain. The Gospel styles it merely a "place", (Matthew 27:33; Mark 15:22; Luke 23:33; John 19:17).
The following theories have been advanced:
The only explicit notices are that the Crucifixion took place outside the city (Hebrews 13:12), but close to it; a newly-hewn tomb stood in a garden not far away (John 19:20, 41); the spot was probably near a frequented road, thus permitting the passers-by to revile the supposed criminal. That the Cyrenian was coming from the country when he was forced into service seems to exclude only two of the roads entering Jerusalem, the one leading from Bethlehem and the one from Siloe (Matthew 27:30; Mark 15:24, 29; Luke 23:26). Any other road entering Jerusalem might fulfil the condition. The incidents recorded along the sorrowful journey are so few that the distance from the praetorium is left a matter of conjecture.
After the Apostolic Age no more is heard of Calvary until the fourth century. Under pagan rule an idol had been place there, and had been later embraced within the same enclosure as the crypt of the Resurrection (Sozomen, Church History II.1-2). Eustachius, Constantine's architect, separated it from the latter by hewing away a great mass of stone. It was St. Melania the Younger who first adorned Mount Calvary with a chapel (436).
The place is described as a "knoll of scanty size" (deficiens loci tumor Eucherius, 427-440), apparently natural, and in the sixth century approached by steps. It was fifteen paces from the Holy Sepulchre. It was encircled with silver railings and contained a cell in which the Cross was kept, and a great altar (Theodosius, 530). Two years after the ravages of the Persians (614), a large church replaced the ruined chapel (Arculfus, 680). From its roof a brazen wheel adorned with lamps was suspended over a silver cross that stood in the socket of Our Saviour's gibbet. This Church was destroyed in 1010, but was restored in 1048. The rock beneath is spoken of by Soewulf (1102) as being "much cracked near the fosse of the Cross". In the traditions, Adam's burial and Abraham's sacrifice are repeatedly located there.
By 1149 the Calvary chapel had been united by the crusaders with the surrounding oratories into a vast basilica. The part of the rock believed to have held the Cross is said to have been removed and lost in a shipwreck on the coast of Syria while being transported to Constantinople (1809). Another fragment is shown in the chapel of Longinus, one of many in the basilica.
Wilson, Warren, Fraas, and other eminent topographers engaged in the interests of the English Ordinance Survey (1864-5), declare that the lower part of this traditional Calvary is natural, and that the upper part "may very likely be so". The knoll is of soft white limestone (nummulitic) containing nodules, and occupies a position normally required for such a bed in Palestine, viz. above the Missae and Malaki strata respectively. These last beds are seen on lower levels in the basilica. The direction taken by the rent in the rock, 96 degrees east of north, is practically the same as that of the veining of the rocks roundabout. Other points of similarity have been observed. The fissure broadens eastwards. The rock has been cut away on the side of the Holy Sepulchre, thus bearing out the architectural datum afforded by the period of Constantine. Calvary is 140 feet south- east of the Holy Sepulchre and 13 feet above it. The early traditions mentioned at the beginning of this article still cling to it. The chapel of Adam beneath that of Calvary stands for the first. A picture in it represents the raising of Adam to life by the Precious Blood trickling down upon his skull. An altar is there dedicated to Melchisedech. A vestige of the second tradition subsists in a scraggy olive tree a few yards away, religiously guarded, which the Abyssinians still claim to have been the bush in which the ram's horns were caught when the angel stayed the hand of Abraham.
The small, low, poorly lighted oratory, built upon the traditional Calvary, is divided into two sections by a pair of massive pillars. The chapel of the Exaltation of the Cross comprises the section on the north and belongs to the Orthodox Greeks. That of the Crucifixion on the south is in possession of the Latins. At the eastern end, behind a thickly-set row of sanctuary lamps kept constantly burning, there are three altars of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth stations of the Way of the Cross. That of the twelfth station is in the Greek chapel, and marks the position of Our Saviour's Cross. It is near the rent made in the rock by the earthquake. Two black marble discs at its sides indicate the presumed positions of the malefactors' crosses. Behind it, among numerous icons, stands a large painted image of the Crucified Saviour.
The altars of the Crucifixion and Mater Dolorosa (eleventh and thirteenth stations) belong to the Latins. The image on the latter, or middle, altar is screened, and incased with a profusion of votive offerings. The floor of the chapel, which is on a level with the top of the rock, is covered with coarse mosaics. A round stone in the pavement on the Latin side, near the eleventh station, marks the place of the tenth. In the roof, there is a mosaic representation of Christ. Entrance to the chapel is obtained by the stairways. The two most frequently used are at the west end. The eighteen steps in each stairway, which are narrow, steep and much worn, are mostly of pink Santa Croce marble commonly quarried in Palestine.
It is beyond doubt that the Calvary we have been considering is the same as that of the Middle Ages, but is it correct to identify it with that of the Gospels? It has long been far within the city walls. But did the city wall which has enclosed it for so many centuries enclose it when Christ was crucified? That is, did the present city wall exist when the Saviour was put to death? If so, this could not have been the place of the crucifixion; for Christ was crucified outside the walls (Hebrews 13:12), St. Willibald (eighth century), Soewulf (twelfth century), and many others asked themselves this question. But it was not until two centuries ago that an affirmative answer was ventured by Korte, a German bookseller (see below). Not, however, until the last century did the new opinion obtain supporters. Then a school sprang up which first rejected the old side and eventually set about seeking new ones. Catholics, as a class, with many leading Anglicans support the traditional claims.
The authenticity of Calvary is intimately bound up with that of the Holy Sepulchre. Relative to the authenticity of the sites of both, the ecclesiastical writers who are the first to break silence after the Evangelists seem to leave no room for doubt. Now it is not easy to see how these, the chief representatives of an apologetical age, could have overlooked the above difficulty advanced by modern writers, especially since simple pilgrims are known to have advanced it. The spirit of investigation had awakened in the Church long years previous to them; and the accredited custodians of the tradition, the Jerusalem community, had been ruled by a continuous succession of bishops since Apostolic times. Under these circumstances, our first available witnesses tell us that a remembrance of the site had actually been transmitted. As a telling testimony to the confidence they merit herein, it need only be remarked that of sixteen modern charts of the Holy City collated by Zimmermann (Basle, 1876) only four place Golgotha within the second or outermost wall in the time of Christ. Moreover, Dr. Schick, the author of one of these, accepted the traditional view before his death. Dr. Reiss, in his "Bibel-Atlas" (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1895), also agrees with the majority. (See JERUSALEM; HOLY SEPULCHRE.)
The most popular of several sites proposed is that of Otto Thenius (1849), better known as Gordon's Calvary, and styled by the latter, "Skull Hill", because of its shape. Conder is the chief supporter of this view. This site is the elevation over Jeremiah's Grotto, not far from the Damascus Gate. In default of an historic basis, and owing to the insufficiency of the Gospel data which may be verified equally well on any side of the city the upholders of the new theories usually take for granted one or other of the following statements, viz: that Christ should have been immolated north of the altar, like the typical victims (Leviticus 1:10, 11); that Calvary was a place of public execution; that the place reserved for crucifixion, if there was one, was identical with a presumed stoning-place; that a modern Jewish tradition as to a fixed stoning-place could be substantiated in the time of Christ; and that the violent mob to which Christ was delivered would have conformed to whatever custom prescribed for the occasion. These affirmations all bear the mark of fitness; but until documents are produced to confirm them, they must inevitably fall short as proof of facts.
For Fathers, see article, HOLY SEPULCHRE.
Pilgrims.-GLYER, Itinera Hierosolymilana; TOBLER, Descriptions Terrae Sanctae (1874).
General Treatment.-Dictionaries of the Bible; Quarterly statement P.E.F. (passim, especially 1902-1903); WARREN, Ordinance Survey of Jerusalem in Notes (London, 1865); WARREN and CONDER in Jerusalem (1881).
Controversial (authors marked with an asterisk * oppose the traditional view):- BREEN*, Harm. Expos. of the Four Gospels (Rochester, New York), IV; FERGUSSON*, Essay on Ancient Topography of Jerusalem (London, 1847); FINDLAY, On the Site of the Holy Sepulchre (London, 1847); LEWIN, Siege of Jerusalem (London, 1863); REILLY, Authenticity, etc. in Ecclesiastical Review (Philadelphia), NXXVI, nn. 6 sqq; ROBINSON*, Biblical Researches (Boston, 1840), I; SANDAY, Sacred Sites of the Gospels (Oxford, 1903); THRUPE, Ancient Jerusalem (Cambridge, 855); WILLIAMS, The Holy City (London, 1845); CHATEAUBRIAND, Itineraire de Paris a Jerusalem (Paris, 1811), II;p KORTE*, Reise nach dem gelolden Laude Aeg. Syr. tr. Mea (Halle, 1751); KRAFFT, Die Topographie Jerusalems (Bonn, 1846); TOBLER*, Topographic von Jerusalem a. Seinen Ungebungen (Berlin, 1853), I.
APA citation. (1908). Mount Calvary. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03191a.htm
MLA citation. "Mount Calvary." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03191a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Michael T. Barrett. Dedicated in memory of the Passion of Our Lord.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. November 1, 1908. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.
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Tamiflu uses include the prevention and treatment of influenza (the virus that causes the flu). The drug may be recommended as a preventive measure if a person has been in close contact with someone who has the flu or if a community outbreak occurs. If a person already has the flu, Tamiflu uses can decrease how long the flu lasts by one to two days.
An Overview of Tamiflu UsesTamiflu® (oseltamivir phosphate) is a medication that has been licensed for two purposes:
Tamiflu has not been shown to be effective against other types of viruses, including viruses that cause the stomach flu or common cold. Tamiflu is actively being studied to learn how effective it is at treating bird flu (avian flu).
Treatment of Influenza
Tamiflu is effective against the two most common influenza viruses -- Influenza A and Influenza B. The 2009 H1N1 strain is an Influenza A virus, and Tamiflu is expected to be effective against H1N1 influenza. For optimum effect, it must be started within one to two days of the first flu symptoms.
Tamiflu is intended to decrease the amount of time you have symptoms of the flu. In clinical studies, Tamiflu has been shown to decrease this amount by one to two days. The drug may also help prevent the spread of flu to others.
Tamiflu is licensed to treat the flu in adults and children as young as two weeks of age.
Prevention of Influenza
Tamiflu is also used to decrease the chances of developing symptoms of the flu in the first place. It can be used for flu prevention in adults, as well as in children 1 year of age and older. Tamiflu may be recommended as a preventive measure if a person has been in close contact with someone who has the flu or if a community outbreak of flu occurs. Tamiflu should not be used in place of early vaccination with the flu vaccine.
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Commander Dossier: Henry V
England ‘s “fighting king” was a master of medieval warfare.
Henry of Monmouth was born September 16, 1387, to Mary de Bohun and Henry Bolingbroke. He was just a boy in 1399 when his father usurped the English throne while King Richard II was distracted putting down an Irish rebellion. Although Bolingbroke’s reign as Henry IV survived numerous plots by Richard’s supporters, his son’s right to inherit the crown remained clouded.
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At the age of 16, Prince Henry became commander in chief of his father’s army in Wales, eventually defeating the Welsh rebel Owain Glyndwr. Near Shrewsbury (July 21, 1403), he was wounded in the face by a longbow arrow in a narrow victory over an army of English rebels.
Young Henry possessed an intuitive grasp of warfare and his innate ability was honed by his early battles in Wales, experiences that taught him about artillery, logistics, siege tactics and leadership skills. He built imaginative war machines, such as a drawbridge on wheels and an ingenious but never used floating siege tower.
Securing the Crown
Upon his father’s death in 1413, the prince declared himself King Henry V. Because many within the kingdom still supported Richard’s heir, Henry enlarged his army and initiated a successful law-and-order campaign to secure his royal standing.
Since Henry IV had damaged relations with the powerful Catholic Church, Henry V aggressively cultivated the church’s support for his own reign by a public show of piety meant to impress Catholic officials. He even banned drinking and the presence of prostitutes among his army, calling himself “the scourge of God sent to punish God’s people for their sins.”
The sin Henry punished most harshly was opposition to his claim on French lands. Reaching beyond England, he declared himself also to be France ‘s rightful king, based on a dubious bloodline connection. While ambitious, he certainly understood that war with France – a weak confederation of provinces loosely led by the unstable King Charles VI and racked by civil war – would help to unify his subjects behind his leadership. Victory in battle also would prove that he had God’s blessing as the true king of England. For two years, Henry pressed his French claims through diplomatic channels, buying time while he carefully prepared siege equipment and supplies. In August 1415, some 1,500 ships carried his 10,000-man force to invade Normandy.
His men first besieged the city of Harfleur, which fell quickly. They then began a reign of terror across Normandy, burning, pillaging, and ignoring Henry’s orders to spare women and religious sites. However, the sincerity of those orders is questionable since violence and starvation helped shatter resistance.
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Spiders were around 165 million years ago — and how.
Researchers say they’ve discovered the biggest spider fossil ever documented, a new species dubbed Nephila jurassica.
The discovery implies the Nephila could be one of the longest genus of spider known.
The fossil, discovered in Daohugou, China, measures about two inches across. That might not sound giant, but researchers say the implications are huge.
“This giant fossil orb-weaver provides evidence of predation on medium to large insects, well known from the Daohugou beds, and would have played an important role in the evolution of these insects,” according to researchers.
The modern Nephila are commonly known as golden orb spiders, which can grow as large as five inches. They’re usually found in tropical climates, meaning ancient Daohugou was likely warm.
The discovery was announced in the April 20 edition of “Biology Letters.”
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Question: How many subjects are needed for an A/B test?
|Statistical power 1−β:||Percent of the time the minimum effect size will be detected, assuming it exists|
|Significance level α:||Percent of the time a difference will be detected, assuming one does NOT exist|
See also: How Not To Run an A/B Test
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Approximately one in five people in the U.S. still smoke. Dr. Terry Pechacek discusses smoking and ways to quit. Created: 11/20/2008 by MMWR.
Date Released: 11/20/2008. Series Name: A Cup of Health with CDC.
A CUP OF HEALTH WITH CDC
Quit for Your Family’s Sake
Great American Smokeout — November 20, 2008
November 20, 2008
[Announcer] This podcast is presented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC — safer, healthier people.
[Dr. Gaynes] Welcome to A Cup of Health with CDC, a weekly feature of the MMWR, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. I’m your host, Dr. Robert Gaynes.
Approximately one in five people in the U.S. still smoke, despite its well-known and highly publicized negative health effects, including cancer and heart disease. Each year, almost one half million Americans die from this addiction. There are many effective strategies out there to help someone quit smoking, but most smokers don’t use them.
Dr. Terry Pechacek is Associate Director for Science in CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. He’s joining us today to discuss smoking and ways to quit. Welcome to the show, Terry.
[Dr. Pechacek] Happy to be here with you, Bob.
[Dr. Gaynes] Terry, is smoking among Americans increasing or decreasing?
[Dr. Pechacek] For the first time ever, less than 20 percent of adults smoke in this country. Unfortunately, smoking rates are declining much slower than they were 10 or 20 years ago.
[Dr. Gaynes] Is smoking more common among any particular groups?
[Dr. Pechacek] Smoking rates are higher among men, particularly younger men, and we continue to see very large disparities across income, education, and higher smoking rates within certain racial and ethnic groups, such as American Indians and Alaskan Natives.
[Dr. Gaynes] What public health strategies can help reach everyone to reduce smoking?
[Dr. Pechacek] Increasing the price of cigarettes and other tobacco products both prevents children from starting to smoke and helps all smokers quit. Banning smoking in public places, including restaurants and bars, also makes it much easier for people to quit smoking.
[Dr. Gaynes] Now, you mentioned banning smoking in public places. That also reduces second-hand smoke. So, of all the deaths we know from smoking, how many are actually related to second-hand smoke?
[Dr. Pechacek] We estimate that about 50,000 deaths each year are among people who are not smokers. In other words, it’s coming from the second-hand smoke in public places.
[Dr. Gaynes] So, what do we know about how smokers try and quit?
[Dr. Pechacek] Many people are trying to quit. About 70 percent want to quit and about 40 percent of smokers in this country are trying each year. Unfortunately, most people are trying to quit without the most effective help.
[Dr. Gaynes] Terry, what interventions are particularly effective in helping someone quit?
[Dr. Pechacek] Smokers should be aware that there are treatments and services available that can help them quit now, more effectively than ever. Smokers can more than double their likelihood of success in quitting by using the right medications and accessing telephone counseling. To access free counseling from anywheres in the United States, you can call 1-800-QUIT-NOW.
[Dr. Gaynes] Terry, on a sad note, I understand that CDC and the tobacco control community recently lost one of its leading advocates – Dr. Ron Davis. Can you tell us a little about Dr. Davis’s contributions?
[Dr. Pechacek] Dr. Davis was a pioneer in changing the priority of prevention in the American Medical Association. Through his teaching and leadership in the field of tobacco prevention and control, he’s a beacon of what a difference one person can make.
[Dr. Gaynes] Terry, where can listeners get more information on how to quit smoking?
[Dr. Pechacek] From the CDC website: www.cdc.gov/tobacco.
[Dr. Gaynes] Thanks, Terry. I’ve been talking with CDC’s Dr. Terry Pechacek about smoking. Remember, if you smoke, do whatever you can to quit. You’re twice as likely to successfully quit if you get help with counseling and medications.
Until next time, be well. This is Dr. Robert Gaynes for A Cup of Health with CDC.
[Announcer] For the most accurate health information, visit www.cdc.gov or call 1-800-CDC-INFO, 24/7.
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Elizabeth Kolbert’s “Field Notes From a Catastrophe” (2006) presented a powerful account of how climate change was disrupting lives around the planet. Whether the New Yorker columnist was visiting a utility company in Burlington, Vt., ice sheets in Greenland or floating cities in the Netherlands, she deftly blended science and personal experience to warn of the enormous harm created by human-generated climate change. The last chapter of that book, “Man in the Anthropocene,” underscored that we had entered an era in which human beings had begun to change everything about the planet’s interlocking ecosystems, and that we had put much of those systems and our own species at enormous risk.
“It may seem impossible,” Kolbert concluded, “to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself, but that is what we are now in the process of doing.”
(Henry Holt) – ‘The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History’ by Elizabeth Kolbert
In her new book, “The Sixth Extinction,” she provides a tour de horizon of the Anthropocene Age’s destructive maw, and it is a fascinating and frightening excursion. We humans have been bad news for most of the world’s living things, causing massive extinctions of species with which we share the planet. Unless we change our ways, she argues convincingly, we will certainly cause our own demise.
Until the 18th century, scientists didn’t have a clear idea that species could become extinct. Kolbert credits the French naturalist Georges Cuvier, writing in the wake of the great Revolution, with realizing that whole branches of the tree of life could permanently be cut off. Still, most of those who studied natural history were sure that extinctions happened only gradually over very long periods of time. This uniformitarian view would fit well with Darwin’s perspective on the slow and steady pace of evolutionary change through natural selection. Species did become extinct, but only very slowly as other competitors adapted more successfully to the environment around them.
This view of extinctions was definitively shattered by the work of Luis and Walter Alvarez, a father-son team who demonstrated that the Cretaceous period ended when an asteroid struck the Earth and radically changed the planet’s climate. In what has come to be called the K-T extinction, “every animal larger than a cat seems to have died out,” and things were no better in the water. The dinosaurs were just the most celebrated victims: “Following the K-T extinction,” Kolbert emphasizes, “it took millions of years for life to recover its former level of diversity.”
The scientific consensus was that things evolved very slowly, except in the face of radical events — like an asteroid crashing into the Earth. Today there is another asteroid hitting the planet, and it’s us. Slow “adaptation” in the Darwinian sense is meaningless if a creature very suddenly has to face conditions that “it has never before encountered in its entire evolutionary history.” In our age, the Anthropocene, these are the conditions human beings have been creating (very quickly) for other forms of life.
As in “Field Notes From a Catastrophe,” Kolbert presents powerful cases to bring her point home. Oceans are highly stressed by climate change, for example, and acidification of the seas is driving the extraordinary ecosystems of coral reefs into extinction. Plants and animals are desperate to migrate to more hospitable climes, while others can’t survive the arrival of the newcomers. According to entomologist E.O. Wilson, whom she cites, we are now reducing biological diversity to its lowest level since the Cretaceous period.
Some of these changes have been created by our species breaking down barriers among other species as life forms tag along on our boats and planes from one part of the globe to another. Snakes in Guam, snails in Hawaii and thousands of other species brought by human beings into new environments, intentionally or not, have “succeeded extravagantly at the expense of other species.” As we make the world more interconnected than ever (“The New Pangaea”), the fatal vulnerabilities in thousands of species are exposed. The recent annihilation of bat populations in the Northeast, for example, has been caused by a foreign fungus that the animals had never encountered and so had no defense against. When a new fungus appears, Kolbert writes, “it’s like bringing a gun to a knife fight.”
The alterations initiated by human beings build on one another, accelerating change in ways that make it all but impossible for most species to adapt quickly enough. As the great environmentalist Rachel Carson put it, “Time is the essential ingredient, but in the modern world there is no time.” But Kolbert is not nostalgic: “Though it might be nice to imagine there once was a time when man lived in harmony with nature, it’s not clear that he ever really did.”
Kolbert devotes a chapter, “The Madness Gene,” to considering the attribute of human beings that requires change in order to flourish. Unlike other species, modern humans, endowed with language, seem driven to embark on perpetual improvement projects in the course of which they alter everything around them. “With the capacity to represent the world in signs and symbols comes the capacity to change it, which, as it happens, is also the capacity to destroy it,” she writes. “A tiny set of genetic variations divides us from the Neanderthals, but that has made all the difference.”
Carson, a worthy model for Kolbert, wrote of “the problem of sharing our earth with other creatures.” We are deciding, Kolbert concludes, “which evolutionary pathways will remain open and which will forever be closed.” Our history determines the course of life on the planet. Our species changes the world, and now the most urgent question is whether we can take responsibility for what we do. “The Sixth Extinction” is a bold and at times desperate attempt to awaken us to this responsibility.
Michael S. Roth is the president of Wesleyan University. His new book, “Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters,” will be published in May.
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Rumors, Myths and Hoaxes About HIV/AIDS
March 8, 2007
I got an e-mail warning that a man, who was believed to be HIV-positive, was recently caught placing blood in the ketchup dispenser at a fast food restaurant. Because of the risk of HIV transmission, the e-mail recommended that only individually wrapped packets of ketchup be used. Is there a risk of contracting HIV from ketchup?
No incidents of ketchup dispensers being contaminated with HIV-infected blood have been reported to CDC. Furthermore, CDC has no reports of HIV infection resulting from eating food, including condiments.
HIV is not an airborne or food-borne virus, and it does not live long outside the body. Even if small amounts of HIV-infected blood were consumed, stomach acid would destroy the virus. Therefore, there is no risk of contracting HIV from eating ketchup.
HIV is most commonly transmitted through specific sexual behaviors (anal, vaginal, or oral sex) or needle sharing with an infected person. An HIV-infected woman can pass the virus to her baby before or during childbirth or after birth through breastfeeding. Although the risk is extremely low in the United Stats, it is also possible to acquire HIV through transfusions of infected blood or blood products.
Did a Texas child die of a heroin overdose after being stuck by a used needle found on a playground?
This story was investigated and found to be a hoax. To become overdosed on a drug from a used needle and syringe, a person would have to have a large amount of the drug injected directly into their body. A needle stick injury such as that mentioned in the story would not lead to a large enough injection to cause a drug overdose. In addition, drug users would leave very little drug material in a discarded syringe after they have injected. If such an incident were to happen, there would likely be concerns about possible blood borne infections, such as human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis B or C. The risk of these infections from an improperly disposed of needle, such as that described in the story, are extremely low.
Can HIV be transmitted through contact with unused feminine (sanitary) pads?
HIV cannot be transmitted through the use of new, unused feminine pads. The human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, is a virus that is passed from one person to another through blood-to-blood and sexual contact with someone who is infected with HIV. In addition, infected pregnant women can pass HIV to their babies during pregnancy or delivery, as well as through breast feeding. Although some people have been concerned that HIV might be transmitted in other ways, such as through air, water, insects, or common objects, no scientific evidence supports this. Even though no one has gotten HIV from touching used feminine pads, used pads should be wrapped and properly disposed of so no one comes in contact with blood.
Is a Weekly World News story that claims CDC has discovered a mutated version of HIV that is transmitted through the air true?
This story is not true. It is unfortunate that such stories, which may frighten the public, are being circulated on the Internet.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS, is spread by sexual contact (anal, vaginal, or oral) or by sharing needles and/or syringes with someone who is infected with HIV.
Babies born to HIV-infected women may become infected before or during birth or through breast feeding.
Many scientific studies have been done to look at all the possible ways that HIV is transmitted. These studies have not shown HIV to be transmitted through air, water, insects, or casual contact.
I have read stories on the Internet about people getting stuck by needles in phone booth coin returns, movie theater seats, gas pump handles, and other places. One story said that CDC reported similar incidents about improperly discarded needles and syringes. Are these stories true?
CDC has received inquiries about a variety of reports or warnings about used needles left by HIV-infected injection drug users in coin return slots of pay phones, the underside of gas pump handles, and on movie theater seats. These reports and warnings have been circulated on the Internet and by e-mail and fax. Some reports have falsely indicated that CDC "confirmed" the presence of HIV in the needles. CDC has not tested such needles nor has CDC confirmed the presence or absence of HIV in any sample related to these rumors. The majority of these reports and warnings appear to have no foundation in fact.
CDC was informed of one incident in Virginia of a needle stick from a small-gauge needle (believed to be an insulin needle) in a coin return slot of a pay phone. The incident was investigated by the local police department. Several days later, after a report of this police action appeared in the local newspaper, a needle was found in a vending machine but did not cause a needle-stick injury.
Discarded needles are sometimes found in the community outside of health care settings. These needles are believed to have been discarded by persons who use insulin or are injection drug users. Occasionally the "public" and certain groups of workers (e.g., sanitation workers or housekeeping staff) may sustain needle-stick injuries involving inappropriately discarded needles. Needle-stick injuries can transfer blood and blood-borne pathogens (e.g., hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV), but the risk of transmission from discarded needles is extremely low.
CDC does not recommend testing discarded needles to assess the presence or absence of infectious agents in the needles. Management of exposed persons should be done on a case-by-case evaluation of (1) the risk of a blood-borne pathogen infection in the source and (2) the nature of the injury. Anyone who is injured from a needle stick in a community setting should contact their physician or go to an emergency room as soon as possible. The health care professional should then report the injury to the local or state health department. CDC is not aware of any cases where HIV has been transmitted by a needle-stick injury outside a health care setting.
This article was provided by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Visit the CDC's website to find out more about their activities, publications and services.
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On This Page
Public Health Statement for Ethylene Oxide
This Public Health Statement is the summary chapter from the Toxicological Profile for ethylene oxide. It is one in a series of Public Health Statements about hazardous substances and their health effects. A shorter version, the ToxFAQsTM, is also available. This information is important because this substance may harm you. The effects of exposure to any hazardous substance depend on the dose, the duration, how you are exposed, personal traits and habits, and whether other chemicals are present. For more information, call the ATSDR Information Center at 1-888-422-8737.
This Statement was prepared to give you information about ethylene oxide and to emphasize the human health effects that may result from exposure to it. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified 1,177 sites on its National Priorities List (NPL). Ethylene oxide has not been definitely identified at any NPL site. However, it has been tentatively identified at three of these sites. As EPA evaluates more sites, the number of sites at which ethylene oxide is found may change. This information is important for you to know because ethylene oxide may cause harmful health effects and because these sites are potential or actual sources of human exposure to ethylene oxide.
When a chemical is released from a large area, such as an industrial plant, or from a container, such as a drum or bottle, it enters the environment as a chemical emission. This emission, which is also called a release, does not always lead to exposure. You can be exposed to a chemical only when you come into contact with the chemical. You may be exposed to it in the environment by breathing, eating, or drinking substances containing the chemical or from skin contact with it.
If you are exposed to a hazardous substance such as ethylene oxide, several factors will determine whether harmful health effects will occur and what the type and severity of those health effects will be. These factors include the dose (how much), the duration (how long), the route or pathway by which you are exposed (breathing, eating, drinking, or skin contact the other chemicals to which you are exposed, and your individual characteristics such as age, sex, nutritional status, family traits, life style, and state of health.
1.1 What is ethylene oxide?
Ethylene oxide (also known as ETO or oxirane) is a flammable gas with a somewhat sweet odor. It dissolves easily in water, alcohol, and most organic solvents. Ethylene oxide is produced in large volumes and is used to make other chemicals, especially ethylene glycol, a chemical used to make antifreeze and polyester. Most ethylene oxide is used up in the factories where it is produced. A very small amount (less than 1%) is used to control insects on stored agricultural products such as nuts and spices.
Ethylene oxide is also used in very small amounts in hospitals to sterilize medical equipment and supplies.
When ethylene oxide is produced or used, some of the gas is released to air and water. If it is released into the air, humidity and sunlight cause it to break down within a few days. In water, ethylene oxide will either break down or be destroyed by bacteria within a few days.
1.2 How might I be exposed to ethylene oxide?
You are not likely to be exposed to ethylene in the general environment. In studies of the air quality in Texas and California, no ethylene oxide was found. There is also no evidence that ethylene oxide is commonly found in water. Because of the limited information about ethylene oxide in air, water, or soil at hazardous waste sites, we do not know how likely it is that you might be exposed to ethylene oxide at or near these sites.
You may be exposed to ethylene oxide if you work where it is produced or used. Health care workers, such as technicians, nurses, and physicians in hospitals and clinics, may have contact with ethylene oxide because it is used to sterilize medical equipment and supplies. Since ethylene oxide is used as a fumigant to spray agricultural products, if you are a farmer or work on a farm where ethylene oxide is used, you may also be exposed to this substance.
It is not known if food crops are a source of exposure to ethylene oxide for the general public. Ethylene oxide has been found at levels up to 3.5 parts of ethylene oxide per one million parts of food (3.5 ppm) in some foods shortly after being sprayed with pesticide that contains it. These levels decrease with time as ethylene oxide evaporates or breaks down into other substances, and thus little or none may remain when the food is eaten.
1.3 How can ethylene oxide enter and leave my body?
Ethylene oxide can enter your body when air containing this substance is breathed into your lungs. Because ethylene oxide evaporates very easily, it is unlikely that it remains in or on food or remains dissolved in water long enough to be eaten or swallowed, although this is not known for certain. It is not known if ethylene oxide can enter the body through the skin.
After a person has been exposed to ethylene oxide, it leaves the body through the urine or feces or by breathing it out through the lungs. This probably occurs very rapidly, perhaps within 2 or 3 days.
1.4 How can ethylene oxide affect my health?
Ethylene oxide can cause a wide variety of harmful health effects in exposed persons. In general, with higher levels of exposure to the chemical, more severe effects will occur. The major effects seen in workers exposed to ethylene oxide at low levels for several months or years are irritation of the eyes, skin, and mucous membranes and problems in the functioning of the brain and nerves. At higher levels of exposure to ethylene oxide, which may result from accidents or equipment breakdown, the types of effects are similar, but they are more severe and harmful. There is also some evidence that exposure to ethylene oxide can cause an increased rate of miscarriages in female workers exposed to ethylene oxide. Studies in animals have shown that breathing ethylene oxide at high levels can interfere with their ability to reproduce. Litter sizes have been smaller than usual, and the babies of exposed animals have weighed less than normal and have had delayed bone formation.
Scale studies of workers exposed to ethylene oxide in ethylene oxide factories or hospital sterilizing rooms have shown an increased incidence of leukemia, stomach cancer, cancer of the pancreas and Hodgkin's disease. Ethylene oxide has also been shown to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Leukemia, brain tumors, lung tumors and tumors of the tear glands of the eye have been found.
1.5 What levels of exposure have resulted in harmful health effects?
Skin contact with ethylene oxide can result in blisters and burns that may appear to be similar to frostbite. With longer times of contact, there is a more severe reaction. Eye damage can also result from ethylene oxide contact.
It is possible to smell ethylene oxide if it is present in water at or above 140 mg per liter (about one quart) of water. It can also be smelled in air if it is present at or above 430 ppm (430 parts of ethylene oxide per million parts of air).
Exposure to high levels (700 ppm) of ethylene oxide in air has resulted in seizures and cataracts in people. Exposure to lower levels has resulted in problems with hand/eye coordination and eye and nose irritation. In animals, kidney damage has been seen at levels of 100 ppm, while lower levels (50 ppm) have resulted in decreased physical activity.
1.6 Is there a medical test to determine whether I have been exposed to ethylene oxide?
There are two kinds of tests that can determine if you have been exposed to ethylene oxide within the last couple of days. These tests are not routinely done in a doctor's office, but can be done in a special laboratory. One test measures this substance in blood, the other measures it in air that you breathe out of your lungs. If you were exposed to ethylene oxide more than two or three days ago, there may be no ethylene oxide remaining in your body. In addition, if you have been exposed to very low levels of ethylene oxide, these tests may not detect it. The results of these tests cannot be used to predict the type or severity of health effects resulting from exposure.
1.7 What recommendations has the federal government made to protect human health?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set a tolerance limit of 50 ppm of ethylene oxide in ground spices. Any release to the environment greater than 10 pounds must be reported to the EPA.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has set a limit of 1 ppm over an 8-hour workday, 40-hour workweek with a short-term exposure limit (not to exceed 15 minutes) of 5 ppm.
The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommends that average workplace air should contain less than 0.1 ppm ethylene oxide averaged over a 10-hour workday, 40-hour workweek.
The federal recommendations have been updated as of July 1999.
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). 1990. Toxicological profile for ethylene oxide. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service.
Where can I get more information?
If you have questions or concerns, please contact your community or state health or environmental quality department or:
For more information, contact:
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Division of Toxicology and Human Health Sciences
1600 Clifton Road NE, Mailstop F-57
Atlanta, GA 30329-4027
Phone: 1-800-CDC-INFO · 888-232-6348 (TTY)
Email: Contact CDC-INFO
ATSDR can also tell you the location of occupational and environmental health clinics. These clinics specialize in recognizing, evaluating, and treating illnesses resulting from exposure to hazardous substances.
Information line and technical assistance:
To order toxicological profiles, contact:
National Technical Information Service
5285 Port Royal Road
Springfield, VA 22161
Phone: 800-553-6847 or 703-605-6000
Some PDF files may be electronic conversions from paper copy or other electronic ASCII text files. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors. Users are referred to the original paper copy of the toxicological profile for the official text, figures, and tables. Original paper copies can be obtained via the directions on the toxicological profile home page, which also contains other important information about the profiles.
The information contained here was correct at the time of publication. Please check with the appropriate agency for any changes to the regulations or guidelines cited.
- Page last reviewed: January 21, 2015
- Page last updated: January 21, 2015
- Content source: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
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Nursing in the United States
Early in the twentieth century, trained nursing was not considered a suitable profession for a young Jewish woman. Patriarchal values dominated Jewish family culture. Women’s personal desires for education were often set aside. Long periods of training were also not acceptable to women who had to consider the economic needs of their families. To quote a Jewish garment worker, Bea Heller, “It didn’t pay in the hospitals, so I had to quit and go back to the factory” (Ewen 1985).
It is interesting to ponder what might have motivated members of an ethnic group to enter a profession that, at least on the surface, seemed to embrace an incongruous belief system. Jews are an ethnic minority who first faced quotas in being admitted to nursing schools and then discrimination in being hired by non-Jewish hospitals. Ethnicity could quickly be established with the requirement of a letter of recommendation from a member of the clergy. Jewish hospitals were organized because Jewish physicians frequently could not obtain attending rights at non-Jewish hospitals. Also, Jewish hospitals understood dietary requirements and observances that made Jewish patients more comfortable.
In order to examine the role Jewish nurses played in the establishment of modern American nursing, it is necessary to focus on some early American nursing history. In the United States, in 1839, as a result of an urgent appeal from Dr. Joseph Warrington, director of the Philadelphia Dispensary, a number of women in the community organized themselves into the Nurse Society. As Adelaide Nutting stated in History of Nursing and Source Book for Nursing (1904), “The preamble to their constitution stated that ... the undersigned, ... do associate for the purpose of providing, sustaining, and causing to be instructed as far as possible, pious and prudent women.”
The cause of training nurses was advanced by Dr. Samuel Gross, a founder of the American Medical Association. In 1869, Gross submitted a committee report resolving that “every large and well organized hospital should have a school for the training of nurses, not only for the supply of its own necessities, but for private families, the teaching to be furnished by its own medical staff, assisted by the resident physicians.” Interest in schools continued to grow, and by 1890 there were more than thirty-five schools of nursing in the United States, modeled along the Nightingale system.
First attempts in nursing care were related to maternity nursing and the care of children. Nursing was seen as an extension of the nurturing and mothering role. Victorian morality prohibited women from caring for male patients who were not related to the household.
Nursing schools were developing in such a way that the demands on a probationer and subsequent nursing student would not permit a marriage relationship or dependent children. The age range most desirable for entering nursing school was the age at which most women made the decision to work or marry. The decision to enter nursing, therefore, meant choosing between a career or marriage. Marriage, a home, and children comprised the sought norm of the time for both Jewish and non-Jewish women. In fact, all activities in social work, hospital boards, and similar projects were seen as an extension of the mothering and nurturing role first exhibited in the home.
Nurses were trained in an arena of Christian spirituality with enormous emphasis on moral character. Christian underpinnings in nursing education continued to be evident in the United States as late as the 1950s. The Jamieson and Sewell series of nursing history texts, widely used in training programs, were written from the socio-Christian perspective. It was common practice to require nursing students to attend prayer time each morning and read aloud from the New Testament. Jewish students were not exempted from this practice, although they may have found it to be objectionable. A student may have been required to stay after prayers and give an explanation to the superintendent of nurses for not reading out loud. This practice continued well into the 1940s.
During the Civil War years, Phoebe Yates Levy Pember, not a trained nurse, distinguished herself as matron and administrator of the large Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, capital of the Confederacy. During this same time, another Jewish woman, Hanna Sandusky, distinguished herself as a midwife in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally trained by her midwife mother in Eastern Europe, she arrived in the United States with her son in 1861 to join her husband. She became involved in attending to mothers delivering babies in the densely populated Hill District. Since grandmothers frequently attended at births, and the Yiddish word for grandmother is bobba, she quickly became affectionately known as Bobba Hannah. Her extraordinary skill was noticed by a local physician. He paid the expenses for Bobba Hannah and her son, who had eye problems, to seek medical attention in Germany. There she attended a school of midwifery and worked as a midwife before returning to Pittsburgh with a German diploma. A truly righteous woman, she served as a matchmaker, collected money and linens to marry off poor girls, and sewed shrouds for the dead. She never charged a fee and presided at 3,571 registered births, her last, at age eighty-two, in 1909.
In A Generation of Women: Education in the Lives of Progressive Reformers (1979), Ellen Lagemann termed her research subjects the “progressive generation” because they were a “pioneer” generation in the history of American women. Early nursing leaders functioned in a male-defined world, on their own terms. Early Jewish American nurses were “pioneers” for entering the field during a time when organized nursing attempted to strengthen its case for a closed profession by establishing entrance requirements and insisting on the registration of its members. Early leaders during this period included Lillian Wald, Amelia Greenwald, Naomi Deutsch, Blanche Pfefferkorn, and Regina Kaplan. Rae Landy and Rose Kaplan were the first American nurses in Palestine as Hadassah was being established. Another interesting personality, Emma Goldman, attended midwifery school in Vienna, Austria, and returned to the Lower East Side to work as a midwife among the indigent Jewish immigrants.
Josephine Goldmark’s report on the poor state of nursing schools, and often poor conditions for the students, helped reform many nursing programs. Most graduate nurses worked in homes and not hospitals, and tours of duty could often be twenty-four hours. She was an active member of the Henry Street Visiting Nurses Association and probably influenced Lillian Wald.
The New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston, Massachusetts, was incorporated on March 18, 1863, with a charter calling for the admission of one Negro and one Jew to each class. The first trained African-American nurse, Mary Eliza Mahoney, graduated from that school on August 1, 1879. The names of the first trained Jewish nurses in America, following the tradition of Florence Nightingale, and their contributions are still undocumented. Jewish women, however, became trained nurses, even if they had to attend Catholic nursing schools, which several Jewish women did.
In 1873, Bellevue Hospital in New York City established its school of nursing. That same year, New Haven Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital also established schools. Mount Sinai Hospital, in New York City, opened the Mount Sinai Training School for Nurses in March 1881. The newly formed school had no difficulty in attracting students. While the Mount Sinai Training School for Nurses was nonsectarian, constant efforts were made to attract eligible Jewish girls. Thirty such applications were received during the first year; seventeen applicants were accepted into the first class of forty-three. It was a requirement to pass an examination in reading, penmanship, simple arithmetic, and English or German dictation. Of course, it was not possible to have Friday evenings and Saturdays off. These requirements would have been daunting to many immigrant Jewish girls, whose schooling and resources were limited. It is remarkable that young Jewish women became nurses in a climate where schools began in non-Jewish populated centers, and where young women had to have “suitable acquirements and character,” as well as being “pious”—terms not generally well defined.
Evelyn Benson, in her research, has found that Jewish nurses served with distinction in the Spanish Civil War. In fact, Jewish nurses served with distinction in World War I and World War II, as well as in every instance where American soldiers have been mobilized.
Mathilda Scheuer was president of the American Nurses Association during the time that attempts were made to end racial discrimination within the organization. One area of contention was the scheduling of annual organizational membership meetings during Rosh Hashanna or Yom Kippur. There is evidence of considerable correspondence between the alumni associations of Jewish training schools and the professional organizations trying to remedy this situation. However, some replies were not receptive to considering changing the dates of meetings.
Jewish nurses who have provided leadership to the profession since the middle of the twentieth century include Rachel Bliss, Felissa Cohen, Adele Herwitz, and Ingeborg Mauksch. Thelma Schorr retired as editor of the American Journal of Nursing. June Rothberg, Jacqueline Rose Hott, Claire Fagin, Harriet Feldman, and Janice Selekman have been, or are, deans at schools of nursing. Nettie Birnbach only recently stepped down as president of the New York State Nurses Association. The list is extensive. Jewish nurses are frequently leaders of nonnursing organizations as well.
Careful Jewish quotas on admittance to nursing school were maintained, probably until the establishment of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps in 1943, when the government paid the expenses for the cadet students. In Making Choices, Taking Chances: Nurse Leaders Tell Their Stories (1988), Myra Levine, professor emerita, University of Illinois College of Nursing, described her own experience with quotas in attempting to gain admission to Michael Reese Hospital School of Nursing in 1940.
Moving nursing education into the collegiate setting resulted in an increase in Jewish nurses. The elimination of quotas on school admissions also helped. A college education and being able to live at home made a career in nursing acceptable to Jewish parents. Another factor responsible for increased numbers of Jewish nurses was the large-scale employment of nurses in hospitals and industry, instead of individual employment in private homes, from World War II onward.
Hadassah Nurses Councils were formed in 1989 to encourage Jewish nurses to join and network together. The Raphael Society of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists also encourages Jewish nurses to join. The many and varied accomplishments of Jewish women in nursing are finally being chronicled.
Benson, Evelyn R. “Mathilda Scheuer (1890–1974): A Biographical Sketch.” Journal of Nursing History 2, no. 1 (1986): 36–42; Carnegie, M. Elizabeth. The Path We Tread: Blacks in Nursing, 1854–1990 (1991); Ewen, Elizabeth. Immigrant Women in the Land of Dollars: Life and Culture on the Lower East Side, 1890–1925 (1985); Hirsh, Joseph, and Beka Doherty. The First Hundred Years of The Mount Sinai Hospital of New York: 1852–1952 (1952); Lagemann, Ellen. A Generation of Women: Education in the Lives of Progressive Reformers (1979); Levine, Myra. Making Choices, Taking Chances: Nurse Leaders Tell Their Stories. Edited by Thelma Schorr and Anne Zimmerman (1988); Maggs, Christopher. Origins of General Nursing (1983); Morton, Marian J. Emma Goldman and the American Left: Nowhere at Home (1992); Nutting, Adelaide. History of Nursing and Source Book for Nursing (1904); Prince, Ethel. Communication with Grace Ryan, September 14, 1947. Archives. Box 6, Folder 12. School of Nursing, Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn, and New York State Nurses Association, Guilderland, N.Y.; Selavan, Ida Cohen. “Bobba Hannah, Midwife.” American Journal of Nursing 4 (1973): 681–683.
How to cite this page
Mayer, Susan L.. "Nursing in the United States." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 20 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on July 1, 2016) <http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nursing-in-united-states>.
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Phenol Red (PR) Broth is a differential test medium prepared as a base to which a carbohydrates is added. Included in the base medium are peptone and the pH indicator phenol red.We will inoculate PR Glucose Broths with three organisms to determine their fermentation characteristics.
Q1. Suppose you innoculate a PR broth with a slow-growing fermenter. After 48 hours, you see slight turbidity but score it as (-/-). Is this result a false positive or a false negative? Is this a result of poor specificity or poor sensitivity of the test system?
