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Ptol.: Eth. Castronovani
), a city on the sea-coast of Etruria, between Pyrgi and Centumcellae. We have no account of it prior to the establishment of a Roman colony there, and from the name we may presume that this was a new foundation, and that there was no Etruscan town previously existing on the site.
But the period at which this colony was established is unknown; we first find it mentioned in Livy (36.3
), in B.C. 191, as one of the “coloniae maritimae,” together with Fregenae, Pyrgi, Ostia, and other places on the Tyrrhenian Sea.
There can therefore be no doubt that the Tuscan town is here meant, and not the one of the same name in Picenum. Mela, Pliny, and Ptolemy all mention it as one of the towns on the coast of Etruria, but it had in their time lost its character of a colony, in common with its neighbours Fregenae, Pyrgi, and Graviscae. (Plin. Nat. 3.5. s. 8
; Mela, 2.4; Ptol. 3.1.4
.) Yet we find it termed. in an inscription of the third century, “Colonia Julia Castro Novo” (Orell. Inscr.
1009), as if it had received a fresh colony under Caesar or Augustus. Its name is still found in the Itineraries (Itin. Ant.
pp. 291, 301; Itin. Marit.
p. 498); but in the time of Rutilius it had fallen into complete decay, and only its ruins were visible, which that author erroneously identifies with the Castrum Inui of Virgil. (Rutil. Itin.
1.227--232.) Servius appears to have fallen into the same mistake (ad Aen.
6.776), The site of Castrum Novum seems to have been correctly fixed by Clever at a place called Torre di Chiaruccia,
about 5 miles S. of Civita Vecchia
(Centumcellae),--where considerable remains of it were still visible,--though this distance is less than that given in the Itineraries. (Cluver. Ital.
p. 488; D'Anville, Anal. Géogr. de l'Italie,
pp. 122, 123.)
, Ptol.), a city on the sea-coast of Picenum, which was, as well as the preceding, a Roman colony.
There can be little doubt that this is the Castrum, the foundation of which as a colony is mentioned both by Livy and Velleius, though there is much discrepancy between them as to the date.
The latter represents Firmum and Castrum as founded at the beginning of the First Punic War, while Livy assigns Castrum to the same period with Sena and Adria, about B.C. 282. (Liv. Epit.
xi.; Vell. 1.14
; Madvig, de Colon.
pp. 265, 299.) No subsequent mention of it is found as a colony, the Castrum Novum of which the name occurs in Livy (36.3
) as a “colonia maritima,” being evidently, as already observed, the Tuscan town of the name.
But it is mentioned among the maritime towns of Picenum by Strabo, Pliny, and Ptolemy, and we learn from the Liber Coloniarum (p. 226) that its territory, the “ager Castranus,” was portioned out to fresh colonists under Augustus, though it did not resume the rank of a colony. The Itineraries place it 12 M.P. from Castrum Truentinum, and 15 from Adria (Itin. Ant.
pp. 101, 308, 313), from which we may infer that it was situated near Giulia Nuova,
a little to the N. of the river Tordino,
the Batinus of Pliny.
It probably occupied the site of the now deserted town of S. Flaviano,
near the bank of the river, and below the modern town of Giulia Nuova,
the foundation of which dates only from the fifteenth century. (D'Anville, Anal. Géogr. de l'Italie,
p. 181; Romanelli, vol. iii. p. 303.) [E.H.B
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| 0.941828 | 987 | 2.96875 | 3 |
You are hereHome ›
Now showing results 41-50 of 373
This two-sided poster presents images and information about ozone. The front features a series of color Earth images; each image reflects total ozone readings taken every October from 1979 to 2012. The poster back contains information about ozone... (View More) under the following headings: What is Ozone?, Chemistry of the Ozone Layer, Measuring Ozone in the Earth's Atmosphere, Timeline of Stratospheric Ozone Depletion and Observations, How the Ozone Hole Forms, and A World Avoided. In addition, the back contains two activities: Visualizing the Ozone Hole and a Color by Number worksheet. (View Less)
This is a lithograph about NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission, or MMS. Learners will cut out and assemble a colorful 3D model of an MMS spacecraft. Web links, additional facts, and QR codes are included for audiences to access more information.
This is a lithograph set about the solar system. It contains images of the planets, the sun, asteroids, comets, meteors and meteorites, the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud, and moons of the solar system. General information, significant dates,... (View More) interesting facts and brief descriptions of the images are included. (View Less)
This lithograph features an image of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite. The back provides an overview of the mission and an explanation of how it builds on the work of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). Also included... (View More) are details on the Core Observatory satellite and the role of the partner satellites making up the constellation, a description of the mission's science and its applications, and a list of partnering agencies. (View Less)
This is a promotional folder for Sun-Earth Days 2013, containing images and illustrations of the Sun and its effects on the Solar System. Also included is information about the period known as solar maximum, as well as links to Sun-Earth Day... (View More) resources and the Space Weather Action Center. (View Less)
The effects of climate change on marmots in Colorado and sheep in Scotland are presented and compared. The Climate Kids website is a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change.
Butterflies are dependent on native plants for survival. The decrease in the number and diversity of native plants has caused a drop in butterfly populations. Planting a butterfly garden, using plants native to the area, can promote butterfly... (View More) population growth. This article explains the life cycle of the butterfly, the reasons for the loss of native habitat and the basics of creating a butterfly garden. The Climate Kids website is a NASA education resource featuring articles, videos, images and games focused on the science of climate change. (View Less)
This is a poster about the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), an instrument onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Learners can find out what it does and how it works. Then you can go online and start exploring the Red... (View More) Planet with real Mars data in your own classroom. (View Less)
This is a collection of mathematics problems relating to the moons of the solar system. Learners will use simple proportional relationships and work with fractions to study the relative sizes of the larger moons in our solar system, and explore how... (View More) temperatures change from place to place using the Celsius and Kelvin scales. (View Less)
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| 0.884873 | 738 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Music and Sound
Maharishi Middle School student Melat Gebremariam plays a tune on a flute she created in the school’s recent project-based learning unit, Music and Sound. The purpose of the music project is to learn how physics and art combine to make music and to work together productively. The project was preceded by a poetry unit designed as a bridge into lyric composition, which formed the basis for the final part of the music project. After learning the scientific aspect of music and sound through building instruments, students, in groups of four, created two instrumental acoustic songs. The songs were released on an album, “Mud.” After the students had practiced with music and lyrics, they combined the two aspects of songwriting to create original teen-pop songs released on the Maharishi Middle School Record Label as “Socks and Sandals.” The songs are available for digital download on their Google Play store.
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| 0.973797 | 195 | 3.125 | 3 |
Grow native plants with restraint
Updated 6:00 pm, Wednesday, December 31, 1969
SAN ANTONIO — Technically, Joan Miller went wild in her Monte Vista landscape. But the look is tame because she exercised restraint in her use of native plants, many of them dug up in the wild from her property in Bandera County.
“You have to make it look intentional,” said Miller, a member of the local chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas. “There would be more acceptance if (native plants) are used in that way.”
Some plants might take some trimming and editing to keep plants in their places, but native landscapes require less pampering with water, fertilizer and mowing.
“There is no such thing as a landscape that doesn't take maintenance,” Miller said.
As drought lingers and stricter water restrictions loom, homeowners are looking for plants that can withstand what nature dishes out.
Donna Taylor, a member of Boerne's native plant society, pointed out that native plants have adapted to weather swings over centuries — and longer.
“The majority of them can cope with the extremes if we just let them do their thing,” Taylor said.
Even hardy plants take water to establish, and new plants can succumb to drought and freezes. Once established, though, they need little added water.
Nurseries offer some native plants, usually varieties that are easiest to establish. Miller urged homeowners to experiment with different plants.
“Start slow. Landscapes don't happen overnight. It's a great process to start on and create a landscape over time,” she said.
Miller and Taylor shared some of their favorite native plants for the landscape, some available at nurseries and others through specialty plant sales:
Lindheimer's senna (Senna lindheimeriana): The bushy plant with velvety leaves blooms summer through fall. It likes rocky soil and is deer resistant.
Beargrass (Nolina texana): Technically not a grass, the clumping specimen reaches 2 feet tall and stays green year-round. Small plumes of flowers appear in spring.
Gregg's mistflower (Conoclinium greggii): Fuzzy lavender flowers on this reseeding annual are butterfly magnets spring through fall.
Cedar sage (Salvia roemeriana): The shade-loving salvia is a restrained plant that's a good alternative to impatiens. It produces a red flower spike in summer.
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| 0.935655 | 527 | 2.625 | 3 |
Since their discovery, stem cells have been hailed as the ultimate answer for crippling and incurable diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other conditions that leave vital organs like heart or nerves damaged beyond repair.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge, under the leadership of Professor Austin Smith, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research at the University of Cambridge, recently published a paper detailing a new technology that can transform adult stem cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). This technique is able to reliably reprogram adult cells into iPS rapidly and can forego the need to rely on mammalian embryos to generate pluripotent stem cells.
Working with stem cells has proved a much greater challenge than foreseen, however, as both scientific and ethical challenges confront stem cell research from all sides. Stem cells are tricky to work with and although they are indefinite, can stop dividing at any time. The best stem cells are also the cells with the least amount of differentiation (or development). These cells occur during embryonic development and the harvesting of such cells results in the death of the rest of the embryo. The resulting loss of the embryo is the cause of the ethical dilemmas concerning the usage of stem cells and the development of stem cell research.