Q2. Early formulations of this medium used a smaller amount of carbohydrate and occasionally produced false alkaline (pink) results after 48 hours. Why do you think this happened? List at least two steps, as a microbiologist, that you could take to prevent the problem.
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An array of telescopes at the South Pole.
For scientists seeking to plumb the mysteries of space weather, there is no better laboratory on Earth than Antarctica, where Earth’s magnetic field lines funnel solar radiation into the atmosphere and elevations of 10,000 feet draw them just a little bit closer to outer space.
NJIT researchers have been journeying to this nearly empty, frozen wilderness at the tip of the globe since 2007 to collect data on fluctuations in the magnetic lines caused by solar wind and to measure light from the Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, the luminous collision of charged particles drawn by the South Pole’s magnetic field.
“Our instruments in Antarctica give us continuous data sets of the larger geospace environment, which you can’t do in space because the instruments are continuously orbiting,” says Andrew Gerrard, director of NJIT’s Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research, who notes that the university’s work in Antarctica, which is supported by the National Science Foundation, comprises a mix of basic and applied science focusing on the sun and its impacts on Earth.
“For an increasingly space-based society, it is important to understand how the sun affects spacecraft and satellite technology so that we can design them to avoid harm. In the early days of space launches, satellites were destroyed because we didn’t know how to protect them from radiation,” Gerrard notes. “Now that we’re talking about longer space missions, including to Mars, it becomes even more important to understand the sun’s operations and its effects on us.”
The challenge for Antarctic researchers is the field work, which involves traveling through vast, snow-packed expanses in frigid temperatures that even in summer can reach 100 degrees below zero, to collect data from scientific equipment accessible only by plane in some cases from the small settlements at McMurdo Station on Ross Island and South Pole Station.
Fortunately, the NJIT team has polar enthusiasts who view the region’s extreme climate as an energizing challenge, see the beauty of vast empty spaces without vegetation or even visible rocks for miles, and enjoy bedding down in tents pitched in man-made snow caves.
“Zip it up and the tent absorbs sunlight all day,” Bob Melville, lead engineer for the team, says cheerily of camping out at temperatures well below zero. “I absolutely love it there.”
Research engineer Gil Jeffer preparing to bed down for the night.
Team members have been stranded for days at remote equipment sites because the pilot is unable to fly when atmospheric conditions make it “impossible to distinguish between sky and ground,” notes Melville’s colleague, research engineer Gil Jeffer, adding, however, “Especially during extreme weather, I think about what it would have been like to have been one of the early explorers here. It’s as if we’re living at a 5-star hotel by comparison.”
“You just hope you don’t break a limb,” says Melville, who has also spent a sunless winter in Antarctica and acknowledges the occasional moment of terror.
“I was once out on a moonless night walking from one building to another and my glasses fogged up. I got disoriented and lost sight of the line of poles with flags that marks the path between the buildings. Luckily I was able to locate it pretty quickly and got back. I was about 30 feet off,” he recalls. “It was about 80 below.”
On their most recent trip this past November, Melville and Jeffer spent three weeks in Antarctica upgrading equipment and establishing Internet connectivity to NJIT’s instrumentation for the first time.
“We can now grab data from these stations online in real-time,” Melville notes, although the team will continue to manually collect data stored on its equipment at regular intervals because the real-time data transmitted once a second over the Internet is less valuable than the more precise data recorded thousands of times a second.
Maintaining the unmanned instruments is no small engineering feat in the harsh environment around the South Pole. The remote observatories, approximately the size of a Winnebago, must be jacked up every two years to stay out of reach of rising drifts. Supplying continuous power year around, including the six months of darkness prohibiting solar energy, has led to substantial engineering developments such as robust power delivery, upgrades to wind turbines to operate at low temperatures, and novel methods to service wind turbine systems, Gerrard says. A paper that he, Melville and others authored on the team’s remote power system after the recent trip is being published in the Review of Scientific Instruments.
Because trips to Antarctica are necessarily rare, minute planning takes place well before the NJIT team has flown out of Newark.
From an office at the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research in Tiernan Hall, undergraduate Michelle Salzano ’16 is working on a clone of the data acquisition systems in place at the South Pole and McMurdo stations to determine the accuracy of what they are receiving and how much information can be gathered at one time.
“It’s not realistic in the slightest to go into space or to Antarctica to fix most problems so we pre-emptively troubleshoot by testing clone systems here,” explains Salzano, who has not yet visited the South Pole, but regards the photos she’s seen as “not too alien – a little like Jersey in a snow storm.”
Despite her office perch, Salzano says the project has brought her major – physics– to life in a way that solving equations rarely can. “This reminds me what I like about it – the creativity and the challenge of thinking outside the box to solve problems.”
The team is already preparing for this coming field season’s activities, which will include the installation of a new photometer system that collects light from Aurora Australis and measures energy from outer space; two new magnetometers that measure fluctuations in the magnetic field, and 3 GPS receivers. In addition, the NJIT field team will start to develop the siting of NJIT’s weightiest Antarctic project to date: installing the first solar radio telescope at the South Pole, the South Pole, Antarctica Solar Radio Telescope (SPASRT).
While most of the Antarctic instruments, such as magnetometers, record the impact of solar activity on Earth, the solar radio telescope would focus on the sun itself, measuring, through radio emissions, the waves of energy transferred from the sun to solar wind that eventually reach Earth as light and particles.
“Unless we account for these effects by measuring them, we can’t understand them. We are seeking clear signaling on the sun that relates to what we see in the heliosphere, the region around the sun,” says SPASRT team member Dale Gary, distinguished professor of physics at the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research and the director of NJIT’s solar array at Owens Valley, who has already begun building the telescope that will be deployed in Antarctica.
Transportation to remote scientific equipment sites.
Solar researchers are also still trying to understand some of the sun’s most basic operations.
“We are seeking evidence in solar emissions of the sun’s internal activity. We can detect in visible light at the sun’s surface oscillations with about five-minute periods, but wonder if there are deeper oscillations that are not visible and possibly detectable in radio signals,” said Louis Lanzerotti, distinguished research professor of physics at the Center, who began making trips to Antarctica decades ago as a researcher for Bell Laboratories studying space weather. The 5,000-ft.-high Mount Lanzerotti in Palmer Land, Antarctica commemorates his pioneering efforts.
“We want to know how waves in the sun’s atmosphere heat the corona, which of those waves get into the solar wind, and if and how those waves impact our near-space environment,” Garrard said. “The unique ability of the SPASRT system to observe the sun for 24 hours a day for six months of the year is really going to lend insight to these problems.”
Jeffer, who speaks wistfully of both the “beautiful desolation” of the remote terrain and the fascinating “scientific Disneyland”at McMurdo and South Pole Stations, which are both packed with researchers and adventurers from all over the globe, is already looking forward to his next trip.
“It’s almost like being on another planet,” he says. “There is nothing like it – everything is different there.”
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Overview of Gibraltar, since the top of the rock monkey territory, Sylvanus (Barbary Apes) are monkeys without tail, and are the only Wild monkeys found in Europe.
Native to North Africa, its presence in Gibraltar is as old as the British presence, and probably brought by these as pets
Gibraltar, popularly known as Gib or The Rock , is a British territory at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, and which corresponds to a small peninsula with a narrow land border with Spain to the North, being a headland militarily strategic for Britain at the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea that separates Africa from the European continent.
The name Gibraltar is derived from the Arabic jabal al-Tariq expression that means mountain of Tarique "
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- Copyright: Joao Correia (sogal) (1191)
- Genre: Places
- Medium: Color
- Date Taken: 2012-04-22
- Categories: Daily Life
- Camera: FujiFilm FinePix HS20 EXR, Fujinon 30X / 24-700 mm Eq. f.8-6.6, Hama UV 58mm
- Exposure: f/4, 1/800 seconds
- More Photo Info: view
- Photo Version: Original Version
- Date Submitted: 2012-05-15 1:28
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void *calloc(size_t elements, size_t sz);
calloc() allocates space for an array of elements, each of which occupies sz bytes of storage. The space of each element is initialized to binary zeros. In other words, calloc() is similar to malloc(), except that it handles arrays of objects rather than a single chunk of storage and that it initializes the storage allocated. The following example allocates an array of 100 int's using calloc():
int * p = (int*) calloc (100, sizeof(int));
Remember that in C++, you have better alternatives to calloc() and malloc(), namely new and new , and that these C functions should only be used for allocating POD (Plain Old Data) objects; never class objects. However, if you're using C or maintaining legacy C code, you might get across this function.
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Denoting or relating to a process of recovery from an addiction by following a twelve-stage programme, especially one devised or similar to that devised by Alcoholics Anonymous.
- Through AA and its allies, both the concept of addiction and AA's twelve-step method became widely accepted modes of defining and treating personal problems.
- The third article presents a twelve-step approach to alcohol problems.
- Perhaps this twelve-step approach has helped some people suffering from sexual addiction.
verb[no object] (often as noun twelve-stepping)
Undergo a twelve-step programme.
- My brother (several months sober at the time) had twelve-stepped me into Al-Anon a few years earlier.
- But you're right, something about twelve-stepping doesn't sit well with me, so I'm looking for a better path.
- Beer: it's a national pastime, a vice, a Saturday night solace, a problem to be twelve-stepped over and now, it's a newsgroup.
- Example sentences
- Several of them were either alcoholics or proselytizing twelve-steppers.
- While I was in L.A., I saw a friend of mine who's a professional twelve-stepper.
For editors and proofreaders
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Positrons are the antimatter version of electrons and so their fate in a matter world is ultimately to annihilate. However, prior to this, a positron may combine with an electron to form a matter-antimatter hybrid called positronium. This is akin to a hydrogen atom with the proton replaced by a positron. Fundamental to our understanding of the physical universe, positron and positronium are these days also acknowledged as being fantastically useful in practical applications such as probing material properties and medical diagnostics. However, there is still much that we do not know for sure about the details of the interactions of these particles with ordinary matter. For example if, in a collision with an atom or molecule, a positron captures an electron, in which directions is the positronium likely to travel and with what probability? More...
Published: Jun 17, 2015 12:35:19 PM
How light of different colours is absorbed by carbon dioxide (CO2) can now be accurately predicted using new calculations developed by a UCL-led team of scientists. This will help climate scientists studying Earth’s greenhouse gas emissions to better interpret data collected from satellites and ground stations measuring CO2. More...
Published: Jun 15, 2015 10:29:10 AM
New research from UCL has uncovered additional second laws of thermodynamics which complement the ordinary second law of thermodynamics, one of the most fundamental laws of nature. These new second laws are generally not noticeable except on very small scales, at which point, they become increasingly important. More...
Published: Feb 10, 2015 11:55:53 AM
Dr Philip Jones
|Telephone||+44 (0) 20 7679 3422 [Office]; +44 (0) 20 7679 2268 [Lab]|
I studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, followed by an MSc in Applied Optics at Imperial College, and a DPhil in Atomic & Laser Physics at Oxford University, working with Dr David Meacher on optical lattices. I followed David to UCL where I have remained, as a postdoc with Dr Ferruccio Renzoni, and then since 2004 as a Lecturer.
My research is on optical tweezers - a way of trapping and manipulating micron-sized particles using a single, strongly focussed laser beam - and in particular applications to soft matter and the physics/life science interface.
More information is on my website
PHAS3443 Lasers & Modern Optics website
PHAS2440 Practical Physics course website (restricted to UCL users)
Page last modified on 15 jun 11 18:11
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for National Geographic News
The Mars Phoenix lander is having a difficult time digging through the tough ice at the planet's north pole to collect a usable ice sample for analysis, mission scientists say.
In fact, they compared the digging to scraping a sidewalk.
But the researchers say they expected the icy landscape to be extremely solid and that the lander is equipped for the job.
The team is now delving deeper into the spacecraft's toolbox to gather the icy sample for delivery into the craft's Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA).
Analysis from this "bake and sniff" oven will help the scientists further their primary goals—investigating the planet's water ice, soil, and potential for life.
But troubleshooting can be difficult at a remove of 200 million miles (320 million kilometers), and the team is treating each attempt at analyzing the Martian surface as potentially its last.
Bill Farrand, of the Boulder, Colorado-based Space Science Institute, is a veteran of interplanetary robotics. He's part of the Mars Exploration Rovers Mission that has been piloting Spirit and Opportunity around the red planet for more than four years.
"Anytime you work with robots in a different kind of environment, there are going to end up being surprises you have to be wary of," he said. "That's part of the process of exploration."
Quest for Ice
During tests earlier this week two scrapers on Phoenix's robotic backhoe succeeded in creating piles of soil and ice particles in the bottom of the trench nicknamed "Snow White."
But the fragments were too small to be collected by the lander's scoop—an operation that NASA engineer Richard Volpe likened in a press statement to "trying to pick up dust with a dustpan but without a broom."
Now the team is preparing to use a drill-like rasp to grind up ice and kick it into the scoop for delivery to the TEGA.
SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES
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| 0.945468 | 411 | 3.234375 | 3 |
A study by The Genographic Project has found that the majority of all known ethnic Afghans share a unique genetic heritage derived from a common ancestral population that most likely emerged during the Neolithic revolution and the formation of early farming communities. Through detailed DNA analysis of samples from 27 provinces, the Genographic team found the inter-Afghan genetic variability to be mostly attributed to the formation of the first civilizations in the region during the Bronze Age.
The study finds these early civilizations may have differentially assimilated migrations and invasions, thereby increasing inter-population genetic differences and giving the Afghans a unique genetic diversity in Central Asia. Published today in the journal PLoS ONE, the study was led by principal investigator Pierre Zalloua and Marc Haber, both of Genographic’s Middle Eastern regional center.
“Afghanistan embraces a rich diversity of multi-ethnic and multi-lingual communities. The goal of our study was to determine whether the various Afghan groups arose from a common population with different social systems but with the same genetic stock or whether cultural and ethnic differences were founded on already existing genetic differences,” said Zalloua. “We knew that the Afghans were culturally diverse, but we were not sure if their DNA would give us any clues as to how they have evolved. We now know that major cultural evolutions and prehistoric technological advancements, followed later by migrations and conquests, have left traceable records in the Afghans’ DNA, giving us an amazing insight into the origin of this population,” said Haber.
Afghanistan’s strategic geographical location serves as a major hub for trade as well as a crossroads of many invasion routes. Location alongside cultural developments has shaped the unique genetic heritage of the Afghan people.
The Genographic Project, launched in 2005, enters its eighth year this spring. Nearly 75,000 participants from over 1,000 indigenous populations around the world have joined the initiative, along with more than 440,000 members of the general public who have purchased a testing kit online, swabbed their cheeks and sent their samples to the Genographic lab for processing. This unprecedented collection of samples and data is a scientific resource that the project plans to leverage moving forward.
Genographic Project Director and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Dr. Spencer Wells noted, “This study, the first detailed analysis of Afghan populations, demonstrates the unprecedented geographic breadth of Genographic’s sampling. The project is striving to fill in the gaps in our knowledge of human migratory history, and Afghanistan has always been a gaping hole in the map. We now have a much better picture of how these groups relate to each other and to the surrounding regions. “Moving forward, we hope to fill in the details of Afghanistan’s demographic history with studies of other genetic markers in these populations.”
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College Park, MD (PRWEB) July 07, 2014
Highly developed but water-scarce regions in China, such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin, are contributing to water depletion in other water-scarce regions of the country through imports of food, textile, and other water intensive products, according to a new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. For example, purchasing cloth in Shanghai may not consume water directly, but the production of cloth requires cotton, which is water intensive to cultivate - indirectly contributing to the water scarcity in the less-developed cotton production regions. This dynamic also holds true for food and other products. Only 20% of Shanghai’s scarce water footprint, or the amount of scarce water consumed, is from local watersheds while 80% is from water resources of other water-scarce regions, such as Xinjiang, Hebei, and Inner Mongolia.
This disproportionate consumption of water by wealthier regions has environmental impacts and potential future impacts on water availability for the entire country.
The new study used the concept of “virtual water”, an economic concept used to track water flows through trade, to track how water is traded through agricultural products and other goods that require water to produce. But while previous virtual water studies had treated all water equally, the new study accounts for water scarcity to assess China’s hidden flows.
“When goods and services are exchanged, so is virtual water,” explains University of Maryland and IIASA researcher Laixiang Sun, a study co-author. “For example, it takes about 1,600 cubic meters of actual water to produce one metric ton of wheat. When a country or region imports a ton of wheat instead of producing it domestically, it saves most of that.”
In China, water resources are distributed unevenly, with ample water in the wealthier southern region, and scarce water availability in most northern provinces. The study, titled Virtual Scare Water in China, shows that trade between these water-scarce regions tends to draw more sharply on water resources in the less developed, poorer regions. For example, the highly developed provinces of Shanghai, Shandong, Beijing, and Tianjin import large amounts of virtual water at the expense of less-developed provinces such as Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Hebei.
“This study goes beyond many other water footprint studies that it takes into account virtual water flows from water-scarce regions. This allows us to identify cases were importing water-intensive goods from other water-scarce regions may just shift the pressure to other regions. On the other hand we don’t need to worry about a large water footprint if the water is imported from water abundant areas. Previous studies often failed to account for this important difference,” says co-author Klaus Hubacek, a researcher at the University of Maryland.
The study also examined the impact of international exports on water resources, showing that production of international exports in China’s top exporting regions also draws on water resources in water-scarce northern provinces.
Dr. Feng, first author of the study, adds, “With the fast growth of China’s economy, and increasing urbanization, this trend is likely to continue in the next few decades.”
Recognizing the problem of water scarcity, China has launched a multi-billion dollar water transfer project to divert water from the South to the North. But the authors suggest that replacing production of water intensive products from the North with goods imported from the South could be a more efficient and sustainable solution to the problem.
The researchers suggest that the study lays the groundwork for smarter water resource management. Says Feng, “This is the first study that incorporates water consumption and flows, water scarcity, and ecosystem impacts into an analysis that conveys the pressures on water resources. Using virtual water as a policy tool only makes sense if you take water scarcity into account.”
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Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Access and Engagement: Program Design and Instructional Approaches for… (edition 2000)
by Aida Walqui
Access and Engagement: Program Design and Instructional Approaches for Immigrant Students in Secondary School (Topics in Immigrant Education, 4) by Aida Walqui
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History of the Convention
The need for joint protection and management of the Caspian environment and its resources has been an ongoing issue for the Caspian littoral states. Particularly, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the five littoral States have shown increased interest in joint cooperation for the protection of the Caspian. While a number of non-binding regional agreements was reached in the 1990s, they did not bring about the desired results. In 1998, the Caspian Environment Program (CEP) as a regional umbrella program was established with its aim to halt the deterioration of environmental conditions of the Caspian Sea and to promote sustainable development in the area for the long-term benefit of the Caspian population.
Since its establishment the CEP has addressed multiple environmental issues by developing an effective coordinated management structure, Strategic and National Action Plans and various transnational measures to fight the imminent dangers towards the Caspian environment. CEP, funded by the littoral states, the European Union and the international community through the GEF, has been a partner to the efforts of the Caspian States to negotiate and finalize the Tehran Convention.
The Tehran Convention serves as an umbrella legal instrument laying down general requirements and the institutional mechanism for environmental protection in the Caspian Sea region. The Convention not only aims at protecting the Caspian environment from all sources of pollution but also targets the preservation, restoration and protection of the marine environment of the Caspian Sea. These objectives are based on a number of internationally acknowledged environmental principles including the precautionary principle, the polluter pays principle and the principle of access to information. The Convention includes provisions on sustainable and rational use of the living resources of the Caspian Sea, as well as provisions on environmental impact assessment and environmental monitoring, research and development. Further to the general obligations of the Tehran Convention, the littoral States are required to take all appropriate measures to achieve these objectives individually or jointly and to cooperate with international organizations to that end.
As stressed by the former UN Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, the signing of the Tehran Convention is a “significant step forward for the region” and once ratified “this landmark treaty will benefit the health and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people”.
The signing of the Convention marked the culmination of a complex and politically sensitive inter-governmental negotiation process which has lasted for eight continuous years. Driven under the auspices of UNEP within the framework of the CEP and following a fast ratification process by all five Governments of the Caspian littoral states, the Tehran Convention entered into force on 12th August 2006.
Four ancillary Protocols to the Convention have been developed, covering the four priority areas of concern namely: 1) Protocol on the Conservation of Biological Diversity, 2) Protocol on the Protection of the Caspian Sea against Pollution from Land based Sources and Activities, 3) Protocol concerning Regional Preparedness, Response and Co-operation in Combating Oil Pollution Incidents, and 4) Protocol on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Trans-Boundary Context.
The Protocol Concerning Regional Preparedness, Response and Co-operation in Combating Oil Pollution Incidents ("Aktau Protocol") was adopted and signed at the Third Meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Aktau, Kazakhstan on August 12, 2011.
The Protocol on the Protection of the Caspian Sea against Pollution from Land based Sources and Activities ("Moscow Protocol") was adopted at the Fourth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Moscow, Russian Federation on December 12, 2012.
The Protocol for the Conservation of Biological Diversity ("Ashgabat Protocol") was adopted at the Fifth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on May 30, 2014.
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[This is a part of the Fundamentals of Effective Catechesis series. Have you seen the other posts?]
Have you ever walked into a movie after it’s already started?
You can’t figure out what’s going on because you don’t know what happened before.
This is what it’s like when you don’t understand the story of the Bible.
We are all inserted into this story, the mystery of Christ, when we’re baptized.
Then, we’re expected to participate in it and play an active part! How can anyone do this if they don’t know what’s already happened?
This should be done in the youngest grades using biblical catechesis. This is catechesis using the Bible or Bible stories to tell the story of salvation and draw out the deeper meaning of Catholic doctrine.
But why should you begin with biblical catechesis? Here are three compelling reasons why this is the best way to start.
Biblical catechesis: the primary method in the early Church
This is the way it’s always been done. In the early Church, great teachers like St. Augustine used this method in their catechetical schools.
Around the year 405, a deacon named Deogratias wrote to St. Augustine and asked him the best way to begin teaching people about the Catholic Faith.
In response, Augustine wrote a whole book! He had a lot to say! The book is called The First Catechetical Instruction. And, lucky for you, it’s still available. Here is the main point:
“When anyone is to receive his first catechetical instruction, he shall be given the complete history (of salvation), starting from the place where it is written ‘In the beginning God created heaven and earth’ down to the present period of the Church.”
In another place, Augustine instructs that all the events before Christ should be presented so they converge on his coming. This is essentially biblical catechesis on the mystery of Christ.
In this divine romance, God is the initiator. He revealed himself first to mankind and then asked for our response of faith. It seems natural that we should imitate God’s methods. That means introducing students to him the way he introduced himself to mankind–through his revelation in the Bible.
Biblical catechesis lays this out in the most basic way.
The fathers learned biblical catechesis from the apostles
So, did Augustine just make this stuff up? How did he figure this out? The early Church fathers learned this method of biblical catechesis from the apostles.
There’s many examples in the Bible of the apostles doing this. In Acts, when the apostles catechized, they always referred back to the Old Testament Scriptures and interpreted their fulfillment in Christ.
- Acts 2:14ff: At Pentecost when Peter preaches his first sermon.
- Acts 7: St. Stephen gives his defense to the Pharisees
- Acts 13:16ff: St. Paul speaks in the synagogue in Antioch of Pisidia
Why is this kind of biblical catechesis so effective for understanding God? You understand a person by their actions. Sometimes people hide their intentions in their actions–but not God. With God, what you see is what you get. His actions reveal his inner being.
“God’s works reveal who he is in himself; the mystery of his inmost being enlightens our understanding of all his works.”
God’s works are uniquely revealed in the Bible. By understanding the Bible, you understand what God has done. This gives you a greater insight into who he is and, of course, into the mystery of Christ itself.
The more you can understand who God is, the better you understand his works revealed in the Bible. It’s an interpretive feedback loop.
The apostles learned it from Jesus
In catechizing like this, the apostles were simply following the example the learned from Our Lord.
Jesus was continually referring back to the Old Testament Scriptures to explain his actions. He said he was a:
- Greater than the temple
- Greater than Solomon
- Greater than Jonah
In his actions and in his teaching, Jesus continually re-interpreted the Old Covenant in himself. His actions show him as the:
- New Moses
- New David
- Lamb of God
He summed up all the understanding of God that came before, took it into himself and redefined all of it. The Gospels, in narrating the events of Christ’s life, were actually reinterpreting all of the Old Testament in light of him.
Why begin with biblical catechesis? To put it simply, it’s the way it’s always been done.
- The Church fathers primarily used this method
- They learned it from the apostles who also used it extensively
- The apostles learned it from Jesus–need I say more? 😉
- It imitates God’s own methodology in teaching mankind about himself and his plan of salvation
- Understanding what God has done helps you understand who he is and what he wants from you!
From the moment of Baptism, your students are thrust into an ongoing story and expected to make their mark! How can they know what to do if they don’t understand the story and what is expected of them.
Also, this is a great gift that they need to know about. A great inheritance that is there’s for the taking. They need to be made aware of it.
Biblical catechesis is the best first way to introduce anyone to the mystery of Christ. But, it is especially effective in the younger grades. I’ll speak about this more in future posts.
How do you use the Bible in your teaching? If you teach the younger grades, do you tell them Bible stories?
This is part of the Fundamentals of Effective Catechesis series. I’m laying out the basics of the catechetical system I learned at Franciscan University of Steubenville. Check out the other posts!
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Assignments for students and the strategies you use to evaluate their assignments need to be driven by the learning objectives for your course. In other words, the assignments need to support and reflect the instructional objectives for the course.
Here’s an example:
Course name: Writing Hardware Documentation
Objective 1: At the completion of this course, you will be able to analyze audience needs and develop content accordingly, given the assigned readings from the text, discussion participation and commentaries posted online.
Objective 2: At the completion of this course, you will be able to research current practices in writing hardware documentation, given assigned readings and discussion questions that required investigating information outside of our textbook
Using the following course objectives, let’s look at how to explain an actual assignment that supports the objectives.
WHAT: Choose a sample of hardware documentation or a product guide that you have used and write a three page, double spaced paper in which you explain what type of documentation it is (purpose), and how you would go about collecting information to write this document if you were the technical writer.
Next, analyze who you think the intended target audience is AND justify your analysis with examples from the text book. Be sure to include specific details and examples from your product guide and the text to support your assertions.
WHEN: Submit this through the ASSIGNMENTS link in WebCT as a Word attachment to preserve formatting and your page design and layout, by midnight Oct. 27.
WHY: Successful completion of this assignment (earning a grade of 70% or higher) supports the following learning objectives:
- Analyze audience needs and develop content accordingly
- Research current practices in writing hardware documentation
HOW: Use the information readings and discussion postings from chapters 1, and 2 to complete this assignment.
TIME: Plan you time accordingly. Well written papers for this assignment generally take students about six to eight hours to complete.
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News Release, Kansas Geological Survey, Nov. 30, 2007
Construction materials inventories (CMI) provide information on the location, quality, and quantity of natural resources, such as limestone and gravel, that can be used in road and building construction. Inventories for nearly 25 Kansas counties were published between 1947 and 1983. They are helpful but out of date.
Now Kansas Geological Survey researchers have developed a prototype CMI website that provides not only current information but can be easily revised as changes take place and new resources are discovered. The inventory covers Pottawatomie County, an area experiencing population growth and economic development. It features an interactive map with overlays showing where limestone, sand, gravel, clay, and other materials have been found; KDOT bridge and highway-construction sites; water wells; roads; rivers; geology; and aerial photography.
KGS developed the Pottawatomie County website pilot project with funding from the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT). Information was collected from KDOT project records, geological literature, fieldwork, and KGS and U.S. Army Corp of Engineer core holdings. Data on the website include the location and type of about 120 commercial quarries, both active and abandoned, and measured and described cross sections of more than 100 rock outcrops.
The website also provides an overview of the county’s geology and stratigraphy, photographs of outcrops from road cuts and quarries, oil and gas and water well data, a bibliography of publications on the area’s resources, and links to the original KDOT and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) CMI for Pottawatomie County and several other Kansas counties. It is an important resource for a variety of users, from government agencies and public works departments to aggregate producers, construction companies, and the general public.
The CMI corresponds with the KGS geologic mapping project. Future interactive website inventories will be developed first for areas where updated information is most needed, such as those with abundant natural resources or population growth.
To access the CMI website, which includes the new Pottawatomie County report and map, go to http://www.kgs.ku.edu/CMI/index.html.
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Southern stingrays, Dasyatis americana, have been provided supplemental food in ecotourism operations at Stingray City Sandbar (SCS), Grand Cayman since 1986, with this site becoming one of the world’s most famous and heavily visited marine wildlife interaction venues. Given expansion of marine wildlife interactive tourism worldwide, there are questions about the effects of such activities on the focal species and their ecosystems. We used a combination of acoustic telemetry and tag-recapture efforts to test the hypothesis that human-sourced supplemental feeding has altered stingray activity patterns and habitat use at SCS relative to wild animals at control sites. Secondarily, we also qualitatively estimated the population size of stingrays supporting this major ecotourism venue. Tag-recapture data indicated that a population of at least 164 stingrays, over 80% female, utilized the small area at SCS for prolonged periods of time. Examination of comparative movements of mature female stingrays at SCS and control sites revealed strong differences between the two groups: The fed animals demonstrated a notable inversion of diel activity, being constantly active during the day with little movement at night compared to the nocturnally active wild stingrays; The fed stingrays utilized significantly (p<0.05) smaller 24 hour activity spaces compared to wild conspecifics, staying in close proximity to the ecotourism site; Fed stingrays showed a high degree of overlap in their core activity spaces compared to wild stingrays which were largely solitary in the spaces utilized (72% vs. 3% overlap respectively). Supplemental feeding has strikingly altered movement behavior and spatial distribution of the stingrays, and generated an atypically high density of animals at SCS which could have downstream fitness costs for individuals and potentially broader ecosystem effects. These findings should help environmental managers plan mitigating measures for existing operations, and develop precautionary policies regarding proposed feeding sites.
Citation: Corcoran MJ, Wetherbee BM, Shivji MS, Potenski MD, Chapman DD, Harvey GM (2013) Supplemental Feeding for Ecotourism Reverses Diel Activity and Alters Movement Patterns and Spatial Distribution of the Southern Stingray, Dasyatis americana. PLoS ONE 8(3): e59235. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0059235
Editor: Konstantinos I. Stergiou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Received: October 6, 2012; Accepted: February 14, 2013; Published: March 18, 2013
Copyright: © 2013 Corcoran et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This research was supported by the Guy Harvey Research Institute, the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation, PADI Project Aware and Nova Southeastern University Oceanographic Center. Additional equipment was provided by Honda Marine and Digital Angel Corporation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors declare that some funding (equipment) for this study was received from commercial sources (Honda Marine and Digital Angel Corporation), and confirm that this commercial funding does not alter their adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.
Ecotourism involving wildlife observation in general is a large and rapidly growing industry, generating over US$165 billion annually worldwide , , , . Tourism centered on marine wildlife specifically is also experiencing burgeoning growth given substantial associated economic benefits, and is involving an increasing diversity of species . Because wildlife observations can be unpredictable, ecotourism operators often use food as an attractant for animals to increase encounter rates , and in some cases to enhance the tourist experience by allowing them to feed the animals directly , , , , . Feeding of terrestrial wildlife is being increasingly regulated, however, because of the many instances where such activities are documented to alter the behavior, population size, reproduction, migration and/or health of the animals being fed, and in some instances even jeopardize human safety (see for a review). In contrast, with the exception of cases involving marine mammals which are often protected under national policy guidelines, there are comparatively few regulations governing the feeding of other marine wildlife, even though the effects of this supplemental feeding on the animals are seldom known.
In the few cases where the effects of supplemental feeding on marine teleost fishes has been examined, changes in behavior, abundance and population structure of individual species, and spatiotemporal characteristics of fish assemblages on a scale of hundreds of meters and many months have been documented , , , . The handful of studies examining the effects of ecotourism feeding on different behavioral aspects of elasmobranchs have suggested variable outcomes, with minor to no apparent effects on some species (white sharks, ; Caribbean reefs sharks, ), but detectable changes in the behavior of others (pink whipray, ; sicklefin lemon sharks, ; whitetip reef sharks, ).
The supplemental feeding of marine stingrays (subclass Elasmobranchii) is now a common ecotourist attraction in several parts of the world , , . Due to its abundance and opportunistic feeding habits, the southern stingray, Dasyatis americana, is rapidly becoming one of the mainstay tourist attractions at feeding sites in the Caribbean. The longest established and possibly largest such site in the Caribbean is the Stingray City Sandbar location in the Cayman Islands. Stingrays are thought to have been fed in this vicinity dating back to the 1930’s when fishermen would clean their catch near the location. Tourist operations were moved to a nearby shallow sandbar (hereafter SCS) to allow people to stand in the water rather than having to snorkel or dive, and intentional supplemental feeding of D. americana has been ongoing at this site since 1986 . The SCS location has gained worldwide recognition and has been referred to as the most popular and successful dive site in the world, receiving over a million tourist visitors per year who feed and otherwise physically interact with (e.g., touch) the stingrays (Ebanks-Petrie, Cayman Islands Department of Environment, personal communication). With the advent of larger scale, organized ecotourism activities at SCS, the stingrays are now almost exclusively fed a non-natural diet of packaged California squid, Loligo opalescens, provided by tour operators. The almost daily feeding has also resulted in a large number of stingrays being conditioned to approach (even sometimes “mob”) humans handing out the food, and created a regime of concentrated food availability in a small area during the daytime to facilitate tourist encounters.
The long-term ecotourism, including supplementary stingray feeding, at the SCS site has raised questions and concerns about the effects of these activities on the stingray population , . Despite these concerns, the enormous economic benefits of stingray ecotourism in the Cayman Islands has prompted development of several other such programs throughout the Caribbean, and calls for establishing even more such locations in the Cayman Islands and elsewhere . Because marine wildlife interactive experiences (including animal feeding) are proliferating worldwide but remain highly controversial , it is valuable to understand the effects these activities may be having on the focal species as well as other organisms with which they normally interact ecologically , , .
Previous studies at SCS have found that the fed stingrays display markers of suboptimal physiological condition and different fatty acid profiles compared to their wild conspecifics , , . Here, we examine the effects of this regular supplemental feeding on the movements, spatial habitat use and some aspects of the population dynamics of Dasyatis americana at the SCS site in Grand Cayman. Because the search for food is likely to be a major element influencing the movement patterns and activity space of most mobile animals , , , we tested the hypothesis that the almost daily feeding by humans has altered activity patterns and habitat use of stingrays at SCS relative to their conspecifics at control (non-supplemental feeding) sites. We document that supplementary feeding by humans has resulted in strong modifications of movement patterns and space utilization by the stingrays.
This study was conducted with approval from the Cayman Islands Government Department of Environment and Nova Southeastern University. At the time this field work (animal handling) was performed in 2002–2003, Nova Southeastern University did not have an Animal Welfare Committee and an institutional permit was not required. Rather, all animal handling procedures were conducted using guidelines established by the American Fisheries Society and American Society of Ichthyology and Herpetology, and all efforts were made to minimize animal stress and suffering.
Study Animals and Sites
Two groups of stingrays were tracked using manual and automated acoustic telemetry: 1) Stingrays (hereafter “fed” stingrays) captured at SCS, a naturally occurring sandbar located in the North Sound lagoon of Grand Cayman, where human feeding of stingrays occurs on nearly a daily basis; and 2) Stingrays not fed by humans (hereafter “wild” stingrays) at two control sites, the South Sound and Rum Point (Fig. 1).
Indicated are the locations of the supplemental feeding site Stingray City Sandbar (SCS), the two control sites South Sound and Rum Point, and a patch reef where female stingrays aggregated at night.
SCS has a surface area of approximately 0.0078 km2 and water depth as shallow as 0.5 m. This site is bordered to the south by a vast Thalassia testudinum dominated seagrass plain and to the north by relatively deeper, fringing, patch reefs. The two control sites have a similar overall habitat. The main control site, the South Sound, covers an area of 3 km2 forming a semi-enclosed lagoon enclosed by a fringing reef, which opens at the western edge and through an artificial channel in the center of the reef (Fig. 1). Water depth varies from 0.2–3.0 m within the lagoon. A sand flat covers a large portion of the southeastern lagoon, and dense seagrass plains of T. testudinum occur in much of the remaining sections of the lagoon. The entire South Sound is designated a “marine replenishment zone” or marine protected area (MPA) by the CIDOE, and was chosen as the primary control site for our study because of its environmental similarity to the North Sound, and the presence of an accessible population of wild, mature female southern stingrays.
The secondary control site, Rum Point, is located at the northeast tip of the North Sound and is enclosed in a MPA. This area also contains mainly sand flat and seagrass plain communities, and covers approximately 0.64 km2 with water depths varying from 0.2–2 m. Rum Point is also a nursery for southern stingrays (M. Corcoran, personal observations).
The fed stingrays were captured at SCS with hand-held dip nets and transferred into a seawater-filled canvas pool inside a boat for processing. Wild stingrays were captured at control sites by visually locating them from a boat, encircling them in a hand-drawn seine net and transferring them to the boat with a dip net. Capture location of each wild animal caught was recorded using a handheld GPS. For each fed or wild stingray processed, sex was recorded and disc width (±1 cm) measured using a tape measure across the broadest extent of the pectoral fins. A passive integrated transponder (PIT) tag (Digital Angel Corporation, Minnesota, USA) was injected into the left pelvic fin musculature to identify individual animals.
To obtain a qualitative estimate (i.e. without utilizing a population size model) of the minimum size of the stingray population at SCS and assess site fidelity of animals, we sampled SCS monthly and control sites weekly from February to May 2002 and April to August 2003, and additionally once each in September 2002 and January 2003 (i.e. a total of 11 census surveys were conducted at SCS between February 2002 – August 2003). At each SCS sampling event, stingrays were scanned for PIT tags, with previously uncaptured animals (judged by the absence of a PIT tag reading and left pelvic fin remnant scar – see below) receiving PIT tags. Stingray capture effort at each of the 11 sampling events was conducted over 3–4 days until no new (i.e., untagged) stingrays were encountered. When tagged animals were recaptured their location was recorded and the straight line distance traveled from tagging site determined. Tissue samples for a separate genetics investigation were taken from the left pelvic fin of every animal captured for the first time, and the remnant scars used both as a visual indicator of a previously captured animal and to determine PIT tag retention rates.
Seven fed stingrays (five mature females, two mature males), and six wild stingrays (six mature females) (Table 1) were tracked using manual acoustic telemetry methods. Maturity was assessed directly for males based on calcification of claspers, and for females based on disc width corresponding to size at maturity criteria from . Mature females were chosen for the majority of manual tracks because they were the dominant demographic (>80% of individuals captured) at SCS. For manual tracking, external transmitters (V16-4H-01, Vemco, Nova Scotia, Canada, 16 mm diameter x 65 mm, 10 g in water, frequencies 51–81 kHz, lifespan 218 d) were attached to the right pelvic fin using a Peterson disk tag following the method of . Handling time (capture to release) for each animal did not exceed seven minutes. Tracking was conducted from a 7 m boat equipped with a hull-mounted directional hydrophone (Vemco model VH10) and portable receiver (Vemco model VR60-01-02-07-08) crewed by a minimum of two people: a tracker/driver and an assistant responsible for anchoring and navigation . Stingrays were manually tracked from 11to 72 h (Table 1) and their position recorded every ten minutes using a handheld GPS, with a total of 2,542 geographic positions recorded. Individual stingrays manually tracked for up to 72 h were followed for 3 non-contiguous 24-hr periods. All stingrays with external transmitters attached were released in good condition, judged by observations that the fed animals immediately returned to tourists to receive food handouts, and the wild stingrays swam off robustly after release.
We assessed longer-term (up to 389 days) site fidelity and movement patterns of the fed, mature females at SCS through use of automated acoustic receivers (Vemco model VR2-69.0 KHz-1.03-2-1431-C-211). Individually coded transmitters (V16-4H-01-R04K, Vemco 16 mm × 65 mm, 10 g in water, frequency 69 kHz, random pulse rates, lifespan 570 d) were coated with a thin layer of wax (50% beeswax, 50% paraffin wax) and surgically implanted in five mature females ( = 102.2±8.0 cm DW) (Table 2). Transmitters were inserted in the body cavity through a 20 mm incision in the ventral surface and the incision closed with four stitches with non-absorbable silk sutures. Two acoustic receivers encased in PVC housing for protection were anchored to the bottom 180 m apart on opposite sides of SCS at a depth of 3.5 m (Fig. 2). Range tests determined that the effective listening radius of the receivers was approximately 190 m, covering approximately 70% of the SCS supplemental feeding area. Receiver A was deployed for 389 days and receiver B for 202 days due to damage caused by a boat.
The receivers were used for longer-term, automated tracking of five mature female fed southern stingrays at Stingray City Sandbar (SCS), Grand Cayman.
Stingray tracks obtained by manual telemetry were overlaid on a photo-mosaic image of Grand Cayman Island using Arc View 3.2 GIS software. Stingray “core areas” (i.e. the area most frequently used by an animal) were calculated using 50% kernel utilization distribution, and “activity spaces” (i.e. the area that an animal traverses in the scope of normal activities) were calculated using a 95% kernel utilization distribution with the Animal Movement Analyst Extension (AMAE) program for Arc View GIS. The percent daily overlap in daytime core activity areas for fed vs. wild female tracked stingrays was calculated by determining overlap between the combined 50% kernel utilization distribution for each animal. Stingray rates of movement (ROM) were calculated by dividing the distance between successive position fixes by the sampling time interval using AMAE. Activity space and ROM data for each animal were divided into daytime and nighttime periods based on local sunrise and sunset, and the data subsequently pooled into “fed” and “wild” groups for comparison. Pooled day, night and total 24 hr activity spaces and ROM were compared within and between each group using a Mann-Whitney U-test. Pooled activity spaces and ROM were also compared over periods of high, low, incoming and outgoing tides using a Kruskal-Wallis test. High and low tidal phases were defined as the periods from one hour before to one hour after maximum and minimum water level.
Automated telemetry data collected with the VR2 receivers were examined using VR2PC software (Vemco, Version 1.12). To assess the degree of site attachment for each animal tracked by this method, detections of individual transmitters on the two acoustic receivers were sorted into hourly bins, and the presence of rays at SCS expressed as a percent of days an animal was present over the entire monitoring period. To assess if there was an overall temporal periodicity in the presence of the five female stingrays at the SCS over the receiver deployment periods, we conducted a time series analysis using a Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) with Hamming window smoothing in SigmaPlot 11.0. The FFT decomposes time-series data into component sinusoidal waves of different frequencies, with the size of the spectral peaks in the resulting periodogram indicating the relative strength of the periodic components . The FFT was conducted for the five animals for each receiver and both receivers combined.
Over the course of the February 2002–August 2003 study period, we captured 164 unique stingrays at SCS and 55 unique stingrays at the control sites (total of 219 unique stingrays). Ninety four percent of fed stingrays were recaptured at least once, 87% were recaptured at least twice and some animals were recaptured up to 11 times over the 19 months at SCS, totaling 986 individual recaptures at this site. Based on presence of scars from prior genetic tissue sample removal, PIT tag retention in recaptured animals at SCS was 100% during this period. With the exception of one animal, all recaptures at SCS were of stingrays originally tagged at this site. In contrast, only 22% of the wild stingrays were recaptured, all within 1 km of their original tagging sites.
Overall, there were several strong contrasts in movement and habitat use patterns between fed and wild stingrays: 1) Fed female stingrays had significantly smaller average daytime, nighttime and total (24 hr) activity spaces (total activity space = 0.13±0.08 km2) than wild female stingrays (total activity space = 0.88±0.17 km2) (Mann Whitney U test, P<0.01) (Fig. 3), 2) Fed females were much more active (i.e. constantly moving) during the day and much less active during the night than wild females, and 3) There was substantially greater overlap in daytime core space use by the fed compared to wild female stingrays (72% vs 3%, respectively; Fig. 4). On the other hand, there was no significant difference in ROM either within fed or wild stingrays or between these groups (Mann-Whitney U-test, P>0.05). Tidal phase had no influence on activity space or ROM for either group (Kruskal-Wallis test, P>0.05).
Activity space sizes, based on 95% kernel contours, of fed (open bars, n = 5) and wild (filled bars, n = 5) southern stingrays tracked manually at Grand Cayman during day, night and 24 hour periods. The thick horizontal lines inside the boxes represent the medians, the box edges show the upper and lower quartiles, and the whiskers represent minimum and maximum values.
Core areas are based on 50% kernel contours of five stingrays manually tracked at each site. A) the Stingray City Sandbar (SCS) supplemental feeding site, and B) the South Sound control site.