Embryonic stem cells have a great deal of potential but the restrictions put in place for federally funded research projects have limited their use and the controversy over the ethical issues has consumed a great deal of time in the science community. This ethical dilemma can be bypassed altogether if adult mammalian cells are reprogrammed to form iPS, which are cells almost identical to those from embryonic stem cells but which come from adult tissue instead of embryos, and the same results can be obtained.
The technique for reprogramming relies on the usage of a combination of chemical inhibitors provided by Stem Cell Sciences, a company providing commercial use of stem cells and stem cell technologies. These chemical inhibitors, including use of enzymes MEK and GSK3 in combination with a cell growth promoter and leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) provide the key to transition fully differentiated adult cells into cells that are indistinguishable from authentic embryonic stem (ES) cells.
Stem Cell Sciences developed this Culticell iSTEM™ media range to overcome the limitations in current approaches to producing reprogrammed pluripotent stem cells. Smith and his team developed this key step in the successful complete transfer of adult cells into iPS using this specific combination of enzymes, inhibitors and cellular growth indicators.
"This proprietary technique greatly facilitates the simple, most reliable and efficient route to obtaining authentic induced pluripotent stem cells and will form the basis for the industrialization of iPS cell production," noted Dr. Tim Allsopp, Chief Scientific Officer of Stem Cell Sciences. "This is an important validation of the technology Professor Smith and his team have developed and Stem Cell Sciences is very pleased to be working with Cambridge University and Professor Smith's team on this important breakthrough."
This breakthrough of complete transformation follows on the heels of previous studies in which progression to iPS was limited and extremely inefficient. This process has greatly improved both the success and efficiency rate making a reliable source to generate iPS without depending on embryonic cells.
Stem cells are unique because they have the potential to be any number of various cell types. They are undifferentiated cells, and if at the earliest stage of development, they have the ability to create a completely new individual. As such, they can be directed to make any number of useful tissues, including nervous tissue, heart tissue or a new liver.
Research with stem cells can help us develop procedures like gene therapy, testing drugs with lessened need for animal and human test subjects, genetic disorder correction and replacement of damaged tissues or organs. The possibilities are endless, applications in real world situations limitless and now the technology to propel us into the future of stem cell applications is very real.
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| 0.938812 | 792 | 3.21875 | 3 |
With the recent retirement of the NASA space fleet of shuttles, it means a window has opened up giving other nations the opportunity to try to catch up in the space race, and one country that is seemingly taking full advantage of it is China, as they take a giant step with their Tiangong-1 rocket launch.
Neil Armstrong is among several concerned prominent figures in the space community who have expressed concern that NASA and the US, after being ahead in the space race for years, may find themselves left behind by other nations. According to The Guardian, the Chinese launch, which occurred on Thursday, marked the first step in what could be the start of a change in power between competing nations.
Ever since the US beat the Soviets to landing the first human on the moon back in 1969, they have remained relatively unchallenged when it comes to dominance for forty years. Now it looks like China is on the verge of becoming the third nation to possess a manned space station in outer space, although this achievement in itself is not really significant one considering NASA launched their space station Skylab in 1973.
China has only been carrying out space research for a short period of time but has already invested millions of dollars and now has hardware to show for it. NASA on the other hand currently has nothing available, though they did announce plans for future spacecraft, the Space Launch System, which is promised to be the most powerful rocket the world has ever seen.
What do you think of the progress that China has made with their space research?
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| 0.976709 | 309 | 2.671875 | 3 |
When the hoop skirt
was invented in the mid 1850's, it was hailed as a liberating device for women who were fed up of having to wear
layer upon layer of hot, heavy and itchy horsehair or stiffened linen crinolines
to hold out their skirts in the fashionable bell shape.
The new cage crinoline(also called hoop skirt or hooped petticoat), which as made out of watchspring,
was light and airy and you could actually walk around without having numerous
petticoats wrap and tangle around your legs. Most women loved the new crinoline
but as with any new and different fashion, it was ridiculed, often by men,
who wondered why or how women would want to wear such a large and cumbersome looking thing!
At first in the 1850's when the hoop was invented it was first though to be a fad and everyone
predicted that it woulddie out by the early 1860's. Crinolines in different forms and sizes,
would last until about 1887. This illustration from the November 13, 1858 edition of Punch magazine
even jokingly predicted that a sidesaddle riding hoop which encompassed the horse would become the fad!
Although hoops weren't worn for riding, they were sometimes modeled under riding habits when having your
photo taken in the studio. Another fad would be that the hoop would lead to charming fashions such as a
little doll wearing a cage crinoline would make a lovely and practical parasol!
The actual concept of a skeletal petticoat wasn't new, farthingales (cone or barrel shaped whalebone
or cane boned underskirts) and bum rolls (bustles) were worn during Elizabethan times and into the 17th century,
panniers (whalebone or cane boned pettcoats or what looked like baskets worn at the hips, which jutted
out at the side) and bustles were also worn in the 18th century. With the advent of high waisted, long
lined Regency gowns, the boned underskirt would remain dormant until the 1850's. This swing of the pendulum
of fashion was not over looked and magazines of the period often made comparisons between the old farthingales
and panniers to the new cage crinoline. This 1864
from the period magazine, The Leisure Hour, likens the cage crinoline to the pannier, showing how even
after one hundred years, fashion had actually gone back in time to 1764!
Of course everything was not so rosy in Crinoline
Land as stereoveiw photos of the period were quick to point out. Risque stereoviews were churned out to the
delight of men, showed how wearing a crinoline could be frought with the danger of showing an ankle! It could be
quite difficult getting on a horse omnibus of the era in a hoop as this stereoveiw ridiculed. The lady either
had the choice of taking off her crinoline in *gasp* public for all to see (note all the crinolines
hanging off the side of the 'bus) or she would have to be help onto the bus by men lifting up her skirts to
get a better grip! Note how how the bus conductor is getting a good grip on her hoop exposing her striped
stocking leg and her petticoat with the Broderie Anlgaise.
Some stereoveiws played on the fantasy of
having the hoop catch on somethingand flip up in the air exposing everything! Sometimes this actually
happened... In the early 1860's, the Duchess of Mancester caught her hoop in a stile while out walking
with the Duc de Malakoff. She fell over and exposed her bright red pantaloons (which were split crotch
at this time too) to the Duc who was startled into exclaiming "C'etait diabolique!" This c.
1859- 1861 stereo photo, entitled, Crinoline Difficulties(right), isn't so bad but obviously the lady
in it tripped on her crinoline while out walking and has her leg. One way a lady could avoid any mishaps
while out when wearing a crinoline, would be to take a man's arm. However, as this c. 1862 colorized
stereoveiw shows, due to the sheer volume some crinolines could reach, sometimes taking your man's arm
would be a little more difficult! The gentleman in the photo has solved the problem by looping a long
ribbon from her arm to his.
Although mocked, the cage crinoline would die hard in the late 1880's only to be revived
again in the 1950's. It still remains a popular fashion among Victorian reenactors today which makes
believe that the cage crinoline even after 140 years, is truly a timeless invention.
All photos are from the collection of L. Hidic
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19 June 2013
Wireless lifeline for people with diabetes
Groundbreaking research to create an artificial pancreas
Product development firm Cambridge Consultants today announced that it is working with the Institute of Metabolic Science (IMS) at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge on groundbreaking research to create an artificial pancreas.
The hospital’s research, led by Dr Roman Hovorka, aims to reduce the complications of type 1 diabetes and dramatically improve the lives and life expectancy of millions of people with the condition. Research from the International Diabetes Federation shows the UK ranked fifth highest in the world for the rate of children aged 14 and under diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and a particular concern is the risk of people who have it slipping into dangerously low blood sugar levels in their sleep.
Cambridge Consultants is developing an application that will allow a continuous glucose meter (CGM) to autonomously communicate with a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth and then link to an insulin pump – creating an artificial pancreas that can be worn by people with type 1 diabetes at home without nurse supervision. The CGM will monitor the patient’s glucose levels every 1-5 minutes, with the information generated passed on to a connected smartphone or tablet that will calculate the amount of insulin the patient needs to keep their glucose at a steady level 24/7. The recommended dosage will then be automatically delivered to the patient via the pump worn under their clothing.
While a nurse-assisted system has previously been trialled in a hospital setting and home use of the system has already been established, the application being developed by Cambridge Consultants provides Dr Hovorka with the equipment needed to trial his new algorithm in a home environment over a longer time period.
“Researchers in my field have been working on a number of different algorithms for an artificial pancreas but, with the help of Cambridge Consultants, I hope to create a system that is convenient to use and can be remotely monitored,” said Dr Hovorka, director of research at the University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories, which are part of the IMS. “My previous trials were nurse-supervised in a hospital setting and also included unsupervised home use of the system. Trialling the system in a natural setting over a longer time period is the next stage in making the system widely available. To do this, it must work completely autonomously. Combining my background in mathematical modelling and developing control algorithms, and Cambridge Consultants’ extensive experience in medical technology and connected devices, we hope to make a huge breakthrough in the day-to-day control of this incurable condition.”
Rob Milner, technical leader of the smart systems team at Cambridge Consultants, said: “There’s been a huge surge in health and fitness mobile apps in recent years and we’re now looking to take Dr Hovorka’s research to the next level. Our mission is to create technology that helps people with type 1 diabetes better manage the condition they have to live with every day. The real benefits will be in the improved health of people with the condition.”