Fed Stingray Movements – Manual Telemetry
All the tracked fed female stingrays remained active (i.e. displayed almost continuous movements without stationary periods) at SCS during daytime supplemental feeding periods. In addition to their telemetry tracked movements, the continuous activity of the tagged stingrays was also easily visually observable due to the shallow depth (0.5–1.5 m) and water clarity at the SCS. Less than one hour after cessation of daily supplemental feeding, which normally ended around 1700 h with the departure of ecotourism operators, all manually tracked female stingrays moved to the adjacent patch reef site ∼ 200 m north of SCS (Fig. 1); here they buried in the sand and remained stationary for several hours among aggregations of 20–30 individuals, with their heads oriented into the current. Between 1930 and 2130 h, the female stingrays moved from this aggregation area to individual “resting” locations within a 600 m radius of SCS where they sat stationary on the bottom with little to no further movement for several hours (stationary phase average ± sd = 5.8±1.9 hrs). Stingray individuals 3 and 5 (Table 1) were tracked for 72 hours and both exhibited strong fidelity to the same nighttime “resting” locations each night.
All tracked stingrays returned to SCS at least one hour prior to arrival of tourist boats and commencement of supplemental feeding the following day (around 0600 h). Fed female stingrays had significantly larger nighttime (0.21±0.19 km2) than daytime activity spaces (0.014±0.003 km2) (Mann-Whitney U-test, P<0.05) (Fig. 3), even though the stingrays were much more mobile during the day than night (Fig. 5).
Panel A) daytime; panel B) nighttime. The movement behavior displayed by stingray number 4 is representative of the behavior of the four other fed females tracked at this site.
The two fed, mature male stingrays (individuals 6 and 7; Table 1) tracked manually also remained active at SCS during daytime supplemental feeding activities. However, in contrast to the fed females, both males moved northeast 300 m to the shallow fringing reef crest following the cessation of supplemental feeding. Stingray individual 6 stopped at the reef and remained stationary for 2 h 35 m and stingray individual 7 circled the reef. Both individuals moved westward over the rubble flat zone, parallel to the fringing reef for approximately 2 km. Between 0015 h and 0025 h both males stopped moving along the fringing reef and remained stationary either within or adjacent to the reef for approximately 5 h 30 min, before traveling back to SCS shortly prior to the commencement of supplemental feeding the following day. As a result of their more extensive nighttime movements, the two fed males had a much larger average nighttime activity space (1.23±0.49 km2) than the five fed females (0.21±0.19 km2). However, the average daytime activity space of the tracked males (0.033±0.006 km2) was only slightly larger than that of the tracked females (0.014±0.003 km2). Male and female activity spaces were not statistically compared due to the small sample size for males (n = 2).
Fed Stingray Movements - Automated Telemetry
All five stingrays with surgically implanted transmitters were released in good condition as judged by their return to tourists to receive food handouts immediately upon release. Incisions made for transmitter implantation appeared healed within 20 days of surgery. All five stingrays were detected on one or both receivers for the 353 to 389 days they were carrying transmitters, indicating that transmitter retention and stingray survival were 100%. All the animals were recorded on one or both receivers for at least a portion of every daytime period of the study, demonstrating that fed stingrays exhibit 100% high site fidelity to the small area at SCS. The FFT analyses with both the individual and combined receiver data demonstrated a clear dominant peak corresponding to a 24 hr detection periodicity for all five stingrays at SCS (not shown) throughout the receiver deployment period (202–389 days). Much smaller, secondary peaks corresponding to a 12 hr periodicity were also evident for some animals; however, their low strengths relative to the 24 hr peaks were suggestive of a harmonic artifact rather than a signal of true temporal periodicity.
Data from both receivers also showed a diel detection periodicity that was positively associated with daytime supplemental feeding activities (i.e. stingrays were present at SCS more frequently during supplemental feeding hours) (Fig. 6). The automated telemetry findings confirm the manual telemetry results, showing repeated and predictable use of SCS by stingrays during feeding events, suggesting that these patterns are typical diel movements and exhibited for prolonged periods of time.
Percent values (y-axis) represent the number of days an individual stingray was detected on at least one receiver within the hourly time interval shown (x-axis). The values are expressed as a percent of the total monitored days (i.e., one or both receivers were present at SCS). Gray bars indicate typical times of ecotourism provided supplemental feeding.
Wild Stingray Movements - Manual Telemetry
Wild female stingrays (n = 5) manually tracked in the South Sound lagoon all behaved similarly, with limited movements during the day and much more extensive movements at night. All the females exited the South Sound between 1000 and 1100 h where they spent a minimum of 4 h 15 min lying stationary on the bottom in >15 m depth (Fig. 7). Stingray individuals 10 and 11 (Table 1), each tracked for 48 hrs (two non-contiguous 24 h periods), showed fidelity to specific daytime locations outside the fringing reef on both days. No foraging by the tracked stingrays was observed during most (see below) of the day, when they were mostly stationary with the exception of traveling to and from the lagoon. However, the tracked and several non-tracked wild stingrays were observed foraging during early morning (0500–0700 h) and nighttime periods inside the lagoon over sand flat and grass plain zones. All five tracked wild females moved back into the lagoon from outside the fringing reef between 1515 and 1730 h and foraged over relatively large areas at night; subsequently, they had significantly larger activity spaces at night (0.63±0.36 km2) than during the day (0.27±0.09 km2) (Mann-Whitney U-test, P<0.05) (Fig. 3).
Panel A) daytime; panel B) nighttime. The movement behavior displayed stingray number 10 is representative of the behavior of the four other wild females tracked at this site.
The single wild female stingray (individual 13, Table 1) tracked for 11 h (starting at 1350) at a secondary control site (Rum Point; Fig. 1) provided limited additional information on movement patterns away from the SCS. The female remained stationary during the afternoon, but moved continuously throughout most of the night (tracks not shown). Although the track was of relatively short duration, the behavior of this female was consistent with the pattern of limited movements during the day and more activity during the night observed for wild female stingrays in the South Sound.
The SCS site in the Cayman Islands is a renowned stingray interaction venue hosting very large numbers of tourism visitors who provide almost daily feeding to the animals. We examined the effects of this long-term (since 1986) feeding interaction on the movement behavior and residency of the stingrays at this site, and provide an initial perspective on the demographics of this population of ecotourism-conditioned animals. Acoustic telemetry and PIT tagging results indicated that the fed stingrays at SCS represent a spatially distinct population from wild stingrays, and that little mixing of animals from the two groups occurs. Based on the high frequency of animal recaptures and infrequent occurrence of new, untagged animals in the 11 sequential surveys conducted over 19 months, we qualitatively estimate that a population of at least 164 Dasyatis americana utilized SCS during the study period. We note, however, that our sampling surveys provide a minimum population size estimate. A quantitative, population model-based estimate of the overall stingray population size at SCS is warranted based on longer term mark-recapture data (ongoing work by authors BW, GH and MS).
The majority (over 80%) of the stingrays utilizing SCS consisted of mature females, making this demographic the most affected by ecotourism interactions. The highly skewed gender ratio found at SCS contrasts with observations at the only other batoid ecotourism operation examined in a demographic context, where the researchers found a nearly equal proportion of males and females . The reason for this strong gender bias at SCS is unclear, although competitive exclusion of the smaller males by the much larger females (a strong body-size gender dimorphism exists in D. americana) may play a role (also see below).
Among the key findings of our study are that the movement patterns, diel activity, and habitat use of the fed female stingrays differ considerably from wild female stingrays, and that these differences appear to be maintained over long periods of time. Thus, there is strong evidence that supplemental feeding of stingrays by humans at SCS has resulted in long-term, drastic alterations in the behavior of these large animals.
Patterns in the movements of fed and wild female stingrays became clear because of behavioral consistencies displayed on a daily basis by individual animals as well as stingrays from each group. Dasyatis americana is naturally a nocturnal species that forages at night . The observation of nighttime activity space as significantly larger than daytime activity space in both groups is consistent with behavior typically displayed by nocturnal animals, including other congener stingray species , . However, in contrast to the wild stingrays, the situation with fed stingrays at SCS was unusual because their total activity space was not indicative of the level of actual activity (motion) exhibited by each animal during diurnal and nocturnal periods. For example, although fed stingrays occupied very small activity spaces during the day at SCS, they demonstrated almost continuous motion within this small activity space, moving from one tourist boat to another in response to potential food provision. It is important to note that although nighttime activity space estimates for fed females were significantly larger than their daytime activity space, this was due to stingray movements away from SCS at night to adjacent resting areas, increasing the area traversed. We emphasize, however, that the fed stingrays were far less active in this larger space, remaining mostly stationary at night.
In contrast to the fed stingrays, the wild stingrays demonstrated an opposite diel pattern, foraging at night over large activity spaces but remaining mostly stationary during the day. The large difference in amount of space utilized by females of the two groups while searching for food is highlighted by the fact that the average activity space of the wild stingrays at night was ∼45X greater than the average activity space of the fed stingrays during the day (0.63±0.36 km2 vs. 0.014±0.003 km2, respectively).
The inversion of diel activity from nocturnal to diurnal foraging in the fed animals was strongly associated with the presence of food availability from tourists during the day. Such extreme diel inversions in activity, although seen in a few other taxa, are relatively rare presumably because physiological and ecological adaptations underlie the evolution of circadian activity rhythms . The temporal inversion in activity demonstrated by the fed stingrays is further notable because it would likely have some ecological costs (e.g., competitor and predator interactions) . The occurrence of some very young stingrays at SCS raises the question of whether this diel behavioral inversion has become a fixed activity rhythm inherited by the progeny of these stingrays, or is a socially learned behavior, a capability recently documented in an elasmobranch .
The small, daytime activity spaces with high degree of spatial overlap seen in the fed female D. americana at SCS is illustrative of the greatly increased density of individuals at the ecotourism feeding site. The consistency of this altered habitat utilization behavior in the fed females suggests that supplemental feeding at a spatially restricted site has allowed the stingrays to reduce and centralize their core areas of activity, while still maximizing food accrual. This finding is consistent with those from diverse taxa that females tend to restrict activity spaces to the smallest possible while meeting energetic requirements , , . Although several studies investigating the supplemental feeding of terrestrial vertebrates have observed similar decreases in activity space of the fed animals , , , we are unaware of other studies that have quantitatively revealed a similar outcome in supplementally fed fishes.
Although the link between an unnatural food source and unnatural habitat utilization behavior of stingrays at SCS is evident, it is less clear why male and female fed stingrays might behave differently with regard to movement patterns and activity space sizes. Acknowledging that the small sample size of manually tracked fed male stingrays (n = 2) precludes robust inferences, the consistency in the behavior of both males suggests that marked differences between the behavior of male and female fed stingrays may occur. Although males and females were both constantly on the move and occupied small activity spaces during the day within SCS, the average nighttime activity space for males was much larger than that of females due to their much farther roving at night along the fringing reef. A plausible hypothesis for this behavioral difference is that the much larger females outcompete the males for food at SCS, and males may therefore be required to cover larger areas to supplement their diet by foraging at night. Competition for food and aggressive interactions among the rays at SCS is suggested by the numerous bite marks on the trailing edges of the pectoral fins of both sexes of fed stingrays . Competition between genders for ecotourism provided supplemental food was also observed at a stingray feeding site in Australia, where the larger Dasyatis female stingrays behaved aggressively towards smaller conspecific males .
The much higher spatial overlap in habitat use demonstrated by individual female stingrays at SCS compared to wild stingrays suggests that the influence of supplemental feeding may extend beyond the behavior of individuals, and has likely also altered the normal population dynamics of Dasyatis americana at this highly visited, ecotourism site. Overlap of core areas of activity among individual animals is an indication of the density and patterns of spatial distribution or dispersion within a community . Individual core areas of social vertebrate species commonly overlap one other , , , whereas individual core areas of solitary species rarely overlap , , , . Supplemental feeding at SCS strikingly alters dispersion patterns of the stingrays from a normally solitary lifestyle (this study) to that of very high spatial habitat overlap among a large number of individuals. This behavioral and habitat utilization shift has disrupted the normal spatial distribution and increased the local density of stingrays at SCS to unnaturally high levels, which may have fitness costs (see below). Similar increases in density of individuals due to the introduction of supplemental food have been recorded in a range of terrestrial mammals including coyotes , hares , primates , squirrels and voles , .
The increased density of stingrays at SCS appears to have led to a much higher frequency of interactions and physical contact between conspecifics, and has been shown to result in increased disease transmission, parasite loading, altered blood chemistry, injuries and overall poorer body condition , , (and M. Corcoran, personal observations). Furthermore, we speculate that under such long-term, highly crowded conditions there is the potential for alteration of the stingray mating system and reproductive patterns, as well as increased inbreeding. Although mature animals of both sexes are normally solitary, the high density of animals at SCS may result in a much higher frequency of encounters between the sexes in a small area; indeed a mature male might encounter over 100 mature females in a single day at SCS. Supporting the idea of a potentially altered mating system are the observations that stingray mating is frequently seen at SCS and gravid females appear to be present throughout the year (and authors personal observations).
Other potential outcomes of the artificially induced, dense stingray aggregations include ecosystem level impacts. We did not study these ecosystem outcomes, but offer the following reasonable hypotheses for future testing based on our field observations. We have observed stingrays foraging during the daytime along the periphery of SCS when tourist traffic is absent or limited (e.g., bad weather days or in between cruise ship visits) resulting in supplemental food being unavailable or minimal for that day. Given the demonstrated influence of bottom-feeding batoids in structuring benthic communities , , , it is likely that even limited predation by over 160 stingrays clustered into a small area has the potential to abnormally modify the structure of the local benthic community.
The aggregation of stingrays may also unnaturally influence community structure not only by their role as predators, but also as prey. Large great hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna mokarran), known predators of D. americana and other rays , are frequently observed in the vicinity of SCS (M. Corcoran, personal observations) presumably being attracted there in greater than normal numbers by “easy” prey (i.e., stingray) availability. Consistent with this supposition is that Semeniuk and Rothley observed more than twice the number of obvious predator-inflicted wounds on stingrays at SCS compared to wild stingrays. It is not unreasonable, therefore, to hypothesize that human provision of food to the stingrays may have cascading effects on the population dynamics of both stingray predators and prey. Furthermore, the presence of dense stingray aggregations, thousands of tourists and a large quantity of food supplied by humans packed into a small area also represents a higher than normal, continuous supply of metabolic and nitrogenous wastes that cycle through and can influence the structure of benthic marine communities , . Hence, the stingray feeding operation at SCS has the potential to alter functioning of the entire local marine ecosystem.
In summary, our study provides a quantitative assessment of the effects of intense, ecotourism sourced, supplemental feeding on Dasyatis americana at Grand Cayman, showing that it results in long-term alterations in individual stingray movement, habitat-use patterns including diel inversion of activity, and dynamics of their population. Our study also raises the reasonable possibility that the non-natural aggregations of the stingrays caused by supplemental feeding may have cascading effects on the surrounding marine ecosystem, impacting both stingray predator and prey dynamics. Our findings coupled with those of Semeniuk and colleagues , , on the physiological and potential fitness costs incurred by fed southern stingrays at SCS leave little doubt about the major effects that the tourism sourced feeding operations are having on the biology of the target species. Because feeding of marine wildlife on a regular and sustained basis for tourism is widespread and continuing to expand, understanding the impacts of these activities on the target marine organisms and associated ecosystems will be useful to help managers plan mitigating measures where these activities exist, and exercise precautionary policies where new feeding sites are proposed.
We thank H. Ganz for field assistance, the G. Harvey family for logistics support during this study, and G. Ebanks-Petrie, T. Austin and J. Bothwell of the Cayman Islands Department of Environment for research logistics and manpower support. M. Nelson and many ‘ray catchers’ offered helpful advice and information. We thank the many individuals who assisted in the fieldwork. K. Stump provided comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. We are grateful to J. Vaudo and M. Heithaus for enlightening discussions on marine animal behavioral ecology, and J. Vaudo for help with the Fast Fourier analysis. We thank the two reviewers whose suggestions helped improve this manuscript.
Conceived and designed the experiments: MC BW MS DC GH. Performed the experiments: MC MP GH BW. Analyzed the data: MC BW MS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MS GH BW. Wrote the paper: MC MS BW.
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Asthma attacks can come out of nowhere, or so it would seem. A new portable system is trying to predict asthma attacks by sampling the air and identifying likely triggers. The 1-lb. device, designed by a team at Georgia Tech, takes samples every two minutes, looking at recorded air temperature and humidity, and testing the samples for particulates, volatile organic compounds and gases like ozone.
The researchers will ideally find a means to reconstruct the environment immediately before an asthma attack. So far tested by six volunteers, it may be extended to trials in children. Hopefully, one of the triggers of an asthma attack doesn't prove to be "wearing a 1-lb. sensor array around your neck." [New Scientist]
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One truth as seen from two vastly different perspectives and both true – literally. October 2013
One of the most obvious perceived contradictions between Bible and science is the age of the universe. Is it billions of years old, like scientific data, or is it thousands of years, like biblical data? When we add up the generations of the Bible and then add the secular rulers that followed, we come to fewer than 6000 years. Whereas, data from the Hubbell space telescope or from the land based telescopes in Hawaii, indicate the number at 14 billion years. In trying to resolve this apparent conflict, I use only ancient biblical commentary because modern commentary already knows modern science, and so it is influenced by what science always.
That commentary includes the text of the Bible itself (3300 years ago), the translation of the into Aramaic by Onkelos (100 CE), the Talmud (redacted about the year 400 CE), and the three major biblical commentators on the Hebrew text. There are many, many commentators, but at the top of the mountain there are three: Rashi (11th century France), who brings the straight understanding of the text, Maimonides (12th century Egypt), who discusses philosophical concepts, and Nahmanides (13th century Spain), the most important of the commentators who deal with the spiritual physics of the universe, often referred to as Kabala.
These ancient commentaries were finalized hundreds or thousands of years ago, long before Hubbell was a gleam in his great-grandparent’s eye. So there’s no possibility of Hubbell or any other scientific data influencing these concepts. That’s a key component in keeping the following discussion objective.
Universe with a Beginning
In 1959, a survey was taken of leading American scientists. Among the many questions asked was, “What is your estimate of the age of the universe?” Now, in 1959, astronomy was popular, but cosmology – the deep physics of understanding the universe – was just developing. Several years ago, the response to that survey was republished in Scientific American – the most widely read science journal in the world. Two-thirds of the scientists gave the same answer. The answer that two-thirds – an overwhelming majority – of the scientists gave was, in essence, “Age?” There was no beginning. Aristotle and Plato taught us 2400 years ago that the universe is eternal.”
That was 1959. In 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered the echo of the Big Bang in the black of the sky at night, and the world paradigm changed from a universe that was eternal to a universe that had a beginning. Science had made an enormous paradigm change in its understanding of the world. Understand the impact. Science has confirmed to the best of scientific ability that our universe had a beginning. I can’t overestimate the import of that scientific “discovery.” Evolution, cave men, these are all trivial problems compared to the fact that we now understand that our universe had a beginning. Exactly as the Bible had claimed for three millennia.
Of course, the fact that there was a beginning, a creation, does not prove that the Biblical God was the Creator. Whether that is true, that “God created the Heavens and the Earth (Genesis 1:1),” is still being debated. Physics allows for a beginning without a beginner. I’m not going to get into the physics of that here. “The Science of God,” my second book, examines this in great detail. In brief, in 1973 Professor Ed Tryon published in the prestigious peer reviewed journal Nature, a article demonstrating that as per the laws of physics, the universe could be created from absolute nothing via a quantum fluctuation. According to this understanding, there was only one physical creation. All the energy / matter and all space come into being as a minuscule speck from absolute nothing. The universe expanded out from that speck of space not by having new space added on, but by the original space stretching. In doing so, the huge concentration of energy of the Big Bang creation became more dilute within the ever stretching space, and so the temperature of space decreased.
It All Starts From Adam
The question we’re left with is, how long ago did the Big Bang creation occur? Was it, as the Bible might imply, fewer than 6,000 years, or was it the 14 billions of years that are accepted by the scientific community? The first thing we have to understand is the origin of the biblical calendar.
The biblical calendar age of the universe is calculated by adding up the generations since Adam. This reaches a number slightly under 6000 years. Additionally, there are six days (actually the biblical text gives 5 and a half days) from the creation of the universe to the creation of the first human, that is the first being with the soul of a human (not the first hominid, a being with human shape and intelligence, but lacking the soul of humanity, the neshama). We have a calendar that begins with Adam. The six pre-Adam days are separate from this. The Bible has two calendars, two clocks. This is no modern rationalization. The Talmud already discussed this 1600 years ago.
The reason the six pre-Adam days (Genesis 1:1 – 27) were taken out of the calendar is because time is described differently in those Six Days of Genesis. There the passage of each day is described as “There was evening and morning” with no relationship to human time. Once we come to the progeny of Adam, the flow of time is totally in human terms. Adam and Eve live 130 years before having Seth. Seth lives 105 years before having Enosh, etc. (Genesis chapter 5). From Adam forward, the flow of time is totally human-based, earth -based. But prior to that time, it’s an abstract concept: “Evening and morning.” It’s as if the Bible is looking at those events of Genesis One from a viewpoint other than the earth, a cosmic view of time. What might be the Biblical perception of the timing of those events prior to Adam relative to our earth-based measurements?
Looking Deeper into the Text
In trying to understand the flow of time here, you have to remember that the entire Six Days is described in 31 sentences. The Six Days of Genesis, which have given people so many headaches, are confined to 31 sentences! At MIT, in the Hayden library, we had about 50,000 books that deal with the development of the universe: cosmology, chemistry, thermodynamics, paleontology, archaeology, the high-energy physics of creation. Up the river at Harvard, at the Weidner library, they probably have 100,000 books on these same topics. The Bible gives us 31 sentences. Don’t expect that by a simple reading of those sentences, you’ll know every detail that is held within the text. It’s obvious that we have to dig deeper to get the information out.
What is a “day?”
The usual answer to that question is let the word ‘day’ in Genesis chapter one be any long period of time. Bend the Bible to match the science. Fortunately, the Talmud in Hagigah (12A), Rashi there and Nahmanides (Gen. 1:3) all tell us that the word day means 24 hours, not sunrise and sun set. The sun is not mentioned till day four and these commentaries all relate to all six days, starting from day one. But the commentary continues in Exodus and Leviticus, that the days are 24 hours each (again, not relating to sunrise and sunset, merely sets of 24 hours). There are six of them, and their duration is not longer than the six days of our work week, BUT, the commentary continues, they contain all the ages of the world. How can six 24 hour days contain all the ages of the world?
The Flexible flow of time and the stretching of space
When a scientist states that our universe is 14 billion years old, there is a second half of that sentence rarely articulated but known very well. The universe is 14 billon years old as measured from the time-space coordinates of the earth; that is, as measured from our view, our location, within universe. But there is an aspect of the universe that changes the perception of the timing of events when those events are viewed, not “on location,” but from afar, across a great galactic distance. That is the stretching of space. The universe started as a minuscule speck, and stretched out from there. Space actually stretches. The result of the stretching of space produces the effect that when observing a series of events that took place deep in space, far from our galaxy, as the light from those events travels through space, the timing of the sequence of events is actually stretched out. In estimating the true timing of a sequence of distance events, correction for this space stretch must be accounted for. This is standard astronomy. (In The Science of God I give the logic in detail in simple easy to understand terms.)
The Creation of Time
At the end of each day of the six creation days, the day is numbered. Yet Nahmanides points out that there is discontinuity in the way the days are numbered. At the end of the first day, the verse says: “There is evening and morning, Day One.” But the second day doesn’t say “evening and morning, Day Two.” Rather, it says “evening and morning, a second day.” And the Bible continues with this pattern: “Evening and morning, a third day… a fourth day… a fifth day… the sixth day.” Only on the first day does the text use a different form: not “first day,” but “Day One” (“Yom Echad”). Many English translations make the mistake of writing “a first day.” That’s because editors want things to be nice and consistent. But they throw out the cosmic message in the text! That message, as Nahmanides points out, is that there is a qualitative difference between “one” and “first.” One is absolute; first is comparative. The Bible, he tell us, could not write “a first day” on the first day because there had not yet been a second day relative to it. Had the perspective of the Bible for the first six days been from Sinai looking back, the Bible would have written a first day. By the time the Torah was given on Sinai there had been hundreds of thousands of “second days.” The perspective of the Bible for the six days of Genesis is from the only time in the history of time when there had not been a second day. And that is the first day. From the creation of the universe to the creation of the soul of Adam (Genesis 1:27), the Bible views time from near the beginning of the universe looking forward. At the creation of Adam and Eve, the soul of humanity, the Bible perspective switches from this cosmic view of time to earth based time. From that point on, all biblical descriptions of time are human-based, earth-based, the space-time coordinates by which we live.
How we perceive time
We look at the universe, and say, “How old is the universe? Looking back in time, the universe is approximately 14 billion years old.” That’s our view of time and those years went by. But what is the Bible’s view of those billions of years looking forward from the beginning? How does it see time?
Nahmanides taught that although the days of Genesis One are 24 hours each, they contain “kol yemot ha-olam” – all the ages and all the secrets of the world. Nahmanides says that before the universe, there was nothing… but then suddenly the entire creation appeared as a minuscule speck. He gives a description for the speck: something very tiny, smaller than a grain of mustard. And he says that this is the only physical creation. There was no other physical creation; all other creations mentioned in Genesis One were spiritual: the Nefesh (the soul of animal life, Genesis 1:21) and the Neshama (the soul of human life, Genesis 1:27) are spiritual creations.
There’s only one physical creation, and that creation was a tiny speck. In that speck was all the raw material that would be used for making everything else. Nahmanides describes the essence of that first material as “dak me’od, ein bo mamash” – so very thin, no substance to it. And as this speck expanded out, this essence, so thin that it had no material substance, turned into matter as we know it.
Nahmanides further writes: “Misheyesh, yitfos bo zman” – from the moment that matter formed from this substance-less substance, time grabs hold. Time is created at the beginning. But biblical time “grabs hold” when matter condenses from the substance-less substance of the big bang creation. When matter condenses, congeals, coalesces, out of this substance so thin it has no material substance, that’s when the biblical clock starts.
Science has shown that there’s only one “substance-less substance” that can change into matter. And that’s energy. Einstein’s famous equation, E=MC2, tells us that energy can change form and take on the form of matter. And once it changes into matter, biblical time grabs hold; the biblical clock begins. Energy – light beams, radio waves, gamma rays, x-rays – all travel at the speed of light, 300 million meters per second. At the speed of light, time does not pass. The universe was aging, time was passing, but until there was stable matter, nothing was present recording that passage of time. Time only grabs hold when stable matter is present. This moment of time before the clock of the Bible begins lasted less than 1/100,000 of a second. A miniscule time. But in that time, the universe expanded from a tiny speck, to about the size of the Solar System. From that moment on we have matter, and biblical time flows forward. The biblical clock begins here.
Day One and not a first day: seeing time from the beginning
Now the fact that the Bible tells us there is “evening and morning Day One”, comes to teach us that the biblical calendar begins from near the beginning looking forward.
We look back in time, and measure of the universe to be 14 billion years old. But as every scientist knows, when we say the universe is 14 billion years old, there’s another half of the sentence that we rarely bother to state. The universe is 14 billion years old as measured from the time-space coordinates of the earth, that is, from our current position in the universe.
The key is that from the creation of the universe to the creation of the soul of Adam, the Bible looks forward in time, from time-space coordinates when the universe was vastly smaller than it is today. Since then, the universe has expanded out. Space stretches, and that stretching of space totally changes the perception of time.
A brief example of what this means is useful to establish the effect of space stretching. Far off on some imaginary galaxy a person decides to send us information about his clock. Imagine going back billions of years, close the beginning of time. Now pretend way back then, when time grabs hold, there’s an intelligent community. (It’s totally fictitious.) Imagine that the intelligent community has a laser, and it’s going to shoot out a blast of light every second. Every second — pulse. Pulse. Pulse. And on each pulse of light the following formation is printed: “I’m sending you a pulse of light every second.” (Printing information on light, electro-magnetic radiation, is common practice. It’s what brings your phone messages and TV or radio to you.) Billions of years later, way far down the time line, we here on Earth have a big satellite dish antenna and we receive that pulse of light. And on that pulse of light we read “I’m sending you a pulse every second.”
Light travels 300 million meters per second. So at the beginning, when the light pulses are first released, the two light pulses are separated by a second of light travel time or 300 million meters. The pulses of light travel through space for billions of years until they reach the Earth. But wait. Is the universe static? No. The universe is expanding. The universe expands by space stretching. So as these pulses travel through space for billions of years, the space between them is stretching. The pulses get further and further apart. Billions of years later, when the first pulse arrives, we read on it “I’m sending you a pulse every second.” A message from outer space! You wait for the next pulse to arrive. Does it arrive second later? No! A year later? Maybe not. Maybe billions of years later. Because the amount of time that these pulses of light have traveled through space will determine the amount that space stretched between them. That in turn will determine how much time there will be between the arrivals of the pulses. This is standard astronomy.
14 billion years or six days?
Today, we look back in time and we see approximately 14 billion years of history and those years went by. But how would they be perceived from the Bible’s perspective of time? Looking forward from when the universe was very small – billions of times smaller – the Bible teaches that six days passed. In truth, they both are correct. What’s exciting about the last few years is that we now have quantified the data to know the relationship between the perception of time from the beginning of stable matter, the threshold energy of protons (their nucleosynthesis), looking forward and our measure of the history of the universe. It’s not science fiction any longer. A dozen physics textbooks all bring the same generalized number. The general relationship of the stretching of space between the era of proton anti-proton formation, that time near the beginning at the threshold energy of protons when the first stable matter formed, and time today is a million million. That’s a 1 with 12 zeros after it. Space has stretched by a million million. So when a view from the beginning looking forward says “I’m sending you a pulse every second,” would we see a pulse every second? No. We’d see one every million million seconds. That’s the stretching effect of the expansion of the universe on the perception of time.
The biblical text shows us (and the Talmud confirms) that the soul of Adam was created five and a half days after the big bang creation. That is a half day before the termination of the sixth day. At that moment the cosmic calendar ceases and an earth based calendar starts. How would we see those days stretched by a million million? Five and a half days times a million million, gives us five and a half million million days. Dividing that by 365 days in a year, comes out to be 15 billion years. NASA gives a value of just under 14 billion years. Considering the many approximations, and that the Bible works with only six periods of time, the agreement to within a few percent is extraordinary. The universe is billions of years old but from the biblical perspective those billions of years compress into five and a half, 24 hour days.
The five and a half days of Genesis are not of equal duration. Each time the universe doubles in size, the perception of time halves as we project that time back toward the beginning of the universe. The rate of doubling, that is the fractional rate of change, is very rapid at the beginning and decreases with time simply because as the universe gets larger and larger, even though the actual expansion rate is approximately constant, it takes longer and longer for the overall size to double. Because of this, the earliest of the six days have most of the 15 billion years sequestered with them.
CORRECTION TO THE CALCULATION OF THE AGE OF THE UNIVERSE
Following a talk I gave at AZUSA Pacific University, February 2011, a participant noted that when calculating the expansion ratio of space (that is, the fraction by which space had stretched) from the era of proton formation to our current time, I had neglected to correct for the fact that the rate of universal expansion is actually increasing. The million million expansion ratio is gotten by calculating the averaged ratio of the temperature of space now (2.76 K) relative to the threshold temperature of proton anti-proton pair production that marks the start of the biblical clock. The correction for this increase in the rate of universal expansion is in the order of 10%. Had the expansion been constant [and not super-linear resulting from the increased expansion rate], the temperature of space would be, not the currently observed 2.76 K, but 3.03 K. Introducing this correction reduces the expansion factor of the million million ( that is, a trillion) cited above, by 10% to 900 billion. As discussed above, the biblical time prior to the creation of the soul of Adam is 5 and half days. Expanding those biblical pre-Adam five and a half, 24 hour days by the expansion factor, 900,000,000,000, (i.e., 900 billion) results in age of the universe as viewed from our perspective of 13.6 billon years.
An exponential equation can be developed that details the number of years as measured from our perspective of time compressed within each of the five and half 24 hour days of Genesis Chapter One, taking each day as one “half life.” However rather than using the highly rounded off expansion factor of 900 billion, this equation uses the exact expansion factor (the ratio of the energy or temperature of space at the threshold energy of protons [10.9 x 1012 K ] to the “AZUSA” corrected current energy or temperature of space [3.03 K ]). The result gives an overall age of the universe of 13.9 billion years and also the number of those 13.9 billion years of cosmic history held compressed within each of the biblical five and a half, 24 hour days of Genesis prior to the creation of the human soul of Adam. Starting with Day One, the results are, approximately: 7; 3.5; 1.8; 0.9; 0.5; 0.2 billions of years compressed within each successive 24-hour biblical day. This is in close agreement with the NASA number of 13.7 billion years. Interestingly, several years ago an article in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Nature, used this identical approach to discuss the time from the beginning of the universe, but with a totally different agenda and so started its clock at the very creation which they projected as a singularity. The significance of this is that this respected science journal has given its stamp of approval for the methodology used here.
Einstein, in the laws of relativity, taught the world that time passes at different rates in different environments. Absolute time does not exist in our universe. The passage of time is relative. In regions of high velocity or high gravity time actually passes more slowly relative to regions of lower gravity or lower velocity. (One location relative to another, hence the name, the laws of relativity) This is now proven fact. Time actually stretches out. Where ever you are time is normal for you because your biology is part of that local system. Note that the above discussion does not relate to these laws of relativity. It relates to a very different phenomenon, the effect of the stretching of space on the perception of the passage of time.
God using nature’s forces
That God might have used the laws of nature to create the universe is fully consistent in relationship to the Biblical accounts of God’s actions. The only name for God in the creation chapter, Genesis chapter one, is Elokim, God as made manifest in nature. Maimonides in his monumental Guide for the Perplexed (1190; part 2, chapter 6)) wrote that God at times uses the forces of nature to accomplish God’s goal. An example of God using nature to accomplish a goal is in the Exodus account. After our leaving Egypt, God led us to the banks of the Sea of Reeds (or the Red Sea depending upon translations; see the First book of Kings chapter 9 verse 26 for the location of the Sea of Reeds.). There trapped by the sea, God saves us from the pursuing Egyptian army by splitting the sea with a strong east wind that blew all night (Exodus 14:21). That detailed description of the wind was given to let us realize that the wind may have seemed natural. How natural? After the Israelites pass through the opened sea, the pursuing Egyptian soldiers follow right on in. After all it is just a lucky wind. (See D. Nof and N. Paldor; Are there oceanographic explanations for the Israelites crossing of the Red Sea?; published in the esteemed, peer-reviewed scientific journal The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 73; no. 3; March 1992, for a peer-reviewed account of the possibility of the wind actually opening the sea.) If the wind had seemed super-natural, the army would have fled back home. So natural-seeming was the wind that the Bible had to tell us that it was God that made the wind blow at that time. So we see that the laws of nature instilled by God at the creation are a part of God’s tools in this world, and also for creating this magnificent world in which we dwell.
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Prepare yourself spiritually
David A. Bednar, “In the Strength of the Lord,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2004, 76–78
“No Greater Call,” Teaching, No Greater Call (1999), 3–4
David M. McConkie, “Gospel Learning and Teaching,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2010, 13–15
During the first few minutes of every class, help the youth make connections between things they are learning in various settings (such as personal study, seminary, other Church classes, or experiences with their friends). How can you help them see the relevance of the gospel in daily living? The ideas below might help you:
- Ask the youth to share what they have been learning about the Atonement and what questions they have about what they have learned.
- Ask the youth to read the section titled “Every Member a Teacher” from Teaching, No Greater Call (pages 3–4). Invite the youth to share their feelings about their responsibility to teach the gospel. What opportunities do they have to teach others the gospel? How does the Lord help us fulfill our responsibility to teach?
Each of the activities below can encourage the youth to rely on the Savior’s grace to help them become better teachers. Following the guidance of the Spirit, select one or more that will work best for your class:
- Ask the youth to share an experience in which they received an assignment that seemed difficult or overwhelming. What future assignments might they receive that could make them feel overwhelmed? As a class, read the first 11 paragraphs of Elder David A. Bednar’s talk “In the Strength of the Lord,” and ask the youth to raise their hands when they hear or read something that could strengthen or encourage them when they receive such assignments and share what they learned with the class. How can they apply what they learn to the opportunities they have to teach others the gospel? Consider sharing a personal experience in which you received strength from the Lord to fulfill an assignment that seemed difficult.
- Before class, invite one of the youth who plays a musical instrument to bring his or her instrument to class (or show a picture of the instrument). Ask the youth to discuss what he or she does to ensure that the musical instrument works properly. Invite the class to read Alma 17:9–11 and describe how someone playing a musical instrument is like the Lord using us as instruments to teach His gospel. What did the sons of Mosiah do to prepare themselves to be effective instruments in the hands of the Lord? How can the youth follow their examples as they teach?
- Invite the youth to read David M. McConkie’s talk, “Gospel Learning and Teaching.” Encourage them to make a list on the board of things Brother McConkie says are important in gospel teaching and things he says are not important. Encourage them to share how the stories Brother McConkie uses illustrate the points they listed on the board. Invite the youth to plan ways they can use what they learn from the talk to draw on the strength of the Lord as they teach others.
- Ask the youth to imagine that a friend has received an assignment from the bishop to teach a class or give a talk, and the friend feels inadequate and does not want to accept the assignment. How would the youth encourage their friend? What scriptures could they use to help him or her? (See, for example, the scriptures suggested in this outline.) Invite them to role-play using these scriptures to help someone in this situation.
Ask the youth to share what they learned today. Do they understand how the Savior’s grace can help them become better teachers? Do they have any additional questions? Would it be worthwhile to spend more time on this topic?
Invite to act
- Ask the youth what they feel inspired to do because of what they learned today. Encourage them to act on these feelings. Consider ways you can follow up.
- Testify of the strength and help that the Lord has given you in your assignment to teach.
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March 15, 1999
These bills would even give timber companies exceptions from the rule prohibiting the harming or killing of endangered species. Under this legislation, the timber companies, using their scientists, would be responsible for the studying of effects of their logging on the environment, including the disappearing salmon.
The timber industry would then be responsible for making changes in policies to protect the environment. The timber companies would also be given a permanent 20 percent tax break under this legislation, saving the timber industry an estimated $14 million to $18 million per year.
The most alarming aspect of this bill is that it overrides the Forest Practice Board's ability to make rules and consider public, environmental, and scientific information.
Many state legislators were elected last November because of their strong commitment to protect the environment. To be true to their word, they need to fight this legislation. Hold your legislators responsible for their actions.
Jeffrey P. Lucas, Redmond
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EXERCISES TO GROW TALLER
Exercise to promote growth
Despite common perception, exercise can have an influential and direct affect on the amount of growth hormone secreted from the pituitary gland. Not only does exercise have this amazing benefit, certain exercises can help promote bone length lateral growth. This is why it is essential to understand which type of excercises are key to height increase and master them. As with all height increase programs, the younger the age started, the better although this information can help anyone, at any age - even after puberty. Please read our disclaimer before reading more further.
Stretching to grow taller
Regarded as the number one method to aid height increase is stretching. This is good news for anyone who wishes to grow taller because it is available for anyone to do at no cost. For optimal growth advantages to be gained, it is recommended that stretching should be carried out for 3 consecutive days with 1 day rest, repeating this for as long as possible.
So how does stretching enable someone to grow taller? The answer, as expected lies within the muscles and ligaments. The everyday tension within our muscles is constantly restricting the free lateral growth of our bones. This is particularly true for the femur (the longest bone in the human body - that of the upper leg). By stetching the muscle around the bone is allows the loosening of the muscle fibres and reduces tension which is essentially compressing the inner bone. Muscles are incredibly powerful for their size and the tension that is generated from them is transmitted through the bone. Although this temporary tension is essential, due to its ability to strengthen the bone what comes after is more important. By this we mean, that during periods of rest, such as sleeping (when growth hormone is released at his highest level) the bone is allowed more freedom to develop with less tension holding it back. Although this may sound unconvincing, it can not be under estimated how m
uch influence this unwanted tension can have on the lateral development of bones. The key point here is the the length of our bones are the primary factor of height determination.
The vertebrae within our spine also plays a large contribution to our height. The small spaces between our vertebrae allow room for disc annulus. See below.
This disc annulus has the ability to increase and decrease in thickness depending on a number of factors. Such factors include hydration levels within the body as a whole, compression of the spine, nutrition and genetic ability to develop. Stretching exercises allow the discs to develop properly by dereasing the compression between them and again, 'freeing' them up to promote natural growth. A point to note here is that compression of the discs occurs throughout the day when walking, running or even standing. when we sleep they return to their original thickness. People usually lose around half an inch between morning and night, only to regain it again the next morning. To reduce this problem, heel lifts are designed to combat this, by offering absorbtion from shock waves when walking. Also as mentioned, nutrition can help redevelop and increase growth of the discs, one of the most important substances being glucosamin and condrioten. This is useful anyone who wants to apply exercises for growth.
By promoting the growth of the discs within the spinal column people are literally able to grow inches. The spine is the longest part of the body which can be influenced the most (without surgery). Remember to be safe, the spinal column is also essential to your health - so never carry out exercises without consulting your personal health specialist.
A simple device which can be used to help with stretching is an inversion table. This can help release tension between the discs and vertebrae. Please contact us (using the link at the top of the page) if you wish to purchase one so that we can advise you. It is essential you purchase the right to obtain the benefits it can give you. Other advantages of using these mechanisms include increasing the blood flow to the brain and releiving back pain.
High intensity exercises
Research has found that high intensity exercises can also improve levels of Human Growth Hormone (hGH) within the blood. Such exercises include sprinting, short distance swimming, weight lifting and power cycling. The type most suited to a person depends on each individual, so weightlifting might not work for some, but sprinting would. In general if you feel comfortably doing that particular exercise and feel the desire to continue doing it, the brain will release the required hormones you need. So far no real evidence has been found of slow low intensity activities increasing hGH levels.
Experts who know more
For a comprehensive guide, based on the view of medical professionals; an award-winning journal is available for download. The information contained within this journal is the result of recent medical research and has been proven to have a positive effect on height increase in humans. Please click here to download the award winning medical journal.
Why not try these heel lifts to look taller. These new inventions can be shipped overnight and are worn by more people than you think.
Height Increasing Insoles
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Freight Facts and Figures 2009
Table 3-10. Ton Miles of Truck Shipments by State: 2002
The measure of ton miles combines the weight and distance of freight movement to indicate how much overall demand freight is placing on the transportation system. This measure also demonstrates the dominant role of interstate commerce in freight movements for most states. Two-thirds of ton miles moved by truck are classified as interstate commerce. Almost 40 percent of ton miles moved by truck pass through a state between out-of-state origins and destinations. In the Midwest and many western states, a large majority of ton miles is considered through traffic, meaning that such traffic uses one state highway in order to serve shippers and consumers in other states.
Ton miles include domestic flows by truck, domestic portions of international trade by truck to and from ports, and domestic portions of international flows by truck to and from Canada and Mexico.
Technical Notes on Calculating Truck Shipments by State:
Ton miles for shipments by truck among places at least 50 miles apart are estimated by assigning flows in the Freight Analysis Framework (FAF) to the highway network as described in the report on Freight Traffic Analysis at www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/freight_analysis/faf/faf2_reports/reports7/index.htm. Truck movements carrying international trade to and from maritime ports are counted as originating or terminating at the port, while truck movements across land borders are counted as originating or ending in Canada or Mexico. If the origins and destinations of international trade by truck through maritime ports were treated the same as by truck across land borders, ton miles for each state would remain the same, but the shares entering, leaving, within, and passing through coastal states would change slightly.
Local ton miles for shipments by truck among places less than 50 miles are estimated by multiplying the FAF tonnage originating in the state that was not assigned to the network by the ratio of ton miles to tons for shipments less than 50 miles in the 2002 Commodity Flow Survey. The ratio of ton miles to tons is the average distance traveled weighted by the weight of the shipments. The average for the United States was substituted for Minnesota, which has suppressed values in the 2002 Commodity Flow Survey. Local ton miles are counted with the state of origin. While some local traffic crosses state lines, the ton miles are very small and nationwide data to allocate that local traffic to flows entering and leaving each state are not available.
Except for truck moves of foreign trade to and from maritime ports, estimates of long-distance and local ton miles do not include truck portions of shipments using more than one mode. Inclusion of the truck portions of intermodal shipments would only increase national ton miles between one-half and two percent, depending on the trucking share of postal, parcel, and courier shipments. This estimated increase is based on the difference between total truck ton miles and truck-only ton miles plus the ton miles for postal, parcel, and courier shipments in the Commodity Flow Survey.1
1U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, 2002 Commodity Flow Survey, EC02TCF-US, December 2004, tables 1a and 2a.
Ton miles between places over 50 miles apart: U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Office of Freight Management and Operations, Freight Analysis Framework, version 2.3, August 2009.
Ton miles between places less than 50 miles apart (Local): Ibid., and U.S. Department of Transportation, Research and Innovative Technology Administration, Bureau of Transportation Statistics and U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, 2002 Commodity Flow Survey, July 2009.
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United States Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration
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Published: August 2010
Human skin is subject to a variety of common benign growths, but most never require medical attention. Management (or lack thereof) requires an appreciation of how such growths appear and behave, coupled with the ability to differentiate them from more serious entities. This article provides a selected compilation of the more common benign growths that affect the skin.
Seborrheic keratoses may be the most common benign tumor of the skin. Typically, they are scaly (hyperkeratotic), brown (hyperpigmented), often somewhat greasy plaques that vary in size and thickness and often appear to be stuck onto the skin surface (Fig. 1). They occur on any surface except the palms, soles, and mucosa. They are common in adults, more so with advanced age, and unusual in children. Their cause is unknown, but a genetic predisposition may be present in some families. The sudden eruption of many, often pruritic seborrheic keratoses on the trunk (Leser-Trélat sign) has been implicated as a cutaneous marker of internal malignancy, commonly gastric adenocarcinoma. Evaluation of such patients should include upper endoscopy and age-appropriate cancer screening.
Therapy is usually not necessary unless plaques are pruritic, irritated or inflamed, or of cosmetic concern. When necessary, cryotherapy (liquid nitrogen) or curettage is usually adequate. If the clinical diagnosis is uncertain, a biopsy is warranted.
Dermatosis papulosa nigra is a condition of hyperpigmented, hyperkeratotic plaques similar to seborrheic keratoses and acrochordons (skin tags), both clinically and histologically. Dermatosis papulosa nigra growths are common and usually are found on the face and neck, with a particular predilection for periorbital skin of darkly pigmented persons (Fig. 2).
Approximately 50% of the black population has these benign growths, and women are more affected than men by a ratio of 2 : 1.
Therapy is usually not necessary unless the growths become itchy or irritated, although many people desire treatment for cosmetic reasons. Treatment options include scissor excision, curettage, or cryotherapy, all of which can produce hypo- or hyperpigmentation.
Sebaceous hyperplasia is a benign enlargement of sebaceous glands surrounding a follicle characterized by small flesh-colored to yellow papules, often with a central dell, on the face of adults (Fig. 3).
More common in men and in patients with organ transplants, sebaceous hyperplasia lesions are often numerous, and individual papules can resemble basal cell carcinomas (particularly when accompanied by telangiectasias) or even molluscum contagiosum.
Treatment, primarily for cosmesis, includes cryotherapy, curettage, and laser therapy.
Ephilides are small, discrete, hyperpigmented macules on the sun-exposed skin of fair-complected individuals, usually redheads and blonds.
Ephilides are not growths per se; they represent focal increased melanin in the skin, and they tend to darken in the summer with increased sun exposure and lighten in the winter. When present in large numbers, they indicate excessive sun (photo) damage and an increased risk of sun-induced skin cancer, including melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, and squamous cell carcinoma.
Ephilides are benign and harmless, and treatment is not necessary. Topical bleaching creams, chemical peels, or cryotherapy can lighten ephilides of cosmetic concern.
Lentigines are hyperpigmented macules or patches that can resemble nevi (moles). Usually pale tan to brown, they typically appear in white adults and increase in number with advancing age (Fig. 4).
Lentigines tend to occur on the sun-exposed skin of the face, neck, upper trunk, forearms, and hands. Unlike ephilides, lentigines are the result of epidermal hyperplasia and of variable proliferation of melanocytes and subsequent melanization. Lentigines are benign, but they occasionally transform into lentigo maligna (superficial melanoma). If change occurs in a lentigo (e.g., rapid growth, change in color or surface contour), a dermatologic evaluation is warranted and a biopsy may be necessary. Many lentigines indicate excessive photodamage and increased risk of sun-induced skin cancer.
Like treatment for ephilides, treatment for lentigines is primarily for cosmetic reasons. Options include cryotherapy, chemical peels, laser therapy, and bleaching creams containing hydroquinone.
Nevi are common benign growths, usually hyperpigmented or skin-colored macules, papules, or small plaques, probably derived from proliferating altered melanocytes (nevus cells). Age, race, and genetic and environmental factors (primarily sun exposure) all contribute to the development of nevi for any particular patient. Nevi can develop anywhere on the body and usually declare themselves by the early adult years. Most nevi are categorized by histologic subtypes: junctional, compound, or intradermal. Junctional nevi are hyperpigmented macules composed of nevus cells located in the epidermis (Fig. 5); compound nevi are hyperpigmented papules composed of nevus cells in both the epidermis and dermis; and intradermal nevi are brown to flesh-colored soft papules with nevus cells confined to the dermis (Fig. 6).
The blue nevus is a well-circumscribed, blue-black, dome-shaped papule commonly mistaken for melanoma. Blue nevi are collections of nevus cells, melanocytes, and macrophages containing melanin in the dermis. They are most often found on the dorsal surfaces of the hands and feet (Fig. 7).
Some nevi may be atypical (dysplastic), perhaps portending melanoma. Signs of atypia or perhaps even melanoma include Asymmetry, irregular Border, uneven or multiple Colors, and large Diameter (>6 mm). These features constitute the ABCDs of melanoma. If such features are present, a dermatologic evaluation is warranted, and a biopsy may be necessary. An excisional biopsy is preferred to allow histologic evaluation of the entire lesion.
Persons who have many atypical moles often have a family history of atypical nevi and might have a family history of melanoma. Such persons have an increased risk of melanoma and deserve a regular dermatologic evaluation in addition to regular self examinations.
Cherry angiomas are ubiquitous benign vascular growths, usually small red papules or macules, that occur in adults and increase in number with age (Fig. 8).
Angiomas can appear anywhere on the body but tend to be more common on the trunk and proximal extremities. They are invariably asymptomatic but can bleed with trauma. Treatment is not necessary, but laser therapy is the most successful means of destruction for cosmetic purposes.
Dermatofibromas are firm papules or plaques with a dusky red to brown color. They are most commonly found on the extremities (Fig. 9).
With palpation, they often seem to retract, giving the dimple sign. Dermatofibromas are benign tumors of fibroblast and histiocytic origin that can follow trauma. They are usually asymptomatic but occasionally are pruritic or irritated.
When indicated, therapy involves intralesional corticosteroids or simple excision.
Acrochordons are pedunculated flesh-colored to brown soft papules commonly found in intertriginous areas such as the neck, axillae, and groin (Fig. 10).
Increased numbers of acrochordons tend to occur in obesity and pregnancy. Occasionally, acrochordons twist and strangulate their blood supply, resulting in pain or irritation, or they become irritated from clothing or jewelry.
Treatment with simple snip excision is usually adequate.
Lipomas are benign, soft, mobile tumors of fat that vary in size from a few millimeters to 10 centimeters or more (Fig. 11).
Lipomas are characterized by slow growth, with eventual stabilization and little tendency to involute. They are usually solitary and asymptomatic but may be painful if they entrap or compress nerves or if they contain thrombosed vessels (a variant termed angiolipoma). Some familial syndromes exhibit numerous lipomas, such as Proteus syndrome and Gardener's syndrome. A lipoma overlying the sacrum of an infant can indicate an underlying spinal abnormality, a situation that warrants radiographic evaluation.
Treatment, when desired or necessary, is either excision or liposuction.
Epidermal inclusion cysts (EICs) are flesh-colored, firm nodules with a central punctum, usually found on the face or upper trunk of adults (Fig. 12).
The central punctum is the follicular opening from which the cyst is derived. As the name implies, EICs evolve from fully differentiated squamous epithelium trapped in the dermis with accumulation of keratinaceous debris. “EICs” on the scalp are actually pilar cysts or trichilemmal cysts and can be distinguished histologically. The presence of many EICs is occasionally associated with syndromes that have other dermatologic and internal implications, such as Gardener's syndrome.
Unless the cyst ruptures, EICs do not require therapy. When they do rupture, inflammation and pain occur that warrant treatment with incision and drainage, warm compresses, and often intralesional corticosteroids and even systemic antibiotics for secondary infection. In that scenario, excision is usually recommended after the inflammation subsides.
Milia are asymptomatic small white or yellow papules that occur primarily on the faces of women and newborns. These cystic collections of keratin just under the epidermal surface can also occur with porphyria cutanea tarda and other blistering diseases.
Treatment is usually for cosmetic reasons and consists of incision followed by expression of cystic contents. Topical tretinoin may help to treat and prevent milia in affected persons.
Pyogenic granulomas are solitary, often pedunculated, erythematous papules or small nodules that are often friable and bleed easily with minor trauma. Sites of predilection include the fingers, face, and lips (Fig. 13).
Pyogenic granulomas develop rapidly (over the course of several weeks), and the sudden occurrence can be quite alarming to the patient. They probably represent a reactive neovascularization, potentially in response to injury. Pyogenic granulomas are common in pregnancy; termed granuloma gravidarum, they usually arise on the gingival mucosa.
Treatment options include curettage, deep shave excision with fulguration of the base, complete excision, or laser ablation. Recurrence is common, especially after incomplete removal.
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Keep your homeschool on track and organized with the Grade 5 History Parent Kit. The 6 items include 170 days of easy-to-use lesson plans, copies of student texts with answers, a maps book, and answer keys for all correlated assessments—all the essentials! Combine with the Grade 5 History Child Kit to confidently teach history from a biblical worldview. Also see “Companion Materials” for important items used in multiple grades and extra teaching helps.
• Clear and easy. You can do it! We have the materials you need and show you how to use them. You will appreciate the detailed lesson guides that save hours of planning. Each lesson includes points for preparation and teaching procedure. The lesson plans are full of practical tips for effectively teaching concepts and reviewing skills for mastery.
• Proven success. You want methods and materials that work. See your child achieve the academic excellence and moral character that will leave him equipped for life. Over one million children develop into lifelong learners with A Beka every year.
• Flexibility. Life happens—sickness, special visits from relatives. You have the flexibility to arrange the year’s 170 lesson days to allow for life’s interruptions.
• Adaptability to your child’s needs. A Beka’s packaging makes sure that you are not paying for more than you need. Grade 5 history and geography can be taught in approximately 20 minutes daily, but you can adjust the pacing for independent study and practice.
The following items are included in this kit:
Homeschool History 5 Curriculum
Old World History and Geography Answer Key
Old World History and Geography Maps and Activities Key
Old World History and Geography Test Key
Old World History and Geography Quiz Key
Homeschool Old World History and Geography Maps A
Eastern Hemisphere Map Skill Cards
Places of Early History with Uncle Bob CD
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Back to Tropical Cyclones Records Page | Back to Main FAQ Page
Subject: E11) How many tropical cyclones have there been each year in the Atlantic basin? What years were the greatest and fewest seen?
Contributed by Chris Landsea (NHC)
The Atlantic hurricane database (or HURDAT) extends back to 1851. However, because tropical storms and hurricanes spend much of their lifetime over the open ocean - some never hitting land - many systems were "missed" during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries (Vecchi and Knutson 2008). Starting in 1944, systematic aircraft reconnaissance was commenced for monitoring both tropical cyclones and disturbances that had the potential to develop into tropical storms and hurricanes. This did provide much improved monitoring, but still about half of the Atlantic basin was not covered (Sheets 1990). Beginning in 1966, daily satellite imagery became available at the National Hurricane Center, and thus statistics from this time forward are most complete (McAdie et al. 2009).
For hurricanes striking the USA Atlantic and Gulf coasts, one can go back further in time with relatively reliable counts of systems because enough people have lived along coastlines since 1900.
Thus, the following records for the period of reliable data hold for the entire Atlantic basin (from 1966-2015) and for the USA coastline (1900-2015):
& Landsea et al. (2010) documented a rather large increase in short-lived tropical storms and hurricanes in the last decade, which is likely due to improved monitoring capabilities, that may be influencing the climatological average number of TCs in the Atlantic basin. With the artificial jump in the 2000s in the frequency of short-lived systems, a more realistic estimate of the long-term climatology may be closer to 13 tropical storms and hurricanes per year.
* 1950 is recorded as the busiest season in the whole database for number of Major Hurricanes with 8.
+ 1886 is recorded as the most active hurricane season for the continental USA with 7 landfalling hurricanes.
Named Storms = Tropical Storms, Hurricanes and
Landsea,C.W., G.A. Vecchi, L. Bengtsson, and T. R. Knutson, 2010: Impact of Duration Thresholds on Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Counts. Journal of Climate, 23(10), 2508-2519.
McAdie, C. J., C. W. Landsea, C. J. Neuman, J. E. David, E. Blake, and G. R. Hamner, 2009: Tropical Cyclones of the North Atlantic Ocean, 1851-2006. Historical Climatology Series 6-2,Prepared by the National Climatic Data Center, Asheville, NC in cooperation with the National Hurricane Center, Miami, FL, 238 pp.
Sheets, R.C., 1990: "The National Hurricane Center - Past, present, and future.", Wea. Forecasting,5, 185-232.
Vecchi, G.A. and T. R. Knutson, 2008. "On estimates of historical North Atlantic tropical cyclone activity.", J. Climate, 21, 3580.
Last Revised : June 1, 2015
Links of Interest
AOML Tools & Resources
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(Medical Xpress) -- Infants can understand the difference between intentional and accidental actions from tone of voice alone, new research by the Cardiff University School of Psychology has shown.
Led by Dr Merideth Gattis, the year-long research involved 84 babies aged 14 to 18 months who took part in two studies one using English language and one using Greek language.
The infants watched a researcher perform actions with toys that were either intentional or accidental. These actions were accompanied by the words "whoops" and "there" which each had distinct vocal contours and acted as clues for both intention and meaning. The same process was repeated in Greek. This time the toddlers would only get clues about intention from tone alone, not from the words meaning none of them had been exposed to the Greek language previously.
Dr Gattis and her research partner Dr Elena Sakkalou from University College London found that the infants copied intentional actions more than accidental actions, and were equally likely to copy intentional actions in both studies, suggesting that infants do not need lexical or facial cues to infer intentions.
Their work adds to a growing body of research into the role of tone, or prosody, in infancy. Importantly it reveals that infants are able to differentiate between intentional and accidental actions through tone alone, helping them to not only process information about another persons intention but to build a picture of how to act in the world.
Speaking about their findings, Dr Gattis said: "Understanding mental states, such as intentions, desires, and beliefs, is one of the most important human abilities. Psychologists still know very little about how infants begin to build this understanding. In this research we aimed to investigate the contribution of prosodic cues, or tone of voice, to infants understanding of mental states. Tone of voice is a really useful signal to what someone is thinking. We used the words whoops and there accompanied by relative vocal inflections in two languages and got exactly the same results whether in English or Greek, which none of the children understood.
"This study showed us that children can judge the intentions of other people based on tone of voice alone. The acoustic features of speech accompanying actions allow infants to identify intention in perceptually similar actions. They are able to use prosodic cues as a guide to how to act on the world, demonstrated by their tendency to copy intentional actions more than accidental actions."
The research Infants infer intentions from prosody - is published in the journal Cognitive Development.
Explore further: Babies understand thought process of others at 10 months old, research finds
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Hypersensitive skin is a common condition. It can be from a number of causes, however some of these require medical attention as they will worsen or progress without proper treatment. I would encourage you to see your primary care doctor
. In addition, a dermatologist
, or skin specialist, can be of help for this condition.
There are a few possible causes for what you describe, but the two broad categories are problems in the skin or problems in the nerves. As for problems in the skin, it is not uncommon for inflamed skin to cause pain. This is loosely known as a dermatitis. In this situation the inflammatory cells can "tickle" the pain nerves and cause the sensation. This can be caused by infection of the skin (a cellulitis), an allergic inflammation, or from the body attacking this skin itself (like psoriasis
). These conditions require treatment. In addition there are many other skin changes that should be ruled out. One in particular is an infection of the skin by a virus known as zoster. This is a form of the chicken pox virus. See your doctor for this. The other broad category is nerve problems, which can again occur in any part of the body. Nerve inflammation from the body fighting the nerves, from slow nerve damage, or from infection are possible.
See you doctor. This is a concerning symptoms that should be addressed.
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https://www.zocdoc.com/answers/4886/what-gives-me-hypersensitive-skin
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| 0.955385 | 283 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The New Population Problem
BY Bishop James McHugh
December 14-20, 1997 Issue | Posted 12/14/97 at 2:00 AM
Recently population specialists from around the world met at the United Nations to discuss a new population problem: Has population control gone too far?
Demographers have been watching the decline in population growth rates during the past 20 years. The latest report, World Population Prospects: the 1996 Revision, tells us that during the past decade growth rates fell faster, fertility declines in individual nations were greater and more widespread than expected, and migration was more extensive than previously anticipated.
For practical purposes such evidence has long been known in terms of rates of growth, fertility, and mortality. The new phenomenon has to do with the actual numbers of people. Demographers knew that the peak rate of population growth had declined from 2.1% to 1.48% between the 1960s and 1995. They also knew that actual world population will continue to increase from 5.7 billion today to about 9.4 billion by 2050. The new phenomenon is this: Each year until 2000, world population will increase by 81 million; that figure will steadily decline to about 41 million by 2050.
Population control advocates focus on the overall increase, which seems large. Little attention has been given to the annual decline in births. Yet this decline raises new questions. What happens when the annual number of new births slows down appreciably or even stops entirely? What happens when a highly productive, affluent, powerful, and comfortable nation no longer has enough young people to staff the work force, to produce new goods and continue its economic progress? What happens to a nation's ability to defend itself? Who provides the financial resources for social security, health care, and other necessary services?
To some degree, migration provides a short-range solution for the work force and for commerce. Technology also provides some replacement for workers. But labor unions are concerned about the future for today's workers and sufficient jobs for tomorrow's.
Look at the impact on education. In many U.S. suburban areas there is a present demand for new schools and new teachers. But in 20 to 30 years there will be fewer children. Schools will close, and many of today's young teachers will no longer be necessary.
At the same time that children are declining in number, the number of older people is constantly growing. We are entering an era in which older people will outnumber children 3 to 1. In affluent countries such as the United States this figure could be 8 to 1. The practical effect will be felt most strongly in pension programs, where there will not be enough people putting money away to take care of those taking money out. The result can be bankruptcy of the pension plan.
Until now there has been a well-organized, highly financed crusade to lower fertility and population growth. The United States has been in the forefront of that crusade. Focusing on concern about the global environment, Vice President Al Gore cited the projected increase in world population to 9 billion as reaching “right up to the ceiling.” He claimed that “the developing countries still have very, very large families,” and he recommended fewer children per family, more birth control, and more “empowerment of women” through “reproductive health” services. At the Cairo Population Conference and the Beijing Women's Conference, the United States pushed hard for population control and for inclusion of abortion as a method of family planning.
The vice president has much to learn about population. There is no absolute ceiling for the number of people on earth, and population increase is not the cause of global warming. Demographers now find that population decline is the problem, not population growth—and foreign nations rebel at American efforts to force birth control and abortion on them.
It is a new demographic moment for the world, and a challenge to all of us to create economic, social, public health, and cultural conditions that enable the world to welcome children and ensure longevity and dignity for all people. But basic to this is truth—truth about population growth and decline, truth about environmental problems, and truth about the responsibility of governments to aid one another for the good of all people.
Bishop James McHugh, of Camden, N.J., is a member of the NCCB Committee for Pro-Life Activities.
Copyright © 2013 EWTN News, Inc. All rights reserved.
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The Rare Venus Transit
NASA joined the world today in viewing a rare celestial event, one not seen by any person now alive. The "Venus transit" -- the apparent crossing of our planetary neighbor in front of the Sun -- was captured from the unique perspective of NASA's Sun-observing TRACE spacecraft.
The top image shows Venus on the eastern limb of the Sun. The faint ring around the planet comes from the scattering of its atmosphere, which allows some sunlight to show around the edge of the otherwise dark planetary disk. The faint glow on the disk is an effect of the TRACE telescope. The bottom left image is in the ultraviolet, and the bottom right image is in the extreme ultraviolet.
The last "Venus transit" occurred more than a century ago, in 1882, and was used to compute the distance from the Earth to the Sun. Scientists with NASA's Kepler mission hope to discover Earth-like planets outside our solar system by searching for transits of other stars by planets that might be orbiting them.
If people miss the June 8 Venus transit, they will have another chance in 2012 (June 6). After that, there will not be another Venus transit until 2117 (December 11).
Image credit: NASA/LMSAL
+ View QuickTime movies in ultraviolet: 4.2 Mb | 1.4 Mb
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Labyrinth designs are fun and can be used as puzzles, logos, and decorative art, just to name a few. This article explains the process of drawing a labyrinth; as long as you're patient, it's actually very easy to do.
1Draw a cross. Add dots on all four corners of an imaginary square.
2Connect the upper tip of the vertical line with the upper right dot using a curved line.
3Using another curved line, connect the right tip of the horizontal line with the upper left dot.
4Connect the left tip of the horizontal line to the lower right dot using a bigger curved line.
5Elongate the vertical line on the bottom and connect its tip on the lower left dot.
1Draw eight concentric circles, leaving a small circle that will serve as the labyrinth's center. (Concentric circles sit one inside the other, like a target in a game of darts.)
- To make things as easy as possible, label the circles from 1-8, starting with the largest circle as number 1. (There will be references to numbered circles later in the instructions, so even if you decide not to physically label your circles, at least know which would be 1, which would be 2, etc.)
2At the labyrinth's center, draw a flower-like pattern. This is the center of most labyrinths.
- Your flower should be perfectly symmetrical--i.e., drawing a straight line through its center in any direction should yield two identical halves. If this is not the case initially, try to redo your flower so that it is.
3Draw two horizontal lines and four vertical lines across the labyrinth, taking care to avoid drawing through the center. The lines should align with the middle of the labyrinth. The lines should be spaced evenly apart.
4Erase lines to make labyrinth pathways. Starting with the left horizontal line, erase lines in circles 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7. Erase a part of circle 4, as shown here.
- When erasing, remember to make the pathway's size equal to the size of the spaces within circles.
5Erase the vertical line in the first circle, and leave the rest of them untouched. Erase parts of circles 3, 5, and 7.
6Erase the horizontal line in circle 7, but leave the rest of them untouched. Erase parts of circles 2, 4, and 6.
7Erase the first vertical line from the left within circles 3, 4, and 7. Leave the second vertical line untouched. Erase the third vertical line from the left within circle 7, leaving the rest untouched.
8Continue to erase lines within each circle to complete the pathways.
- For circle 1, erase the part between the first and second vertical lines.
- For circles 2 and 6, erase the part between the first and third vertical lines, as well as some from the left.
- For circles 3, 5, and 7, erase the part between the first and third vertical line, as well as some from the right.
- For circle 4, erase the part between the second and third vertical line.
- For circle 8, erase the part between the second and third vertical line.
|This video presents a number of "seed patterns" with which to design different labyrinths.|
- Have patience. Labyrinths are meant to test it!
- These instructions work for both paper drawing and screen drawing. Try both to see which effect you like the most.
Categories: Drawing Shapes and Forms
In other languages:
Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 75,166 times.
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| 0.915804 | 757 | 4.0625 | 4 |
I ran across Creating Innovators while selecting collections for the Mobile Library. The book addresses disparity between schools and real life application of knowledge. Placing an importance on play, passion and purpose to bridge the gap of rote information and making a difference in the world. Parents who stress creativity and play are lauded after the fact. The format of the book largely cites very interesting and successful young change makers in case studies with an eye toward looking back over their early lives to see what made the difference. Certainly not the majority of schools as we see them today but schools and parents of tomorrow (literally) could jump on board this success. Some schools (and individual educators) already have in interesting ways told here. A strong aspect of the book that initially caught my eye was the abundance of QR codes interspersed throughout the pages. Scan the codes while reading to get extended information on that paragraph’s topic or more up-to-date information. In today’s informational stream much is happening while printing is in progress! In other words, what made the man responsible for the iPhone or organic shoes?
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http://www.tcpl.lib.in.us/bookclubs/2013/05/02/creating-innovators-the-making-of-young-people-who-will-change-the-world-by-tony-wagner/
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| 0.9588 | 222 | 2.53125 | 3 |
THURSDAY, Dec. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers who have studied a woman with a missing amygdala -- the part of the brain believed to generate fear -- report that their findings may help improve treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other anxiety disorders.
In perhaps the first human study confirming that the almond-shaped structure is crucial for triggering fear, researchers at the University of Iowa monitored a 44-year-old woman's response to typically frightening stimuli such as snakes, spiders, horror films and a haunted house, and asked about traumatic experiences in her past.
The woman, identified as S.M., does not seem to fear a wide range of stimuli that would normally frighten most people. Scientists have been studying her for the past 20 years, and their prior research had already determined that the woman cannot recognize fear in others' facial expressions.
S.M. suffers from an extremely rare disease that destroyed her amygdala. Future observations will determine if her condition affects anxiety levels for everyday stressors such as finance or health issues, said study author Justin Feinstein, a University of Iowa doctoral student studying clinical neuropsychology.
"Certainly, when it comes to fear, she's missing it," Feinstein said. "She's so unique in her presentation."
Researchers said the study, reported in the Dec. 16 issue of the journal Current Biology, could lead to new treatment strategies for PTSD and anxiety disorders. According to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, more than 7.7 million Americans are affected by the condition, and a 2008 analysis predicted that 300,000 soldiers returning from combat in the Middle East would experience PTSD.
"Because of her brain damage, [the patient] appears to be immune to PTSD," Feinstein said, noting that she is otherwise cognitively typical and experiences other emotions such as happiness and sadness.
In addition to recording her responses to spiders, snakes and other scary stimuli, the researchers measured her experience of fear using many standardized questionnaires that probed various aspects of the emotion, such as fear of death or fear of public speaking. She also carried a computerized emotion diary for three months that randomly asked her to rate her fear level throughout the day.
Perhaps most notable, Feinstein said, are her many near-misses with peril because of her inability to avoid dangerous circumstances. In one case, when she was 30, she approached a drugged out-looking man late one night who pulled a knife and threatened to kill her.
Because of her complete absence of fear, the woman -- who heard a choir singing in a nearby church -- responded, "If you're going to kill me, you're going to have to go through my God's angels first." The man abruptly let her go.
The mother of three was also seen by her children approaching and picking up a large snake near their home with no seeming regard for its ability to harm her, Feinstein said.
"Its a perfect example of the sort of situation she gets herself in that anyone without brain damage would be able to avoid," Feinstein said. "With her brain damage, she's so trusting, so approachable to everything. In hindsight, [her response to the man with the knife] may have saved her life because the guy got freaked out."
Alicia Izquierdo, an assistant professor of psychology at California State University in Los Angeles, said the study results add to existing evidence that the amygdala should be targeted in developing therapies for phobias, anxiety disorders and PTSD, "where too much fear is a bad thing."
"In small doses, fear is a good thing -- it keeps us alive," Izquierdo said. "For many years, we have known from studies in rodents and monkeys that the amygdala is necessary for the normal expression of fear. Those who study the amygdala in animals are limited, however . . . and can only speculate about what this brain region does for the experience of fear."
"This is one reason why the study . . . is so meaningful: We can now say that the amygdala is important for the expression and the subjective experience of fear," she added.
Feinstein said PTSD treatment tactics targeting the amygdala would not involve surgically removing or altering it. Rather, it is thought that the amygdala's hyperactive response in frightening situations can be modified over time through repetitively doing things a patient considers scary.
"This prolonged exposure therapy involves approaching the things causing them distress and fear the most," Feinstein said. "We don't ever want to surgically alter this area."
For more on PTSD, go to the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.
SOURCES: Justin Feinstein, doctoral student, University of Iowa; Alicia Izquierdo, Ph.D., assistant professor, psychology, California State University, Los Angeles; Dec. 16, 2010, Current Biology
All rights reserved
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http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news-1/Brain-Anomaly-Leaves-Woman-Without-Fear--77879-1/
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| 0.960585 | 998 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Figure 8: The solution values for (4)–(7). Horizontal: the maximum jet velocity, . Left vertical: the maximum range of the polar ejecta. Right vertical axis: the distance from the pulsar to the beginning of the polar ejecta. The line with the steepest slope converts (bottom) to (left) or (right), and three values for are marked. The three other lines with moderate slopes constrain the minimum of (right end of 74 mas curve) and the maximum of (left end of the 45 mas curve and also read on the left vertical axis) from offset measurements of the Mystery Spot, which is assumed to be a jet-driven plume within the polar ejecta. Five values of , from 0.3 to 0.7, are tic-marked on the four curves.
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http://www.hindawi.com/journals/aa/2012/898907/fig8/
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| 0.870541 | 169 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Unusually warm weather in March and early April provided the opportunity to start planting the 2012 corn crop earlier than normal. While there is little doubt that some corn has been planted much earlier than usual, determining whether the crop in total is being planted at a record pace is not as straightforward as it may seem at first glance.
The problems include:
- Corn planting is generally spread over a relatively long time period.
- The timing of planting differs substantially by region of the country.
- There are several ways to characterize how early or late the crop is planted.
One consistent measure is the date at which planting in those states in the heart of the Corn Belt reaches 50% completed, as reported in the USDA’s weekly Crop Progress
report. We previously examined this measure in the report found here
. (View the latest planting progress reports with AgWeb's interactive planting maps.)
Here we review the history of corn planting progress in the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa for the period 1960 through 2011. We calculate the number of days before or after May 1st that planting reached 50% complete in each of the three states.
Since planting progress is reported on a weekly basis, the date of 50% completion is calculated assuming equal daily planting progress during the week that 50% was reached or exceeded. For example, if planting progress for a particular state was reported at 42% on May 1st and 63% on May 8th, we assume that 3% of the crop was planted each day during the week and that planting progress reached 50% on May 4th. For that year, planting progress reached 50% 3 days after May 1st.
The history of the number of days before and after May 1st that planting progress reached 50% in Illinois is shown in Figure 1. The first observation is that over time there has been a clear trend of reaching 50% completion earlier.
The overall tendency towards earlier planting over time means that a 50% date that is 15 days after May 1st in say, 1975, is comparable to a 50% date of May 1st in 2012. So, in order to make "apples-to-apples" comparisons of planting progress over time we de-trended the 50% planting date observations, much like yield observations over time are de-trended to reflect changing production technology and management practices.
This is accomplished by subtracting the fitted trend line prediction each year from the actual 50% observation. The result is a "de-trended" series of 50% dates that are comparable over time.
After looking at the trend-adjusted calculations of the number of days before or after May 1st that corn planting progress reached 50 percent in Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, respectively. Several observations can be made.
First, the number of days before or after May 1st of 50% completion has been in a much narrower range for Iowa than for the other two states. Second, planting tends to reach 50% complete later in Indiana than in the other two states. Third, the range in the trend-adjusted date of reaching 50% completion has been larger in all three states over the past two decades than in the previous three decades, particularly in Illinois and Iowa.
What About 2012?
The USDA’s Crop Progress report released on April 17th (delayed one day due to technical difficulties) indicated that as of April 15th planting progress had reached 41% in Illinois, 24% in Indiana, and 5% in Iowa.
For planting to equal the previous record early date, an additional 9% of the crop needs to be planted by April 18th in Illinois (3% per day after April 15th), an additional 26% needs to be planted by April 25th in Indiana (2.6% per day after April 15th), and an additional 45% needs to be planted by April 22nd in Iowa (6.4% per day after April 15th).
It appears that a new record early date for reaching 50% planting completion could be reached in Illinois this year and perhaps in Indiana as well. It is less likely for record early planting to occur in Iowa. The April 23rd Crop Progress report will encompass the previous record early planting dates for Illinois and Indiana, with the report on April 30 to encompass the previous record early date for Indiana.
The trend calculations for 2012 are for planting to reach 50% complete on April 28th in Illinois, April 29th in Iowa, and May 8th in Indiana. For planting to reach 50% complete in Indiana by the trend date of May 8th, only 1.1% of the crop needs to be planted per day after April 15th. Similarly, to reach 50% complete by the trend date of April 29th in Iowa, only 3.2% of the crop needs to be planted per day after April 15th.
Market Implications of Early Planting
Corn planting in 2012 will reach the 50% completion date earlier than any other year since 1960 in Illinois and perhaps in Indiana as well. While Iowa is not likely to set a record early date, it is likely that Iowa will reach 50% complete well before its trend date.
While some records will be set in 2012 it is important to keep in mind that other years have seen corn planting almost as early. The main market implication is that a smaller than average percentage of the U.S. corn crop is likely to be planted late (after May 20) and incur the yield penalty associated with late planting. As indicated in our post of March 23
a smaller than average portion of the crop planted late supports the expectation for the 2012 corn yield to be about two bushels above trend, if there are no other offsetting factors later in the season.
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http://www.agweb.com/livestock/beef/article/will_the_2012_corn_crop_be_the_earliest_ever_planted/
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| 0.970799 | 1,177 | 3.03125 | 3 |
|Home | About | Journals | Submit | Contact Us | Français|
Teaching Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) helps medical students to develop their decision making skills based on current best evidence, especially when it is taught in a clinical context. Few medical schools integrate Evidence Based Medicine into undergraduate curriculum, and those who do so, do it at the academic years only as a standalone (classroom) teaching but not at the clinical years. The College of Medicine at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences was established in January 2004. The college adopted a four-year Problem Based Learning web-based curriculum. The objective of this paper is to present our experience in the integration of the EBM in the clinical phase of the medical curriculum. We teach EBM in 3 steps: first step is teaching EBM concepts and principles, second is teaching the appraisal and search skills, and the last step is teaching it in clinical rotations. Teaching EBM at clinical years consists of 4 student-centered tutorials. In conclusion, EBM may be taught in a systematic, patient centered approach at clinical rounds. This paper could serve as a model of Evidence Based Medicine integration into the clinical phase of a medical curriculum.
Evidence-based medicine (EBM) is a tool which aims to increase the use of high quality clinical research in clinical decision making. There is general consensus in the academic community that evidence based medicine (EBM) teaching is essential. Teaching EBM becomes popular, including the incorporation of the current best evidence from research into clinical decision making. The major characteristics for teaching EBM to undergraduate medical students includes: Clinically integrated teaching is more effective than stand-alone (classroom) teaching, long-term teaching is more effective than short-term teaching, EBM should be clearly incorporated in the curriculum as part of the clinical training,[1–4] secondary EBM resources should be available, easily accessible at the point of care by medical students,[5,6] and availability of clinicians and teachers who implement EBM in their day to day practice and who are considered as models for students.[7,8] Search and critical appraisal skills can be taught early in the undergraduate medical curriculum, which proved to positively change their perceptions, knowledge, and reading habits. Students showed deterioration of their knowledge and skills over time. This is evident by the finding that their test scores were higher immediately after the course, than when tested three years later, which indicates that EBM teaching should be re-enforced as students progressed in their education.
Green's literature review of approaches to teaching EBM revealed few important modalities to teachers of EBM: (1) Small-group teaching which is learner-centered format (examples, small group appraisal discussion, morning meetings, ward round and EBM journal club), (2) One-on-one student-faculty opportunities, like in the out-patient clinics, task assignment and EBM workbook, (3) Immediate clinical relevance by finding any opportunity at different setting to discuss, explain, and challenge students with EBM interpretation for example relative risk, odds ratio, number needed to treat, sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio, how to search the secondary EBM resources and applicability of the results to a specific patient, and (4) Role modeling of EBM, when the trainer applies EBHP on his daily practice student will consider it the norm and they will follow his steps.
To our knowledge King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Science (KSAU-HS) is the only medical institute in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region to integrate EBM into the clinical rounds of medical curriculum.
We have comprehensively described our experience of integrating EBM in phase 2 (the academic years) in a separate paper . The aim of this paper is to describe the integration of EBM into phase 3 (the clinical years) in a PBL medical curriculum at KSAU-HS, Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The College of Medicine (COM) at King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS), Riyadh, and the KSA has adopted four-years problem-based (PBL) curriculum, the curriculum is preceded by phase 1 that could be either a two-year pre-professional program for high school student's entry or one academic semester to prepare graduate students for the curriculum. This is followed by a two-year phase 2 that integrate basic medical sciences with clinical sciences in a system based model. Students will finally pass through phase 3 which is discipline-based with the continuation of PBL model throughout two years. Medical students will spend their clinical rotations at King Abdulaziz Medical City-Riyadh, KSA, which is a tertiary-care hospital that is affiliated with the University for both Undergraduate and Postgraduate teaching and training. EBM in phase 3 will based on the clinical cases from the hospital and mostly taught by the academic staff there.
The first year of phase 2 of the curriculum includes theoretical teaching of EBM that includes: introduction to EBM, study designs, basic statistics and literature search for evidence. While the second year of phase 2, includes teaching the concept of appraisal of articles about therapy, diagnosis, prognosis, systematic reviews and guidelines. Each topic is discussed in 2 ways, a lecture and a tutorial. The lecture lasts for 45 minutes and 15 minutes discussion, while the tutorial lasts for 90 minutes.
In the third and fourth years, medical students will rotate in discipline-based blocks with clinical attachments in different clinical departments related to the discipline (internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, surgery, family and community medicine). Within each clinical department, medical students join clinical teams which may include: A consultant, associate consultants, assistant consultants, fellows, residents, interns and medical students; consultants and associate consultants are the core members of the team. The unique aspect about phase 3 that it continues to include web-based and patient-based PBL sessions, continuation of the longitudinal themes of personal professional development and community-doctor theme, the implementation of innovative work-based assessment[13,14] which is closely evaluating the knowledge and skills of students, and the introduction of e-portfolio, there is evidence of an improvement in knowledge and understanding, increased self-awareness and engagement in reflection and improved student-tutor relationships as the main benefits of portfolio use.
Another unique aspect is the adoption of PEARLS model (Presentation of Evidence Abstracted from the Research Literature for Solution), a systematic teaching program that aims at integration of Evidence-Based Practice into the Clinical Rotations. Provision of a simple and efficient model for the implementation and integration of evidence into clinical practice by using a structured model that applies the principles of EBM to solve real clinical problems and to gain practical experience of short presentations and prompt specific feedback.
The following sections will describe our experience in integrating PEARLS model in the clinical phase [Table 1].
Tables Tables22 and and33 show the objective of EBM in phase 3 of the curriculum. Students attend 4 PEARLS tutorials for 8-10 weeks, each tutorial spans over 90 minutes, and is divided into segments according to the number of students [Table 1] For example: a group consisting of 6 students where each student provided with a 10-minutes segment. During the allocated 10 minutes, the student describes the stage he is at, and asks for assistance from the group, as well as the tutor. The same process is repeated for each student. Provision of a simple and efficient model for the implementation and integration of evidence into clinical practice by using a structured model that applies the principles of EBM to solve real clinical problems and to gain practical experience of short presentations and prompt specific feedback. It is usually preferable to have the same tutor facilitating all sessions.
When the curriculum (block book) of the third year is distributed to medical students, a full description of EBM sessions is included and discussed with students at the start of the block. Two weeks prior to EBM sessions, a one page summarizing the whole process is posted to students. Role of students: While they were at the clinical rounds, they select one medical problem with uncertainty, they were asked to transform the uncertainty into a clinical question, develop search strategy, find the best article, appraise it, prepare the presentation and conduct the presentation.
Session 1: Medical students prepare clinical question as home work, and attend the first session with his question prepared. Each student is given 7-10 minutes to present his clinical question [Table 1]. The question should be a real clinical case that was encountered during clinical rotation. The objective of this session is to teach the student how to transform a clinical uncertainty to a clinical question. It will start with formulation of clinical focused question based on the clinical practice: Students formulate clinical focused question which was raised during the clinical interaction with medical team or patients, not a hypothetical one (example will follow). It is followed by presenting the on PICO format (P. stands for patients and their problems intervention: This may be a new drug, procedure, education programs, C. Comparison, control: Placebo (inert material), traditional drug, old procedure or educational programs, O. Outcome: Patient oriented outcome (POEM: Morbidity, mortality and the quality of life), and Process: Each student comes up with his question, presented it for peer review and faculty staff). The question is presented to the group, tutor discusses and gives his/her feedback and the peer discussion occurs as well. As homework, each student is asked to write up a search strategy and do electronic search to retrieve a relevant article. The search strategy contains: the key words, study design, the databases to be searched.
Session 2: Each student presents his search strategy, the selected article (s), and the reasons for selecting that particular article. The criteria for selecting the article are: first, to address the clinical question, second, to be recent (i.e. published within the last two years), third, to contain fewer flaws, fourth, to be randomized controlled trial or systematic review for therapy, cross-sectional or prospective for diagnosis and prospective or retrospective for prognosis.
Session 3: Students discuss their appraised articles with the faculty tutor where they discuss relevance, validity, results and applicability. By relevance, students discuss three points: is the topic common to your practice? Is the outcome patient oriented (POEM)? And the result of the study if significant will change the practice. For validity, results and applicability students apply the critical appraisal worksheets. Students discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the article, and the resolution of the clinical scenario.
Session 4: Power point presentation is conducted by every medical student for 7 minutes; another 7 minutes are reserved for peer and faculty discussion. Other faculty members are invited to assess the student's project. Students present in sequence: the question, background (what is known already about the topic), search strategy, appraisal of the selected article (Validity and results), strengths and weaknesses and resolution of the case. There is an assessment sheet completed by the faculty members.
Role of tutor: An expertise in evidence based medicine faculty member run PEARLS sessions. He meets with the students, discuss with every student his task, propose corrections and assess the students’ performance.
Assessment of students has many forms; first is the work-based format, it happens during tutorials by tutors and peers with feedback. The formative assessment occurs at the last session which is the presentation; there is a special check list which is completed by EBM tutor and content tutor who attended the presentation.
A more extended assessment need to be developed, for example a quantitative assessment to compare our students with others in understanding EBM concepts and principles, another assessment is the qualitative assessment by observing the way our students make their decision in their future career (see an example of the PEARLS session in the third year in the Appendix).
The main EBM objective for the fourth year is for medical students to apply the five steps of EBM independently as adult learning; during this year's clinical rotation, students developed the 5 skills of practicing EBM. A modified PEARLS is applied at this year. Modified PEARLS for 4th year depends on home-work and one presentation session. Each medical student comes up with a question based on his clinical rotation, converts it to PICO, develops a search strategy, retrieves and selects an article that answers the question, and appraises that article. Stages 1 to 3 which were described above in the third year's PEARLS were done independently by students. They have one session only for presentation and assessment [Table 1].
This paper is the second of the integration of EBM into undergraduate curriculum series. The first paper was addressing the integration of EBM into the academic years, which was published at Medical Education Online 2009.
King Saud Abdelaziz University for Health Science (KSAU) is teaching EBM to medical students for the last 7 years, the EBM curriculum is fully integrated into the undergraduate curriculum. This is the first experience of an Arab Medical school which the authors would like to disseminate this experience to other Arab medical schools. Appropriate clinical decisions require health care providers to select the best available relevant and valid evidence and to acquire the skills to do so. Teaching EBM in classes as a standalone teaching is proved to be ineffective in changing student's attitude and practice, while teaching EBM in clinical settings where patients’ problems were integrated in EBM teaching is proven to be effective, there is a hierarchy of teaching and learning activities in terms of their educational effectiveness: level 1: Interactive and clinically integrated activities, level 2(a): interactive but classroom based activities, level 2(b): didactic but clinically integrated activities, and level 3, didactic, classroom or standalone teaching,[16–20] EBM curriculum must be extended beyond the academic years to be included at the clinical years rotations, so that students gain skills of searching, assessing, applying and communicating new knowledge in clinical decision-making.[16,19,21] Al-Omari et al, and Juchi et al. found that 5% of physicians used EBM resources at their daily practice,[19,21] West at el found that the extended EBM education curriculum is shown to be effective in promoting its implementation.[21,22] The advantages of PEARLS are many, first, it is actively involving medical students in a real day to day practice, second, it educates students EBM practice in a multifaceted way, third, it translates EBM theory into practice and finally it gradually builds up the EBM skills so that medical student can practice EBM independently. The key massages of the paper are, first, evidence Based Medicine can be integrated into the clinical years of medical schools; second, the real clinical question can be used to apply the 5 steps of EBM; third, medical students learn the critical thinking process; fourth, they learn and practice various skills mainly formulating focused clinical questions, developing search strategy and finding the suitable article, critically appraise published articles including picking up biases, assessing the internal validity, and interpreting the results and assessing the external validity. One of the important limitations of the study is that authors didn′t conduct a research to measure the student's decision making skills compared to other students. This paper presents the 8-year experience of a Saudi medical school experience of integrating EBM into clinical years, which may stimulate other medical schools to do the same. The next step that must be done is the evaluation of the effectiveness of PEARLS in terms of increasing knowledge, skills behavior, and satisfaction of students.
We presented King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences experience of a systematic, patient-centered approach of integrating EBM into clinical years at a problem based learning (PBL), medical curriculum.
A third year medical student doing the clinical rotation at medicine block, neurology rotation presents the following clinical scenario:
“A 41-year-old female was presented to our emergency department with twisted face and difficulty with left eye closure for 12 hours. No gait disturbances, weakness, numbness, tingling and taste disturbances were noted.”