Aaron Kowalski, vice-president of treatment therapies at the type 1 diabetes charity JDRF, said: “There is a pressing need for improved treatments for people with type 1 diabetes and we are proud to be funding Dr Hovorka’s important research trials, including the recent trial of the system involving children at home. The incidence of type 1 diabetes among children is increasing by at least four per cent year on year and the complications associated with the condition can be debilitating.
“An artificial pancreas may reduce complications such as heart and kidney disease, blindness and stroke but would also ease the burden of the condition carried by people with type 1 diabetes and their families every day. We see the damage caused by hyperglycemia and low blood glucose levels on a day-to-day basis, and artificial pancreas systems can’t come soon enough.”
Dr Alasdair Rankin, director of research for Diabetes UK, said: “Research into an artificial pancreas is at the cutting edge of diabetes research and has enormous potential to improve both the quality of life and also the health outcomes for people with type 1 diabetes.
“Managing blood glucose can be really difficult, and barely a quarter of people with type 1 diabetes are reaching the recommended levels. High blood glucose levels increase the risk of developing devastating health complications such as amputation and stroke, and this means Dr Hovorka’s work has the potential to make a big impact.”
Dr Hovorka’s in-home longer-time trial is due to start later this year.
Cambridge Consultants develops breakthrough products, creates and licenses intellectual property, and provides business consultancy in technology-critical issues for clients worldwide. For more than 50 years, the company has been helping its clients turn business opportunities into commercial successes, whether they are launching first-to-market products, entering new markets or expanding existing markets through the introduction of new technologies. With a team of more than 700 staff, including engineers, scientists, mathematicians and designers, in offices in Cambridge (UK), Boston (USA) and Singapore, Cambridge Consultants offers solutions across a diverse range of industries including medical technology, industrial and consumer products, digital health, oil and gas, and wireless communications.
Cambridge Consultants is part of Altran, a global leader in innovation and high-tech engineering consulting which offers its clients a new way to innovate. The Group develops with, or for, its clients the products and services of tomorrow. Altran works along with its clients on every link in the value chain of their project, from conception to industrialisation. With a staff of nearly 26,000 employees in more than 20 countries, the Group generated revenues of €1.945bn in 2015. For more information, visit: www.altran.com
PR & Communications Manager
+44 1223 392418
European PR agency
+44 20 3755 6444
US PR agency
+1 617 960 8892
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| 0.929475 | 1,277 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Grounding Requirements for Portable Generators
Portable generators are internal combustion engines used to generate electricity. They are useful when temporary or remote power is needed, and are commonly used during cleanup and recovery efforts following disasters.
Major Causes of Injuries and Fatalities
- Shocks and electrocution to users from improper use.
- Shocks and electrocution to utility workers from improper connection to structures, such as residences, offices, shops and trailers.
Safe Work Practices
- Maintain and operate portable generators in accordance with the manufacturer’s use and safety instructions.
- Never attach a portable generator directly to the electrical system of a structure (home, office or trailer) unless the generator has a properly installed open-transition transfer switch.
- Always plug electrical appliances and tools directly into the generator, using the appliance manufacturer’s supplied cords. Use heavy-duty extension cords that contain a grounding conductor (3-wire flexible cord and 3-pronged cord connectors).
- Proper grounding and bonding are a means to prevent shocks and electrocutions.
- Use ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs) as per the manufacturer’s instructions.
- Do not connect a generator to a structure unless the generator has a properly installed transfer switch.
- Visually inspect the equipment before use; remove defective equipment from service; mark or tag it as unsafe for use.
Grounding Requirements for Portable and Vehicle-mounted Generators
Under the following conditions, OSHA directs (29 CFR 1926.404(f)(3)(i)) that the frame of a portable generator need not be grounded (connected to earth) and that the frame may serve as the ground (in place of the earth):
- The generator supplies only equipment mounted on the generator and/or cordand plug-connected equipment through receptacles mounted on the generator, § 1926.404(f)(3)(i)(A), and
- The noncurrent-carrying metal parts of equipment (such as the fuel tank, the internal combustion engine, and the generator’s housing) are bonded to the generator frame, and the equipment grounding conductor terminals (of the power receptacles that are a part of [mounted on] the generator) are bonded to the generator frame, § 1926.404(f)(3)(i)(B).
Thus, rather than connect to a grounding electrode system, such as a driven ground rod, the generator’s frame replaces the grounding electrode.
If these conditions do not exist, then a grounding electrode, such as a ground rod, is required.
If the portable generator is providing electric power to a structure by connection via a transfer switch to a structure (home, office, shop, trailer, or similar) it must be connected to a grounding electrode system, such as a driven ground rod. The transfer switch must be approved for the use and installed in accordance with the manufacturer’s installation instructions by a qualified electrician.
Grounding requirements for generators connected via transfer switches are covered by Article 250 of the National Electrical Code (NEC).
Safe Work Practices for Portable Tools include:
- Do not use underrated cords—replace them with appropriately rated cords that use heavier gauge wires.
- Never use electrical tools or appliances with frayed cords, missing grounding prongs, or damaged or cracked housings.
- Use double-insulated tools and equipment distinctively marked as such, where possible.
- Use battery-operated tools, where possible.
Verification by Testing
The integrity of the connection between the generator's frame and the equipment grounding terminals of power receptacles is important to the safe use of the equipment. The connection may be confirmed via testing by a competent electrician with the correct equipment. The ohmic resistance should measure near zero and must not be intermittent, which indicates a loose connection.
Bonding Versus Grounding
Bonding and grounding are separate requirements for generators and other electrical distribution systems. Grounding means the connection, or the establishment of a connection, of an electric circuit or equipment to reference ground, which includes the generator's frame. Bonding is the intentional connection between the grounded circuit conductor (neutral) and the grounding means for the generator, which includes the generator's frame. Thus, effective bonding of the neutral conductor to the generator's frame is also a concern for the safe use of the equipment. As with grounding terminal connections, proper bonding of the neutral terminal of a power receptacle may be confirmed via testing by a competent electrician with the correct equipment, and the ohmic resistance should measure near zero and must not be intermittent, which indicates a loose connection.
This is one in a series of informational fact sheets highlighting OSHA programs, policies or standards. It does not impose any new compliance requirements. For a comprehensive list of compliance requirements of OSHA standards or regulations, refer to Title 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations. This information will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. The voice phone is (202) 693-1999; teletypewriter (TTY) number: (877) 889-5627.
For more complete information:
Safety and Health
U.S. Department of Labor
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This year marks the 50th anniversary of the original publication of Thomas Kuhn’s famous book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Kuhn, who taught at Berkeley, Princeton and MIT following studies in physics at Harvard, was a historian of science whose ideas have had a major impact on the philosophy of science.
Now in its third edition, Structure has had a lasting influence on our thinking about science. After 50 years, Kuhn’s ideas show signs of wear. But they continue to shape our “image of science”, to echo Kuhn’s own turn of phrase in the opening lines of Structure.
The argument of Structure
The core idea of Structure is that scientific research is based on underlying theoretical structures that provide a framework for research in a field for a sustained period of time. Kuhn’s name for these structures was paradigm. Indeed it was Kuhn’s use of the word that inserted “paradigm” into the popular lexicon.
His original use of the word was flexible. But he had two key points in mind. First, there’s a set of beliefs about a domain of study (including generalisations and a model of how the domain is constituted) that’s adopted as the basis for scientific practice in a scientific field at a time.
Second, there are a number of important examples of exemplary scientific research which later scientists look back to as guiding inspiration for their own research. Examples of this include Copernican heliocentric astronomy, Lavoisier’s oxygen-based chemistry and Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. All of these constituted paradigms for scientists working in these areas for a significant period of time, both in the sense of providing an overarching set of beliefs about the world and in the sense of providing examples of exemplary research.
Kuhn’s most controversial ideas relate to how paradigms change. In his terms, the replacement of one paradigm by another constitutes a scientific revolution. His use of the term revolution was deliberate. Like political revolution, scientific revolution involves a radical break with the past.
In what Kuhn termed “normal science”, scientists employ an accepted paradigm to solve “puzzles” that are thrown up in the attempt to apply the paradigm to nature. The solution of puzzles is governed by the norms and procedures of that paradigm.
But paradigms sometimes run into trouble. They face “anomalies” that resist solution within the paradigm. If anomalies proliferate, the community of scientists within a paradigm may enter a period of “crisis”.
The results of crises
In crisis, scientists behave in an unusual way. They propose and develop alternatives to the existing paradigm. An alternative to the paradigm may acquire a following as scientists “convert” from the accepted paradigm to the newcomer.
If the scientific community converts to the alternative, a revolution has occurred, and normal science recommences on the basis of the newly-appointed paradigm.
Kuhn points out that the choice between the reigning paradigm and the challenger is unable to be determined by the norms and procedures of normal science. Nor is there any set of fixed and all-encompassing rules of scientific method able to dictate the choice. The choice involves a shift of gestalt that Kuhn compares to religious conversion.
For many readers of Kuhn, the take-home message was one of irrationalism and relativism, since choice between paradigms seemed unable to be made in a rational way on the basis of objective criteria. And this message of irrationalism may explain the popularity of Kuhn’s ideas. Certainly, it is one basis for the controversy that has surrounded Structure since its initial publication.
But, with hindsight, the message of the book can be understood differently. Kuhn’s critics argued that there are independent standards that may be employed in the choice of paradigm. Kuhn himself came to accept the point in later work.