In the first session the question was presented by a student and his colleagues were allowed to discuss issues related to it. The diagnosis was established as Bell's palsy (Lower motor neuron lesion of cranial nerve IIV). The question raised was about treatment, “would this patient improve faster if antiviral (acyclovir) was added to steroids?” PICO was formulated, P: Adult patient with Bell's palsy (lower motor neuron lesion of facial nerve), I: Steroids and acyclovir, C: Steroids alone, O: Complete recovery. In the second session student presents the search strategy: The key words used were: Bell′s, facial, palsy, steroids, prednisolone, acyclovir, and antiviral. The databases searched were:
Cochrane library, PubMed, and Clinical evidence. A student retrieved many studies but selected the following one (Early treatment with prednisolone or acyclovir in Bell's palsy). The objective of this randomized controlled trial was to compare the effectiveness of steroid plus acyclovir versus steroid alone and steroid versus placebo. Patients were randomly assigned to receive prednisolone, acyclovir, both agents, or placebo for 10 days. The study outcomes were recovery of facial function, quality of life, appearance, and pain.
The third session, the students presented the appraisal of the article (validity, results and applicably). In validity he discussed the five important points, randomization, concealment, blindness, drop out and intention to treat analysis. In results, he discussed the number needed to treat and relative risk reduction. In applicability he discussed the availability, cost and side effect of acyclovir, the patient in the scenario, was he similar to patients in the study, then he discussed the patient's preference and finally he discussed the beneficial benefits versus harms. The fourth session: In presence of students, EBM and a neurologist tutors, student presented his project that summarized the three previous stages in 7 minutes in addition to the background of the topic and the resolution of the clinical question. The student concluded that the study is robust, early treatment with prednisolone significantly improves the chances of complete recovery at 3 and 9 months. There is no evidence of a benefit of acyclovir given alone or in combination with prednisolone. The formative evaluation of student presentation came from 3 parties: Peer review: At the end of the presentation, other students interact and ask the presenter about certain issues related to presentation. The neurologist: Who asks questions related to the topic itself and applicability? The EBM tutor: ask questions related to validity and results. Formal student assessment: Assessment of student presentation includes assessment of all steps of practicing EBM and is completed by both tutors which constitute 5% of the block marks.
Source of Support: Authors acknowledge the support of King Saud Abdelaziz University for Health services
Conflict of Interest: Authors have no conflict of interest
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RIDE YOUR BICYCLE
Tampa BayCycle encourages everyone to bicycle to work or school, or for recreation or errands, instead of driving. Tampa BayCycle brings together people who believe that riding a bicycle benefits the entire community. Bicycle commuters save money and gas, stay fit, reduce traffic congestion, and most importantly have fun.
|If saving money for every gallon gasoline isn’t enough to make you start pumping the pedals, consider all of the other wonderful benefits you’ll enjoy when you start cycling instead of driving:
The approximate cost to operate a sedan for 1 year is $7,800, compared to only $120 annually to operate a bicycle. *Sources: AAA – Your Driving Costs and League of American Bicyclists
Cycling is a low impact form of exercise. This means it doesn’t stress the joints in your legs, hips, and feet like running or playing sports. Cycling strengthens the legs and improves your cardiovascular system, while protecting your joints from injury, which explains why exercise bicycles are a major component in physical therapy for leg injuries.
Protect the Environment
Riding a bicycle instead of driving or in combination with taking the bus is a huge benefit to the environment. By riding a bike instead of driving a car, the average commuter will prevent more than 4800 lbs. of CO2 from entering the atmosphere. This is known as reducing your carbon footprint. Commuting by bicycle, even when combined with transit use, significantly reduces emissions of greenhouse gases and particulate emissions (i.e., soot). A short, 4-mile bicycle round trip prevents about 15 pounds of pollutants from entering the air we breathe. Source: WorldWatch Institute
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In die Skriflig
versão On-line ISSN 1018-6441
MORETSI, L.. Tithing: An evaluation of the Biblical background. In Skriflig (Online) [online]. 2009, vol.43, n.2, pp. 397-412. ISSN 1018-6441.
Tithe was practised in the Old Testament, but the New Testament emphasises the attitude of the giver. Giving money is about relationships and goodwill. It is important that church members value their churches and commit themselves as constant givers. Tithing can be traced throughout the Old Testament to the New Testament (cf. Heb.). This article will begin with an introduction that offers the practical situation that compelled the institution of the tithe, followed by the Biblical background of tithing and an explanation of the goods or produce that was subject to the tithe. This will be followed by an investigation of the Old Testament perspective on tithing, including a consideration of the first fruits, the offering and the theological implications. Subsequent to this, the New Testament perspectives will receive attention. The NIV translation will be used as it is accepted as a good and reliable translation.
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| 0.930342 | 247 | 2.875 | 3 |
Hey. I'd just add that there are some accurate dual-n-back implementations on the web. Ours is open source, and it's here: dual n back implementation . It follows the protocol very closely, and it even got a thumbs up from the researchers.
MINDBLOG WEB LECTURES:
INTRODUCTORY WEB LECTURES:
Hey. I'd just add that there are some accurate dual-n-back implementations on the web. Ours is open source, and it's here: dual n back implementation . It follows the protocol very closely, and it even got a thumbs up from the researchers.
Alarm pheromones (APs) are widely used throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Species such as fish, insects, and mammals signal danger to conspecifics by releasing volatile alarm molecules. Thus far, neither the chemicals, their bodily source, nor the sensory system involved in their detection have been isolated or identified in mammals. We found that APs are recognized by the Grueneberg ganglion (GG), a recently discovered olfactory subsystem. We showed with electron microscopy that GG neurons bear primary cilia, with cell bodies ensheathed by glial cells. APs evoked calcium responses in GG neurons in vitro and induced freezing behavior in vivo, which completely disappeared when the GG degenerated after axotomy. We conclude that mice detect APs through the activation of olfactory GG neurons.
Algorithms for finding structure in data have become increasingly important both as tools for scientific data analysis and as models of human learning, yet they suffer from a critical limitation. Scientists discover qualitatively new forms of structure in observed data: For instance, Linnaeus recognized the hierarchical organization of biological species, and Mendeleev recognized the periodic structure of the chemical elements. Analogous insights play a pivotal role in cognitive development: Children discover that object category labels can be organized into hierarchies, friendship networks are organized into cliques, and comparative relations (e.g., “bigger than” or “better than”) respect a transitive order. Standard algorithms, however, can only learn structures of a single form that must be specified in advance: For instance, algorithms for hierarchical clustering create tree structures, whereas algorithms for dimensionality-reduction create low-dimensional spaces. Here, we present a computational model that learns structures of many different forms and that discovers which form is best for a given dataset. The model makes probabilistic inferences over a space of graph grammars representing trees, linear orders, multidimensional spaces, rings, dominance hierarchies, cliques, and other forms and successfully discovers the underlying structure of a variety of physical, biological, and social domains. Our approach brings structure learning methods closer to human abilities and may lead to a deeper computational understanding of cognitive development.
In this task, participants see two series of stimuli that are synchronously presented at the rate of 3 s per stimulus. One string of stimuli consists of single letters whereas the other consists of individual spatial locations marked on a screen. The task is to decide for each string whether the current stimulus matched the one that was presented n items back in the series. The value of n varies from one block of trials to another, with adjustments made continuously for each participant based on performance. As performance improves, n increments by one item; as it worsens, n decrements by one item. Thus, the task changes adaptively so that it always remained demanding, and this demand is tailored to individual participants. This form of training engages processes required for the management of two simultaneous tasks; it engaged executive processes required for each task; and it discouraged the development of task-specific strategies and the engagement of automatic processes because of the variation in n and because of the inclusion of two different classes of stimuli.
The n-back task that is used as the training task, illustrated for a 2-back condition. The letters are presented auditorily at the same rate as the spatial material is presented visually.
To think clearly about group selection, it is important to compare the survival and reproduction of individuals in the right way. The problem with "for the good of the group" behaviors is that they are locally disadvantageous. A prudent member of the herd might gain from conserving resources, but cheaters within the same group gain even more. Natural selection is based on relative fitness. If solid citizens are less fit than cheaters within their own group, then something more is required to explain how they can evolve in the total population. That something is a positive fitness difference at a larger scale. Groups of solid citizens are more fit than groups of cheaters.
Figure - Multilevel selection theory describes a hierarchy of evolutionary processes organized like nested Russian dolls. At the innermost level, within a single organism, genes contend with each other for a place in the next generation; within a group of organisms, selection acts on the relative fitness of individuals; groups within a population also differ in their collective survival and reproduction. Adaptation at any given level tends to be undermined by selection at lower levels. At even higher levels (not shown), populations, multispecies communities and whole ecosystems can be subject to selection.
These interacting layers of competition and evolution are like Russian matryoshka dolls nested one within another. At each level in the hierarchy natural selection favors a different set of adaptations. Selection between individuals within groups favors cheating behaviors, even at the expense of the group as a whole. Selection between groups within the total population favors behaviors that increase the relative fitness of the whole group—although these behaviors, too, can have negative effects at a still-larger scale. We can extend the hierarchy downward to study selection between genes within a single organism, or upward to study selection between even higher-level entities. The general rule is: Adaptation at level X requires a corresponding process of selection at level X and tends to be undermined by selection at lower levels.
This way of thinking about evolution is called multilevel selection (MLS) theory. Although the term "multilevel selection" is newer than the term "group selection," the Russian-doll logic has been present from the beginning, going back to the works of Darwin.
Darwin would not have been motivated to think about group selection were it not for the existence of traits that are selectively disadvantageous within groups. In a famous passage from Descent of Man, he notes that morally upright people do not have an obvious advantage over less-upright people within their own "tribe," but that tribes of morally upright people would robustly outcompete other tribes. He concluded by saying "... and this would be natural selection." Darwin was clearly employing the Russian-doll logic of MLS theory in this passage. He did not comment on the irony that morality expressed within groups can become morally problematic in between-group interactions, but his hypothetical example perfectly illustrates the general rule stated above, which makes adaptations at one level part of the problem at higher levels.
Charles Darwin meets the Beatles in this attempt to blend neuroscience and evolutionary biology to explain why music is such a powerful force. In this rewarding though often repetitious study by bestselling author Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music), a rock musician turned neuroscientist, argues that music is a core element of human identity, paving the way for language, cooperative work projects and the recording of our lives and history. Through his studies, Levitin has identified six kinds of songs that help us achieve these goals: songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love. He cites lyrics ranging from the songs of Johnny Cash to work songs, which, he says, promote feelings of togetherness. According to Levitin, evolution may have selected individuals who were able to use nonviolent means like dance and music to settle disputes. Songs also serve as memory-aids, as records of our lives and legends. Some may find Levitin's evolutionary explanations reductionist, but he lightens the science with personal anecdotes and chats with Sting and others, offering an intriguing explanation for the power of music in our lives as individuals and as a society.
How the brain constructs one’s inner sense of gender identity is poorly understood. On the other hand, the phenomenon of phantom sensations — the feeling of still having a body-part after amputation — has been much studied. Around 60% of men experience a phantom penis post-penectomy. As transsexuals report a mismatch between their inner gender identity and that of their body, we wondered what could be learned from this regarding innate gender-specific body image. We surveyed male-to-female transsexuals regarding the incidence of phantoms post-gender reassignment surgery. Additionally, we asked female-to-male transsexuals if they had ever had the sensation of having a penis when there was not one physically there. In post-operative male-to-female transsexuals the incidence of phantom penises was significantly reduced at 30%. Remarkably, over 60% of female-to-male transsexuals also reported phantom penises. We explain the absence/presence of phantoms here by postulating a mismatch between the brain’s hardwired gender-specific body image and the external somatic gender. Further studies along these lines may provide penetrating insights into the question of how nature and nurture interact to produce our brain-based body image.Simon LeVay, an expert on human sexuality, does make the point that Ramachandran is comparing those who are extremely pleased with getting rid of their penis to others who are distressed and think about their penis all the time. It would appear that Ramachandran has largely left out emotions, and also the question of wishful thinking.
People automatically evaluate faces on multiple trait dimensions, and these evaluations predict important social outcomes, ranging from electoral success to sentencing decisions. Based on behavioral studies and computer modeling, we develop a 2D model of face evaluation. First, using a principal components analysis of trait judgments of emotionally neutral faces, we identify two orthogonal dimensions, valence and dominance, that are sufficient to describe face evaluation and show that these dimensions can be approximated by judgments of trustworthiness and dominance. Second, using a data-driven statistical model for face representation, we build and validate models for representing face trustworthiness and face dominance. Third, using these models, we show that, whereas valence evaluation is more sensitive to features resembling expressions signaling whether the person should be avoided or approached, dominance evaluation is more sensitive to features signaling physical strength/weakness. Fourth, we show that important social judgments, such as threat, can be reproduced as a function of the two orthogonal dimensions of valence and dominance. The findings suggest that face evaluation involves an overgeneralization of adaptive mechanisms for inferring harmful intentions and the ability to cause harm and can account for rapid, yet not necessarily accurate, judgments from faces.
This study used fMRI to longitudinally assess the impact of intensive remedial instruction on cortical activation among 5th grade poor readers during a sentence comprehension task. The children were tested at three time points: prior to remediation, after 100 h of intensive instruction, and 1 year after the instruction had ended. Changes in brain activation were also measured among 5th grade good readers at the same time points for comparison. The central finding was that prior to instruction, the poor readers had significantly less activation than good readers bilaterally in the parietal cortex. Immediately after instruction, poor readers made substantial gains in reading ability, and demonstrated significantly increased activation in the left angular gyrus and the left superior parietal lobule. Activation in these regions continued to increase among poor readers 1 year post-remediation, resulting in a normalization of the activation. These results are interpreted as reflecting changes in the processes involved in word-level and sentence-level assembly. Areas of overactivation were also found among poor readers in the medial frontal cortex, possibly indicating a more effortful and attentionally guided reading strategy.
Brain areas showing greater activation among good readers vs. poor readers at each phase of the study. The same data are presented overlaid on a surface rendering (right column) and overlaid on individual coronal slices (left column) of the normalized Montreal Neurological Institute canonical brain. Yellow ovals encircle parietal activation.
Social relations between humans critically depend on our affective experiences of others. Oxytocin enhances prosocial behavior, but its effect on humans' affective experience of others is not known. We tested whether oxytocin influences affective ratings, and underlying brain activity, of faces that have been aversively conditioned. Using a standard conditioning procedure, we induced differential negative affective ratings in faces exposed to an aversive conditioning compared with nonconditioning manipulation. This differential negative evaluative effect was abolished by treatment with oxytocin, an effect associated with an attenuation of activity in anterior medial temporal and anterior cingulate cortices. In amygdala and fusiform gyrus, this modulation was stronger for faces with direct gaze, relative to averted gaze, consistent with a relative specificity for socially relevant cues. The data suggest that oxytocin modulates the expression of evaluative conditioning for socially relevant faces via influences on amygdala and fusiform gyrus, an effect that may explain its prosocial effects.
Diego Rivera's mural of factory workers at Ford's River Rouge assembly plant (detail). Modern economies require cooperation toward common ends among countless individuals, often occurring as the result of both self-interested and ethical motives. Recent behavioral experiments show that organizational strategies may backfire if they rely solely on explicit economic incentives and seek to limit the options of group members.
In Haifa, at six day care centers, a fine was imposed on parents who were late picking up their children at the end of the day. Parents responded to the fine by doubling the fraction of time they arrived late. When after 12 weeks the fine was revoked, their enhanced tardiness persisted unabated. While other interpretations are possible, the counterproductive imposition of the fines illustrate a kind of negative synergy between economic incentives and moral behavior. The fine seems to have undermined the parents' sense of ethical obligation to avoid inconveniencing the teachers and led them to think of lateness as just another commodity they could purchase.Here is the abstract of the article:
High-performance organizations and economies work on the basis not only of material interests but also of Adam Smith's "moral sentiments." Well-designed laws and public policies can harness self-interest for the common good. However, incentives that appeal to self-interest may fail when they undermine the moral values that lead people to act altruistically or in other public-spirited ways. Behavioral experiments reviewed here suggest that economic incentives may be counterproductive when they signal that selfishness is an appropriate response; constitute a learning environment through which over time people come to adopt more self-interested motivations; compromise the individual's sense of self-determination and thereby degrade intrinsic motivations; or convey a message of distrust, disrespect, and unfair intent. Many of these unintended effects of incentives occur because people act not only to acquire economic goods and services but also to constitute themselves as dignified, autonomous, and moral individuals. Good organizational and institutional design can channel the material interests for the achievement of social goals while also enhancing the contribution of the moral sentiments to the same ends.And here is the PDF.
Meg Frost, a 36-year-old design manager at Apple, started cuteoverload.com three years ago to test Web software. Within months, it became an online institution, drawing about 88,000 unique visitors a day...viewing the site “is like taking a happy pill.”
And in that warm feeling lies the reason for its popularity. Given all the nastiness on the Internet — blog trolls, flame wars, vicious gossip, pornography, snark and spam — what better antidote is there than looking at pictures of tiny ducklings waddling in a line or kittens splayed on their backs, paw pads in the air?
The most famous cute-animal Web sites are presented with a touch of self-mockery. The site I Can Has Cheezburger? (icanhascheezburger.com) features cat pictures with ungrammatical captions, Stuff on My Cat (stuffonmycat.com) displays photos of objects stacked on sleeping cats, and Kittenwars.com pits pairs of cat photos in a cuteness showdown.
To sustain or repair cooperation during a social exchange, adaptive creatures must understand social gestures and the consequences when shared expectations about fair exchange are violated by accident or intent. We recruited 55 individuals afflicted with borderline personality disorder (BPD) to play a multiround economic exchange game with healthy partners. Behaviorally, individuals with BPD showed a profound incapacity to maintain cooperation, and were impaired in their ability to repair broken cooperation on the basis of a quantitative measure of coaxing. Neurally, activity in the anterior insula, a region known to respond to norm violations across affective, interoceptive, economic, and social dimensions, strongly differentiated healthy participants from individuals with BPD. Healthy subjects showed a strong linear relation between anterior insula response and both magnitude of monetary offer received from their partner (input) and the amount of money repaid to their partner (output). In stark contrast, activity in the anterior insula of BPD participants was related only to the magnitude of repayment sent back to their partner (output), not to the magnitude of offers received (input). These neural and behavioral data suggest that norms used in perception of social gestures are pathologically perturbed or missing altogether among individuals with BPD. This game-theoretic approach to psychopathology may open doors to new ways of characterizing and studying a range of mental illnesses.
(Click to enlarge). Activation of the anterior insula is observed during an economic trust game in individuals with borderline personality disorder and healthy controls. Both groups show higher activation in response to stingy repayments they are about to make. However, only players with the disorder have no differential response to low offers from an investor (upper left graph), indicating that they lack the "gut feeling" that the relationship (cooperation) is in jeopardy.
...when subjects posed fearful faces, they were able to detect more flashes of light in the upper extent of their peripheral visual field, they were faster to move their eyes to targets in their visual field and they took in more air through the nose. In contrast, when they posed disgusted expressions, they detected fewer flashes of light in the upper extent of their visual field, they were slower to move their eyes to visual targets and they took in less air through the nose. Thus, the converse movements of the brows, eyelids and nose enacted in the formation of these expressions had opposite effects on sensory intake (see figure). This makes sense when one considers the situations where these expressions are encountered. Fearful expressions are observed at times when you would do well to learn more about your surroundings and disgusted expressions are observed at times when you feel you have learned quite enough.
Note how the various parts of the face move in opposite directions in the two expressions, and therefore have opposite effects on sensory intake.
That eye widening should facilitate environmental monitoring is consistent with other data showing that the amygdala has a unique relationship with fearful facial expressions. Indeed, the amygdala uses the widened eyes in fearful expressions as a proxy for the presence of fearful faces, and lesions of the human amygdala result in an inability to properly scan the eye whites in fearful faces. Further, electrical stimulation of the human amygdala results in eye widening and heightened visual scanning of the environment and produces nonspecific arousal responses such as pupil dilation. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the amygdala is sensitive to the pupil size of others. Taken together, these findings support the hypothesized role of the amygdala in potentiating sensory information processing to facilitate learning about the predi. More generally, these results suggest that your amygdala is sensitive to the very facial responses in others that it controls in you.
If the amygdala has shown an affinity for the facial expression of fear, then the analogous brain region for disgusted expressions would be the insular cortex. Neuroimaging, as well as depth electrode recording studies, show that human insular cortex responds to disgusted faces, and damage to the insula produces deficits in the recognition of disgusted faces11. Furthermore, insular pathology in Huntington's disorder is associated with a decreased disgust response and a similar recognition deficit of disgust. Although it is tempting to divide duties for the amygdala and insular cortex between fear and disgust and to suggest that they represent unique neural substrates for their processing, other work suggests that these reciprocally connected regions will interact along dimensions such as arousal, valence and/or attention, dimensions that cross the stark boundary between these two expression categories.
The visual cortex is attentive to sudden changes in the environment, both when something new appears and when something disappears...A sudden disappearance causes an after-discharge: a ghostly image of the object lingers for a moment...This illusion is behind a spectacular trick by the Great Tomsoni. The magician has an assistant appear on stage in a white dress and tells the audience he will magically change the color of her dress to red. He first does this by shining a red light on her, an obvious ploy that he turns into a joke. Then the red light flicks off, the house lights go on and the now the woman is unmistakably dressed in red. The secret: In the split-second after the red light goes off, the red image lingers in the audience’s brains for about 100 milliseconds, covering the image of the woman. It’s just enough time for the woman’s white dress to be stripped away, revealing a red one underneath.
When a part of the body moves, the sensation evoked by a probe stimulus to that body part is attenuated. Two mechanisms have been proposed to explain this robust and general effect. First, feedforward motor signals may modulate activity evoked by incoming sensory signals. Second, reafferent sensation from body movements may mask the stimulus. Here we delivered probe stimuli to the right index finger just before a cue which instructed subjects to make left or right index finger movements. When left and right cues were equiprobable, we found attenuation for stimuli to the right index finger just before this finger was cued (and subsequently moved). However, there was no attenuation in the right finger just before the left finger was cued. This result suggests that the movement made in response to the cue caused ‘postdictive’ attenuation of a sensation occurring prior to the cue. In a second experiment, the right cue was more frequent than the left. We now found attenuation in the right index finger even when the left finger was cued and moved. This attenuation linked to a movement that was likely but did not in fact occur, suggests a new expectation-based mechanism, distinct from both feedforward motor signals and postdiction. Our results suggest a new mechanism in motor-sensory interactions in which the motor system tunes the sensory inputs based on expectations about future possible actions that may not, in fact, be implemented.
The first, lasting from approximately 1400 to 1965, was the great age of snobbery. Cultural artifacts existed in a hierarchy, with opera and fine art at the top, and stripping at the bottom... This code died sometime in the late 1960s and was replaced by the code of the Higher Eclectica. The old hierarchy of the arts was dismissed as hopelessly reactionary...During this period, status rewards went to the ostentatious cultural omnivores — those who could publicly savor an infinite range of historically hegemonized cultural products.In his third iPhone era:
...prestige has shifted from the producer of art to the aggregator and the appraiser. Inventors, artists and writers come and go, but buzz is forever. Maximum status goes to the Gladwellian heroes who occupy the convergence points of the Internet infosystem — Web sites like Pitchfork for music, Gizmodo for gadgets, Bookforum for ideas, etc.The second Brooks essay, which probes the different cognitive styles of Eastern and Western socities, is inspired by the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics:
The ceremony drew from China’s long history, but surely the most striking features were the images of thousands of Chinese moving as one — drumming as one, dancing as one, sprinting on precise formations without ever stumbling or colliding. We’ve seen displays of mass conformity before, but this was collectivism of the present — a high-tech vision of the harmonious society performed in the context of China’s miraculous growth...If Asia’s success reopens the debate between individualism and collectivism (which seemed closed after the cold war), then it’s unlikely that the forces of individualism will sweep the field or even gain an edge...For one thing, there are relatively few individualistic societies on earth. For another, the essence of a lot of the latest scientific research is that the Western idea of individual choice is an illusion and the Chinese are right to put first emphasis on social contexts.
Adult attachment style refers to individual personality traits that strongly influence emotional bonds and reactions to social partners. Behavioral research has shown that adult attachment style reflects profound differences in sensitivity to social signals of support or conflict, but the neural substrates underlying such differences remain unsettled. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined how the three classic prototypes of attachment style (secure, avoidant, anxious) modulate brain responses to facial expressions conveying either positive or negative feedback about task performance (either supportive or hostile) in a social game context. Activation of striatum and ventral tegmental area was enhanced to positive feedback signaled by a smiling face, but this was reduced in participants with avoidant attachment, indicating relative impassiveness to social reward. Conversely, a left amygdala response was evoked by angry faces associated with negative feedback, and correlated positively with anxious attachment, suggesting an increased sensitivity to social punishment. Secure attachment showed mirror effects in striatum and amygdala, but no other specific correlate. These results reveal a critical role for brain systems implicated in reward and threat processing in the biological underpinnings of adult attachment style, and provide new support to psychological models that have postulated two separate affective dimensions to explain these individual differences, centered on the ventral striatum and amygdala circuits, respectively. These findings also demonstrate that brain responses to face expressions are not driven by facial features alone but determined by the personal significance of expressions in current social context. By linking fundamental psychosocial dimensions of adult attachment with brain function, our results do not only corroborate their biological bases but also help understand their impact on behavior.
The aim of this study was to investigate whether the recognition of "self body parts" is independent from the recognition of other people's body parts. If this is the case, the ability to recognize "self body parts" should be selectively impaired after lesion involving specific brain areas. To verify this hypothesis, patients with lesion of the right (right brain-damaged [RBD]) or left (left brain-damaged [LBD]) hemisphere and healthy subjects were submitted to a visual matching-to-sample task in two experiments. In the first experiment, stimuli depicted their own body parts or other people's body parts. In the second experiment, stimuli depicted parts of three categories: objects, bodies, and faces. In both experiments, participants were required to decide which of two vertically aligned images (the upper or the lower one) matched the central target stimulus. The results showed that the task indirectly tapped into bodily self-processing mechanisms, in that both LBD patients and normal subjects performed the task better when they visually matched their own, as compared to others', body parts. In contrast, RBD patients did not show such an advantage for self body parts. Moreover, they were more impaired than LBD patients and normal subjects when visually matching their own body parts, whereas this difference was not evident in performing the task with other people's body parts. RBD patients' performance for the other stimulus categories (face, body, object), although worse than LBD patients' and normal subjects' performance, was comparable across categories. These findings suggest that the right hemisphere may be involved in the recognition of self body parts, through a fronto-parietal network.
The work pinpoints the neural circuits that mediate the bidirectional transition between a defensive behaviour — fear — and the default exploratory behaviour. These functions are evolutionarily old, and their dysfunction is thought to underlie a host of anxiety disorders in humans, including post-traumatic stress and panic disorder
To study the neural mechanisms that mediate fear responses, fear conditioning is widely used. In a typical procedure, animals are exposed to a normally harmless stimulus (such as a sound or light) before a brief exposure to an aversive stimulus — typically a foot shock. A few such rounds of pairing the harmless (conditioned) stimulus with the aversive (unconditioned) stimulus create an association between them in the animals' minds...It is important to study how fear is first learned. However, the pertinent question for clinicians is how fear can be eliminated or reduced. Extinction of fear occurs when the association between the conditioned and the unconditioned stimuli is broken by repeated presentations of the conditioned stimulus only. But does the association get completely erased from the memory? The answer is no. Although the conditioned stimulus eventually fails to elicit fear responses, much, if not all, of the original learned fear survives extinction. So when the extinguished conditioned stimulus is tested either during, or shortly after, exposure to a dangerous context again, the conditioned fear is renewed spontaneously. Extinction therefore involves new learning, and its activation by situational cues inhibits the expression of fear responses to the conditioned stimulus.
During fear conditioning, convergence of inputs from the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US) to fear neurons in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) leads to potentiation of the conditioned input and activation by the CS of neurons in the central nucleus (CEA) that initiates physiological and behavioural responses characteristic of fear. b, During extinction, inputs from the medial prefrontal cortex (PFC) activate neurons in the intercalated cell masses (ICMs) — either directly or through activation of extinction neurons in the basolateral amygdala — which then inhibit the activity of fear output neurons in the CEA. c, During fear renewal, inputs from the hippocampus, which evaluates the current context, activate inhibitory interneurons in the basolateral amygdala that silence extinction neurons, thus restoring fear responses.
Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a reliable technique to improve motor learning. We here wanted to test its potential to enhance associative verbal learning, a skill crucial for both acquiring new languages in healthy individuals and for language reacquisition after stroke-induced aphasia. We applied tDCS (20 min, 1 mA) over the posterior part of the left peri-sylvian area of 19 young right-handed individuals while subjects acquired a miniature lexicon of 30 novel object names. Every subject participated in one session of anodal tDCS, one session of cathodal tDCS, and one sham session in a randomized and double-blinded design with three parallel versions of the miniature lexicon. Outcome measures were learning speed and learning success at the end of each session, and the transfer to the subjects' native language after the respective stimulation. With anodal stimulation, subjects showed faster and better associative learning as compared to sham stimulation. Mood ratings, reaction times, and response styles were comparable between stimulation conditions. Our results demonstrate that anodal tDCS is a promising technique to enhance language learning in healthy adults and may also have the potential to improve language reacquisition after stroke.
To further our understanding of the function of conscious experience we need to know which cognitive processes require awareness and which do not. Here, we show that an unconscious stimulus can trigger inhibitory control processes, commonly ascribed to conscious control mechanisms. We combined the metacontrast masking paradigm and the Go/No-Go paradigm to study whether unconscious No-Go signals can actively trigger high-level inhibitory control processes, strongly associated with the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Behaviorally, unconscious No-Go signals sometimes triggered response inhibition to the level of complete response termination and yielded a slow down in the speed of responses that were not inhibited. Electroencephalographic recordings showed that unconscious No-Go signals elicit two neural events: (1) an early occipital event and (2) a frontocentral event somewhat later in time. The first neural event represents the visual encoding of the unconscious No-Go stimulus, and is also present in a control experiment where the masked stimulus has no behavioral relevance. The second event is unique to the Go/No-Go experiment, and shows the subsequent implementation of inhibitory control in the PFC. The size of the frontal activity pattern correlated highly with the impact of unconscious No-Go signals on subsequent behavior. We conclude that unconscious stimuli can influence whether a task will be performed or interrupted, and thus exert a form of cognitive control. These findings challenge traditional views concerning the proposed relationship between awareness and cognitive control and stretch the alleged limits and depth of unconscious information processing.Here is the procedure. SOA is the stimulus-onset asynchrony, the interval between the onsets of the two stimuli. (I wish these people would remind us what these jargon abbreviations mean, so I don't have go look them up to remind myself. )
Stimuli and trial timing of the masked Go/No-Go task and the control experiment. The gray circle and black cross duration was 16.7 ms. Go signal duration was 100 ms. In conscious No-Go trials, the SOA between the No-Go signal and the Go signal was 83 ms. Participants had to respond to the Go signal (black metacontrast mask) but were instructed to withhold their response when a No-Go signal preceded the Go signal. In the masked Go/No-Go task, a gray circle served as a No-Go signal, whereas in the control experiment, the No-Go signal was a black cross. Therefore, the masked gray circle was associated with inhibition in the masked Go/No-Go task and thus served as an unconscious No-Go signal. In the control experiment, the unconscious gray circle was not associated with inhibition (and was task irrelevant) because participants were instructed to inhibit their responses on a black cross. Comparing processing of unconscious gray circles between both experiments enabled us to test whether (1) high-level inhibitory control processes can be triggered unconsciously, (2) unconscious No-Go signals reach prefrontal areas, and (3) task relevance influences the depth of processing of unconscious stimuli.
Our brains and minds are shaped by our experiences, which mainly occur in the context of the culture in which we develop and live. Although psychologists have provided abundant evidence for diversity of human cognition and behaviour across cultures, the question of whether the neural correlates of human cognition are also culture-dependent is often not considered by neuroscientists. However, recent transcultural neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that one's cultural background can influence the neural activity that underlies both high- and low-level cognitive functions. The findings provide a novel approach by which to distinguish culture-sensitive from culture-invariant neural mechanisms of human cognition.
During cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), fatigue-related cognitions were challenged to diminish somatic attributions, to improve sense of control over symptoms and to facilitate behavioral changes. In parallel, a structured physical activity program was implemented. Furthermore, a work rehabilitation schedule was drawn up in order to realize a gradual work reentry. Final sessions of CBT dealt with relapse prevention and further improvement of self-control.
Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a disabling disorder, characterized by persistent or relapsing fatigue. Recent studies have detected a decrease in cortical grey matter volume in patients with CFS, but it is unclear whether this cerebral atrophy constitutes a cause or a consequence of the disease. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective behavioural intervention for CFS, which combines a rehabilitative approach of a graded increase in physical activity with a psychological approach that addresses thoughts and beliefs about CFS which may impair recovery. Here, we test the hypothesis that cerebral atrophy may be a reversible state that can ameliorate with successful CBT. We have quantified cerebral structural changes in 22 CFS patients that underwent CBT and 22 healthy control participants. At baseline, CFS patients had significantly lower grey matter volume than healthy control participants. CBT intervention led to a significant improvement in health status, physical activity and cognitive performance. Crucially, CFS patients showed a significant increase in grey matter volume, localized in the lateral prefrontal cortex. This change in cerebral volume was related to improvements in cognitive speed in the CFS patients. Our findings indicate that the cerebral atrophy associated with CFS is partially reversed after effective CBT. This result provides an example of macroscopic cortical plasticity in the adult human brain, demonstrating a surprisingly dynamic relation between behavioural state and cerebral anatomy. Furthermore, our results reveal a possible neurobiological substrate of psychotherapeutic treatment.
Using functional MRI (fMRI) we investigated 13 upper limb amputees with phantom limb pain (PLP) during hand and lip movement, before and after intensive 6-week training in mental imagery. Prior to training, activation elicited during lip purse showed evidence of cortical reorganization of motor (M1) and somatosensory (S1) cortices, expanding from lip area to hand area, which correlated with pain scores. In addition, during imagined movement of the phantom hand, and executed movement of the intact hand, group maps demonstrated activation not only in bilateral M1 and S1 hand area, but also lip area, showing a two-way process of reorganization. In healthy participants, activation during lip purse and imagined and executed movement of the non-dominant hand was confined to the respective cortical representation areas only. Following training, patients reported a significant reduction in intensity and unpleasantness of constant pain and exacerbations, with a corresponding elimination of cortical reorganization. Post hoc analyses showed that intensity of constant pain, but not exacerbations, correlated with reduction in cortical reorganization. The results of this study add to our current understanding of the pathophysiology of PLP, underlining the reversibility of neuroplastic changes in this patient population while offering a novel, simple method of pain relief.
Recent work has shown that observers can parse streams of syllables, tones, or visual shapes and learn statistical regularities in them without conscious intent (e.g., learn that A is always followed by B). Here, we demonstrate that these statistical-learning mechanisms can operate at an abstract, conceptual level. In Experiments 1 and 2, observers incidentally learned which semantic categories of natural scenes covaried (e.g., kitchen scenes were always followed by forest scenes). Stimuli: In Experiments 3 and 4, category learning with images of scenes transferred to words that represented the categories. In each experiment, the category of the scenes was irrelevant to the task. Together, these results suggest that statistical-learning mechanisms can operate at a categorical level, enabling generalization of learned regularities using existing conceptual knowledge. Such mechanisms may guide learning in domains as disparate as the acquisition of causal knowledge and the development of cognitive maps from environmental exploration.From their description of the first experiment:
Stimuli: Twelve scene categories were used (see figure): bathroom, bedroom, bridge, building, coast, field, forest, kitchen, living room, mountain, street, and waterfall.To examine the role of category-level semantics in statistical learning, the authors then moved on to experiments in which the same string of images was never presented twice, but a pattern occurred at the categorical level.
Each category contained 120 different full-color images. For each observer, 1 picture was drawn from each of the 12 categories at random, resulting in a set of 12 different images...Each of the 12 selected images was randomly assigned a position in one of four triplets (e.g., ABC)—sequences of three images that always appeared in the same order. Then a sequence of images was generated by randomly interleaving 75 repetitions of each triplet, with the constraints that the same triplet could never appear twice in a row and the same set of two triplets could never appear twice in a row (e.g., ABCGHIABCGHI was disallowed). In addition, 100 repeat images were inserted into the stream such that sometimes either the first or third image in a triplet repeated immediately (e.g., ABCCGHI or ABCGGHI). Allowing only the first or third image in a triplet to repeat served to keep the triplet structure intact, yet prevented the repeat images from being informative for delineating triplets from one another.
Procedure: Observers watched a 20-min sequence of 1,000 images, presented one at a time for 300 ms each with a 700-ms interstimulus interval (ISI). During this sequence, the task was to detect back-to-back repeats of the same image and to indicate repeats as quickly as possible by hitting the space bar. This cover task was intended to help prevent observers from becoming explicitly aware of the structure in the stream (Turk-Browne et al., 2005), and also avoided having observers simply view the stream passively (which would make it unclear what they were processing). Note that they were never informed that there was any structure in the stream of images...Following this study period, observers were asked if they had recognized any structure in the stream and then were given a surprise forced-choice familiarity test. On each test trial, observers viewed two 3-image test sequences, presented sequentially at the center of the screen with the same ISI as during the study phase and segmented from each other by an additional 1,000-ms pause. One of these test sequences was always a triplet of images that had been seen in the stream (e.g., ABC), and another was a foil constructed from images from three different triplets (e.g., AEI). After the presentation of the two test sequences, observers were told to press either the "1" or the "2" key to indicate whether the first or second test sequence seemed more familiar from the initial study period. Each of the four triplets was tested eight times, paired twice with each of four different foil sequences (AEI, DHL, GKC, JBF), for a total of 32 test trials. Observers' ability to discriminate triplet sequences from foil sequences was used as a measure of statistical learning.
Results and Discussion: All 10 of the observers completed the repeat-detection task during the study period with few errors, detecting an average of 91% of the repetitions (SD= 5%) and committing between one and five false alarms. These results demonstrate that observers were attending to the sequence of images. However, when asked, no observers reported explicitly noticing that the study stream had any structure.1 Nonetheless, performance on the familiarity test indicated very robust statistical learning, with triplets being successfully discriminated from foils (86.6% of the test sequences chosen were triplets, and 13.4% were foils), t(9) = 8.72, p= .00001.
These results extend previous demonstrations of visual statistical learning in two ways. First, they demonstrate visual statistical learning for scene stimuli, which are more complicated and information rich than the stimuli for which statistical learning has been demonstrated previously. Second, choosing the correct triplets at test in this experiment required not just forming episodic associations between the correct pictures, but also overcoming prior knowledge about how the scenes represented are associated in the world (e.g., bridges are rarely associated with living rooms).
In this experiment, learning likely occurred at the image level, because identical stimuli were repeated throughout the learning and test phases (and statistical learning has been previously demonstrated for shape and color.
...that together form one of the darkest mirrors the field has held up to the human face. In a series of about 20 experiments, hundreds of decent, well-intentioned people agreed to deliver what appeared to be increasingly painful electric shocks to another person, as part of what they thought was a learning experiment. The “learner” was in fact an actor, usually seated out of sight in an adjacent room, pretending to be zapped.The more recent work looks at conditions under which which participants were most likely to disobey the experimenter and quit delivering shocks. The participants' perception of the human rights of the learner as well as whether they felt themselves or the experiments actually responsible for delivering the shocks influenced the threshold beyond which they would no longer obey the experimenter.
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The Cancer Registry
Facts about Cancer
Because cancer has such a far-reaching effect on our society, an information collection system has been developed to identify further treatment plans and needs for cancer patients. Cancer patients in the Mercy system are now part of our Cancer Registry. This registry protects your anonymity but contains information such as name, sex, age, address and ethnic origin; medical information on the extent of disease and types of medical treatments received; and the names of your physicians, as mandated by the State of Ohio.
The Cancer Registry is important because it combines a patient's specific medical history and treatment information with that of other cancer patients with similar diagnoses. These reports are used by the cancer treatment team in evaluating the results of various cancer treatments and to assure that quality care is being provided. They are also used by the Ohio Department of Health to identify cancer incidence trends.
Each patient's progress will be followed at annual visits with their physician. The statistical information gathered as part of those visits will be included in our hospital Cancer Registry. It will also be forwarded to the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System. All information provided to the Cancer Registry is kept confidential. If you are currently not following up with a physician who diagnosed or treated your cancer, you will receive a confidential letter from the cancer registry on a yearly basis.
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Art and Love in Renaissance Italy
Key moments in the lives of Italian men and women in the Renaissance were marked by celebrations of the highest possible degree of magnificence, and none more lavishly than betrothal, marriage, or the birth of a child. Art and Love in Renaissance Italy, on view this spring at the Kimbell, will offer a unique look at approximately 150 paintings and art objects, dating from 1400 to 1600, that were created to celebrate love and marriage. It will include marriage portraits and paintings that extol sensual love and fertility, exquisite examples of jewelry and maiolica (tin-glazed ceramic) given as gifts to couples, and some of the rarest and most significant pieces of Renaissance glassware, cassone panels, birth trays, and drawings and prints of amorous subjects.
The exhibition will present three major sections. The first, Celebrating Betrothal, Marriage, and Childbirth, will feature splendid wedding gifts. For wealthy families in cities such as Florence, Venice, and Milan, the best marriage depended on a sizable dowry provided by the bride’s family—not only money and property, but a variety of goods for the bride’s new home, including clothing, jewelry, and domestic objects. The lavish wedding celebrations of the period occasioned the giving of extravagant gifts, such as maiolica decorated with narratives or portraits, rare Venetian glassware, rings (including one of the earliest known diamond wedding rings) and other jewelry, delicate gilded boxes, and vividly painted cassoni, or bridal chests that would be filled with costly linens and clothing. Likewise, the safe birth of a child was celebrated and commemorated with the production of finely painted deschi da parto (wooden childbirth trays) and maiolica childbirth bowls known as scodelle da parto, often painted with encouraging representations of a mother resting in her confinement room, with evocative representations of Renaissance interiors. Marked with heraldic devices, childbirth trays and bowls were prized possessions in many households and handed down from generation to generation.
The section Profane Love will focus on erotic, at times salacious, imagery treated in drawings, prints, and other objects created by some of the most celebrated artists of the time, including Parmigianino and Giulio Romano. Many of these works exhibit a witty, burlesque sensibility that satirizes more intellectually elevated modes of art and literature. Classical mythology, especially the loves of the gods as recounted by Ovid and other ancient poets, provided a convenient pretext for the portrayal of erotic imagery. The world of the courtesan and associated luxury items will also be explored in the exhibition.
Famed for their beauty, cultural accomplishments, and wit, courtesans were especially prevalent in Rome and Venice.
From Cassone to Poesia: Paintings of Love and Marriage will shift the focus to nuptial portraits and paintings on themes of love that decorated bedchambers and private quarters. Highly important and intriguing portraits—including double portraits commemorating marriage, rare portraits of babies, fathers with their children, and widows—by such painters as Fra Filippo Lippi, Domenico Ghirlandaio, and Lorenzo Lotto will be on display, and the poetic genius of the Renaissance will be represented by some of the most beguiling and sensual works by Titian, Palma il Vecchio, Tintoretto, and their contemporaries. Decorating the camera (bedroom) of a new husband and wife was of enormous importance to their families, and huge sums were spent on cassoni and often panel paintings called spalliere, which were installed about shoulder height as part of the wainscoting. Virtuous women from ancient history or the Hebrew Bible, whose stories were represented on cassoni panels, were also the subjects of paintings that decorated the walls of nuptial chambers, serving as exempla for the newlyweds Portraits of belle donne, or beautiful women, reflect poetry that lauded women’s beauty. The symbolism of these ravishing paintings is not straightforward, as the identity of the women portrayed continues to be debated: are they courtesans, brides, or idealized beauties? The extraordinarily evocative representations of Venus by Titian and other Venetians launch us into a new era of paintings that treat subjects related to love and marriage. Distant cousins of the reclining nudes found in the inner lids of cassoni in the fifteenth century, these later paintings are imbued with far greater poetic sensibilities, as visual equivalents of the poems that the ancient Romans recited at weddings. Like contemporary poems and prose by writers beginning with Petrarch, these mythological and allegorical paintings thus evoked the poetic language of love. The great Renaissance paintings on the themes of love and marriage owe their rich complexity, and often ambiguity, to the broad range of contemporary thought on the subject. The exhibition offers a unique, illuminating look at the function and imagery of the artworks on view, in tandem with the historical context of Renaissance marriage and its many-sided attitudes toward love.
Art and Love in Renaissance Italy is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Kimbell Art Museum. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities. The exhibition was on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art from November 11, 2008, through February 16, 2009. The Kimbell is its only other venue.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London, available in the Museum Shop. This important volume, by a distinguished group of scholars, is the first to examine the entire range of works to which Renaissance rituals of love and marriage gave rise and makes a major contribution to our understanding of Renaissance art in its broader cultural context.
The authors of the catalogue include Andrea Bayer, curator, Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, who is also the editor of the catalogue; Beverly L. Brown, independent scholar, London; Nancy E. Edwards, curator of European art/head of academic services, Kimbell Art Museum; Everett Fahy, John Pope-Hennessy Chairman, Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Deborah L. Krohn, associate professor, Bard Graduate Center, New York City; Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, associate professor, Department of Art, Wellesley College, Massachusetts; Luke Syson, curator, Italian Painting, 1460–1500, The National Gallery, London; Dora Thornton, curator, Renaissance Collections and the Waddesdon Bequest, Department of Prehistory and Europe, The British Museum, London; James Grantham Turner, professor, Department of English, University of California, Berkeley; and Linda Wolk-Simon, curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Science on the Run
This is the story of how one company created and codified a new science "on the run," away from the confines of the laboratory. By construing its service as scientific, Schlumberger was able to get the edge on the competition and construct an enviable niche for itself in a fast-growing industry.In this engaging account, Geoffrey Bowker reveals how Schlumberger devised a method of testing potential oil fields, produced a rhetoric, and secured a position that allowed it to manipulate the definition of what a technology is. Bowker calls the heart of the story "The Two Measurements That Worked," and he renders it in the style of a myth. In so doing, he shows seamlessly how society becomes embedded even in that most basic and seemingly value-independent of scientific concepts: the measurement.Bowker describes the origins and peregrinations of Schlumberger, details the ways in which the science developed in the field was translated into a form that could be defended in a patent court, and analyzes the company's strategies within the broader context of industrial science.Inside Technology series
About the Author
Geoffrey C. Bowker is Professor and Director of the Evoke Lab at the University of California, Irvine. He is the coauthor (with Susan Leigh Star) of Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences and the author of Memory Practices in the Sciences, both published by the MIT Press.
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Individual differences |
Methods | Statistics | Clinical | Educational | Industrial | Professional items | World psychology |
Workplace conflict is a specific type of conflict that occurs in workplaces. The conflicts that arise in workplaces may be shaped by the unique aspects of this environment, including the long hours many people spend at their workplace, the hierarchical structure of the organization, and the difficulties (e.g. financial consequences) that may be involved in switching to a different workplace. In this respect, workplaces share much in common with schools, especially pre-college educational institutions in which students are less autonomous.
According to Boston University FSAO, "Causes for workplace conflict can be personality or style differences and personal problems such as substance abuse, childcare issues, and family problems. Organizational factors such as leadership, management, budget, and disagreement about core values can also contribute." University of Colorado–Boulder cites as primary causes of workplace conflict poor communication, different values, differing interests, scarce resources, personality clashes]], and poor performance.
- Main article: Personality clash
The issue of personality clashes is controversial. According to the Australian government, the two types of workplace conflicts are "when people's ideas, decisions or actions relating directly to the job are in opposition, or when two people just don't get along." Turner and Weed argue, "In a conflict situation, don’t ask ‘who’, ask ‘what’ and ‘why’. Managers should avoid blaming interpersonal conflicts on “personality clashes”. Such a tactic is an excuse to avoid addressing the real causes of conflict, and the department’s performance will suffer as a result. Managers must be able to recognize the signs of conflict behaviors and deal with the conflict in a forthright fashion. Approaching conflicts as opportunities to improve departmental policies and operations rather as ailments to be eradicated or ignored will result in a more productive work force and greater departmental efficiency."
- Main article: Office romance
Office romances can be a cause of workplace conflict. 96 percent of human resource professionals and 80 percent of executives said workplace romances are dangerous because they can lead to conflict within the organization. Public displays of affection can make co-workers uncomfortable and accusations of favoritism may occur, especially if it is a supervisor-subordinate relationship. If the relationship goes awry, one party may seek to exact revenge on the other.
Passive aggressive behaviorEdit
- Main article: Passive aggressive behavior
Passive aggressive behavior is a common response from workers and managers which is particularly noxious to team unity and productivity. In workers, it can lead to sabotage of projects and the creation of a hostile environment. In managers, it can end up stifling teams creativity. De Angelis says "It would actually make perfect sense that those promoted to leadership positions might often be those who on the surface appear to be agreeable, diplomatic and supportive, yet who are actually dishonest, backstabbing saboteurs behind the scenes." - In brief, to respond to this kind of hostile behavior, people need to control performance expectations, parcel out important tasks so there are several responsible people involved, and re-check frequently to see how much delay the passive aggressive worker can generate before the team leader stops him."
Unresolved conflict in the workplace has been linked to miscommunication resulting from confusion or refusal to cooperate, quality problems, missed deadlines or delays, increased stress among employees, reduced creative collaboration and team problem solving, disruption to work flow, decreased customer satisfaction, distrust, split camps, and gossip.
Constantino helps organizations design their own, ad hoc conflict management systems, Tosi, Rizzo, and Caroll suggested that improving organizational practices could help resolve conflicts, including establishing superordinate goals, reducing vagueness, minimizing authority- and domain-related disputes, improving policies, procedures and rules, re-apportioning existing resources or adding new, altering communications, movement of personnel, and changing reward systems. Most large organizations have a human resources department, whose tasks include providing confidential advice to internal "customers" in relation to problems at work. This could be seen as less risky than asking one's manager for help. HR departments may also provide an impartial person who can mediate disputes and provide an objective point of view. Another tool in the conflict resolution in organizations resources box is the introduction of the Ombudsman figure, at the organizational level; charged with surveying common causes of conflict and suggesting structural improvements to address them.
April has been declared Workplace Conflict Awareness Month.
- Conflict Management
- Group conflict
- Occupational health psychology
- Organizational conflict
- Working conditions
- Workplace aggression
- Workplace bullying
- Workplace violence
- ↑ Workplace Conflict, Boston University FSAO.
- ↑ Resolving Workplace Conflict, University of Colorado–Boulder.
- ↑ Workplace conflict, Better Health Channel.
- ↑ Turner. S. and Weed. F., Conflict in Organizations, Prentice-Hall,Inc., Englewood Cliffs NJ (1983).
- ↑ Dangerous love: An Office romance could cost you your job, Julie N. Lynem, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 14, 2003.
- ↑ When an Office Romance Sours, Working.com
- ↑ De Angelis, Paula: Blindsided: Recognizing and Dealing with Passive-Aggressive Leadership in the Workplace, (Kindle Edition - Jun 22,2008)
- ↑ Workplace Coach: Companies pay the price when managers avoid dealing with conflict, Maureen, Moriarty, Seattlepi, Oct. 28, 2007.
- ↑ Conflict and dispute management system design: overview.
- ↑ Conflict Management, FAO Corporate Document Repository.
- ↑
- ↑ Workplace Conflict Awareness Month
Aspects of workplaces
| See also: template Aspects of corporations · template Aspects of occupations · template Aspects of organizations · template Employment · Corporation · Employment · Factory · Office · Organization · Whistleblower|
Absenteeism · Aggression · Bullying · Conflict · Control freak · Counterproductive behavior · Coworker backstabbing · Cyber-aggression · Democracy · Deviance · Discrimination · Diversity · Emotion · Employee silence · Employee surveys · Empowerment · Evaluation · Feminisation · Friendship · Gender inequality · Gossip · Happiness · Harassment · Health surveillance · Humor · Incivility · Intervention · Jargon · Listening · Micromanagement · Mobbing · Morale · Office politics · Performance appraisal · Phobia · Privacy · Probation · Profanity · Queen bee syndrome · Relationships · Revenge · Romance · Sabotage · Safety · Spirituality · Staff turnover · Strategy · Stress · Surveillance · Toxic workplace · Training · Violence · Wellness
|This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).|
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Chattahoochee National Forests
that make up Georgia's beautiful National Forests were once the lands
nobody wanted. The early history of Georgia is a tale of abuse and overuse
of the fragile ecosystems. Hydraulic mining for gold, cut and leave
practices of early timber companies, wildfires, over-grazing and unregulated
hunting and fishing led to a forest that was in need of extensive restoration
The Forest Service purchased 31,000 acres in four North
Georgia counties in 1911 for $7 per acre. In the beginning, the Chattahoochee
was part of the Nantahala and Cherokee National Forests in North Carolina
and Tennessee. Many of the early purchases were old homesteads and abandoned
On July 9, 1936, the Chattahoochee National Forest was
proclaimed as a separate National Forest. At that time, Forest Service
managers began to restore these lands by planting trees, fighting wildfires,
controlling erosion and introducing wildlife and fish back into their
natural habitat. As a result of a concentrated effort by the Forest
Service and the Department of Natural Resources personnel, the deer
and trout populations which had been virtually eliminated, were brought
back to today's healthy and productive level. Today's estimate of the
deer population is more than 30,000 animals and a turkey population
of over 6,000 birds.
Likewise in 1970, the bear population on the Chattahoochee
totaled 106 bears. After 20 years of continually managing the habitat
for this animal, the Chattahoochee today boasts a healthy bear population
of more than 650 animals.
Today, the Chattahoochee National Forest covers 749,549.71
acres in North Georgia and is managed out of six ranger district offices.
Chattahoochee Ranger Districts
Armuchee-Cohutta Ranger District
3941 Highway 76 • Chatsworth, GA 30705
Brasstown Ranger District
1881 Highway 515, P.O. Box 9 • Blairsville, GA 30514
Chattooga Ranger District
200 Highway 197N, • P.O. Box 1960, Clarkesville, GA 30523
Tallulah Ranger District
809 Highway 441S • Clayton, GA 30525
Toccoa Ranger District
6050 Appalachian Highway • Blue Ridge, GA 30513
Georgia's national forests are said to be
a hiker's paradise. Winding trails lead visitors through scenic mountains
and rolling hills, by wild rushing rivers and cascading waterfalls. They
also lead visitors through the history books: Spanish conquistador Hernando
de Soto's futile search for gold, the United States' first frenzied gold
rush. The Cherokee Indians' struggle to hold on to heir lands, and major
battles of the Civil War.
Ten wildernesses, 1,367 miles of trout streams,
and 430 miles of trails enrich the Chattahoochee National Forest. The famous
2,135-mile Appalachian Trail begins here and hardy hikers don't see the
end until they reach Maine!
Drive along the Ridge and Valley Scenic Byway,
which tours the Armuchee Ridges of the Appalachian Mountains. Several major
Civil War battles were fought in this area, most of them centered around
the railroad, which stretched from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Atlanta, Georgia.
Across from the Armuchee Ridges lie the Blue
Ridge Mountains. Lake Conasauga sits here, the States highest lake at more
than 3,000 feet above sea level. This clear cool mountain lake is surrounded
by white pines and eastern hemlocks. Don't forget to stop at Brasstown
Bald, Georgia's highest peak at 4,784 feet. Trails traverse the mountain
and the observation deck offers breathtaking panoramic views of mountains
Unlike the tall peaks of the Chattahoochee,
the Oconee National Forest is relatively flat with small hills. Visit Lake
Sinclair, 15,300 acres, popular for swimming, fishing, boating, and camping.
Near Lake Oconee, an easy 1-mile trail leads to one of Georgia's ghost
towns, Scull Shoals.
If a wealth of trails is the hallmark of
the Chattahoochee, bountiful game is the signature of the Oconee. There
are also plenty of excellent fishing opportunities.
The unique features of Georgia's national
forests make these land a place of exploration and wonder. They are unique
lands rich with recreation opportunities, history and spectacular scenery.
Chattahoochee National Forest
Hiking and Riding: With
over 430 miles of trails on the Chattahoochee, it's hard to find an area
without some type of footpath! From short day hikes to more arduous trips,
for novices or experts, there is a trail for every level, every purpose,
The four long-distance trails on the Chattahoochee are great for backpacking:
the Benton MacKaye (53 miles), Bartram (37 miles), Duncan Ridge (35.5 miles),
and Appalachian (79 miles).
Water Recreation: The
Chattooga Wild and Scenic River is most popular for guided rafting trips.
This premier whitewater river offers some of the most challenging rapids
in the Southeast. The Chattahoochee and Toccoa rivers are popular for canoe
or kayak. Unlike most Georgia rivers, the Toccoa flows north instead of
south, and is considered to be the state's loveliest river.
Fishing: Nearby Lake Blue Ridge is the only place in Georgia where anglers
can catch muskellunge. This 3,290-acre lake is bordered by two Forest Service
campgrounds and has a privately owned marina for boat rentals. Nottely Lake,
Lake Chatuge, Lake Burton, and Lake Rabun also tough the Chattahoochee and
provide good trout and bass fishing. With over 1,300 miles of trout streams
on the forest, there are plenty opportunities to catch trout, walleye, bluegill,
Scenic Drives: The
Ridge and Valley Scenic Byway is a 47-mile loop through the Armuchee Ridges. "Armuchee" is
a Cherokee Indian work meaning :land of flowers," still an accurate
description. John's Mountain Overlook has outstanding views reaching into
Alabama and Tennessee. A nature trail from the overlook leads to Keown
Falls Scenic Area, where twin waterfalls can be seen from an observation
Spectacular fall colors bust in the trees
along the Russell-Brasstown Scenic Byway. This 38-miles look has many interesting
stops along the way. Dukes Creek Falls trail leads to the bottom of a gorge,
where the air is cooled by the misty spray from the waterfalls. Several
pools formed from the cold water tumbling down 250 feet provide a welcome
relief for wary hikers.
Farther along the drive
is the Raven Cliffs Trail, which twists for 2 1⁄2 miles around
several waterfalls, including one of the most unusual falls in the forest
where water pours out of a crevice in a massive cliff about 90 feet high.
Brasstown Bald is another popular stop on this drive.
Points of Interest: Brasstown
Bald is the highest peak in Georgia. Shuttle vans carry most visitors from
a parking lot to the top, but hardy hikers climb the path to the crest.
Winds are always present on the lofty summit, which provides breathtaking
views from the Visitor Center's observation deck.
The cool, still hush of the surrounding lush
forest is broken only by the thundering water of Anna Ruby Falls. This
unique double waterfall cascades off of Tray Mountain in a spectacular
153-foot drop. The Lion's Eye Trail for the Blind adds a special dimension
to one of Georgia's most visited spots.
for more information:
North Georgia Mountains
Chattahoochee National Forest
1755 Cleveland Highway
Gainesville, GA 30501
National Forest Service...Leave no Trace Policy
State • Town • City • County • Guide
If you would like to know what towns are in which county,
use these printable pages to find out.
North Georgia Mountain • Printable Town Guide
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Landscape of fear: A social history of the missile during the early years of the Cold War, 1950--1965
The missile's significance has been central to national security since the Soviet launching of Sputnik, and became increasingly important throughout the years of the Cold War. Much has been written about missile technology, but little has been written about how the development and deployment of this weapon affected Americans. The missile was developed to both deter war but also to win war. Its presence, however, was not always reassuring. ^ Three areas of the United States are studied to evaluate the social implications of the missile during these pivotal years: San Francisco, home of multiple Nike installations; of Cape Canaveral, Florida, the nation's primary missile test center; the Great Plains, the location of the largest ICBM concentration in the country. Interviews were conducted, tours of facilities were taken, and local newspapers were reviewed. In conjunction with national newspapers and magazines and public opinion polls, this information provided a local social context for missile history. Nationally and locally, Americans both feared and praised the new technology. They were anxious for government funding in their cities and often felt that the danger the missile brought to their communities by making it as a Soviet target was justified in the larger cause for national security. ^
History, United States
Jessica Rose Barrella,
"Landscape of fear: A social history of the missile during the early years of the Cold War, 1950--1965"
(January 1, 2007).
ProQuest ETD Collection for FIU.
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The favorite way to feed our caffeine addiction may just save your life. According to a recent study by Harvard University, drinking two to four cups of regular coffee a day had half the risk of suicide in comparison with those who drink either decaffeinated coffee or no coffee at all. On top of all the other observed benefits of coffee, it can now save your life.
The evidence that the coffee bean is a miracle food continues to pile up, as study after study showcase the benefits of drinking the popular morning beverage. On top of the Harvard study suggesting it can save lives by lowering suicide risk, The magic beans will ward off skin cancer and Alzheimer’s, reduce heart failure and diabetes risks, heighten focus, and maybe even protect liver health,” according to Time Magazine.
Published in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, the Harvard study followed over 200,000 people during a period of 16 years. Those participants that were found to feed their caffeine cravings with coffee had a suicide risk of less than half their non-coffee drinking cohorts.
So how exactly did this study work? Michel Lucas, Ph.D., lead researcher for the study and a researcher for the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health summarized the process used in the study. “we were able to assess association of consumption of caffeinated and non-caffeinated beverages, and we identify caffeine as the most likely candidate of any putative protective effect of coffee,” he said.
Psychcentral.com summarized the researchers findings on the potentially life saving benefits of coffee by saying “not only does caffeine stimulate the central nervous system, but it may act as a mild antidepressant by boosting production of certain neurotransmitters in the brain, including serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline. This could explain the lower depression risk among coffee drinkers found in past epidemiological studies.”
So although coffee may have negative side-effects such as insomnia and disturbed sleep cycles, drinking a few cups a day might just save your life by lowering your risk of suicide. So raise your mug and have another cup as you get ready for another work week to begin.
Follow me on Twitter @CharlieGille
The Guardian Express
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| 0.952649 | 450 | 2.84375 | 3 |
GCSEs: MPs warn on separate Wales, England, NI systems
- 11 June 2013
- From the section Wales
MPs have warned against a rush towards separate school exams systems in Wales, England and Northern Ireland, saying such a move would be "regrettable".
New-look GCSEs for schools in England are to be unveiled, with exams graded from eight to one rather than A* to G.
Wales and Northern Ireland are keeping GCSEs, but so far are not adopting the changes proposed for England.
The education select committee warned against sleep walking into a separation of school qualifications.
Last month the Westminster Education Secretary Michael Gove wrote to his Welsh and Northern Irish counterparts, saying that a splitting of the consensus was a "natural consequence" of devolution.
But the Welsh minister, Leighton Andrews, has emphasised that GCSEs and A-Levels will be retained in Wales.
The decision in Wales follows a review which heard concerns about the quality of GCSE students' abilities at reading, writing and maths.
From 2015, GCSEs in England will move from coursework and continuous assessment to exams at the end of two years.
Pupils will face more rigorous content, with those studying English, for example, having to read a 19th Century novel and a whole Shakespeare play.
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| 0.959598 | 276 | 2.625 | 3 |
The synthesis of Darwinian evolution by natural selection and Mendel's Laws of Heredity has become known as neo-Darwinism.
This 'modern synthesis' was put together by in the 1920s and 1930s, and provides the basis of most subsequent work on evolution. Among leading figures in development of neo-Darwinism were Fisher, Haldane and Wright.
The philosopher and historian of biology, Helena Cronin explains the importance of the modern synthesis.
The image opposite is of Charles Darwin (1809-1882), painted in 1840. His insights are still essential to neo-Darwinism as practised today.
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About the Authors: Stephanie Dos Santos and Paul Patin serves in the Public Affairs Section at U.S. Embassy Paris.
This week marked the re-opening of the George C. Marshall Center following 10 years of restoration. Dedicated artisans, craftsmen, and designers on both sides of the Atlantic labored to make the restoration of this tribute to Franco-American friendship a reality. The project was entirely funded by private donations. French historians, American and French architects and artisans, guided by an international Steering Committee made up of former U.S. ambassadors and French opinion leaders, collaborated on this vast project -- a model of cooperation between our two countries. Thanks to the restoration, the George C. Marshall Center can continue its legacy of hosting diplomatic events and meetings for international scholars, artists, and leaders of government and business. It will also serve as an educational resource for future generations.
The Hotel de Talleyrand, which houses the George C. Marshall Center, is a national treasure and one of the landmark buildings of Paris, a monument to 20th century Euro-American relations. The Hotel was built in the 18th century by the celebrated French architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel, who also designed the Place de la Concorde, on whose northwest corner the building sits. It takes its name from its most famous long-term resident, Napoleon's Foreign Minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, known to most Americans as the shadowy French diplomat behind the "XYZ Affair." (Restorers of the building noted that certain mysterious changes to their work, that tended to occur when the building was unoccupied overnight, can only be explained by the workings of the ghost of the man who betrayed at least three different French governments.)
The hotel was purchased and enlarged by the Rothschild family in the 19th century. Upon the liberation of France, the U.S. military used the Hotel de Talleyrand as its administrative center. Subsequently, the building was the European headquarters of the Marshall Plan. As such, it is a monument to our common political, economic, and social history. Today, the Hotel de Talleyrand and the George C. Marshall Center feature a permanent exhibit that celebrates the extraordinary cooperation of European and American individuals under the Marshall Plan to establish both the economic recovery of Europe and a lasting spirit of international collaboration after World War II.
Between 1952 and 2008, the building housed the Consulate of the American Embassy in Paris, the offices of Public and Cultural Affairs, the Benjamin Franklin Documentation Center, and the George C. Marshall Center. Today, the George C. Marshall Center, the Paris offices of the law firm Jones Day, and the World Monuments Fund Europe and France together offer a new vitality for the building.
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| 0.94887 | 558 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Plants that do not root in soil are called epiphytes. Generally, they inhabit the humid jungles of the rain forest, obtaining moisture from the atmosphere, but some epiphytes survive in desert conditions. Any root systems they develop are used for anchoring themselves to their host, which is usually a tree, to create stability so they can turn toward the sunlight or collect moisture. Plants that live on air are not parasitic, but live independently from their host.
There are 20,000 different types of orchids, many of which are epiphytic. Epiphytic orchids are well adapted to the rain forests or high elevation cloud forests of Africa and South America because they have large root systems to hold themselves high in the trees. Also, the leaves have a good water-holding capacity that helps them survive periods of dry weather. They depend on pollinators, such as moths, to help them reproduce. They produce tiny seeds that are spread by the wind. The seeds stick to the branches of other trees where they root and grow. Some epiphytic orchids are drought-tolerant, and they grow on rocks and thin soil in desert areas instead of the damp rain forests.
Epiphytic orchids can grow in filtered sunlight if the roots are anchored in sphagnum moss or bark. Orchid-planting medium is commonly available at nursery centers. The most popular examples of U.S.-grown epiphytic orchids are Brassia and Phalaenopsis.
Almost half of the bromeliads in existence can be considered plants that live on air. These types of bromeliads have a very shallow or nonexistent root system and broad leaves that collect water in the space where they meet the main stem. Epiphytic bromeliads have colorful leaves, and they are also native to rain forests where they can collect water from the humid atmosphere and frequent rains. Many epiphytic bromeliads are adaptable as potted or garden plants that can be raised under controlled conditions.
Some popular examples of epiphytic bromeliads are those known as Aechmea, Billbergia and Tillandsia bromeliads. They are easy to find online, and they grow as epiphyte or mostly epiphyte, depending on the growing conditions.
Epiphytic ferns grow anchored in moss that is in turn attached to trees in tropical rain forests. When it rains, epiphytic ferns draw nutrients from rotting leaves and vegetation that collects at their root base. Examples of epiphytic ferns are the rabbit's foot fern and the staghorn fern. They grow in filtered sunlight anchored in sphagnum moss. They should be soaked with water every two to four days and allowed to dry out, since epiphytic ferns can die from over watering.
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| 0.945225 | 606 | 4.25 | 4 |
In a brief snippet from a conversation Robert had with Richard Dawkins at the 92 Street Y in New York City, we learn that natural selection is often a brutal arms race, inherently full of suffering and cruelty. But if Darwin's big idea is really predicated on pain and selfishness, why does selflessness exist?
Lynn Levy brings us the story of George Price, who bopped through the 60s like some kind of scientific Forrest Gump. He worked on the atom bomb, transitors, computer-aided-design, and eventually turned his attention to the problem of altruism. Lynn talks to Oren Harman, author of The Price of Altruism, and George's daughters Annamarie and Kathleen, who help us get to know this complicated genius. In 1967, George left his family, went to London, and wrote a mathematical equation to explain why one creature might sacrifice its own interests for another. Carl Zimmer helps us understand why altruism is such a problem in the first place, and how family might hold the key to understanding apparently selfless acts. The so-called Price Equation changed biology ... and ultimately led Price to spend the rest of his life trying to transcend his own equation.
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GABNET DRAWS ATTENTION TO THE PLIGHT OF INDIGENOUS WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD THIS THANKSGIVING, A NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING FOR NATIVE AMERICANS
- United States: Native American women are 25 times more likely to be victims of sexual assault in their lifetimes. Eighty-six percent of assaults against indigenous women is by non-indigenous men who are rarely caught or charged with the crime.
- In Mexico, indigenous women experience violence at the hands of the military funded by the U.S. government. Military personnel use rape as an instrument of repression and intimidation as exemplified in the 1997 massacre and mutilation of 32 Tzotzil women in Acteal.
- In the Philippines, heightened militarization and state repression has killed close to 1,000 activits, including Alyce Omegnan Claver, an indigenous woman who was executed for her political activism.
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The proposal, which sources tell SPACE.com is gaining broad support, tries to plug a big gap in astronomy textbooks, which have never had a definition for the word "planet." It addresses discoveries of Pluto-sized worlds that have in recent years pitched astronomers into heated debates over terminology.
* The asteroid Ceres, which is round, would be recast as a dwarf planet in the new scheme.
* Pluto would remain a planet and its moon Charon would be reclassified as a planet. Both would be called "plutons," however, to distinguish them from the eight "classical" planets.
* A far-out Pluto-sized object known as 2003 UB313 would also be called a pluton.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Get ready to rewrite all science textbooks and astronomy books because if the International Astronomical Union has its way, then there will be twelve planets in our solar system instead of the current nine. From Space.com:
Posted by I.Z. Reloaded at 2:52 PM
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Singapore License.
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The Crosby Garrett Helmet is a spectacular example of a Roman cavalry sports helmet, in the form of the face of a young clean-shaven man with luxuriant curly hair, wearing a Phrygian cap (shaped like a bent cone) topped by a winged griffin.
|The Crosby Garrett Helmet on display. Photo by Daniel Pett, available under Creative Commons on Flickr|
For more photographs, see the Portable Antiquities Scheme record.
The helmet is constructed of copper alloy. The visor shows traces of having been tinned, so the face would originally have been a silvery colour. The helmet was well-used, with signs of wear from the visor being opened and closed, and had been repaired with a sheet of bronze riveted over a split. The bowl of the helmet was broken into many pieces when discovered, and had been folded before being buried. The face mask was intact and had been placed face down. For more details, see the Portable Antiquities Scheme record and the initial report by Ralph Jackson.
The helmet was discovered by metal detectorists in 2010, buried in pastureland near the hamlet of Crosby Garrett in the Eden Valley, northern England.
Map link: Crosby Garrett
An archaeological investigation of the find spot was conducted by Tullie House Museum (Carlisle) and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. This has now been published (Breeze and Bishop [Eds] 2013), and is also reported in the February 2014 issue of Current Archaeology (CA), Issue 287.
The field where the helmet was found is on sloping ground on a ridge plateau. Survey identified the remains of earthworks surrounding a large ditched enclosure measuring 500 metres along its southern edge (other dimensions and full size unknown). The shape of the enclosure is consistent with a local settlement, rather than a Roman fortification. However, there was a short straight length of earthwork outside and parallel with the enclosure boundary, resembling the defensive structure called a titulus that protected the entrance to Roman temporary military camps, perhaps indicating that the inhabitants had chosen to copy a Roman military construction technique.
Within the enclosure more low earthworks surrounded a much smaller enclosure shaped ‘like a fattened kidney bean’ (roughly 100 m on its long axis by roughly 60 m on its short axis) and a hut circle. Geophysical survey identified more hut circles, a rectangular building and a variety of terraces and boundaries, with the buildings tending to concentrate in the northern half of the area surveyed. Stuart Noon, the Finds Liaison Officer interviewed for the CA article, suggested that the lower area of the settlement could have been used for outbuildings and perhaps a paddock.
The helmet find spot was on a terrace where buildings had stood during the Roman period, directly in front of a boundary ditch, and at the lower end of the settlement in a place that has ‘an amazing view’. Excavation of a small trench on the spot indicated that the helmet had been buried in some form of artificial stone construction, with two layers of stone cobbles set in soil on top of two paving slabs. The helmet had been placed on the slabs, soil mounded around it, and the stone cobbles put on top as a cap. There was no wear on the cobbles, suggesting that they were not a road or track surface. Stuart Noon described the structure as cairn-like, and suggested that it was a formal monument. He also suggested that the weight of soil may not have been enough to crush the helmet bowl, as the helmet was buried only 50 cm deep, and thus that the helmet may have been deliberately broken before it was buried, suggesting a ‘ritual connotation’.
Two Roman coins were found in the trench. One was a coin of Constantine from 300–335 and the other, in a cavity in the cobbles, was a barely worn coin of Constantius II dating to 335–337. There were also some fragments of copper alloy that could be more fragments of the helmet, a blue glass bead, and an unidentified iron object that might possibly be part of a weapon. These may indicate that the helmet was buried with other objects, and the coins may date the construction of the cairn-like structure. The decorated rivets that would have held the strap to fasten the helmet are of a type dated to the late second to third century AD. So, if the two fourth-century coins date the burial, the helmet would already have been old when it was buried. (Caveat: the coins can indicate the earliest possible date at which they were buried, since they cannot have been buried before they were made, but not the actual date, since they may have been buried many years after they were made. The unworn coin had presumably not been rattling around someone’s pocket or being handed around in numerous transactions, otherwise it would show signs of wear, but it could have been sitting undisturbed in a protected environment such as a strong box. So the helmet is considerably older than the coins, but both might have been old when they were buried).
Helmets of this type were used for a military display-come-training-exercise called the hippika gymnasia, in which elite cavalry units staged a mock battle watched by important dignitaries, sometimes the Emperor himself. Mike Bishop explains in the CA article that cavalry sports helmets first appeared in the first century, initially as face masks that could be fitted to ordinary cavalry helmets, became progressively more ornate through the second and third centuries, and disappeared by the fourth century after Emperor Diocletian (285–304 AD) reformed the army. During the late second and third century, it was fashionable to stage the hippika gymnasia as a sort of re-enactment of the Trojan War legends. The Phrygian cap was a style associated with the east and could be used to signify a Trojan.
Unlike combat equipment, which was Roman Army property and had to be returned at the end of service, sports helmets were the personal property of individual cavalrymen and can be found in non-military contexts (Jackson 2010).
Among the many interesting issues raised by the article, two particularly struck me.
The first was the idea that the helmet may have been old when it was buried (if the coins date the burial, maybe a hundred years old or more). This suggests that it may have had several owners, one of whom chose to bury it. It’s not surprising that the helmet might have had several owners; it looks an expensive and prestigious item, and unless it was badly damaged in a mock battle it could probably be expected to last longer than one term of service. Perhaps some soldiers sold their sports equipment on to colleagues when they left the army, if they reckoned that the cash would be more useful to them in setting up their retirement, or perhaps gave items as gifts to close comrades or protégés. Or perhaps the personal possessions of soldiers who died in service were auctioned off to their colleagues and the money sent to their families, rather than trying to ship personal effects home. Or, for that matter, maybe some managed to lose their equipment to a colleague in a bet or a duel. Either way, maybe the helmet had a long and varied life being handed on to successive soldiers in an elite unit before one of them decided to take it home when he retired. Another possibility is that it could have been a family heirloom inherited by successive generations of a family living at Crosby Garrett, either as a piece of equipment actively used by successive owners (e.g. if the family had a tradition of sons following their fathers into the cavalry), or as an ornamental heirloom displayed on the Roman equivalent of the mantelpiece to commemorate an increasingly distant ancestor.
If the helmet had several owners, why might one of them have chosen to treat it differently, by burying it in a cairn rather than passing it on? This is a question to which we can never know the answer. One possibility is that the last owner brought it home and interred it as a symbolic way of marking his discharge from the army. Another is that it was interred as a memorial to someone with whom it was especially closely associated. Or perhaps the last owner had no-one to pass it on to – if it was a family heirloom, perhaps there was no son or son-in-law or grandson to inherit, or none who had a need or desire for a sports cavalry helmet – and so it was buried by the family when the last owner died.
If the coins date the burial to the 330s or later, I wonder if a couple of specific cultural changes could have played a part. If Diocletian’s army reforms abolished the hippika gymnasia this may have rendered the helmet obsolete. In which case, even if there was a son who had followed his forebears into the traditional cavalry unit there may have been no use for the helmet, and a dignified burial as a memorial to the last family member to perform in a hippika gymnasia may have seemed appropriate. Religious change could be another possibility. The Emperor Constantine showed overt favouritism to Christianity after he won the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, and Christianity became the official state religion in 381. The pagan god Mithras is always depicted wearing a Phrygian cap, very similar to the Crosby Garrett helmet. The Mithras mystery cult was very popular in the Roman army, and would surely have been well known to anyone serving in a cavalry unit. Even if the Crosby Garrett helmet originally signified a Trojan, it may also have come to be associated with Mithras. As Christianity became the prevailing religion in the Roman Empire during the fourth century, owning a helmet that looked like a pagan idol may have become a bit embarrassing, perhaps even dangerous if it attracted hostile attention from zealous Christians. In which case, respectfully interring it may have seemed appropriate, possibly to mark a conversion to Christianity.
It is interesting that the helmet was buried on a terrace with an impressive view over the landscape. Perhaps that just happened to be the owner’s favourite spot, where he liked to stand and survey his domain (or just admire the view) and so it was a suitable place for a memorial. However, it does remind me of the location of some Bronze Age tumuli, such as the one on nearby Wild Boar Fell which is placed not on the broad flat summit of the fell (where it would be invisible except to someone right on the summit plateau), but at the break of slope on the edge of the summit ridge, where it commands a wide view and is visible on the skyline to someone looking up from the valley below. There is a theory that some of these tumuli were positioned as a claim of ownership over the lands that could be seen from them, and I wonder if the burial spot for the Crosby Garrett helmet could have been chosen for the same sort of reason.
Map link: Wild Boar Fell
As well as the helmet’s age, the second issue that caught my attention is the presence of what appears to be a substantial, previously unknown, Roman-period settlement in the upper Eden Valley, presumably with considerable wealth as the Crosby Garrett helmet must have been an expensive and prestigious item. The hut circles suggest that traditional building forms were in use, yet the titulus may indicate familiarity with Roman military techniques and a willingness to adopt those that were considered useful. The presence of the Crosby Garrett helmet indicates some sort of connection with an elite Roman cavalry unit. The connection could be merely one of loot, or possibly a one-off trade transaction, if someone happened to see the helmet, liked the look of it and bought it. Or it may indicate some more substantial relationship. Cavalry auxiliaries in the Roman army were routinely recruited from the provinces. Perhaps someone from the Crosby Garrett settlement served as a Roman cavalry auxiliary and brought his prestige sports helmet home when his service was finished, or perhaps a cavalryman serving at one of the Roman forts in the area married a local girl and settled down with her. There may also be a possibility that the settlement supplied the Roman army with something. It’s not difficult to imagine a retired cavalryman taking up horse-breeding and horse-training, and supplying cavalry mounts to his former colleagues as a profitable business. As the helmet is second- or third-century and the Roman coins are fourth-century, it may indicate a long-term connection between the Crosby Garrett settlement and the Romans, perhaps extending over several generations. Again, it is not hard to imagine a family developing a tradition of sons and grandsons serving in their fathers’ and grandfathers’ old cavalry unit, and/or supplying horses to it, although this is pure speculation.
Speculating further, one of the models for the transition from Roman administration to small post-Roman kingdoms postulates that some Roman fort commanders may have become local warlords as central authority broke down, supporting themselves by collecting supplies from the local population instead of taxes when the salary payments stopped arriving. Such a process would have been smoother – indeed, may have been effectively underway long before the formal end of Roman rule – if local Roman commanders were already closely integrated with the local tribal leaders. If the finds at Crosby Garrett do indicate an important local settlement with strong ties to the Roman army, it would fit easily into this sort of model. It may even be significant that Crosby Garrett is in the Eden Valley, which is one of the (many) candidates for the location of the sixth-century kingdom of Rheged (see earlier posts on the location of Rheged here and here). I need hardly say that this is so tenuous that it doesn’t even qualify as speculation. Nevertheless, the idea that the heroes of sixth-century Rheged might have had some distant connection with the Roman elite cavalryman who owned the spectacular Crosby Garrett helmet has a certain romantic appeal.
Breeze DJ, Bishop MC (Eds). The Crosby Garrett Helmet. The Armatura Press, ISBN 978-0-9570261-7-9 (£5). Excerpt available online.
Jackson R. Roman Cavalry Sports helmet from Crosby Garrett, Cumbria. Report for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, 2010. Available online
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The breakthrough not only allows an object made up of many different materials to be printed, but also lets the user change the look and feel of a single material used to print an object. It's possible to print an object with hard and compressible sections out of a single material, even if the raw material isn't flexible in itself. — Gizmag
Now you can 3D print a single object with multiple materials and varying densities, thanks to MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). Through an adapted software called Spec2Fab, the designer can specify precisely which materials are to be used in each part of the printed...
SUBMIT NEWS: submit in 60 seconds!
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Differentiate Instruction With Paper Choice and Get Ready for Presidents' Day
- Grades: 1–2, 3–5
Presidents' Day is less than a week away. Are you ready to teach your students about great leaders in history? Have you been looking for ways to talk to your students about the protests in Egypt? Let’s use this special day to inspire children to think about what it takes to be a great leader. I'll share my book choices here, as well as downloadable resources and links that will help you scaffold your students’ learning while differentiating instruction. If you think about it, we are educating future leaders! So make the time to plan for these lessons today.
What Are the Qualities of a Great Leader?
Last week, I had the opportunity to work with children in 1st, 2nd, and 4th grades. To create lessons on the same theme across these grades, I raided the library at my school for books on our presidents and thought about activities that would increase students' knowledge of government and leadership while allowing them to work on writing skills. I created a few paper choices for the activities and headed out to the classrooms. As you look at our work, think about the abilities and learning styles of your students and grab some of these resources to use in your classroom. Happy Presidents' Day!
Over the course of two classroom visits, I read If I Ran for President and engaged students in a discussion about what it takes to be a great leader.
After reading this story to your class, have children think about Ben, the main character, and all of the hard work he does to become president. What if your students had the chance to run for president? What would they do to get the most votes? Have students create a poster or speech that would convince others to vote for them.
Allow your students to choose between the poster paper and the speech paper. Model the kind of work you expect from each project with the whole class. Then, send your students off to write and draw. Giving students a choice in which project they work on will make them completely invested in their writing.
Some students will choose the poster page, just as Vanessa did . . .
Be sure to give your young writers the opportunity to share their work with a partner or in small groups.
Photo above: Maggie and Alexis talk about their writing while John listens in.
You will notice that some students will complete the task early while others need more time. Have a basket of books ready in your meeting area and invite students who finish early to browse, read, and discuss your books with others.
Maggie enjoys learning about Barack Obama.
John (below) chose to read If I Ran for President, the book I used in my read-aloud. Your students will want to get their hands on the book you've shared with the class. Be sure to have multiple copies available.
Looking at student work will help you determine the needs of your students to plan for future instruction and get you thinking about additional ways to differentiate instruction. Revisit my post "Assess, Plan, Teach!" to find out more about on-demand writing pieces and about crafting mini-lessons based on your students' strengths and needs.
Here are some wonderful posters and speeches written by these fantastic 1st graders:
In order to activate prior knowledge and provide a starting point for their writing, I gathered my students together to create a class web. We collected our ideas about what it takes to be a great leader. I used the first page of a new flip chart and our Promethean board to record our thinking on a web.
We read Duck for President (chuckling our way through the humorous text) and added new ideas to our web. After your read-aloud, have a discussion about the qualities of a great leader and compare them to Duck's character traits, based on evidence from the text.
Your students will pick out some of the important presidential-themed vocabulary words repeated throughout the book. Create a list of these vocabulary words for your students to refer back to during the next part of this lesson — the writing assignment!
Duck went from wanting to run the farm to wanting to run the state to wanting to run the country, and found that each job came with a lot of responsibility. Use the pattern, "Running a _______ is very hard work!" and ask your students to create their own poster or write a short but powerful campaign speech to convince the public to vote for them.
I added additional lines to the original poster paper (with more lines) and speech paper (with more lines) and once again gave students a choice in their writing assignment. Regardless of paper choice, each student was held responsible for picking a group, organization, or place to write about (running a class, school, team, state, country, etc.), staying on topic, and providing at least three examples of why people should vote for them.
Camila chooses a poster page, but gets to the writing right away!
Yasmin gets comfortable and chooses the page with more lines for writing.
Here are some of the convincing posters and speeches from this thoughtful group of 2nd graders:
Scaffolding work with a class web is a great start for younger writers. With older writers, you may want to follow up a talk on what it takes to be a great leader with an independent activity instead. Giving students the choice of making up a list of qualities or recording them on a web will help them get their ideas down on paper in a way that works best for them. I created both sheets on Pages and used clip art from Scholastic Printables. Download both paper choices and try them out with your students. It's obvious to us that children are being asked to complete the same task. However, they are being given a choice in the way they organize and record their information. Students will feel empowered and get to work right away.
Amit chooses to write down his ideas on a web.
Dibisha chooses to organize her thinking by using a list.
Allowing older writers to independently record their prior knowledge lifts the scaffold we put into place with our younger writers. These 4th graders will now take their ideas and create their own campaign speeches to persuade others to vote for them. I look forward to working with them again this week!
Leadership in Egypt
Need more resources to explore a presidential theme in your classroom? This booklist will help you teach students about presidents and the election process. In addition, if you haven't spoken with your students about what has been going on in Egypt, the time is now. You can easily include lessons on these important current events using a special Scholastic News collection "Protests Sweep Middle East." You'll find articles, slide shows of amazing photographs, maps, fast facts, and historical background. It's a powerful collection of teaching tools. You can always count on Scholastic to provide teachers with child-safe resources on real world issues that are sometimes difficult to explain to young students. Hooray for Scholastic!
Thinking about paper choice is just one small way of planning for differentiated instruction. Many teachers I speak with have been working hard to take into account their students' learning styles, strengths, and needs while differentiating tasks in their classrooms. This is important work, but it isn't easy. What methods have you tried that worked well for your students? Please share your ideas with us!
I know firsthand that running a classroom is very hard work! ;) Best of luck with differentiating your instruction and teaching your students about what it takes to be a great leader.
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Visual binaries are systems in which the individual stars can be seen through a telescope.
Spectroscopic binaries are systems in which the stars are so close together that they appear as a single star even in a telescope. The binary nature of the system is deduced from the periodic doppler shifts of the wavelengths of lines seen in the spectrum, as the stars move through their orbits around the center of mass. In some instances, the spectrum shows the lines from both stars; this case is called a double-lined spectroscopic binary. In other cases, only one set of lines is seen, the other star being too faint, and we call the system a single -lined spectroscopic binary.
Eclipsing binaries are systems in which the orbital plane is oriented exactly edgewise to the plane of the sky so that the one star passes directly in front of the other, blocking out its light during the eclipse. Eclipsing binaries may also be visual or spectroscopic binaries. The variation in the brightness of the star is called its light curve.
Five to ten percent of the stars visible to us are visual binary stars. Careful spectroscopic studies of nearby solar-type stars show that about two thirds of them have stellar companions. We estimate that roughly half of all stars in the sky are indeed members of binaries.
One of the fundamental properties that we want to know about a star is its mass. The only way that we can determine the masses of stars is to study the orbital motions of binary stars. Application of the laws of celestial mechanics allows us to calculate the masses of the stars from measures of their orbital periods, sizes and velocities.
Link here to the Astro 101 binary star simulations.
|[back to the topics page]||[back to astro 2201 home page]||[back to Astro 2201 FAQ page]||[back to Astro 233 FAQ page]|
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Posted by Smokey Stover on April 24, 2008 at 17:07:
In Reply to: Money burns a hole in your pocket, etc. posted by Marie Sumnicht on April 24, 2008 at 10:59:
: I'm trying to find the origins of "Money burns a hole in your pocket", "his bark is worse than his bite" and "rule the roost".
Although you can find help with the meanings of these expressions, they have been in common use for so long that I doubt you could ever find out who said it first, or under what circumstances. Hence, I can only take a run at the meanings.
(a.) "It was only a bit of change, but it was plainly burning a hole in his pocket." As though it were something hot, he wanted to pull the money out--and get rid of it by spending it. This can be used of almost anything that a new owner wants to use or spend right away. In the 18th century it was sometimes expressed as "burning in one's pocket" or something similar. Two examples cited by the OED are "1740 MRS. DELANY Autobiog. & Corr. II. 165 The post brought me your letter, which burnt in my pocket. 1768 TUCKER Lt. Nat. I. 152 Children..cannot rest till they get rid of their money, or, as we say, it burns in their pockets."
The more modern version appeared at least as early as the 19th century: "1857 TROLLOPE Three Clerks II. ix. 198 How was she to give him the purse? It was burning a hole in her pocket till she could do so." (Example quoted in the OED, s.v. burn.)
(b.) "His bark is worse than his bite." This is said literally of some dogs, meaning that their bark may be scary (as intended), but they probably won't bite. The figurative meaning is pretty clear: his angry threats are more fearsome than his actual performance. The OED cites versions of it from the 17th century on. "1663 Lauderd. Papers I. 131 It..is intended that that letter shall be a great bark if not a byt. 1816 SCOTT Antiq. II. vii. 186 'Monkbarns's bark,' said Miss Griselda Oldbuck..'is muckle waur than his bite.' 1842 DE QUINCEY Cicero Wks. VI. 184 The bark of electioneering mobs is worse than their bite. . . ."