Scientists, Kuhn thought, evaluate theories or paradigms using a set of values, such as accuracy, simplicity, consistency, breadth and fertility. The values are employed throughout the sciences, and may be employed to evaluate competing theories or paradigms.
A question of values
But there’s a hitch. They do not constitute a “neutral algorithm of theory choice”. They do not yield a mechanical decision procedure that will deliver a unique outcome acceptable to all parties.
The values may conflict with each other. They may be interpreted in different ways. Scientists who appeal to the same set of values may understand them differently, and reach conflicting decisions based on the same values. They may even reach the same decision on the basis of differing weightings and interpretations of the values.
From a more contemporary perspective, what this suggests is not that paradigm choice is irrational, but that rational choice between paradigms is a deliberative process in which scientists exercise a variety of judgements that may differ significantly. The choice is not a mechanical one governed by an algorithm. But it may be a rational one just the same.
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Stem cell hope for spinal injuries
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
(CNN) -- Scientists in the U.S. have successfully used neural stem cells to regenerate damaged spinal cord tissue in mice, raising hopes that the technique could be used to treat disabilities caused by spinal cord injuries and human neurological disorders.
The team based at University of California at Irvine injected adult human neural stem cells into mice with limited mobility due to spinal injuries.
Within just nine days the mice showed marked improvement in their walking ability, according to the results of the study published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
The transplanted stem cells developed into cells that restored myelin, a fatty layer that insulates nerve fibres and is crucial for maintaining electrical conduction in the central nervous system.
A lack of myelin, caused by either disease or injury, can cause motor and sensory disorders such as multiple sclerosis, and paralysis.
The cells also formed new neurons that created synaptic connections with the mouse neurons.
"We set out to find whether these cells would be able to respond to the injury in an appropriate and beneficial way on their own," said Dr. Brian J. Cummings of UC Irvine, who led the study.
"We were excited to find that the cells responded to the damage by making appropriate new cells that could assist in the repair. This study supports the possibility that formation of new myelin and new neurons may contribute to recovery."
The mice that received the cells continued to show improvements in walking ability for four months after treatment.
When the human cells were killed with a toxin, the condition of the mice deteriorated, suggesting that the transplanted cells were the catalyst for their improved walking ability.
"This work is a promising first step and supports the need to study multiple stem cell types for the possibility of treating human neurological injury and disease," said UC Irvine's Dr. Aileen Anderson.
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Helsinki and Human Rights
by Yale Richmond
The participating States Make it their aim to facilitate freer movement and contacts, individually and collectively, whether privately or officially, among persons, institutions and organizations of the participating States, and to contribute to the solution of the humanitarian problems that arise in that connexion
Helsinki Final Act.
The 1975 signing in Helsinki by thirty-three European heads of state or government, as well as the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the United States, evoked considerable debate and drama. Not since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which redrew the map of Europe and established a peace that lasted forty years, had so many European leaders assembled to put their pens to a paper outlining future relations between their states. Although not a treaty and not legally binding, the Helsinki Final Act, as the concluding document of the Conference on Security and Cooperation In Europe (CSCE) is known, was a political statement that its signatories pledged to observe.
The Final Act recognized, for the first time in an international agreement, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freer movement of people, ideas, and information. That recognition was to produce profound change in the Soviet Union.
A European security conference had been proposed by the Soviets in 1954 as surrogate for a World War II peace treaty. Soviet motives were obviousrecognition of post-war borders in Europe (especially Poland’s borders with the German Democratic Republic and the Soviet Union), cooperation among European states, reduction of armaments, and removal of foreign (i.e. US) troops from Europe. Under the Soviet proposal, the United States and Canada would have been excluded from the conference.
The Europeansthe neutrals and non-aligned, as well as NATO memberswere interested in such a conference, tempted as they were by the prospects for peace and stability in Europe, as well as increased East-West trade. The NATO nations, however, stipulated that their non-European allies, the United States and Canada, must also participate in the conference. In addition, as the preliminary political positioning evolved in the late 1960s, the West Europeans insisted that the conference should also discuss fundamental human rights, including the freer movement of people, ideas, and information.
US reaction to the conference proposal, however, was decidedly cool. Henry Kissinger, as National Security Adviser and later Secretary of State, was not enthusiastic about CSCE, fearing that its focus on human rights would be an impediment to reaching agreement with the Soviet Union on security and other major foreign policy issues, and could complicate US efforts to coordinate the responses of our allies to Soviet challenges. Accordingly, instructions to the US delegation to the CSCE conference were to support our allies but not be confrontational with the Soviets. Also skeptical about the conference were East European ethnic groups in the United States that were opposed to recognition of post-war borders in Eastern Europe and to lending legitimacy to Communist rule and Soviet hegemony there. But President Nixon had been meeting with Leonid Brezhnev at summit meetings in the early 1970s, and the US administration could hardly object to Europeans also wanting to sit at the table with the Soviets and discuss common interests. So the United States participated in the CSCE deliberations although, reflecting Kissinger’s caution, it played a secondary role and left the heavy lifting to its NATO allies.
After three years of extended and arduous negotiations in Helsinki and Geneva, the CSCE reached agreement in 1975 on a 40-page, 40,000-word document. The Soviets got their inviolability of borders but had to accept language recognizing respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as the freer movement of people, ideas, and information.
As the date approached for signing the Final Act, domestic opposition in the United States mounted. Although the Final Act was a political statement rather than a treaty and not legally binding, East European émigrés and conservatives in both US political parties strongly criticized the document as a sellout to the Soviets. Governor Ronald Reagan of California, in an early version of his “evil-empire” posture, urged President Gerald Ford not to sign, as did Democratic Senator Henry Jackson of Washington. Mail to the White House ran heavily against signing, and much of the media agreed. The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial titled “Jerry, Don’t Go,” urged the President not to go to Helsinki, charging that CSCE was “purely symbolic, and the symbol is one of Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe.” The New York Times called it “a misguided and empty trip.”
Ford courageously defied domestic disapproval, flew to Finland, and signed the Helsinki Accords, as they came to be known, and in doing so did as much, if not more, to bring about the collapse of communism than Ronald Reagan did years later.
In the following years, the opposition that had been so strident turned to broad support as the Accords were embraced by human-rights activists in the Soviet Union, Eastern and Western Europe, and the United States. Even the staunchest opponents of the Helsinki process eventually came to regard it as a useful tool for prodding the Soviets to acknowledge, in an international accord, the right of nations to protest human rights violations in other countries.
As former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, a career analyst of the Soviet Union, put it:
CSCE was perhaps the most important early milestone on the path of dramatic change inside the Soviet empire. The most eloquent testimonials to its importance come from those who were on the inside, who began their political odyssey to freedom at that time, and who became the leaders of free countries in Eastern Europe in 1989. The human rights issue struck at the very legitimacy and survival of the Soviet political structure.
Or as former US ambassador to the Soviet Union Jack F. Matlock, Jr. has written:
Contrary to the critics, the commitments in the Helsinki agreement provided the basis, first for opposition movements in Communist states, and subsequently for actual changes in Soviet and Soviet satellite practices.
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NASA’s Curiosity rover has beamed back spectacular HD photos of the Martian surface.
Captured by a 100-millimeter telephoto lens and 34-milllimeter wide angle lens, the images show the dark dunes, layered rock and canyons of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside Gale Crater, where the rover landed.
NASA also released photos of Curiosity at work as it prepares to explore the Red Planet.
In another feat, Curiosity received and beamed back the first human voice transmission to travel from Earth to another planet and back.
The voice was that of NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden. The message was radioed to Mars, where it was received and then retransmitted back to Earth by Curiosity. Here on Earth, the return signal from Mars was picked up by NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN).
In his message, Bolden noted the difficulties of putting a rover on Mars and congratulated NASA employees and all involved with the project on the successful landing. He also commented on how curiosity is what drives humans to explore.
“The knowledge we hope to gain from our observation and analysis of Gale Crater will tell us much about the possibility of life on Mars as well as the past and future possibilities for our own planet. Curiosity will bring benefits to Earth and inspire a new generation of scientists and explorers, as it prepares the way for a human mission in the not too distant future,” Bolden said in his recorded message.
The rover is also busy stretching its legs, recently taking a couple of test drives near its landing spot.
Curiosity is already sending more data from the Martian surface than all of NASA’s earlier rovers combined, the space agency said.
Members of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission listen to a voice message from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in the mission support area at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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My last post summarized research on current and historical pollinators and their role in robusta coffee fruit set in India, and I noted it was in recognition that this is Pollinator Week — an international celebration of the valuable ecosystem services provided by bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles.
I’ve summarized a couple of other papers on pollinators and coffee:
- Research: Shade coffee = more pollinators = higher fruit set (Pollinator diversity increases fruit production in Mexican coffee plantations: The importance of rustic management systems)
- Research: Shade coffee conserves bee diversity (Impacts of coffee agroforestry management on tropical bee communities)
These are by no means the only research done on pollination, pollinators, and coffee! Below I have listed many peer-reviewed papers specifically dealing with bees and coffee pollination, and often the role of preserving shade in and near the coffee farm to preserve the habitat of pollinators and improve the fruit set of the coffee and other crops on the farm. If you are especially interested in one of the papers and do not have academic access, please let me know and I can try to provide you with a copy.