(c.) "Rule the roost" started out as "rule the roast," although why is not known. The OED remarks, s.v. roast, "to rule the roast, to have full sway or authority; to be master. Hence ruler of the roast.
In very common use from c 1530 onwards, but none of the early examples throw any light on the precise origin of the expression."
Since the image of a cock lording it over his hens in their roost comes to mind so easily, roost has very largely replaced roast in the vernacular. See what Henry Fowler has to say, as quoted by the OED (s.v. roost): "1926 FOWLER Mod. Eng. Usage 509/1 Rule the roast (roost). The OED gives no countenance to roost, it does not even recognize that the phrase ever takes that form; but most unliterary persons say roost & not roast; I have just inquired of three such, & have been informed that they never heard of rule the roast, & that the reference is to a cock keeping his hens in order."
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24 Feb 2012:
Conservationists Launch Drone To Monitor Forest Loss and Wildlife
A coalition of scientists and environmental advocacy groups has developed a camera-equipped drone they say could become a key conservation tool for monitoring forest loss and endangered wildlife. The coalition — which includes The Orangutan Conservancy, the Denver Zoo, and two Swiss scientists — has already deployed a remote-control drone to map deforestation and count orangutans in the remote forests of North Sumatra in Indonesia, according to a report in Mongabay. The drone, which was developed by ecologist Lian Pin Koh at ETH Zürich, is able to travel a pre-programmed flight route and take aerial photos and video footage. During 30 flights so far, it has collected hundreds of photos and hours of video, including images of oil palm plantings along the edge of a river. According to the developers, the pilot drone costs about $2,000. “My dream is that in the future, every field ecologist will have a drone as part of their toolkit, since it doesn’t cost more than a good pair of binoculars,” said Koh. The seed funding for the project was provided by the National Geographic Society.
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Turkish – Polish diplomatic
relations date back to 1414, when envoys were sent by the Polish Kingdom
to the Ottoman Empire. Many envoys were exchanged in the following centruies.
The diplomatic relations between the Ottoman Empire and Poland was
continous for 600 years, even during the 123 years (1895-1918) when Poland
ceased to exist when divided between three powers.
Poland was one of the first counties to recognize and
conclude Friendship Treaty with Turkey on 23 July 1923, before the proclamation
of the Republic of Turkey in October 1923. The Embassy of the Republic of
Turkey, with its seat in Warsaw, was vacant only during the Second World War,
resuming its functions in 1947.
Before the war the Embassy had its seat
in Chopina 2A (1921 – 1939) and after the war in Polonia Palace
(1947-1949), Bristol Otel (1950-1952), Aleja Jerozolimskie 101/6 (1952-1953),
Marszalkowska 17/7 (1953-1956), Noakowskiego (1956-1968) and currently in
Malczewskiego 32 (1968-today).
The Embassy is responsible for all fields of relations
between Turkey and Poland, which is developing and widening in scope every
The consular services for the whole of Poland are
undertaken by the Consular Section of the Embassy, which is also in
The Embassy also has the Office of the Military
Attache in the same premises, whereas the Office of the Commercial Affairs, the
Office of the Counsellor for Culture and Promotion are in seperate locations.
Turkey has Honorary Consul Generals in Poznan and
Gdansk, with new Honaray Consuls to be appointed in Krakow, Wroclaw and
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| 0.945081 | 393 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Design and implement a comprehensive, ecoregional assessment that considers the needs for maintaining energy production while ensuring that objectives for biodiversity conservation are met.
Southern Caribbean Basin, Venezuela
Venezuela is among the top 10 most biologically diverse countries in the world, and its Southern Caribbean Basin is a center of extraordinary marine biodiversity. In addition to harboring a number of ecosystems inhabited by numerous threatened species, the basin is an important site for fishing and tourism. Due to the demand and pressures placed on its rich resources, the basin is at high risk of degradation. Although Venezuela has marine protected areas, especially in coastal waters, they cover only 3.4% of the country's waters. As in most places, there is a struggle to effectively conserve and manage the protected areas. Investment is urgently needed to abate the numerous threats to this ecologically vital area and to significantly increase its level of protection.
- Identify priority areas for the conservation of marine biodiversity in the Venezuelan Caribbean Sea, with special attention to places of potential interest to the oil and gas industry.
- Recommend best environmental practices to oil and gas companies to avoid or minimize impacts to ecosystems, biodiversity, and priority areas.
- Identify compensation areas that can be protected or restored to offset the residual impacts of oil and gas development. Residual impacts are those that occur despite avoidance and minimization.
- Support the creation of new national or sub-national parks.
- Recommend general policies and legislation changes to support biodiversity protection.
- Universidad Simón Bolívar
- Instituto de Tecnología y Ciencias Marinas (INTECMAR)
- The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
- Fundación de Investigación y Desarrollo (FUNINDES USB)
- Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA)
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en
| 0.878399 | 375 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Some Internet history
The origins of the Internet are normally traced back to the ARPAnet developments undertaken by the American Department of Defence (Advanced Research Projects Agency) in the 1960s. Many of the concepts and applications which were to prove so successful later (asynchronous exchange of short messages, or e-mail; file transfer among teams collaborating on a single project; protocol definition independent of the computer architecture; practical encouragement to implement the agreed protocols on a wide variety of computers; etc.) date already from that time.
There then followed a slow but steady spread outwards from the original environment. From defence-oriented research to all aspects of research. From scientific departments in universities to all academic departments. From academia to R&D departments of commercial companies, and thence to whole companies. And, eventually, to the individual home.
In this spread there were two moments of crucial importance. They were both linked quite closely to the widespread introduction of personal computers (of all architectures). One was the moment when the Internet became the "network of choice" for linking all of the desktops inside companies, whether large, medium or small. The other was the moment when access from the home to the Internet via telephone dial-up became a market in itself.
Applications and available bandwidth
If we look at Internet applications we see that the initial applications, such as ubiquitous electronic mail, required only simple (unformatted) text to be transmitted. Then other people wished to transmit formatted text, since most people find reading more than about one page of unformatted text extremely tedious. The success of the World Wide Web was, at least partially, due to the fact that it encouraged the transmission across the Internet, not only of text, but also of "forms" and relatively simple graphics, in a way which did not depend on the architecture of either the server or the client computer. And there are many Internet applications being developed now which are based on the use of very realistic graphics.
For any application to come into widespread use on the Internet, several conditions must be met. The application itself needs to be well-designed, affordable, and catch users' imaginations. But, more important, there must be a sufficiently large body of users with access to whatever equipment, including computers, displays and audio devices, but also Internet bandwidth, is required to run the application effectively. Roughly speaking, a user who has regular, reliable, connectivity at 1 Kilobits per second (Kbps) will only be happy with that Internet performance for asynchronous e-mail (unformatted text). Formatted text requires roughly ten times that bandwidth (10 Kbps), and the use of simple interactive graphics across the World Wide Web needs frequent and reliable access to Web servers at an effective performance of 100 Kbps to be at all impressive. Realistic graphics and other data-intensive applications can easily use up to 1000 Kbps of access bandwidth between the user and the server(s) involved.
To summarise, the "take off" point for any new Internet application depends strongly on a critical mass of users having an Internet access with sufficient bandwidth.
Twin development pushes - High-performance Internet and Commodity Internet
The history of computing, and indeed of many other high-tech industries, has highlighted developments in two complementary directions. Computer vendors have always used technology advances both to reduce the cost of computers for constant performance, and to increase the performance available at constant price.
The Internet is now showing a very similar behaviour. Supplying access for the general public to the "Commodity Internet" from their homes is obviously a very price-sensitive business, and today depends heavily on telephone or cable TV modems, which tend to have rather limited performance, but the size of the potential market is huge. On the other hand, universities and leading research institutes and companies have a real need to exploit the very highest-performance networking, as a way forward in fields such as distance learning, remote diagnosis, distributed collaborative engineering projects, and remote access to huge distributed databases.
The past two years have shown that these twin pushes, towards the commodity Internet and towards a high-performance academic and research Internet, do not automatically fit together in an easy way. Specifically, the way in which bulk personal e-mail and Web-access traffic interferes with high-performance traffic, and especially with the real-time requirements of graphics and audio traffic, as all packets come together and flow across the major Internet switches and backbone lines, has led to significant congestion. Some of the recent American initiatives, and specifically the Internet2 initiative from the universities, emphasise the need now to separate out these traffic flows, and to develop better technical and commercial models for how Internet growth can be funded.
It may be necessary to point out the complementary nature of these twin development directions. The commodity Internet only exists today because of past developments in the academic and research Internet. The members of the various world-wide academic disciplines and sub-disciplines had both the need for intensive international communication, and more tolerance than the average "commodity" user towards technical teething troubles. We can confidently expect progress in the Internet to continue on this basis. High-performance Internet developments today, whether undertaken in Europe or the USA, will feed through into future products exploiting higher speeds, more advanced switches, and better protocols, which will form the basis of the commodity Internet in a few years time. Of course, the development of the Commodity Internet and High-performance Internet must be properly integrated, in the sense that suitable traffic can pass smoothly between them.
Europe and the USA
If we look at the overall situation of how intensively the Internet is being exploited, both for home and business use, most observers would agree that Europe is lagging some 2-3 years behind the USA. This time-lag is a significant handicap in such a fast-moving field, and tends to ensure that European firms operate in "catch-up" mode, rather than undertaking innovative developments themselves.
While there are undoubtedly many factors involved, those people who have been working to exploit the Internet in Europe, and especially those concerned with exploiting it on a fully pan-European basis, have always had one over-riding obstacle to contend with, which has been the excessively high cost of bandwidth, and especially of international bandwidth, delivered by our existing (quasi-)monopoly suppliers. The rule of thumb that an (international) leased line in Europe (say 2000 km long) costs 5-10 times more than a similar (but national) line in the USA, seems to have remained true over the past two decades, even while speeds have risen and costs have fallen in all countries and all continents. In Europe, great hope is obviously being placed in the forthcoming liberalised telecoms market, which will come into effect in most countries of the Union in January 1998, but the speed with which this change really will increase competition and decrease prices remains to be seen.
Of course we need to avoid excessive self-deprecation. The Americans have some quite serious problems of their own. While they have an extremely competitive situation around the Internet, both for the supply of bandwidth, and for the supply of Internet services to homes and to industry, and for the development of Internet applications, including electronic commerce, they have at least two inter-related areas where progress does not appear to be quite so smooth.
The National Science Foundation Network (NSFnet), which was considered as the "jewel in the Internet crown" was "privatised" in 1994, and many people consider that at least as many problems as successes followed that change. To over-simplify the situation, the competing commercial networks which were expected to assume the NSFnet mantle do not seem to have proved as capable of managing the required growth of Internet capacity as people had hoped, neither in terms of the network engineering, nor of obtaining the financial resources required.
Another seeming American weakness stems from the apparently rather complex coordination between their different government agencies. In Europe we may have had some problems to coordinate our various national approaches to academic and research networking, but, in general, there has always been rather good coordination among the different agencies inside the various countries. However, in the USA there are several nation-wide academic and research networks provided by different government agencies, such as NSF, DoE, NASA, etc., and the degree of coordination between them sometimes appears to leave something to be desired.
Internet governance and evolution
The way in which the Internet is organised and evolves is sometimes seen as "mysterious", and even by some as "dangerous for Europe", but, while it might seem surprising that the process works, there is no mystery. The basic point is that all companies and organisations with a serious interest (whether as vendors or as users) in the development of the Internet need to reach agreement on technical standards. But, in this fast-moving field, these technical standards have to be developed very quickly and they also need to be very robust. Since 1991 this overall process has been overseen by the Internet Society (ISOC), with important roles being played by the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
While the Internet Society was formed in the USA, and face-to-face meetings of these bodies are largely held, in English, in North America, they must be seen as entirely democratic bodies, with well-defined rules of procedure, which are making a serious attempt to recognise the international nature of the Internet. Indeed it is a rule of the IETF that all decisions are taken by e-mail, to avoid the need for participants to attend all meetings and have good spoken English. De facto observation shows that the proceedings and recommendations of these bodies cannot be dominated either by single vendors or by single countries, however powerful they may be. We should further note that some very powerful positions in these bodies have been and are held by non-Americans. This includes the chair of the Internet Architecture Board, which has been held for the past four years by two different Europeans.
There is one aspect of the process of Internet evolution which perhaps deserves special comment. The procedure by which Internet standards are developed contrasts quite strongly with the more formal international standardisation process, whose more gentle pace has proved rather poorly adapted to very fast-moving technical fields. The Internet process involves a very widespread phase of comment and criticism of early draft standards, and ensures that Internet standards are architecture-independent by insisting that protocols may only be finally agreed as standards when at least three independent implementations are available. As the example of the failure to establish independent "commercial" Internets (such as the Microsoft Network) shows, there is an enormous technical and commercial interest from all users and suppliers to ensure that the Internet remains as the single "world-wide inter-connect", and the present Internet standardisation procedure appears to be sufficiently responsive, open and fair to achieve this goal.
Protocol developments for differing levels of service
One theme which emerges strongly from all planning for Internet improvements is the need for the Internet to support different levels of service if it is to continue to expand. Most people are happy if their electronic mail reaches its destination(s) with a delay of some minutes, and would even occasionally accept delays of several hours, especially for overnight delivery, provided that the mail indeed always arrives. On the other hand, delivery of a meaningful stream of audio or video information requires that the packets are delivered "immediately", in good order, and with very little loss.
It may be much more expensive to provide the second service than the first. However, because of assumptions made during the original development of the Internet, it is now very difficult to develop a good technical understanding of the details of how traffic flows, on a world-wide basis, though the various major Internet backbones and switches. Efforts to improve our understanding in this area, which have both research and development components, will obviously be of extreme importance to the companies building Internet switches over the next few years, and also to providers of Internet-based services, who may, or may not, be able to exploit this improved understanding. We can note again the crucial importance of the whole fabric of European commerce and industry becoming involved in this leading-edge work, if we do not want to be faced with de facto technical diktats coming from across the Ocean.
American High-performance Internet developments
During the recent American Presidential campaign Bill Clinton make a promise that 100 MUSD of funds would be made available to help improve the performance of the Internet, which was seen as becoming saturated by traffic. This political commitment has been given the name "Next Generation Internet Initiative" or NGII. It is perhaps in the nature of politicians' electoral promises that it is not clear to many people whether this investment will come from new funding, and exactly which elements of the Internet, or which groups of users, are to be the target of this generosity.
But either independently, owing to the impact of the congested Internet on higher education, or as a result of Clinton's promise, several groups of American academic and research Internet users have started to make plans to significantly improve Internet performance for their communities.
One of the most advanced and credible of these efforts appears to be the Internet2 Initiative (I2I). This was started at the end of the summer of 1996, and now has the backing of almost 100 American universities. It aims to increase Internet performance in the universities concerned by a factor of ten over the next three years. There are very good records of the very considerable amount of work that has already been undertaken available on the Web at http://www.internet2.edu/. In particular there are excellent descriptions of potential future applications, and of the proposed architecture and engineering approach. Detailed proposals for how the I2I should now proceed were made at a major meeting held in California in January 1997. As has been the tradition in American Internet development, we can again see a strong interest from industry to collaborate with this, primarily academic, effort.
However, this is not the only American initiative. Apparently independently of the I2I, various government agencies, among which NSF, DoE and NASA are prominent, are developing scenarios for a ten-fold performance improvement over the short term, in line with the political initiative. These efforts are also being referred to as Next Generation Internet Initiative, or NGII. In terms of nomenclature there is quite some confusion between the political push (NGII), the technical planning of the agencies (NGII) and the technical planning of the universities (I2I).
European High-performance Internet developments
In September 1996 the TEN-34 (Trans European Networking at 34 Mbps) Project reached agreement on how to improve significantly the international connectivity of Europe's academic and research networks, and it is likely to come into production use in Spring 1997. It represents a truly major step forward for the European Internet, both technically and politically. Technically because the cost barrier, which had been created by linear pricing of international leased lines at and above 2 Mbps, has at last been broken, and at least some of the international congestion of the European Internet should be relieved. And politically because the Commission played a more direct role than in the past in brokering an agreement to which essentially all European academic and research networks could subscribe. On the other hand the length of time, some fifteen months, that it took to reach agreement, and the prices which have to be paid for the connectivity, which still remain surprisingly high, indicate that this is still a very complex field in which to make progress.
We can now also see significant activity as European telecoms vendors try to stake out their positions for the January 1998 liberalisation. On the high-performance side many vendors are making joint venture and alliances for providing trans-Atlantic bandwidth and services. And on the commodity side there is also significant activity, and search for partnerships. What is not so obvious is the extent to which companies may be able to offer, in the short- or medium-term, High-performance Internet connectivity on a pan-European basis.
Intranets and co-operative working
As companies investigate the ways in which they can use Internet technology for competitive advantage, there has been considerable interest both in Intranets and in improved co-operative working.
"Intranet" is the name which has been given when companies use Internet technology for their internal world-wide networking, but where the network is either not at all, or only in a very limited way, connected to the general "public" Internet. While the company obviously has to bear the full cost of its own Intranet, it is in full control of it, and the advantages in the area of security, and of being able to control the load and correctly manage the necessary evolution, are considerable.
Another area which is attracting major commercial interest at the moment is the push to fully exploit Internet and World Wide Web technology in order to improve work-flow and staff co-operation inside organisations. Existing Internet applications were largely developed in an independent fashion. If they can be brought together on an Intranet, so that workers in a company have access to a more coherent and integrated "information environment", then the potential competitive advantages may be significant. This effect could be very important both for small start-up companies, where there is very strong pressure to provide excellent customer support while containing costs, and for larger companies operating on a fully pan-European basis.
People have started to use the name "Electronic Commerce" to cover the impact that the "Internet Economy" will make on the way in which every citizen and every enterprise, of whatever size, goes about the business of acquiring and providing goods and services. When these goods and services can be inspected and compared on the Internet in a way which provides the buyer with at least as much information as they can acquire in local or even in specialised shops, we can all see that the implications will be very profound, and likely to have a very significant effect on all European economies.
Much of the most interesting work on new "Electronic Commerce" applications is being carried out in the USA, despite the existence of Europeans with enough exciting new ideas, and skills to implement them. This is because the critical mass of Internet connectivity, and especially connectivity at adequate bandwidth, is not available in Europe. The effect of the two to three year time-lag between Internet deployment in Europe and the USA, which does not sound so much, is pernicious, in that it effectively means that very much of the leading-edge work on new Internet applications is being carried on outside the European Union. We risk to see the major "Electronic Commerce" applications develop with a distinctly American flavour.
In the initial section of this report on "Background" we drew attention to the way in which Internet applications cannot be considered independently of the bandwidth available to the potential users, and to the dual development thrusts of the Commodity Internet and the High-performance Internet.
It is our view that many useful and valuable applications will be developed in Europe, for both the commodity and high-performance Internets, as soon as bandwidth grows and pan-European coverage improves. Besides "Electronic Commerce", areas of great interest include health care, tele-teaching, and support for wide-area collaborative work.
While some stimulation of applications may be useful in efforts to stimulate Internet evolution in Europe, the emphasis should probably be placed on generic aspects, rather than on trying to pick winners. Historically we can note that the World Wide Web, developed initially in Europe and commonly considered to be the "killer application" of the early Internet, was a huge success which had not been widely predicted. The nature of its success was perhaps that there was a very definite need for its use in one specific community (that of particle physics, where people wanted easy and smooth access to all forms of documentation from around the world) and to the fact that it was designed in a generic way which made it easy to adapt to many other communities, and then to industry and commerce.
Security and Legal Issues
Many people are aware that there are some concerns about the "security" and the "legal framework" of the Internet. These are important fields, which should be neither over- nor under-estimated in importance.
In the area of the Commodity Internet one major security issue dominates the scene. Although many people have become used to quoting (insecurely) credit card information over the telephone in order to guarantee reservations or to pay for goods, the idea of Internet hackers obtaining similar information by stealth has led to the idea that the Internet is not safe for serious commercial use. A number of different technical approaches, both for the secure use of credit cards and for the provision of "Internet cash", are close to entering into general use, though largely driven by work being carried out in America. This work, especially its relationship to encryption procedures, is one where the impact on the European "Single Market" will be important, and where the EU needs to have a clear position.
The Commodity Internet will obviously raise many issues which can be classified as "legal" and/or relate to the way in which the individual citizen interacts with fellow citizens, companies, and government. Europe will have to decide how these are to be handled.
For the High-performance Internet, "security" has traditionally been more about hacking. Either people using the Internet to enter surreptitiously into connected computers, or people attempting to slow down or even shut down areas of the Internet itself. These areas will continue to need attention, and the scant regard that the Internet has for national borders will ensure that good pan-European cooperation will be needed in this field too.
Software vendors use the term "internationalisation" to refer to the way in which a product is adapted to the multitude of local markets into which it will be sold. Besides the obvious need to translate the input and output dialogue, in all its various forms, into the language(s) of the target market, more subtle, cultural, changes are sometimes required. Trivial examples include the need to allow for residential addresses to have a variety of different layouts and postal codes, and for programs to support different national methods of payment.
If Europe is to obtain its "fair" share of the market for Internet business, and to export software written for Internet use in one country of the Union to other countries, and around the world, the we surely will have to encourage good practice and widespread education in this field.
In order to be logical and consistent, we should ask ourselves to what extent the European Union ought to be involved in any of these Internet developments. For this advisory group the answer is clearly "very significantly".
The development of the Internet, especially in the area of Commodity Internet and Electronic Commerce, over the coming decades, will have truly enormous influence on all citizens of the Union, and on the implementation of the "Single Market". But Europe will not become competitive in the Commodity Internet market unless it can make a push to significantly reduce its present backlog, with respect to the USA, in bandwidth deployment and hence applications development, by investing in the area of the High-performance Internet. We must emphasise again that the "commodity" and "high-performance" aspects of the Internet must be seen as complementary and not alternative developments for Europe.
We feel that Brussels must have continual access to very good sources of information concerning Internet developments, both in the purely technical, and more broadly commercial and geo-political areas, so that its policies can be well-thought-out and effective. Some of these policies will be focused on the Internet itself, such as the need to follow up carefully on the real level of competition in the newly liberalised market for the provision of bandwidth and other services. But other policies will be based on much more general issues of society, including free speech, privacy, and the coming competition between "physical" and "electronic" commerce, where the Internet will come to play an enormous role.
In the same way that the Internet will increasingly impact each citizen over the next two decades, it will have a strong impact on the work of each Directorate-General of the Commission. It will be important that the Commission obtains a good understanding of the technical background of Internet developments, and that the relationship between the commodity aspects of the Internet and the high-performance aspects is correctly appreciated and handled in Europe. Although all Directorates-General must develop their own understanding of the impact of the Internet on their areas of responsibility, we believe that it will be important for the Commission to have a centre of expertise and coordination for European Internet developments. The Commission staff involved should be able to dialogue at a technical-political level with other regions, and to coordinate action among the various bodies of the EU.
We also feel that it is important that the various measures which are available to the EU in order to help less-advantaged areas of the EU should take full account of the vital importance of data networking. We must urge that all relevant EU Directorates and Programmes should provide financial support for data networking, on the same basis as support for other infrastructure, in such areas.
It is already possible to read articles in the press from people who feel that the Internet is merely a "fashionable fad" whose time has arrived, and will soon pass. The members of this advisory group believe strongly that this is a completely false view. The Internet will surely be seen by historians as the very start of a major transformation of society, which will take several decades at least to complete, towards Electronic Commerce and the Information Society. As with all economic and political transformations, Europe will have the chance to adapt well, or to adapt badly, to these challenges. We hope that it will show the ability to adapt well.
The trigger for setting up this Advisory Group came from the American initiatives, mainly starting in the second half of 1996, to improve the (American parts of the) Internet, as a reaction to the "saturation" and poor performance that had been observed following very rapid growth, both in the number of users and in their ability to consume bandwidth, in 1995 and 1996, and the apparent failure of the systems in place to cope with this growth.
We might have imagined that our group would call for one or more European initiatives to match the Next Generation Internet Initiative, or the Internet2 Initiative, in the USA. But, while we feel that there are specific actions that could be useful in that context, our basic message has to be at an even more fundamental level. Europe has to wake up to the Internet at many levels. It will affect us all, in the ways in which we do business and in the ways in which we conduct our lives. If we do not turn our undoubted skills and talents to profit from the coming opportunities offered by the Internet, then we shall find that other regions of the world will do so in our place.
Our first group of recommendations are rather general and political or economic or commercial in nature, and are therefore mainly addressed to "Europe" in general, or to the European Commission, as a more concrete manifestation of this "Europe". A second group of recommendations follow on from the first group, and are rather more specific. In all cases we have added some explanation to the text of each recommendation.
Considering the background outlined above, and the developments under way, both in Europe and in the USA, to improve and evolve the Internet, the Advisory Panel feels that the three following recommendations are fundamental to a healthy and economically successful development of the Internet in Europe:-
This is a plea for recognition at the highest levels of the EU. We have developed the arguments for the importance of the Internet for Europe's future throughout this report. We note from press reports that this theme seems to have been largely commented on at the recent (January 1997) meeting of the World Economic Forum.
This is a plea for both the EU and for European industry and commerce, of all natures and of all sizes from large to small, to sit up and take notice of the dramatic impact that the arrival of Electronic Commerce will have on the future of European businesses and competitiveness.
Once the problem has been identified, and the opportunity recognised, concrete action is required.
The Advisory Panel feels that various other recommendations follow from these first three fundamental points. They are largely more detailed questions of implementation aimed at ensuring that the policy approach can be effectively implemented.
The Internet is already having a major impact in the areas coming under the responsibility of each Commissioner and Director-General of the EU. This impact is likely to increase significantly over the coming years. While it is obvious that each Directorate-General will need to increase the level of understanding of all staff for the potential of the Internet to impact their fields of expertise, we believe that is very important that the Commission should have access to a team of staff who are specifically responsible for tracking Internet developments and keeping their colleagues apprised of recent, present and likely future developments.
We also note that the existence of such a team should help to avoid the present situation where each major Internet development made outside Europe has to be analysed and reacted to by fairly ad hoc groups of EU staff and outside experts. In our opinion more continuity would be highly desirable.
Paradoxically, it may be easiest to explain what we intend here by starting with some of the things that we specifically do not intend. We do not see this forum as competing with bodies such as the Internet Architecture Board or the Internet Engineering Task Force, which do their difficult jobs well. We do not see this forum as competing with a number of European bodies which already exist (DANTE, FINE, RIPE, TEN-34 and TERENA are some of their names) and which have various roles to play in the deployment of services and in the evolution of the Internet in Europe.
What we do see is that, above all, there is a need to make European industry and commerce much more aware of the potential and risks of the Internet. In addition there are a number of issues where Europe might have a valid position of its own concerning the evolution of the Internet. We need to emulate the very productive American co-operation between academia, schools, research institutions, telecoms suppliers, and industry and commerce (both as suppliers and users of Internet services) in the development of the Internet. It would clearly be very useful for the European Commission to have a well-recognised organisation to which it could turn for advice on the whole gamut of Internet issues. To be useful, such an organisation needs ideally to be independent of the EU, although we would expect strong encouragement and support from the EU, especially during the start-up phase.
Examples of areas where the existence of such a forum could potentially already have been valuable in developing a pan-European consensus (if it exists) and in offering well-informed advice to the EU, include encryption, the rights of the individual concerning personal data gathered via the use of the Internet, security (hacking), internationalisation, and the development of the Internet name space.
In this context we would like to make one rather urgent proposal. We judge that the present American Internet initiatives are significant and should be followed carefully. We suggest that the Commission should rapidly find a few experts who will follow the American moves on behalf of the EU in the coming months.
Provided that a minimum of adequate infrastructure is made available, good Internet access will be possible in all geographic areas of the EU, even those with low population density or per capita income. There are even good reasons to think that Internet access can act as a significant positive force for social and regional cohesion, and some recent studies tend to confirm this opinion. As we have noted above, support for Internet infrastructure in less-advantaged areas of the EU should already be possible under existing measures.
It is very important not to lose sight of this vital point. It is a requirement if Europe is to move from playing "catch-up" to a position of equality, or even leadership, in the field of Electronic Commerce.
As part of the process of increasing the available bandwidth, described in the text and in the previous recommendation, it will be important to make sure that the High-performance Internet in Europe quickly moves towards the sort of bandwidths now being exploited in the USA, for highly demanding applications such as meta-computing. The experience of the TEN-34 project shows just how long it can take to reach agreement between the multiple partners involved, so we recommend that the most efficient solution for all parties would not be to set up a new project, but rather to expand the bandwidth available to the TEN-34 project as quickly as possible.
While all of these activities are interesting and should be considered, any decision about which of them should be treated with priority would appear to need further analysis. The suggestion to emphasise mobile Internet access seems especially attractive.
This short-term recommendation is addressed at governments and national network organisations in Europe. We feel that they can already help by directly tracking the technical approaches which are being adopted by the Americans in the evolution of the Internet. There also appear to a good chance to use such national actions to trigger the involvement of local industry.
Members of the Advisory Group:
Michel Diaz LAAS France
Geerd-D Hoffmann ECMWF UK
Olivier Muron INRIA France
Louis-François Pau Ericsson Sweden
Björn Pehrson KTH Sweden
Jean-Pierre Peltier ONERA France
Brian Randell University of Newcastle UK
Ulrich Trottenberg GMD Germany
David Williams CERN Switzerland - Rapporteur
Enzo Valente INFN Italy.
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Illinois Native Plant Guide - Common Beggarsticks - Pages 44-45
Illinois Native Plant Guide
Common Beggarsticks Bidens frondosa
Preferred Water Depth and Inundation Tolerance
Prefers moist soil. Growth is favored by a 75-90% soil moisture content.
Young plants have no tolerance for submergence and should not be flooded for
more than 2 or 3 days in 1-2 inches of water. Mature plants have some tolerance
for water level fluctuation. This species shares the same zone with Aster
Provides cover and food. Achenes are eaten by mallard ducks and ruffed
grouse. Plants are eaten by muskrats.
Used in upper shoreline zones, upland slope buffers, and in vegetated swales.
Availability, Establishment, and Maintenance
Achenes are available from commercial vendors.
Achenes have a high rate of germination after cold, moist stratification
at 32-34o F for several months and spring planting.
Fresh achenes may also be fall planted by broadcasting and raking into
soil for natural stratification.
Mid to late season drawdown (May -July) stimulates seed production from
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Repeated laboratory exposures to triclosan reduced susceptibility to antibiotics in Staphylococcus aureus, but probably not sufficiently to render commonly used antibiotics ineffective, according to a paper in the June 2012 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. It also generated less virulent, less fit “small colony variants” of the pathogen.
The research is important, because concern has arisen that antiseptics and disinfectants might cause bacteria to develop reduced susceptibility to these compounds, as well as to antibiotics, to the point where for some uses, in some countries, they have been strictly regulated, says principal investigator Andrew McBain, of the University of Manchester, UK. S. aureus is an important source of hospital- and community-acquired infections. Triclosan is a broad-spectrum antibacterial and antifungal compound often used in cleaning supplies, personal care products, toys, and other consumer products, as well as in clinical settings, for example, to reduce methicillin-resistant S. aureus infections.
The research began serendipitously when, during an unrelated study, Sarah Forbes, a PhD student in McBain’s lab, created a population of small colony variants by serially exposing S. aureus ten times on concentration gradients of triclosan. “This type of selection system we used represents a worst case scenario in terms of altering bacterial susceptibility because of the repeated and continuously elevating high level exposure,” says McBain. “We then grew this strain a further ten times on triclosan-free medium to see if it could recover.” The exposed strain had reduced susceptibility to triclosan, and it was defective in its ability to form biofilms, as well as in a few other virulence-related functions. “We therefore hypothesized that if virulence had been altered at all in our strain, it had actually been reduced,” he says.
Forbes, and postdoctoral research associate Joe Latimer then grew the small colony variant, as well as the unexposed strain of S. aureus, in the wax moth larvae model, Galleria mellonella, “and found that our small colony variants were indeed less pathogenic in this test system than the unexposed strain,” says McBain. Even after it was grown another ten times in triclosan-free media, the small colony variant failed to fully regain its virulence, as well as its normal ability to form biofilms and to produce the enzyme, DNase.
“The work suggests that at least for small colony variants, long-term exposure can select for reduced susceptibility, but that the resulting organisms may also be reduced in their pathogenic capability, or fitness,” says McBain. He adds that “even though our small colony variants were less susceptible, their resistance levels remained markedly lower than commonly used concentrations so they were still probably effectively treatable.”
Explore further: Antibiotics boost risk of infection with antifungal-resistant candida
J. Latimer, S. Forbes, and A.J. McBain, 2012. Attenuated virulence and biofilm formation in Staphylococcus aureus following sublethal exposure to triclosan. Antim. Agents Chemother. 56:3092-3100.
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NursingNurses Addressing the Obesity Epidemic
The Center for Allied Health Nursing Education
The prevalence of obesity is increasing in the United States and globally. Obesity has been linked as a precursor to many diseases and conditions. It has been recognized as a risk factor to many chronic diseases and premature death. Children, especially ethnic minorities and low income populations are more at risk for obesity and its co-morbidities. Some contributors to obesity are physical and social environments that promote foods high in fat and calories. Coincidently, promote environments with little or no physical activities. Even with these environments that contribute to bad nutrition and sedentary lifestyles, society still view obesity is as a personal responsibility. Nurses addressing the obesity epidemic require a shift from the norm of blaming individuals for the lack of will power to control their eating and physical activity but toward a healthy environment as a primary determinant. This paper addresses the obesity crisis from individual, family, local community and public policy perspectives and the nurses’ role to promote change, advocate for policy initiatives, and help reverse the obesity epidemic. This paper also addresses the nurse’s role in anticipating obesity related issues, such as, skin, pulmonary, intravenous access, and mobility. Challenges are considered and interventions to address these issues are presented.
Nurses Addressing the Obesity Epidemic
Obesity is a major concern for the healthcare professional because it has become an epidemic in the United States of America. More than two thirds of American adults are defined as obese (Roth & Schlenker, 2011). According to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2009), 68% of U.S. adults ages 20 and older in 2007 and 2008 were overweight, with a body mass index (BMI) of at least 25, and nearly 34% were obese, with a BMI of at least...
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Six different rapid diagnostic tests have proved reliable in detecting Chagas disease without having to wait for laboratory confirmation, according to a study by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders and the World Health Organization.
Such quick tests could be a breakthrough for controlling the disease, which infects up to eight million people in Latin America and has spread, through migration, to the United States, Europe, Asia and the Western Pacific. Chagas is caused by a parasite normally passed on by the bite of the kissing bug, also known as the reduviid bug or the triatomine bug. It has also been transmitted by blood and organ donations, to fetuses by mothers and, in rare cases, through food with crushed bugs in it.
It may begin with a mild infection but prove fatal decades later when a weakened organ — usually the heart, esophagus or bowel — suddenly collapses. It kills about 12,000 people a year, according to the W.H.O.
The earlier treatment with antiparasitic drugs starts, the better the outcome usually is.
Tests on 474 blood samples by multiple laboratories showed that six of 11 tests that gave results in 30 minutes or less were very reliable. Tests to see how well they work in the field with blood obtained by finger prick are now underway.
The W.H.O. currently recommends two laboratory blood tests and a third if the first two disagree — a process that can take weeks.
“This is revolutionary,” said the study’s lead author, Laurence Flevaud, diagnostics adviser to Doctors Without Borders/Spain. “We have shattered the myths about the diagnosis. There is no longer an excuse for not treating.”
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A frequent theme in the preparedness community is the importance of water. Where to find it, how to store it, how to purify it and how to filter it. Whether you are a prepping newbie or an experienced survivalist, water should be high on your list of prepping priorities.
In addition, see below for information on how you can win one of three free LifeStraw personal portable water filters.
BACK TO THE BASICS: WATER FOR SURVIVAL
When I first started Backdoor Survival, my focus was on gathering the basics: food, water, shelter and fire. Of course, along the way I have learned that there is so much more that is essential to long term survival. Things that come to mind are clean air, clothing, first aid, self-defense, signaling and contact with others.
But today I want to keep things simple and, for the benefit of my newer readers, go back the basics and review the essentials of water for survival.
WATER – THE MOST IMPORTANT SURVIVAL BASIC
Clean water is something that we all take for granted. We turn on the faucet and there it is. It is plentiful, it is clean and it is drinkable. Yes, it may have some undesirable chemical additions (fluoride comes to mind) but that is a subject for another day. So if a disaster occurred and the supply lines to fresh water were comprised, we would be in a pickle. There is a possibility that safe water would not be available for days and possibly not for weeks.
For this reason, the American Red Cross, FEMA, and just about every other authority out there recommends that the public store at least one gallon of water per person, per day for a minimum of three days. But if you think that a three-day water supply is adequate, think again.
A more reasonable recommendation is that you up the recommended amount of stored water to a two-week supply. So for two people that would be 2 people x 1 gallon x 14 days = 28 gallons. This amount should cover your minimal needs for drinking, food preparation and nominal – and I mean nominal – hygiene.
Storing water for an emergency can be as simple as filling thoroughly washed plastic or glass containers with tap water and sealing them tightly. This is something that anyone can do without incurring a cost so long as few simple rules are followed.
So let’s do it. Let us store some water following these steps:
- Clean them up. Thoroughly clean your plastic bottle and jugs with dishwashing soap and water then rinse completely so there is no residual soap.
- Sanitize with bleach. Sanitize your bottles by adding a solution of 1 teaspoon of un-scented liquid household chlorine bleach to a quart of water. Swish the sanitizing solution in the containers so that it touches all interior surfaces. Don’t forget to sanitize the lids and caps as well. After sanitizing the containers and caps, thoroughly rinse out the bleach solution with clean water.
- Fill ‘em up. Fill them to the top with regular tap water. Add two drops of non-scented liquid household chlorine bleach to the water, then tightly close the containers using the original caps. It is probably a good idea to use some latex or nitrile gloves at this point so that you maintain the sanitation and do not contaminate the caps by touching the inside of them with your fingers.
- Date the outside with a permanent marker such as a Sharpie.
- Store in a cool, dark place.
- Important: rotate in six months to a year. Dump the water, re-sanitize the jugs, and start all over. Or, if you have the space, mark the jugs as as “non-potable” and save the water for non-drinking emergency purposes.
Personally, I think it would be a good idea to put up a few jugs at the first of each month. Do this for six months and you will build up a nice, rotating stock.
Plastic soda bottles or juice jugs work well for this purpose.
Water stored this way is good for six months to a year as long as it is kept in a cool, dark place. Regardless of where it is kept, the containers should be rotated at the end of the designated period.
Note: Milk jugs should not be used since the milk and protein sugars are difficult to remove and will compromise the stored water because this will provide an environment for bacteria growth. In addition, milk jugs are flimsy and will not hold up, even for a short period of time. Ditto cardboard. The cardboard will eventually leak and make a big mess. Glass is okay but be aware that glass is heavy and subject to breakage.
If you have the space and the budget, you can purchase food-grade plastic drums designed for water storage. These typically hold 55 gallons of water and with the addition of proper purification chemicals, will keep the water safe for up to five years. I personally have a 55 gallon water storage system. It was easy to set up and it came outfitted as a complete kit with all of the various tools and siphons I will need if/when that emergency situation occurs.
Another alternative, of course, is bottled water. The same rule applies: store in a cool, dark area and periodically rotate.
HIDDEN SOURCES OF WATER
In addition to tap water, there are other hidden sources of water that you can use when a disaster occurs. These sources include the water in your hot water heater, pipes, and even the ice cubes from the icemaker in your refrigerator or freezer. Before tapping in to these sources, however, you will first need to shut off the main valve coming in to your home so that you do not contaminate the ”good” water with the “bad”.
Here are some specific instructions for using the water in your hot water tank:
- Turn off the electricity or gas.
- Open the drain at the bottom of the tank.
- Start the water flowing by turning off the water intake valve at the tank and turning on a hot-water faucet.
- And don’t forget: be sure to refill the tank before turning the gas or electricity back on.
OUTDOOR SOURCES FOR WATER
Barring the use of stored water or the hidden water sources in your home, there is always the outdoors. Water may be available from rainwater, streams, ponds, lakes and natural streams. But absolutely stay away from flood water since it is likely to contain sewage and other nasties that you do not even want to think about.
When using outdoor sources of water, you are going to have to undertake purification measures to make it safe. There are many ways to purify water, some better than others and some easier than others.
For ad hoc water purification, nothing beats plain old Clorox as long as it is fresh (no more than a year old) and unscented.
- Remove suspended particles by filtering or letting particles settle to the bottom.
- Pour off clear water into a clean container.
- Add 8 drops of Clorox® Regular-Bleach (not scented or Clorox® Plus® bleaches) to one gallon of water (2 drops to 1 quart). For cloudy water, use 16 drops per gallon of water (4 drops to 1 quart).
Boiling water is considered the safest method of purifying water. What you do is bring water to a rolling boil for three to five minutes. The water may not taste that great but it will be safe to drink.
Factoid: To improve the taste of boiled or stored water, you can put some oxygen back in to the water by pouring it back and forth between two containers.
Add and dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (approximately ¼ ounce) for each two gallons of water, or 5 milliliters (approximately 7 grams) per 7.5 liters of water.
The mixture will produce a stock chlorine solution of approximately 500 milligrams per liter, since the calcium hypochlorite has available chlorine equal to 70 percent of its weight. To disinfect water, add the chlorine solution in the ratio of one part of chlorine solution to each 100 parts of water to be treated.
This is roughly equal to adding 1 pint (16 ounces) of stock chlorine to each 12.5 gallons of water or (approximately ½ liter to 50 liters of water) to be disinfected. To remove any objectionable chlorine odor, aerate the disinfected water by pouring it back and forth from one clean container to another.
A good reference for this and other purification methods can be found in the downloadable and printable article Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water.
WHAT ABOUT WATER FILTERS?
The use of water filters to make raw water drinkable is another solution to the water for survival dilemma. The nice thing about a filtration system is that it will not only supplement your stored water, but will provide you with great tasting, chemical free drinking water for day to day. I personally have a Royal Berkey and to tell the truth, wonder what took me so long to discover this alternative to purchased water in bottles and a countertop Brita.
This is not to say that I don’t have bottled water because I do. After all, if I have to leave my home it would be tough to drag along a 55 gallon water barrel or a Berkey. But for day to day drinking as well as long term survival needs, you simply can not beat a quality filtration system.
PORTABLE WATER FILTERS
I have had good luck with the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter. This lightweight and affordable filter is like an oversized straw. You can use it with a cup or dip it directly into a pond or stream. There are other portable water filtering systems as well and these are hand to keep in your emergency backpack, your car or your travel kit.
THE FINAL WORD
Thanks to a tip from one of my readers, I learned that you can find pre-used, food grade plastic drums on Craigslist for about $25 each. If you decide to check in to this, be sure to confirm that the original contents was food then clean them well first with vinegar and baking soda to remove odors and then with bleach for sanitation.
Here in my area, there is a fellow that sells such barrels and will even add a hose bib at the bottom for a nominal cost. I am not 100% sure I would drink from such a barrel but the water inside should be great for bathing, laundry and housekeeping chores.
Another reader has suggested the use of colloidal silver to get rid of bacteria in water. I have not researched this personally, however.
Whatever your water storage method of choice, I highly recommend that you store at least two weeks of water for every member of your household. Just remember that depending on climate conditions, you can only survive for an average of three to five days without the intake of water. Why take a chance?
Read other articles by Gaye Levy here.
Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!
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Adolescent girl athletes are as much as eight times more likely to injure their knee's anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) than their male counterparts, according to a recent study led by Morgan Stanley Children's// Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Medical Center. Published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, the study looks at the reasons why the knee injury disproportionately affects mature girls. The study's author, Dr. Christopher S. Ahmad, also addresses how to prevent and treat the condition.
"With more girls competing in soccer, basketball, gymnastics and volleyball—sports requiring maneuvers such as jumping and landing, or quick stops and turns—more cases of ACL injuries are being seen," says Dr. Ahmad, director of the Center for Pediatric and Adolescent Sports Medicine at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
The study posits two primary reasons for girls' increased susceptibility to ACL injuries. First, adolescent girls tend to develop increased quadriceps strength, while not increasing hamstring strength. With very strong quads overpowering the hamstrings, an imbalance occurs, leading to undue stress on the ACL. Second, girls become skeletally mature earlier during puberty, and they tend to perform their sports activities in a more upright position that adds stress to the ACL.
The study followed 53 female and 70 male recreational soccer players, aged 10 to 18. Greater knee laxity—one indication of risk for ACL injury—was found among mature girls (8.85 mm), especially when compared to mature boys (7.33 mm). Previous research has shown that estrogen may contribute to laxity and weakened ACLs. None of the study participants had evidence of damage to their ACLs. The study also found mature girls had significantly greater quadriceps-to-hamstring ratio (2.06) when compared to immature girls (1.74
), immature boys (1.58) and mature boys (1.48).
Dr. Ahmad suggests tips for girls on how to prevent ACL injuries, including making them more aware of their upright position during activities like landing from a jump and training them to assume a more flexed stance. He also suggests strengthening of hamstring, hip and core muscles.
'When an injury takes place, the child's knee and surrounding areas should be iced and elevated to prevent inflammation,' says Dr. Ahmad. 'With any persisting pain or lack of mobility, parents should consult with their physician.'
RM Related medicine news :1
. The Reason For Depression in Adolescents2
. Abnormal Brain Structure One Of The Reasons For Depression in Adolescents3
. The Reason For Depression in Adolescents4
. Adolescents Who Walk To School Are Fitter, More Active5
. Movie Smoking Is The Prime Triggering Factor For Adolescents6
. Gluten-Free Diet May Alleviate Psychiatric Symptoms In Adolescents 7
. Adolescent Marijuana Smokers Face Risk Of Developing Schizophrenia8
. Adolescents Influenced By Maternal Attitude Regarding Weight Control9
. Soda Consumption: An Unhealthy Trend Among Adolescent Girls10
. Parental Domestic Violence Contributes To Adolescent Depression11
. Adolescents Who Indulge In Unhealthy Dieting At Increased Risk For Obesity
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When Colombian President Ãlvaro Uribe Vélez gave the signal for the propaganda onslaught — accompanied, coincidentally, by paramilitary threats and harassment — in favor of his referendum in October 2003 (in which 81% of the Colombian population abstained from participating), some Colombian analysts reminded readers that Hitler had used referendums to build fascism. Referendums can be demagogic instead of democratic. Brought to power on the strength of a popular, indigenous-led insurrection in October, Bolivian President Carlos Mesa is a different species of politician than Uribe or Hitler, of course, but his July 18 gas referendum — one of the three pillars of the program imposed on the government (the other two being a constitutional assembly and an end to government impunity) — fit squarely in the demagogic camp. The Mesa administration, along with neoliberal political parties (MNR, MIR, NFR), the Catholic Church, Evo Morales/MAS, the Permanent Human Rights Assembly, the Human Rights’ Ombudsman’s Office, and numerous NGOs, equated participation in the referendum with support for “direct democracy.” The referendum was pitched as an unprecedented historical opportunity for the Bolivian people to decide the fate of their natural resources; one that they, as citizens of the world’s second-most unequal country measured in terms of the distribution of wealth and income, could not afford to miss.
The five questions of the referendum were as follows:
1. Do you agree that the current Hydrocarbons Law should be changed?
2. Do you agree that the Bolivian State should have rights to hydrocarbons once they reach the ground?
3. Do you agree that YFPB [the oil company privatized under Sánchez de Lozada] should be re-established in order to control hydrocarbon production?
4. Do you agree that Bolivian gas should be used to regain useful or sovereign access to the Pacific?
5. Do you agree that Bolivian gas should be exported, and that multinationals should pay 50% of projected profits for rights to exploit Bolivian gas, and that the government should invest in health, education, and infrastructure?
The chief architects of October’s uprising — COR-El Alto, FEJUVE-El Alto, UPEA (El Alto’s public university), the COB, the branch of the CSUTCB led by Felipe Quispe, and the Coordinadora of Gas in Cochabamba — advocated a boycott because Mesa refused to incorporate the demand supported by over 80 per cent of Bolivians: nationalization. According to social movement leaders, dominated by but not limited to indigenous people, Mesa’s referendum offered only the appearance of sovereignty, insofar as it neglected to revise the seventy-eight contracts signed with multinationals under the 1997 Hydrocarbons Law — brainchild of former president Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada, who authored the decree two days before leaving office for the first time. In short, opposition movement leaders contended that the referendum, since it was not retroactive, would leave Bolivian gas and oil in the same multinational hands that acquired it before neoliberalism fell into the crisis that led to Sánchez de Lozada’s downfall on October 17, 2003.
With coup rumors launched by Waldo AlbarracÃn, the Human Rights Ombudsman, on July 14, the message was explicit: those who advocated a boycott threatened Bolivia’s “democratic” stability and, willingly or not, favored the forces of reaction. On the evening of the 15, speaking on PAT (a television station of which President Mesa is a major shareholder), Mesa equated social protest with violence, intolerance, and disrespect for democracy, and used his formidable skills as a television broadcaster to persuade his audience of the specters he conjured up for them. Immediately following Mesa’s address, PAT showed the results of its nationwide opinion poll even in El Alto, only 10 per cent favored burning referendum forms. A tiny, radicalized minority, then, threatening to subvert Bolivia’s democratic order, pushing it inexorably towards a reactionary coup. The tune was not new, and its one-note insistence recalled Goni’s pathetic song and dance in September-October. So did the searches and seizures conducted in La Paz on July 13, which ostensibly revealed the existence of a “subversive group,” harboring “explosives” in order to “sabotage” the coming referendum. Neither the alleged subversives nor the explosives were shown to the ever-compliant press, which asked few questions and told necessary lies.
The anniversary of the foundation of La Paz was unusually tense this year, and on July 15 Mesa nipped the traditional celebration in the bud at midnight, under the “Auto de Buen Gobierno,” declared in order to prevent widespread drunkenness before the referendum. Drink continued to flow in copious amounts in bars across the city into the early morning hours, but the packed, all-night street festival in the city center was shut down via a show of overwhelming state power. On the 16, security measures were tightened in the Plaza Murillo to protect the president, his cabinet, and the diplomatic corps from “threats” of undisclosed provenance. Meanwhile, with sporadic blockades beginning in El Alto, Roberto de la Cruz, one of the leaders of COR-El Alto, received multiple death threats before turning off his cell phone. The fault lines in the loose coalition that overthrew Sánchez de Lozada were thrown into sharp relief: on the official side, Morales/MAS — the “respectable,” electoral opposition — and the representatives of Bolivia’s only politically legitimate state institutions (the Permanent Human Rights Assembly and the Ombudsman’s Office); on the other side stood the insurgent forces without whom the referendum would never have been put on the national political agenda in the first place.
As Lucila Choque, a UPEA professor of Aymara descent (and former student of mine), noted on PAT on July 14, the second question was particularly deceptive, since it appeared to give Bolivians sovereignty over gas reserves, without reversing the privatization process first initiated under Jaime Paz Zamora (1989-1993) and accelerated during and after Sánchez de Lozada’s first administration (1993-97). Choque explained that what Bolivians like her wanted was for her and her children to eat better, to have decent lunches instead of soup and bread, and she explained that that would never happen unless Bolivian gas was sold at world market prices (as opposed to 20 per cent of said prices). Mesa had betrayed the October agenda, and according to Choque, people like her knew it, which is why they advocated a boycott; no one was against a binding referendum per se, or even the export of gas, she said. The issues concerned the terms and conditions of sale, and the nature of the questions on the referendum. To their credit, then, representatives from the movements advocating a boycott explained their reasoning on television, radio, and in meetings with the rank-and-file in their respective organizations. They argued that the people had already spoken out in favor of nationalization.
As soon as they were divulged in May, the questions were scrutinized around the country, especially in El Alto, and given media efforts to stereotype the opposition as a small group of maximalist “dead-enders,” the opposition demonstrated an impressive capacity for sustained, respectful debate. In the media, much was made of the people’s incapacity to understand the technical complexities of gas exploitation, and Mesa inundated the airwaves with simplistic explanations of various aspects of the process. Yet as in September and October, the opposition articulated a clear vision of what it wanted: national sovereignty over natural resources, especially the 53 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves the second-largest in Latin America. For the opposition, nationalization is considered the only hope for a future that would break with past cycles of non-renewable natural resource extraction (silver, tin, rubber), which enriched a small number of creoles and foreigners at the expense of urban artisans and Andean peasant communities. The debate over the referendum reflected clashing historical interpretations and contrasting — and perhaps incompatible — visions of the country’s future. President Mesa tried to represent the referendum as a chance to break with the past, threatened only by a violent minority that refused to recognize the democratic rights of the majority. Yet the in the region whose almost exclusively non-violent resistance and rebellion made Carlos Mesa president in October, the majority saw the referendum as continuity, thinly disguised as change; a way of masking the minority interests of privileged groups as the general interests of the nation.
In the face of widespread deployment of police and military forces throughout the country, with characteristic pragmatism, on July 18, some rank-and-file militants opted for a “third way” between the maximalism of their leadership and the opportunism of Evo Morales and MAS. Although the latter had considerable influence in the towns (pueblos), their reach was limited in the countryside. Even Roberto de la Cruz voted, following the rank-and-file consensus, but not in response to the questions as formulated on the ballot. Like many, he voted for nationalization. In District 8, Senkata — gateway to Oruro and a key site of conflict in October — was heavily militarized, with continuous blockades on the Avenida 6 de Marzo in which two people were injured. Yet the voting tables were open all day, and members of the FEJUVE and the COR voted, many casting blank ballots or writing in the word “nationalization.” At another flashpoint in October, Santiago II, a zone composed largely of ex-mining families, many voters opted for nationalization as well. In other words, the boycott in El Alto fell flat (excepting Senkata), but insofar as significant portion of the rank-and-file expressed a preference for nationalization, which Mesa had excluded from consideration, they sent a clear political signal that attempts to void the content of October’s agenda via the manipulation of democratic forms will not go unchallenged.
In Achacachi and Warisata (Omasuyos), insurgent Aymara districts that led struggles in defense of natural resources in 2000 (land, water) and 2003 (gas), most voters were senior citizens who feared they would lose their right to a government bond if they failed to vote. The majority abstained from voting. Many of those who did vote wrote in “nationalization” or handed in blank ballots. Eugenio Rojas, a community member from Achacachi and veteran of the gas war in 2003, explained, “We are organizing ourselves because the Aymara and the Quechua don’t sleep. This is a long fight. we have to return to [the issue of] political redistribution. We have to reconstruct the ayllu, but not just the Aymara, but our brothers, the Chimanes, GauranÃes, Quechuas, because we can’t usurp their lands, or their forms of government, we have to unite with them.” Rojas warned that the process could not be allowed to fall into the hands of any of the political parties, whether MAS or NFR. For Felipe Quispe, leader of the CSTUCB, the referendum represented a “sad defeat,” since “the people have lost and the transnationals have won.” In Cochabamba, site of the water war in 2000 and one of the fronts in the gas war in 2003, Oscar Olivera and the Coordinadora for Gas held parallel tables and launched a campaign for the recollection of a 1,000,000 signatures in favor of nationalization. Olivera emphasized that the referendum would bring no changes in the daily lives of working people. “The people are building their own horizon. The referendum ends today but the struggle continues; it’s irreversible. This referendum won’t change people’s lives and people will understand that in time.”
As one neighborhood leader from Senkata put it, nationalization of gas under the type of state run by Mesa would be an advance, but a limited one. The strategic goal, he said, was to change the state, in which case nationalization would lead to radical change. His position echoes those put forth over thirty-five years ago by two of Bolivia’s leading national-popular intellectuals, René Zavaleta Mercado and Sergio Almaráz. In 1967, in a deep and wide-ranging debate at the University of San Simón in Cochabamba, both Zavaleta and Almaráz insisted that even if petroleum were to be nationalized, unless the state was nationalized along with it, gains would be limited and subject to reversal. Just as the eventual nationalization of Gulf Oil (1969) was linked to the formation of the Asamblea Popular (1971), so the nationalization of gas is tied to the constitutional assembly slated for 2006.
Though Mesa and the adoring media have proclaimed victory, since the majority response to all five questions was “yes,” they are surely premature in doing so, as is Morales — although of rank-and-file activists who voted, perhaps a majority voted “yes” on the first three questions and “no” on the last two, just as MAS had advocated. Why, then, is celebration premature? Because the overall abstention rate was around 40% (10% higher than normal for Bolivian elections), and of those who voted, an average of 12% handed in blank votes, while 11% turned in nullified votes. This gives an average total of 63% who passively or actively dissented from what is already being passed off as a consensus on the future exploitation of Bolivia’s gas and petroleum reserves. The referendum has opened the floodgates for debate and struggle over nationalization — not just of natural resources, but also of government and the state itself. What nationalization of state, government, and natural resources would look like in a country with a heterogeneous indigenous majority has yet to be defined, but in spite of the ambiguous language of the referendum’s questions, and the illusion of legitimacy the response to them has created, Mesa has won nothing more than a battle, and then only partially. The war for national sovereignty and the self-determination of the indigenous majority will go on.
*”Popular Participation” is placed in quotation marks because it refers to the centerpiece of Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada’s neoliberal reform program (1993-97). Les doy gracias a los compañeros de IndyMedia Bolivia y Radio Wayna Tambo, ya que su trabajo en el dÃa 18 hizo posible este artÃculo.
Forrest Hylton is conducting doctoral research in history in Bolivia. He can be reached at [email protected].
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Bipolar Disorder Treatments And Bipolar Natural Cures
Bipolar disorder is a serious mood disorder characterized by mood swings varying from an abnormally elevated mood to an extremely depressed state, thus exhibiting behaviors that are poles apart. Elevated mood is referred to as mania and a milder form is hypomania. These individuals may have manic or depressive mood swings fluctuating over a period of time or in some cases, they may experience mixed episodes that have manic and depressive feelings simultaneously. The mood swings may be punctuated by normal periods or the individual may suffer a rapid change between mania and depression referred to as rapid cycling.
Extreme mania can cause hallucinations and delusions and extreme depression may lead to suicidal behavior. Based on the nature and severity of the mood swings, bipolar disorder has been divided into various types, the three main types being bipolar I, bipolar II and cyclothymia. Insomnia, irritability, anxiety, anger, fatigue and loss of motivation are some of the symptoms that accompany bipolar disorder.
Most individuals suffering with bipolar disorder are diagnosed in the initial stages of adulthood through observed behavior and self-reported experiences. Bipolar disorder could be linked with environmental factors or could also be an inherited disorder. Since bipolar disorder is a mental disorder, visiting a reputed psychiatrist is recommended as only a trained individual will be able to monitor the condition effectively. There are no tests available for the diagnoses of bipolar disorder but medical investigations may be conducted to rule out other conditions with similar symptoms that the individual is experiencing. Diagnosing bipolar disorder is extremely difficult even for an experienced mental health professional as some patients may exhibit lesser occasions of mania than depression and vice versa. Most researchers believe that bipolar disorder is connected with chemical imbalances in the brain.
Doctors usually prescribe medication to control the chemical imbalance in the brain. A sudden discontinuation of the medication can have adverse effects and no medication should be stopped without consulting the psychiatrist. Looking out for causes that trigger the erratic mood swings and trying to avoid them may help in reducing the episodes. Positive surroundings, motivation and a reduction in negativity, stress and high expectations may also help the individual experience more normal phases in life.
Diet For Bipolar Disorder Patients
Deep breathing exercises and meditation help in calming the brain. A balanced diet with plenty of fruits and vegetables is recommended for the better functioning of the body. Omega 3 fatty acids found in fish and flax seeds may prove beneficial is improving brain function. Alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, aerated drinks and chocolate should be avoided as they may have the ability to trigger undesirable episodes.
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Thirty days had not passed since much of Brazil's soybean area was planted, and already Asian rust was making appearances.
The costly fungus showed itself in Brazil in 2002. Researchers say rust can yellow plants and cut their photosynthesis at any stage after plant emergence.
Embrapa researcher Cláudia Vieira Godoy estimates rust can cost producers more than 2 bu./acre in costs for controlling the fungus.
The costs for not controlling rust could be far greater, depending not so much on the spread of the wind-borne rust fungus itself, but on weather conditions that can make it act more aggressively.
Temperature, altitude and humidity all contribute. As a result, it's estimated that soybean farmers suffered a 10% loss nationwide last season, with up to 80% yield loss in the hardest-hit areas in the state of Mato Grosso. Participants at a meeting of farmers and researchers in the soy expansion state of Bahia estimated that state's losses at more than $100 million.
Producers in the northern state of Maranhão have typically gone from one fungicide application to three. As they do, fears of resistant varieties are mounting. That may be why the introduction of the “stainless steel” variety, developed from resistant African soy varieties, didn't work out this year.
Researcher Tiago Vieira Camargo of the Mato Grosso Foundation, a research entity of seed companies in that Brazilian state, says a new strain of the rust fungus has overcome the “stainless steel” variety's resistance, setting back its introduction.
Meanwhile, fungicide applications can control rust and greatly reduce its impact. At the moment, 11 chemicals are registered with Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture for rust control. But increased fungicide applications can be expensive. That's why one of the main efforts to overcome the threat has been to develop resistant or tolerant varieties. In addition, researchers are working to nail down the precise climatic conditions that encourage the spread of rust in order to put together a map of critical areas.
Rust is carried by the wind. It's apparently a long-haul flier, sailing over the Atlantic Ocean westward to Brazil from Africa. And it's not a picky assailant. Researchers have identified more than 90 known plant hosts. However, weather factors can greatly affect manifestation of the fungus. The ideal temperature for rust, say researchers, is 73Þ F., with a minimum of six hours per day in which there is water — dew or rain — on plant leaves.
Rust first shows up as dark spots on leaves, which then yellow and fall off. The symptoms are similar to those of several diseases. As a result, there have been numerous rumors of rust problems this year, which researchers are monitoring before diagnosing.
“With other diseases the farmer has been accustomed to 10-30% yield losses. Rust can cause (much greater) losses and we still don't have resistant varieties to lessen the problem,” says Godoy, from Brazil's National Soybean Research Center.
Godoy adds that rust has been detected in 90% of Brazil's planted area. “That's not to say there has been damage in 90% of the areas, but rather that it has been detected.”
Rust adapts fast, and Godoy worries about resistance developing in the three to four years it may take to develop a rust-tolerant or resistant variety. That's just what is allegedly happening to the vaunted “stainless steel” variety.
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How do underwater lakes form?
Underwater lakes are brine pools. And believe it or not, even though people often refer to the ocean as the briny blue, while it's constituted of salt water it is not brine... Brine refers to water with an extremely high concentration of salt, higher than that of normal sea water. It is produced through salt tectonics, or the movement of large salt deposits.
The lake featured was discovered in the Mexican Gulf. During the Jurassic period the waters here were shallow and became cut off from the ocean. The area soon dried out, leaving a thick layer of salt and other minerals up to 8km thick. When ocean water returned after the region rifted apart, the super-saline layer at the bottom of the Gulf became an underwater lake. Now brine, which is continually released from a rift in the ocean floor, feeds the lake.
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The Alafia River runs east and west through central Hillsborough County, Florida, U.S., separating the primary load centers in and around the city of Tampa from Tampa Electric Co.'s largest generation point at Big Bend Power Station in Apollo Beach. Inspectors identified significant corrosion-caused deficiencies on the structures supporting four of the utility's seven transmission circuits crossing the river. With the ever-present threat of severe weather during hurricane season, Tampa Electric faced potentially catastrophic dangers if the situation was not resolved quickly, including major interruptions — or worse. The clock was ticking, and the utility had one of the biggest projects in its history to execute.
The three 230-kV circuits and one 69-kV circuit in question are in close proximity along a 1,300-ft (396-m)-wide stretch of the Alafia River. A variety of wood, steel and concrete structures supported the circuits to the north and south of the river, with steel lattice towers and tubular steel H-frames used to span the river itself. This included a set of structures on the tiny Key West Island, a spoil island in the river that reduced the longest span to about 1,000 ft (305 m). Adding to the project team's challenges, the island was sinking into the river.
Project Requirements and Goals
The initial driver for this project — to address corrosion-related structural deficiencies at the river crossings and eliminate their threat to reliability — soon gave way to other considerations: How could Tampa Electric use this opportunity to provide the best value and performance for its customers and shareholders? The utility assembled a project team to develop options, perform analysis and provide a recommendation to management.
In addition to the previously cited challenges, the geography of the project area proved to be extremely important. The Alafia River is an environmentally sensitive area and a popular recreational waterway. To the east and west, nearby bridges limit horizontal and vertical clearances. Tampa Electric made it a priority to minimize the project's impact on the environment and local community.
The utility had to consider other factors including future system upgrades and access to the project site for large equipment and many workers, both during the initial construction and later for possible restoration activity, while, at the same time, balancing its construction plan with project costs and the long-term life of the replacement structures. Above all, ensuring safety, the utility's highest core value, was a must for the project team and the public alike.
The project team was charged with developing a solution that would restore the structural integrity of the crossing structures and address the additional considerations in the most cost-effective manner. And the project had to be in service before the start of the 2011 hurricane season on June 11.
Project Development and Selection
The project team developed two options for completing the work. The first option called for remediation of the deficient structures with only limited new construction. The second option required much more new construction and included transmission structures that varied significantly in scale and potential benefits.
Because the corrosion-caused structural deficiencies initially were identified through a visual inspection, the project team commissioned CG Power Solutions to perform a comprehensive remediation study. CG inspected and tested the aboveground steel and reinforced-concrete foundations. Initial results showed only surface corrosion on the majority of the aboveground steel. However, the inspection revealed severe deficiencies in the steel connections to the concrete foundations, so much so that Tampa Electric added temporary reinforcement to one lattice tower on the spoil island based on CG's findings. The foundation testing showed the reinforced-concrete foundations on two of the lattice towers would not support any future Tampa Electric system expansion plans.
CG provided recommendations for remediating the foundations. An array of helical anchors would be suitable for some structures, but others would require more extensive remediation with supplemental concrete foundations.
In parallel with the remediation study, the project team developed conceptual designs for rebuilding the circuit crossings. The designs ranged from versions that maintained the existing configuration with in-place structure replacements to others that completely reconfigured the circuits and structures that would span the full width of the river.
The Best Solution
The team developed multiple options and evaluated each based on the project requirements. In an added wrinkle, the team factored in a fourth 230-kV circuit that would have to cross the river, part of a separate project and a new opportunity that came out of the multiple options the team had identified initially.
Using the recommendations and remediation estimate CG provided and the rebuild design options Tampa Electric developed, the project team narrowed the options to three and compiled separate cost estimates with scopes and schedules. Option 1 included remediation of the existing structures and limited new construction to accommodate the new circuit. Option 2 included replacement structures installed on the spoil island and new construction to accommodate the new circuit. Option 3 included new structures installed that spanned the river as well as provisions for the new circuit, and made possible the removal of the structures from the spoil island.
The project team determined option 3 would minimize the impact on the environment. Although temporary impacts to the island were necessary to remove the existing structures, this option would eliminate the significant excavation required for remediation and new installations. Option 3 also offered an aesthetic benefit by presenting a cleaner appearance along the river and a safety benefit by removing the structures from the spoil island, which is accessible to the public.
Removal of the existing structures and avoiding new construction on the spoil island provided short- and long-term benefits to crew safety, mobilization requirements, reliability, restoration and life-cycle costs. It also offered the opportunity to perform the engineering and design specific to accommodate the new circuit, and with minimal additional cost, the crossings could be built to handle significantly higher current levels if the circuits ever required upgrading.
With option 3, the project team had the best solution, one that met the minimum requirements at the least initial cost. It also offered many advantages that substantially addressed the other factors considered in this project. The team presented its findings, cost estimates, scopes, schedules and final recommendation to management and the project was approved. Now the hard work could begin.
Innovations and Project Complexity
This project broke new ground for Tampa Electric in three specific areas: structure size and span length; use and strategic deployment of lightning arresters; and implementation of a unique conductor tensioning procedure.
The crossing structures are the tallest, deepest and strongest, and have the largest diameter of any in Tampa Electric's transmission system. The spans across the river also are the longest in the utility's system. The Thomas & Betts tubular steel monopoles are 220 ft (67 m) in overall length, 8 ft (2.4 m) in diameter at the base with a 45-ft (13.7-m) direct-embedded depth and concrete backfill. The groundline capacity is in excess of 15,000 ft-kips (20,300 m-kN) and meets National Electrical Safety Code extreme wind requirements with all wires down in one direction. The river-crossing spans are more than 1,600 ft (488 m).
Although lightning arresters are standard equipment at Tampa Electric's substations and on the distribution system, their use on the transmission system has been limited and never above 69 kV. This project, however, includes two methods of lightning protection. Standard Tampa Electric transmission construction includes shielding with a static wire. But, since there can be as much as 60 ft (18.3 m) between the static wire and bottom phase conductor bundle, ABB lightning arresters were strategically incorporated into the design.
For protection from direct lightning strikes, lightning arresters on all three phases of the two outside circuits complement the standard static wires over the circuits. This provides an umbrella to the crossing spans and, because of their close proximity, should provide protection from direct strikes to the three inner circuits, as well. In addition, lightning arresters on the bottom phases of the three inner circuits to protect against back flashover. By eliminating the top- and middle-phase lightning arresters from the interior circuits, the project team cut more than US$20,000 from the project cost.
Generation of sag-tension information is a simple process in the office. Recreating it in the field can be a greater challenge, especially for self-supporting dead-end structures. Further complicating things on this project was the fact the design called for bundled 795 aluminum conductor steel supported (ACSS) over the river to be backed up with a single 1590 ACSS away from the river. Tampa Electric used Power Line Systems' PLS-CADD to design the project and generate sag charts, but it was the capability of PLS that accurately predicted pole deflection, which was the basis for implementing a unique but effective tensioning procedure.
Historically, this has been a two-step process. First, crews would install the conductor in one direction at a point close to the specified tension. The second step involved the installation of the conductor in another direction and pulled up close to the specified tension. This is where operations became problematic and the frustration of tightening one side and loosening the other began. After lengthy discussions, the project team developed a new approach by leveraging the capabilities of PLS.
The new approach began with the design of a PLS weather case using measurements of typical conductor temperature, ambient temperature and wind speed at the project site during construction. This typical weather case was used with a deflection load case to analyze the self-supporting dead-end crossing structures under two scenarios that mirrored the standard two-step procedure. The first analysis determined the structure deflection at each attachment point with only the bundled 795 ACSS conductor and river-crossing static wire installed at full tension. These values were recorded. The second analysis determined the structure deflection at each attachment point with the bundled 795 ACSS conductors, the single 1590 ACSS conductors and static wires in both directions installed at full tension. These values also were recorded.
PLS predicted the structure deflection at the middle phase attachment point would be 40 inches (1,016 mm) under the first scenario, but only 16 inches (406 mm) under the second. This means the middle-phase attachment point would change positions by 24 inches (610 mm) — the result of 40 minus 16 (1,016 minus 406) — between the crew's first and second steps. Likewise, the static wire attachment would change by 35 inches (889 mm), the top phase by 30 inches (762 mm) and the bottom phase by 22 inches (559 mm).
In the field, the crew completed the first step by installing the 795 ACSS conductor and static wire to full tension over the river. As an interim step unique to this project, crews released the static wire and conductors by the differential amounts described previously. Crews then completed the standard second step of the installation procedure, the installation and full tensioning of the 1590 ACSS conductors and static wire. With the upland conductors at full tension, the tension in the river-crossing conductors was verified and required virtually no adjustments.
With high stakes, a tight time frame and processes the project team had to create along the way, the project achieved all of its goals. In late May 2011, before hurricane season, Tampa Electric rebuilt the four existing circuit crossings and constructed the new circuit crossing at the Alafia River. The project solved the problems of structural deficiencies and offered a clean installation with major operational and maintenance advantages. The environmental impact was temporary and finite because all equipment was removed from the spoil island.
The final configuration accommodates the new circuit, offers a current rating of 1,000 A more than the previous rating and creates enough room for another circuit crossing in the future. In the end, the project required more than 8,800 man-hours for construction and came in almost 10% under the $5.5 million project estimate. The project earned Tampa Electric the 2012 Industry Excellence Award in the transmission line category from the Southeastern Electric Exchange and is one the utility will return to as a model of safe, large-scale achievement for many years to come.
The authors acknowledge the other members of the project team: Chuck Rogers, Ed Fridy, Nate Alcoz, Chris Steele, Dave Johnson and Matt LaRussa. They also thank Suzette Knight, Glenda VanPetten, Marcie Collins, Nicki Narloch and Carla Hunt. Without the handful of miracles they performed, this project would have been over-budget and missed the in-service date. Finally, the authors thank Cherie Jacobs and Brian Lott for their significant contributions to this article.
Phillip Hughes II ([email protected]) has 16 years of experience in the electric power industry, with 11 years at Tampa Electric Co. He has eight years of transmission operations and engineering experience and currently is a senior consulting engineer responsible for new construction projects, system modifications and resolution of LiDAR clearance issues. Hughes holds BSME and BSEE degrees from the University of South Florida and is a professional engineer registered in Florida.
Kenji Plennert ([email protected]) is a senior engineer at Tampa Electric Co. and has 10 years experience in the electric utility industry. He previously worked in Tampa Electric's transmission engineering group for five years and recently transferred to the position of distribution operations engineer. Plennert holds a BSME degree and a MBA degree from the University of South Florida.
ABB | www.abb.com
AFL | www.globalafl.com
CG Power Solutions | www.cgglobal.com
NGK Insulators | ww.ngk.co.jp
Power Line Systems | www.powerlinesystems.com
Southeastern Electric Exchange | www.theexchange.org
Tampa Electric | www.tampaelectric.com
Thomas & Betts | www.tnb.com
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Title: Cities in Translation
Subtitle: Intersections of Language and Memory
Series Title: New Perspectives in Translation Studies
Publisher: Routledge (Taylor and Francis)
All cities are multilingual, but there are some where language relations have a special importance. These are cities where more than one historically rooted language community lays claim to the territory of the city. This book focuses on four such linguistically divided cities: Calcutta, Trieste, Barcelona, and Montreal.
Though living with the ever-present threat of conflict, these cities offer the possibility of creative interaction across competing languages and this book examines the dynamics of translation in its many forms. By focusing on a category of cities which has received little attention, this study contributes to our understanding of the kinds of language relations that sustain the diversity of urban life.
Illustrated with photos and maps, Cities in Translation is both an engaging read for a wide-ranging audience and an important text in advancing theory and methodology in translation studies.
Table of Contents: 1. Introduction. Turning up the Volume of Translation in the City 2. Nineteenth Century Calcutta: Renaissance City 3. Habsburg Trieste: Anxiety at the Border 4. Barcelona: The Cracked Mirrors of Self-translation. 5. Montreal's Third Space 6. Language and Memory
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Why are Family Rules Important for Toddlers and Preschoolers?
Family rules help create structure. A family rule is a specific, clear statement about behaviors you expect from your child. Family rules may be specific to a situation, like dinner time rules. They can also be specific to behaviors that are never okay, like running in the house. Whatever the reason for the rule, your child’s behavior and your relationship can be better with rules. Rules work best when there is consistency, predictability, and follow-through. To learn more about these building blocks of structure and rules, click here.
Why are family rules important?
Family rules help children understand what behaviors are okay and not okay. As children grow, they will be in places where they have to follow rules. Following rules at home can help children learn to follow rules in other places.
It is normal for children to break rules and test limits. Breaking a rule is a child’s way of learning about his world. Consistent follow through with consequences when rules are broken help your child have a clear understanding about the importance of rules. Remember, young kids sometimes break rules because they simply forget. Not all broken rules occur because kids are testing the limits. But, our responses should be the same no matter what the reason for breaking the rule.
Why should all family members know and follow the rules?
For family rules to work well, everyone needs to know, understand, and follow the rules. By doing this, children don’t get mixed messages about what is okay or not okay. For example, you may feel that jumping on the bed is a dangerous behavior. You set a family rule that “The bed will be used only for sitting, lying, or sleeping.” If another caregiver jumps on the bed, your child may be confused. Your child may think this behavior is sometimes okay. Your child’s behavior will be better if all caregivers support the rules in the same way. This is true for parents, grandparents, or any other caregivers in your child’s life.
How can all family members get on the same page about rules?
There are several steps that can help all family members be consistent.
- Parents can talk about what rules would help their family and agree which ones to set.
- Parents can post the rules in the house so everyone can know them.
- Parents can have conversations with other adults who care for their children about the rules. This helps make sure everyone knows what is allowed and not allowed.
- Parents can ask all caregivers to be consistent in monitoring and enforcing the rules.
- Parents can remind children about the rules. Repeating the rules and posting them in the home are all good ways to remind children of the rules.
What is a good number of family rules for toddlers and preschoolers?
The number of rules you set depends on your child’s ability to understand and remember. It is also hard for parents to consistently enforce lots of new rules. For young children, focus on only two or three of the most important rules at any one time. As your child learns a rule and is following it consistently, you can add new rules.
- Page last reviewed: May 19, 2014
- Page last updated: May 19, 2014
- Content source:
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| 0.954315 | 679 | 4.09375 | 4 |
While SNPs are single-letter changes in the genetic code, copy number variation (CNV) involves the multiplication (or deletion) of entire chunks of DNA. While in a SNP, the allele is a single letter (e.g., C or T), in CNVs, the allele is an integer number of how many copies of the particular chunk of DNA an individual has. What this paper shows is that most human CNVs don't appear to be "fresh" changes but rather old "frozen" changes that are linked to specific SNPs or combinations of SNPs. Practically, this means that a CNV allele can be inferred fairly accurately by looking at SNPs in the region of the chromosome where it occurs.
Nature Genetics 40, 1166 - 1174 (2008)
Integrated detection and population-genetic analysis of SNPs and copy number variation
Steven A McCarroll et al.
Dissecting the genetic basis of disease risk requires measuring all forms of genetic variation, including SNPs and copy number variants (CNVs), and is enabled by accurate maps of their locations, frequencies and population-genetic properties. We designed a hybrid genotyping array (Affymetrix SNP 6.0) to simultaneously measure 906,600 SNPs and copy number at 1.8 million genomic locations. By characterizing 270 HapMap samples, we developed a map of human CNV (at 2-kb breakpoint resolution) informed by integer genotypes for 1,320 copy number polymorphisms (CNPs) that segregate at an allele frequency >1%. More than 80% of the sequence in previously reported CNV regions fell outside our estimated CNV boundaries, indicating that large (>100 kb) CNVs affect much less of the genome than initially reported. Approximately 80% of observed copy number differences between pairs of individuals were due to common CNPs with an allele frequency >5%, and more than 99% derived from inheritance rather than new mutation. Most common, diallelic CNPs were in strong linkage disequilibrium with SNPs, and most low-frequency CNVs segregated on specific SNP haplotypes.
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| 0.932703 | 435 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Human hair-producing structures cultured ex vivo were successfully able to sprout hair when grafted onto mice, suggesting it could work in bald humans too. Also this week: overcoming lung cancer drug resistance.
Hair-Raising Studies May Benefit Balding Women
Regenerated human dermal papillae sprouted hair when the cultured skin tissue was grafted onto mice, adding a confirmatory step to previous studies involving rodent dermal papillae.
New hair growth occurred in grafts from five of seven human donors, and the hair remained viable for at least 6 weeks.
"About 90% of women with hair loss are not strong candidates for hair transplantation surgery because of insufficient donor hair," Angela M. Christiano, PhD, of Columbia University in New York City, said in a statement. "This method offers the possibility of inducing large numbers of hair follicles or rejuvenating existing hair follicles, starting with cell growth from just a few hundred donor hairs.
"It could make hair transplantation available to individuals with a limited number of follicles, including those with female-pattern hair loss, scarring alopecia, and hair loss due to burns."
The study follows previous investigations that demonstrated rapid hair growth after transplantation of cultured rodent papillae onto mice. Investigators hypothesized that human dermal papillae also could be induced to generate new hair follicles. Gene-expression analysis showed that the three-dimensional cultures used in the experiments restored 22% of normal gene expression, less than expected but sufficient to cause hair growth.
-- Charles Bankhead
Lung Cancer Drug Resistance in Sights
Next-generation drugs hold promise against treatment resistance in lung cancer, preclinical studies showed.
An investigational third-generation epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor -- AZD9291 -- overcame the mutation that undermines erlotinib (Tarceva) and gefitinib (Iressa) response in most patients. The drug shrank non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) until it disappeared in mice with activating or resistance EGFR mutations or both.
In a second cell assay and animal model study, the investigational agent PF-06463922 blocked all known ALK-gene resistance mutations to crizotinib (Xalkori) and passed through the blood-brain barrier to reach brain metastases.
Both pharmaceutical company-funded studies were reported at the American Association for Cancer Research International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics meeting in Boston.
-- Crystal Phend
Maternal Exercise May Help Heart Function in Offspring
Exercise during pregnancy may influence cardiovascular risk in offspring into adulthood, a study in pigs suggested.
In the study – published in Experimental Physiology – pregnant swine exercised on a treadmill for 20 to 45 minutes, 5 days a week – consistent with recommendations from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the CDC -- up to 1 week before delivery.
Researchers led by Sean Newcomer, PhD, of California State University San Marcos, then examined vascular function in the femoral arteries of the offspring and found beneficial changes in the vascular smooth muscle.
"Overall, this study is the first to report that gestational exercise is a potent stimulus for programming vascular smooth muscle relaxation in the femoral arteries of adult offspring," the authors wrote.
"Specifically, exercise training for the finite duration of pregnancy decreases vascular smooth muscle responsiveness in adult offspring to an exogenous nitric oxide donor."
-- Todd Neale
Pain? What Pain?
The bark scorpion, common to the southwestern U.S., uses a painful and sometimes deadly venom to deter predators -- except for the grasshopper mouse, which can shrug off the sting and chow down on the bug. Now researchers led by Ashlee Rowe, PhD, of Michigan State University in East Lansing, have found out why.
In the Oct. 25 issue of Science, they note that the venom causes pain in other mammals by activating the voltage gated sodium channel Nav1.7. Genetic analysis of the grasshopper mice showed that a related sodium channel, Nav1.8, has a unique sequence that -- unlike in other species -- binds the toxin without causing pain. In other words, the nontarget sodium channel essentially acts as an analgesic, preventing activation of the pain-causing channel.
Aside from the rarity and scientific interest of the phenomenon -- almost no other animals can resist prey toxins -- it might also open the door to better analgesics for humans, the researchers conclude.
-- Michael Smith
Tumors Direct Muscle Fiber Repair
Cancer wasting may have more to do with signals from tumors rather than mechanisms related to muscle fibers, a mouse study suggested.
Muscle stem cells – those committed to helping rebuild muscle – were inhibited from doing so in tumor-bearing mice, a response that was associated with the expression of Pax7, according to Denis Guttridge, PhD, of Ohio State University in Columbus, and colleagues.
Researchers found that overexpressing Pax7 in mice with tumors "was sufficient to induce atrophy in normal muscle." Furthermore, reducing Pax7 reversed wasting, they reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The overexpression of Pax7 is controlled by NF-kappa B (NF-kB); therefore, drugs that target either of these cell factors may be beneficial in controlling cancer wasting, they said.
-- Chris Kaiser
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| 0.919228 | 1,114 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Verbal abuse in the workplace has been referred to as incivility, bullying, lateral violence, or workplace violence and is extremely common in nursing.
A study1 examined the relationship between verbal abuse by nurses and the personal characteristics, work attitudes, and work settings of nurses who reported experiencing abuse.
Participants completed the Verbal Abuse Scale (VAS), which asked respondents to report how frequently they have experienced any verbal abuse from colleagues, excluding supervisors. Verbal abuse was described as yelling or raising of voices in an angry manner, swearing, obscene or insulting comments, or making humiliating or abusive comments. Almost half of the 1,400 RNs completing the survey reported some degree of verbal abuse, most commonly condescending comments.
RNs with less than one year of experience were more likely to be targets of the abuse. Other associated factors included working in a hospital setting, as in a non-magnet organization. The RNs reported a lack of supervisory or mentoring support with lower levels of work group cohesiveness and reduced staffing.
Bullying has been described as a learning process that new nurses may observe and then utilize just to fit in, which contributes to continuing bullying behaviors.2 I can recall, as a new ICU nurse, my reluctance to verbalize a difference of opinion with a particular nurse as she was part of a clique to which I aspired for acceptance. I observed her sarcastic and condescending comments with anyone who disagreed with her. Lewis has suggested that these cliques may become places where bullies gain support and use the organizational bureaucracy to their personal advantage. This bully’s behavior was finally addressed when a new manager arrived and addressed the inappropriate behaviors.
The literature has identified organizational, individual, and environmental factors that are associated with bullying behaviors:3
Strategies to address and eliminate workplace bullying include managing the associated factors. In spite of the fact that bullying is unacceptable and managers are expected to ensure a respectful work environment, bullying continues to be prevalent in nursing.
The manager must provide support for the individual nurse. The visible participation of nursing leadership in addressing bullying fosters commitment, participation, trust, and open communication with front-line workers. Steps to combat workplace bullying include:
- Staff education. An open discussion of what to do and not to do when confronted by a bully. Nurses must feel safe in reporting the behavior. Bullied nurses have commented that they secretly felt ashamed and noted that self-doubt stifled innovation and creativity.
- Training for managers. Provide skills, training, and knowledge about how to detect and manage bullying behaviors. Leaders must promote healthy work environments and avoid excessive workloads and lack of autonomy.
- Develop codes of acceptable behavior, including a zero-tolerance policy. The policy should target positive behavior and work toward creating a working climate that treats nurses with dignity, respect, and fairness. Implement strategies to prevent discrimination, exclusion, unfair treatment, and other demeaning behaviors. Staff must display open and constructive criticism and handle conflict with creativity.4
We as nurses cannot ignore the issue of nurse to nurse bullying. We need to look at ourselves and be sure that we are treating colleagues, especially new graduates, with respect.
Do your organizations have successful programs to address this behavior? Have you seen successful support programs for nurses? It would be most interesting to hear from our colleagues. Now is the time to act to eliminate this destructive behavior toward our colleagues.
- Budin, WC (2013) Verbal Abuse From Nurse Colleagues and Work Environment of Early Career Registered Nurses. Journal of Nursing Scholarship.
- Lewis MA (2006) Nurse Bullying: Organizational Considerations in the Maintenance and Perpetuation of Healthcare Bullying Cultures. Journal of Nursing Management; 14; 52-58.
- Cooper CL (2002) Workplace Violence in the Health Sector: State of the Art. International Labour Organization.
- Rocker, Carol (2008) Addressing Nurse to Nurse Bullying to Promote Nurse Retention. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol. 13. No.3
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| 0.957433 | 832 | 3.203125 | 3 |
In January of this year the world was stunned to find out that, during the upcoming FIFA World Cup, a Brazilian paraplegic will be ceremoniously chosen to kick off the event. It wasn’t the fact that this person was paraplegic, but rather s/he will be kicking off using a mind-controlled exoskeleton suit to help. Were we really that close to our sci-fi fantasies that people who were originally disabled could now partake in sports activities using advanced technology?
“We can’t protect the cognitive organ of the meat-bags who are presently performing for us with sacrificial results, so, let’s yank them off the field and substitute their frailness with metallic, omnipotent wonder-athletes.
Teams of Robots, shaped like human gridiron heroes, wearing the same colors, performing the same plays, blocking, tacking, pass-catching, running, punting, intercepting… let’s create robots that can do everything the Pro Bowlers can do, without mental incapacitation as a consequence.”
The disciplines covered in this event include the powered arm prosthetics race, the brain-computer interface race, and the powered exoskeleton race.
“In the future – and I don’t mean the far-future; I mean 5, maybe 10, years at most – what we’re going to see is technology making the people who use it, disabled or not, more capable than otherwise fully functional, biological human beings. It’s the “normal people,” or the “able-bodied people,” or whatever you want to call them, who are going to be at a severe disadvantage. This prosthetic technology is going to quickly outpace human biological limits.”
Images by: Cybathlon
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| 0.944512 | 378 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Joint diseases such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and more than 100 other forms of inflammatory conditions affect several hundred million people worldwide. This figure is set for a sharp increase due to the predicted doubling in the number of people over age 50 by the year 2020.
Joint diseases are the leading cause of disability in the United States and account for half of all chronic conditions in persons age 65 and over.
Osteoarthritis affects over 135 million people worldwide. It is the fourth most frequent cause of health problems in women worldwide and the eighth in men.
Rheumatoid arthritis affects over 20 million people worldwide.
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| 0.922488 | 131 | 2.6875 | 3 |
William Powell Frith (1819-1909)
Image above: Derby Day 1856-8 Tate, London, 2007
William Powell Frith and Jacob Bell were close friends. They had both attended an art school run by Henry Sass, and Frith went on to pursue a successful career as an artist.
Frith began his career as a portrait painter, using members of his family as models. He first exhibited at the British Institution in 1838, and during the 1840s he established himself with his entertaining historical and literary subjects.
Bell had a passion for horses and, although his Quaker upbringing prevented him from betting, he immediately offered Frith £1,500 to produce a full-scale painting of Derby Day after seeing a preliminary sketch. The dealer, Ernest Gambart, aware of the lucrative subject matter, paid Frith the equivalent amount to secure the painting’s copyright and exhibition rights before the artist had put his brush to the canvas.
The popularity of the painting was assured owing to the involvement of Gambart. The public were so eager to press their faces against the newly painted canvas that Bell applied to the Royal Academy council for a rail when the work was exhibited there on 3 May 1858. In his diary entry for 8 May Bell remarked that he 'Couldn’t help going to see the rail, and there it is sure enough; and loads of people'.
In addition to commissioning the painting from Frith, Bell supplied the artist with attractive models, and in his autobiography Frith remarked that he had found Bell 'very useful to me in procuring models. Few people had a more extensive acquaintance, especially among the female sex…'.
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| 0.989884 | 342 | 2.921875 | 3 |
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