Meanwhile, I also encourage everybody to head over the the website of the Pollinator Partnership, which sponsors Pollinator Week. They have every resource you can think of regarding pollination and pollinators — not just bees, but all the other insects and animals that perform this incredible service — and their conservation and status. New this year is a free app (iPhone or Android) called BeeSmart, a database of hundreds of North American native plants for attracting pollinators.
Hedstrom, I., A. Denzel, and G. Owens. 2006. Orchid bees as bio-indicators for organic coffee farms in Costa Rica: Does farm size affect their abundance? Revista de Biologia Tropical. 54:965–969.
Hedstrom, I., J. Harris, and K. Fergus. 2006. Euglossine bees as potential bio-indicators of coffee farms: Does forest access, on a seasonal basis, affect abundance? Revista de Biologia Tropical. 54:1188–1195.
Jha, S., and C.W. Dick. 2010. Native bees mediate long-distance pollen dispersal in a shade coffee landscape mosaic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 107:13760 –13764.
Jha, S., and J.H. Vandermeer. 2009. Contrasting bee foraging in response to resource scale and local habitat management. Oikos. 118:1174–1180.
Jha, S., and J.H. Vandermeer. 2010. Impacts of coffee agroforestry management on tropical bee communities. Biological Conservation. 143:1423–1431.
Karanja, R.H.N., G. Njoroge, M. Gikungu, and L.E. Newton. 2010. Bee interactions with wild flora around organic and conventional coffee farms in Kiambu district, central Kenya. Journal of Pollination Ecology. 2:7–12.
Klein, A.-M. 2009. Nearby rainforest promotes coffee pollination by increasing spatio-temporal stability in bee species richness. Forest Ecology and Management. 258:1838–1845.
Klein, A.M., I. Steffan-Dewenter, and T. Tscharntke. 2003. Bee pollination and fruit set of Coffea arabica and C. canephora (Rubiaceae). American Journal of Botany. 90:153–157.
Klein, A.M., I. Steffan-Dewenter, and T. Tscharntke. 2003. Fruit set of highland coffee increases with the diversity of pollinating bees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 270:955–961.
Klein, A.-M., I. Steffan-Dewenter, and T. Tscharntke. 2003. Pollination of Coffea canephora in relation to local and regional agroforestry management. Journal of Applied Ecology. 40:837–845.
Manrique, A.J., and R.E. Thimann. 2002. Coffee (coffea arabica) pollination with africanized honeybees in venezuela. Interciencia. 27:414–416.
Olschewski, R., T. Tscharntke, P.C. Benitez, S. Schwarze, and A. Klein. 2006. Economic evaluation of pollination services comparing coffee landscapes in Ecuador and Indonesia. Ecology and Society. 11:[online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol11/iss1/art7/.
Peters, V., and C. Carroll. 2012. Temporal variation in coffee flowering may influence the effects of bee species richness and abundance on coffee production. Agroforestry Systems. 85:95–103.
Philpott, S.M., S. Uno, and J. Maldonado. 2006. The importance of ants and high-shade management to coffee pollination and fruit weight in Chiapas, Mexico. Biodiversity and Conservation. 15:487–501.
Priess, J.A., M. Mimler, A.-M. Klein, S. Schwarze, T. Tscharntke, and I. Steffan-Dewenter. 2007. Linking deforestation scenarios to pollination services and economic returns in coffee agroforestry systems. Ecological Applications. 17:407–417.
Ricketts, T.H. 2004. Tropical forest fragments enhance pollinator activity in nearby coffee crops. Conservation Biology. 18:1262–1271.
Veddeler, D., A.-M. Klein, and T. Tscharntke. 2006. Contrasting responses of bee communities to coffee flowering at different spatial scales. Oikos. 112:594–601.
Veddeler, D., R. Olschewski, T. Tscharntke, and A.-M. Klein. 2008. Contribution of non-managed social bees to coffee production: new economic insights based on farm-scale yield data. Agroforestry Systems. 73:109–114.
Vergara, C.H., and E.I. Badano. 2009. Pollinator diversity increases fruit production in Mexican coffee plantations: The importance of rustic management systems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment. 129:117–123.
Willmer, P.G., and G.N. Stone. 1989. Incidence of entomophilous pollination of lowland coffee (Coffea canephora); the role of leaf cutter bees in Papua New Guinea. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata. 50:113–124.
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says a plan to protect endangered and threatened species during the construction and operation of a proposed wind power farm in Hawaii is ready for public review and comment.
Kawailoa Wind Power LLC aims to build a wind farm on Oahu's North Shore that would include 30 wind turbine generators, a maintenance building, and a battery storage system.
The site is next to land used by four endangered waterbirds: the Hawaiian moorhen, Hawaiian duck, Hawaiian coot, and Hawaiian stilt. A threatened seabird, the Newell's shearwater also uses the area, as does the endangered Hawaiian hoary bat.
A Habitat Conservation Plan prepared by the company proposes several mitigation measures.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is accepting comments on the plan through Oct. 11.
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Cartographic and Architectural Records
General Information Leaflet, Number 26
Table of Contents
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) safeguards records on which the people of a democracy depend for the continuity, accountability, and credibility of their national institutions. NARA is the official repository of the permanently valuable records made or accumulated by the U.S. Government and is responsible for preserving those records and making them available to the general public, government officials, and scholars. NARA enables people to inspect for themselves the record of what government has done. It enables officials and agencies to review their actions and helps citizens hold them accountable. NARA ensures continuing access to essential evidence that documents the rights of American citizens, the actions of Federal officials, and the national experience.
Among the records in the Cartographic and Architectural Section (NWCSC) are over 15 million maps, charts, aerial photographs, architectural drawings, patents, and ships plans, constituting one of the world's largest accumulations of such documents. These holdings are arranged in 190 record groups, which reflect the origins of the records in specific federal departments and agencies. Some of the more significant holdings, grouped under the general functions or subject areas associated with their creation, are described below. In appropriate contexts, record group numbers have been added in parentheses to facilitate reference to the specific NARA holdings under discussion.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition was the earliest, and in many ways the most significant, of the great government-sponsored expeditions. There were many other expeditions, however, and each made its contribution to filling in the map of the West or providing information about overseas areas considered vital to the interests of the United States. The files of the Office of the Chief of Engineers in Record Group (RG) 77 and the Archives File of the Hydrographic Office (RG 37) contain the most important collections of Federal explorers' maps, many of which made major contributions to geographic knowledge.
Prominent among Federal explorers who continued the work of Lewis and Clark were Zebulon M. Pike, Stephen H. Long, Joseph N. Nicollet, B.L.E. Bonneville, Charles Wilkes, John Rodgers, John C. Fremont, and Gouverneur K. Warren. During the two decades before the Civil War, Fremont and Warren, members of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, led expeditions that resulted in mapping much of the western part of the United States. After the Civil War, increasingly complex surveying and mapping projects were carried out by field parties under the supervision of Ferdinand V. Hayden, Clarence King, George M. Wheeler, and John Wesley Powell. The end of the era of preliminary exploration of the United States was symbolized by the establishment in 1879 of the U.S. Geological Survey as the government's central mapping agency.
During the period 1785-87, the Seven Ranges of Ohio became the first tract of public land surveyed under the new rectangular land survey system. This system, which was institutionalized in 1812 by the establishment of the General Land Office, has been of immense importance in shaping the cultural landscape of the public domain lands that lie outside of the Thirteen Original States, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas. The surveys produced a large body of township plats and field notes, records that have great geographical, historical, and legal value. Presently there are township plats and field notes for Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi, Wisconsin, and parts of several other States. Other records of the General Land Office and its successor, the Bureau of Land Management (RG 49), include general state maps; plats of private land claims, mineral claims, and townsites and maps showing rights-of-way for transportation and communication lines.
Maps showing information about the Indians of the United States can be found among the records of many agencies, but the largest concentration is the central map file of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (RG 75). This body of over 16,000 maps, covering the period 1800-1939, includes items pertaining to Indian treaties, removal policy, reservations, settlements, and land use. Because of the vast extent of the Indian lands and the great variety of maps compiled or used by the Bureau, this file also contains much incidental information about other aspects of the physical, cultural, and historical geography of the United States.
Among the cartographic records are thousands of nautical charts of the U.S. coastline published by the former Coast and Geodetic Survey (RG 23) (now part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and charts of foreign waters published by the former Hydrographic Office (superseded by the Naval Oceanographic Office and the Defense Mapping Agency). These published nautical chart series span the period from the 1840's to the present. The Hydrographic Office records (RG 37) include original nineteenth-century manuscript survey sheets of the coasts of Mexico, Central America, and islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean.
A large body of cartographic records pertains to the topography of the United States and the conservation and development of its natural resources. One of the most frequently used series dates from the establishment of the U.S. Geological Survey in 1879 and consists of that agency's topographic quadrangle maps covering virtually the entire country (RG 57). Other maps from the U.S. Geological Survey relate to the classification of public lands and to investigations of geological, mineral, and water resources. Several thousand county and regional soil classification and soil erosion maps have been produced since 1900 by the Soil Conservation Service and its predecessors (RG 114). Since its inception in 1881, the Forest Service has produced numerous maps relating to national forests and timber and range management (RG 95). The National Park Service (RG 79) created maps of all of the national parks and monuments, including many in the vicinity of the District of Columbia. Other map files relating to natural resources are among the records of the U.S. Bureau of Mines (RG 70), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (RG 22), the Bureau of Reclamation (RG 115), the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (RG 83), and the National Resources Planning Board (RG 187).
Although Federal census schedules date from 1790, the preparation of enumeration district maps did not occur until 1880. These records, prepared on a decennial basis, include maps of counties, cities, towns, and unincorporated settlements, showing boundaries of the districts covered by the census-takers (enumerators). Population counts for each district and, in some cases, information about farm dwellings and farm population are contained in accompanying bound volumes of verbal descriptions of the boundaries of each district. Other map files of the Bureau of the Census (RG 29) and the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (RG 83) contain manuscript and published maps relating to population changes, immigration, and, beginning with the 1840 census of agriculture, such agricultural statistics as crop and livestock distributions.
The Federal Government's concern with urban areas, beginning with its interest in the site and development of the nation's capital, is reflected in the holdings of the Section. Particularly noteworthy are plans of U.S. and foreign cities dating from the late eighteenth century to the present; enumeration district maps and boundary descriptions of U.S. cities from 1890 to 1970; and real property surveys of major U.S. cities undertaken during the Depression. Other special-purpose maps relate to urban site and situation, urban growth, and the economic and social interaction between metropolitan areas.
Because the mapping needs in the early years of the federal government were greatest in the domestic sphere, its production of maps of foreign territory was limited to areas of government involvement, such as treaties with foreign governments, foreign wars, and exploration. These maps show topography, settlement, land use, transportation and communication routes, and other physical and cultural phenomena. Some 20,000 maps and aerial photographs pertain to the delineation of the U.S. boundaries with Canada and Mexico, mostly showing areas immediately adjacent to the borders. The records of the American Commission To Negotiate Peace (RG 256), the U.S. delegation at the Versailles Conference of 1919, include 1,100 maps covering areas in Europe and other parts of the world that show social, linguistic, and economic statistics compiled to aid in the postwar geopolitical restructuring of boundaries. Similar social and economic maps for the World War II period exist among the records of several diplomatic and wartime agencies. The largest series of maps covering foreign areas consists of topographic maps of various scales published by the Army Map Service beginning in 1942. These maps cover many areas of the world, and the mapping continues today under the successor, the Defense Mapping Agency (RG 456).
Maps and charts have always played an important role in the planning and execution of military operations, and military maps, nautical charts, and fortification plans form a significant part of the holdings in the Section. These documents are found in records of the Offices of the Chief of Engineers (RG 77), the Adjutant General (RG 94), and the Quartermaster General (RG 92); the Office of Strategic Services (RG 226); the Army Map Service (RG 77); and the Hydrographic Office (RG 37). Although they vary in style, composition, and technique, all of the documents reflect the time and purpose for which they were created. Major battles and minor skirmishes are depicted in time frames that range from minutes to daily order of battle to historical summaries of entire campaigns. Subjects are as disparate as German espionage activities in Mexico during World War I to analysis of soil and rock composition on the Normandy beaches during World War II.
The earliest documentation consists of a few period maps for Queen Anne's War and for the French and Indian War and a few hundred maps for the American Revolution and the War of 1812. The 8,000 Civil War maps constitute the largest collection of such maps, and the extensive manuscript mapping of the Indian campaigns, Mexican War, and Spanish-American War form a unique and significant body of records. Twentieth-century records begin with the Boxer Rebellion, extend to U.S. intervention in the Caribbean and Central America, and expand to some 25,000 maps and aerial photographs for World War I. World War II mapping is worldwide for military operations on land, at sea, and in the air, and covers various aspects of the military campaigns from intelligence gathering and planning to execution and historical analysis. Coverage of recent military actions in Korea and Vietnam is limited primarily to topographic mapping published by the Army Map Service and the Defense Mapping Agency.
Among the records of the Section are several major series of architectural and engineering drawings created by civilian and military agencies. Some 28,000 plans of public buildings across the United States, such as post offices, courthouses, and customhouses, were accumulated by the Public Buildings Service and its predecessors (RG 121) beginning in the mid-nineteenth century. Such federal agencies as the former Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital (RG 42), the National Capital Planning Commission (RG 328), the Commission of Fine Arts (RG 66), and the Department of the Interior have accumulated drawings that document the many government buildings, monuments, and parks in the District of Columbia and the surrounding areas of Virginia and Maryland. The records of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks of the National Capital include original proposals for the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. The large and growing plans files of the National Park Service (RG 79) contain hundreds of drawings of the most prominent monuments in the District of Columbia as well as early plans of national parks across the country. The records of the U.S. Coast Guard's former Bureau of Lighthouses include several thousand drawings of lighthouses and life-saving stations in the United States, the earliest of which were designed in the 1830s. Plans of vessels are also among the records of the Coast Guard (RG 26). Over 100,000 original drawings submitted to the Patent and Trademark Office (RG 241) with applications for Federal patents between 1790 and 1870 are another type of holding in the Section.
Among military records the most heavily researched architectural drawings consist of plans of Army forts, hospitals, coastal defense batteries, and other military reservations. Created primarily by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Quartermaster General's Office, these fortification plans date from the earliest years of the country to the World War II period and constitute the largest such file in existence in the United States. The Corps of Engineers records also include large-scale engineering drawings of structures such as bridges, dams, and locks as well as plans of dredge boats used in river navigation projects. Numerous plans document U.S. Navy and Marine bases and facilities throughout the United States, the Carribean, and the Pacific from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century (RG 71). There are also thousands of U.S. Navy ship plans dating from the early-nineteenth century to the 1950's (RG 19) and U.S. Navy aircraft and airship plans from about 1916 to 1962 (RG 72).
Aerial photography became an important part of the mapmaking process in the twentiethth century. Aerial photographs provide a straightforward depiction of the physical and cultural landscape of an area at a given time. When skillfully interpreted, these aerial images supply geographers, historians, ecologists, geologists, urban planners, archaeologists, and other professionals with a pictorial basis often critical to their studies. Increasingly, members of the legal profession have used aerial photography in the settlement of cases involving property disputes, riparian rights, and transportation rights-of-way. Recently, genealogists have used aerial photography to identify and locate ancestral sites.
The federal government became significantly involved in the systematic acquisition of aerial photography in the 1930's. Until that time, no comprehensive collection of aerial imagery of the United States existed. The Department of Agriculture, given the responsibility for crop determination and soil erosion, created many of the earliest aerial coverages. The result was an extensive collection of vertical (mapping) aerial imagery covering approximately 90 percent of the contiguous United States. This large-scale aerial photography, which was taken between 1935 and 1954, forms a unique collection within the millions of aerial photographic images held by the Cartographic and Architectural Section. Because one of the best ways to exploit aerial photography in research is through comparison of images from various dates, the Section has accessioned an extensive collection of military-flown imagery of the United States dating from about 1940 to 1960. This collection provides coverages of Alaska and Hawaii as well as most of the contiguous United States.
World War II brought a rapid acceleration in the use of aerial photography of foreign areas for both military operations and mapping purposes. The Section holds World War II aerial images covering parts of the European, Mediterranean, and Pacific Theaters of Operation, taken by units of the U.S. and Allied Air Forces. Included are both vertical mapping photography and oblique reconnaissance photography. The Section also holds approximately 1.2 million prints of aerial photographs taken by the Germany military. Coverages are widespread--Europe (from the British Isles to the Ural Mountains), the Middle East, and North Africa are included in this collection. Many of the prints are annotated to indicate military installations and defenses; other prints are marked to show potential bombing targets. While the scale and quality of the photographs in this collection vary considerably, the imagery provides unique wartime coverages of many of the contested areas. A smaller collection (about 37,000 images), taken by the Japanese military between about 1933 and 1945, consists of aerial photography of parts of China, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. The Section also maintains custody of satellite photographs for 1960-1972 from the CORONA project--the United States first satellite reconnaissance program.
It is important to remember that NARA's holdings relate primarily to official functions of the federal government and that records are arranged by the federal offices that created or accumulated them. Maps that predate the federal government and nineteenth-century maps of areas outside the United States are rare among the Cartographic and Architectural Section (NWCSC) holdings.
In order to request a search of the maps and charts, researchers need to provide NWCSC with a subject, geographic area, and time period. In order to request a search of the architectural or engineering drawings, one must provide the Section with the name of the structure or equipment as well as its location and time period of use. Please bear in mind that the Section's architectural and engineering drawings relate almost exclusively to structures and equipment built by or for the federal government.
All requests for aerial photography searches must be accompanied by a detailed map upon which the limits of the site are clearly outlined. The request should also include a brief geographic description of the site such as state, county, geographic coordinates, variant spellings of the site name and/or relative location of the site with nearby, well-known geographic locales. Once NWCSC receives this information, staff will indicate to the researcher either the indexes that should be purchased (if the area is large) or the individual photographs needed (if the area is small).
In order to request copies of records in NARA holdings, it is necessary to know the record group, series, and individual file notation for the original record. If this complete record filing citation is not known, the researcher must first request a search of Section holdings as described above under "Maps and Drawings" or "Aerial Photographs."
Information concerning the records is made available to the public through the compilation of lists, catalogs, and other finding aids in manuscript or typescript form maintained in the Section research room. Published finding aids (both free and fee) that are in print may also be available through NARA Customer Service Centers or in local libraries. The Section will provide photocopies of short sections of out-of-print publications. As indicated below some finding aids have been microfilmed and are available for sale as part of Microfilm Publication M 248:
Some maps may be viewed using the Online Catalog .
All reproductions are made to order for a fee; we do not maintain a stock of copies.
On-site researchers may examine maps, architectural drawings, and aerial photographs and finding aids in the Cartographic and Architectural Section Research Room. For the most productive research, prior to visiting the Section, assemble the specific information described above, which is necessary to locate individual items among the thousands on file.
Requests concerning records and reproduction services should be addressed to:
Cartographic and Architectural Section (NWCSC)
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740-6001
General NARA Reference (College Park: 301-837-3200
Cartographic and Architectural Reference:
Reference Inquiries: 301-837-3200
Fax Number: 301-837-3622
Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Parking is available to researchers who travel by private car to the National Archives at College Park. Public transportation to the facility involves a combination of subway and bus. A staff shuttle bus, accessible to researchers on a space available basis, operates between the College Park facility and the National Archives in downtown Washington, DC. Current information on transportation options is provided on the NARA web site, or may be obtained from the research consultants' desk at College Park (301-837-3200).
List of Finding Aids Relating
to Cartographic and Architectural Records
Note: Publlications marked as out of print (OOP) are not available from the Customer Service Center, however they may be available for reference in NARA research facilities.
A Guide to Civil War Maps in the National Archives (1964, revised 1986) (OOP).
Guide to Cartographic Records in the National Archives (1971) (OOP).
Inventory (INV 4) of the Records of the Hydrographic Office, (1971).
PI 45 Cartographic Records of the Federal Housing Administration (1952).
PI 73 Cartographic Records of the United States Marine Corps (1954).
PI 81 Cartographic Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior (1955).
PI 85 Cartographic Records of the Chief of Naval Operations (1955).
PI 90 Records of the United States Antarctic Service (1955).
PI 91 Cartographic Records of the Panama Canal (1956).
PI 103 Cartographic Records of the Bureau of the Census (1958).
PI 146 Records of the Provisional Government of Cuba (1962).
PI 161 Records of the Bureau of the Census (1964).
PI 165 Cartographic Records of the American Expeditionary Forces, 1917-21 (1966) (OOP). Available on roll 19 of M248.
PI 167 Cartographic Records of the Forest Service (1967).
PI 168 Records of the Post Office Department (1967).
PI 170 Records Relating to International Boundaries (1968).
PI 195 Cartographic Records of the Soil Conservation Service (1981).
SL 13 Cartographic Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (1954; revised 1977).
SL 19 Cartographic Records of the General Land Office (1964).
SL 23 Cartographic Records Relating to the Territory of Wisconsin, 1836-1848 (1970) (OOP). Available on roll 38 of M248.
SL 25 Aerial Photographs in the National Archives (1971).
SL 26 Pre-Federal Maps in the National Archives: An Annotated List (1971).
SL 27 Cartographic Records Relating to the Territory of Iowa, 1838-1846 (1971) (OOP). Available on roll 38 of M248.
SL 28 Cartographic Records of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics (1971) (OOP). Available on roll 38 of M248.
SL 29 List of Selected Maps of States and Territories (1996).
SL 41 Cartographic Records of the National Resources Planning Board (1977) (OOP). Available on roll 39 of M248.
SL 43 United States Hydrographic Office Manuscript Charts in the National Archives, 1838-1908 (1978).
SL 57 Lighthouse Plans in the National Archives (1990) (00P).
RIP 75 Agricultural Maps in the National Archives of the United States, ca. 1860-1930 (1976).
From time to time the National Archives and Records Administration displays maps and charts in formal exhibits. Several of these exhibits have been accompanied by published catalogs describing the records and relating them to their social and institutional backgrounds. Catalogs for the following exhibits were produced, however all are out of print:
Federal Exploration of the American West Before 1880 (1963)
Geographical Exploration and Topographic Mapping by the United States Government: A Catalog (1952, reprinted 1966)
United States Scientific Geographical Exploration of the Pacific Basin (1971)
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| 0.925189 | 4,708 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Why are U.S. farmers, even the most highly efficient ones, still so dependent on farm subsidies? Dan Morgan, a Washington Post staff writer, explored this paradox recently in an article featuring North Dakota farmer Allan Skogan, one of a new breed of highly adaptive, technologically savvy producers who nonetheless believes farm subsidies have been a critical factor behind his success.
The reasons farm payments survive despite loud, often withering criticism from policymakers and public advocacy groups are complex, says Robert Goodman, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System and Auburn University associate professor of agricultural economics. Nevertheless, he is one of an embattled minority of farm economists throughout the nation who agree with Skogan and other producers that subsidies are critical to the future of farming.
Goodman cites six reasons in support of farm subsidies.
Unpredictability, either in the form of natural or man-made disasters, remains the biggest challenge associated with farming both from the standpoint of the producer and the consumer.
Despite the bad press they've garnered recently, Goodman believes subsidies serve two critical purposes — protecting farmers from drastic fluctuations in commodity prices often caused by weather or market setbacks and consumers from the price spikes associated with steep drops in crop inventories.
Throughout history, crop failures were facts of life driven home with horrifying frequency until the 20th century when farm price supports became common.
“During famine, food became scarce and prices spiked,” Goodman says. “Now, thanks to subsidies, we are — to some degree, at least, — better protected by these higher food reserves.”
Critics argue that subsidies create an excessive and even burdensome over-supply of inventory. To a great extent, that's true, Goodman says. On the other hand, he argues, the huge year-to-year carryover of large inventories safeguards against huge prices fluctuations that otherwise would follow natural or market-driven setbacks.
“Simply put, subsidies promote stability by protecting consumers from high prices and farmers from low prices and, ultimately, bankruptcy,” he says.
- Farm Security
From the beginning of civilization, self-sufficiency always has been associated with security. While Americans increasingly look to other countries to supply many of their basic foods, farm payments nonetheless serve a useful purpose in preserving a farming infrastructure that could quickly adapt to raising other commodities in the event of a national emergency, Goodman says.
“If only on the basis of national security, farming is a sector of the economy that should be maintained,” he stresses.
Even larger questions beyond national security are involved. Goodman says Americans need only look to their neighbors to the north, the Canadians, to observe how a “country concerned about how a collapse of their farm economy might affect their national identity and sovereignty.”
- The Pass-Through Effect
One of the major misconceptions associated with farm subsidies, particularly among consumers, is that producers are the only ones who benefit — not true, says Goodman.
Subsidies virtually guarantee that products such as corn, cotton and wheat are produced in large amounts — a factor that not only benefits producers but others along the food-processing and marketing chain.
“It's not just the final products we eat that are affected by these payments but the building blocks along the way that comprise the food production and distribution chain,” Goodman says. “Farmers receive direct benefits, but others along the way benefit indirectly through cheaper production inputs, which, in turn, contribute to lower production costs.”
- Unintended Consequences of a Subsidy Phase-Out
While phasing out subsidies is conceivable, Goodman says it raises another important question - is it feasible?
“Critics of farm programs say we would be so much better off if we could get from here to a point where farmers could function without subsidies,” Goodman says. “But what happens along the way?
“Even if the mountain on the other side may be a little higher, we're first going to have to pass through the deep dark valley below,” he argues. “For that matter, what would happen once we reach the other mountain and discover the sides are too steep to climb?”
In the end, Goodman fears, the journey to the other side of the valley could turn out to be more trouble than it's worth.
- Reflecting on Past Successes
Moreover, in assessing the risks, Goodman says it's important to remember the positive effects associated with subsidies within the past century.
“In spite of everything critics say, when we reflect on the almost 100-year history of subsidies and consider the role they've served, we have to say, ‘Gee whiz, they worked; they've been successful.’”
Subsidies, Goodman contends, have accomplished what they had intended to do - supporting farm income and securing a safe, reliable food supply.
- The Relatively Cheap Cost of U.S. Farm Payments
In assessing the costs and benefits of U.S. farm payments, one other factor that needs to be considered is their relatively cheap costs compared with other industrial nations, Goodman says.
In terms of the percentage of farm revenue paid out in subsidies, the United States spends considerably less compared with other Western nations, he says.
In Switzerland and Norway, for example, more than 70 percent of farm revenue is derived from government payments, compared with only 20 percent in the United States.
In dollar terms, the European Union spends more than $100 billion on farm support payments, while the United States spends only $44 billion, despite that the U.S. farm economy is considerably larger, Goodman says.
Subsidies are one of several global issues that have generated heated discussion in recent years — little wonder why, Goodman says.
“The same challenges associated with other public policies hold true for subsidies,” Goodman says. “They cause some bad things to happen along with the good, but on balance, the good things far outnumber the bad.”
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| 0.954689 | 1,237 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Java Runtime configuration
It is recommended to customize some variables:
export JAVA_OPTS="-Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Xmx1024m -XX:PermSize=128m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError"
Paths in Windows-based systems
In Windows some paths, the user home for instance, usually contain spaces, which could be problematic with some development environments. Therefore the recommendations are:
- Place your LMF working copy under a path without spaces
- Tomcat, and maybe other servlet containers, are not happy with such paths
- Configure related tools (maven and so on) to use a home path also without spaces; these are some of the environment variables involved
Internally LMF uses a relational database to persist the data using a custom and efficient schema.
For instance, for creating such database in PostgreSQL you'd need to execute something like:
$ su # su - postgres $ psql postgres=# CREATE USER lmf WITH PASSWORD 'lmf'; postgres=# CREATE DATABASE lmf WITH OWNER lmf;
Then you'd need to configure the access to it, using the userConfig.properties file or through the web interface under LMF core.
These performance tricks may be of your interest.
See Maven for further details.
Hot Deployment / JRebel
See JRebel for further details.
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://wiki.apache.org/marmotta/DevelopmentTricks
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| 0.736032 | 356 | 2.578125 | 3 |
The 2008 Legislature approved House Bill 428 and House Bill 644 establishing the Statewide Comprehensive Aquifer Planning and Management Program (42-1779) and the Aquifer Planning and Management Fund (42-1780). This legislation authorizes characterization and planning efforts for ten different basins in the next 10 years.
The Aquifer Planning and Management Program is designed to provide the Idaho Water Resource Board and the Idaho Department of Water Resources with the necessary information to develop plans for managing ground and surface water resources into the future. The program has two phases:
- A technical component to characterize the surface and ground water resources of each basin, and
- A planning component that will integrate the technical knowledge with an assessment of current and projected future water uses and constraints
This program will culminate with the development of long-range plans for conjunctively managing the water resources of each basin which integrates hydrologic realities with the social needs.
The water management plans will be designed to address water supply and demand issues looking out 50 years into the future . The program is intended to investigate strategies and develop plans which will lead to sustainable water supplies and optimum use of the water resources.
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://www.idwr.idaho.gov/waterboard/WaterPlanning/CAMP/CAMP.htm
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| 0.904935 | 235 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The red dot labeled "Sol 134-141" in this map illustrates when and where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit acquired the "Santa Anita Panorama." Scientists consider this area, located roughly three-fourths of the way between "Bonneville Crater" and the base of the "Columbia Hills," a treasure trove that may be studied for decades to come. The panorama is one of four 360-degree full panoramas the rover has acquired during its mission.
The color thermal inertia data show how well different surface features hold onto heat. Red indicates a high thermal inertia associated with rocky terrain (regions that take longer to warm up and cool down); blue indicates a lower thermal inertia associated with smaller particles and fewer rocks (areas that warm up and cool off quickly). The map comprises background images from the camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter and data from the thermal emission spectrometer on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter.
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http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA06688
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| 0.876543 | 194 | 2.953125 | 3 |
The Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance
(SAED) (Epstein & Cullinan, 1998)
This review was published in the NASP Communiqué and is reproduced here with
permission (all rights reserved0
Dumont, R., &
Rauch, M. (2000) Test Review: Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance (SAED),
Communiqué, Vol. 28, 8, 24-25
The Scale for Assessing
Emotional Disturbance (SAED) (Epstein & Cullinan, 1998) is a rating scale
designed to assist identifying students who may be experiencing emotional and/or
behavioral difficulties within the educational setting. It is also reported to
be useful as a screening device a tool for research and a method to measure a
student's progress. The scale comprises 52 items which encompass Seven subscales
and a single item that highlights overall educational performance. These seven
subscales include Inability to Learn (e.g., "Homework skills are poor")
(8 items), Relationship problems (e.g., “Has few or no friends") (6
items), Inappropriate Behavior (e.g. "Cruel to peers") (10 items),
Unhappiness or Depression (e.g., “Lacks self-confidence") (7 items),
Physical Symptoms or Fears (e.g., Anxious, worried, tense") (8 items),
Socially Maladjusted (e.g., "Runs away from home") ( 6 items), and
Overall Competence (7 items). The single item highlighting overall academic
performance is termed Adversely Affects Educational Performance. The
actual rating form is broken down into three domains that include Student
Competence Characteristics, Student Emotional and Behavioral Problems, and
Adversely Affect Educational Performance.
A psychologist, teacher,
parent, caregiver, or any other individual knowledgeable about the individual
and his or her behaviors can complete the SAED. Professionals who have
appropriate knowledge and background about the SAED specifically and
psychometric properties and psychological interpretation in general should
complete scoring. Respondents to the SAED are asked to rate the child on each
statement using a Likert-type scale. Items within the domain of Student
Emotional and Behavioral Problems are scored on a four-point scale, the Student
Competence Characteristics on a five-point scale and the Adversely Affects
Educational Performance a six-point scale. There are also eight open-ended
questions at the conclusion of the scale, which offer ratings related to the
student's athletic, academic, social, family and community strengths.
Once the SAED scale is
completed, the scores for the subscales are summed, and these raw scores can be
converted into percentile ranks and scaled scores (M = 10, SD= 3) .The scaled
scores from the five subscales are combined to obtain an overall indication of
emotional and behavioral functioning, termed the SAED Quotient (M = 100, SD=
The SAED was normed on a
nationally representative sample of students without emotional disturbance (NonED)
and a national sample of students with emotional disturbance (ED). The
non-emotionally disturbed sample included 2,266 students ranging in age from 5:0
to 18:11, while the emotionally disturbed sample included 1,371 students ranging
in age from 5:0 to 18:11.
No explanation whatsoever is
given about how these 1,371 children came to be classified as ED. Given the
extreme variability in identification of emotional disturbance between and
within states, the inclusion of the ED sample without some clear description of
how the children were identified in the first place leaves one to wonder about
the validity of this sample. Are these children those with specifically
diagnosed conditions of emotional disturbance as indicated in DSM-IV or are they
the "typical" school-identified emotionally disturbed children?
The SAED was examined for four
types of reliability—content sampling, time sampling, rater and scorer. The
content sampling of the SAED yielded coefficients that all exceed .75. Two
studies were completed to examine whether the results of the SAED were stable
over time. Two groups of children identified as Emotionally Disturbed were
rated twice over a two-week period. The results of the two studies yielded
correlation coefficients that range from .84 to .94. Interrater reliability was
examined with the rating of 44 ED students by six pairs of special education
teachers. Resulting correlations ranged from .51 to .84. Most reliability
coefficients were near or in the .80’s. Two subscales, Physical Symptoms or
Fear and Unhappiness or Depression, had the lowest reliabilities, .51 and .61
respectively. Correlation coefficients between scorers (as opposed to raters)
for all scales were .99. These results indicate that the SAED is a highly
Epstein and Cullinan examined the
content, criterion-related and construct validity of the SAED. Median item
discrimination coefficients were calculated for each subscale for both the NonED
and ED groups, and the results were reported by age. For the SAED all
coefficients were above .39 with a majority in the .6 and .7 range. These
results indicate a high degree of content validity
To examine concurrent validity,
the SAED was compared to the Teacher Report Form (TRF, Achenbach, 1991) as well
as to the Revised Problem Behavior Checklist (RPBC, Quay & Peterson, 1996).
Hypotheses regarding both the positive and negative correlational relationships
between the scales are described in the manual. The correlations that were
found were all both statistically and relatively high enough to support each of
the predicted relationships made by the authors. The predictive validity of the
SAED has not yet been explored.
Finally, construct validity for
the SAED was examined. Analysis of group differentiation ability using eight
t-tests and the Bonferroni procedure to control for multiple comparisons
indicates that the SAED did differentiate between the standardization NonED and
ED groups effectively with the NonED group obtaining a mean SAED Quotient of 100
compared to 122 for the ED group. Examination of interrelationships between
subscale and total scale scores revealed moderate to strong relationships both
between individual subscales and the SAED quotient. According to Epstein and
Cullinan, the SAED appears to have strong validity in all areas indicating that
it is a valid measure of emotional disturbance.
Despite the reliability and
validity evidence provided in the SAED manual, these reviewers have a number of
concerns regarding the use of the SAED. One of our major concerns regards the
conceptualization of the SAED and its relevance to diagnosing children with
"Serious emotional disturbance" as defined by the Federal Register. The stated
focus of the SAED is on "the five qualifying conditions on which identification
of emotional disturbance is based as well as other key features of the federal
definition" (p. l ). Unfortunately, from these reviewers' perspective, the SAED
avoids the more specific aspect of the federal definition which highlights "the
term means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following
characteristics..." (Emphasis added). The SAED appears to base a determination
of an emotional disturbance on the identification of one or more of the
"characteristics" listed in the federal definition rather than on identifying
the condition of emotional disturbance from which the characteristics stem.
The federal definition of
Serious Emotional Disturbance also includes limiting criteria that seem poorly
operationalized by the SAED. For example, the federal definition requires that
the characteristic evidenced must have been present "over a long period of
time." In its description of this specific criterion, the SAED manual notes that
during standardization, all raters had known the individual children for at
least two months. This raised concern for these reviewers in two ways. First,
the period of time for which a characteristic is being rated is based upon the
length of contact the racer has with the individual and not on how long the
child has exhibited the characteristic. Second, the minimum two-month period is
fairly arbitrary and may not conform to individual state or district policies.
Another concern relates to the ratings for "adversely effects educational
performance." This area is scored using a single rating of a single question.
There are no definitions or criteria given on the protocol or in the manual to
indicate how one should judge the "adverse effect" or what the terms "slightly,"
"moderately," or "considerably" mean in relation to scoring this category.
Although the SAED reports a
large (1,371) sample of children labeled ED, the manual provides absolutely no
information about how these children came to be identified as ED, no breakdown
of what were the different emotional “conditions" that led to identification and
no explanation of the criteria used for inclusion in the emotionally disturbed
group. The need for a scale like the SAED is predicated upon the fact that there
is such extreme variability in tile diagnosis and classification of ED. To
validate a scale on an undefined sample seems problematic.
There is also some confusion
caused by differing numbers in the SAED tables. Table 4.1 provides the
demographic characteristics of the normative NonEd sample. The table reports
that, for ages 5 through 11, 12 through 14, and 15 through 18, there were 1,287;
535; and 44 children respectively. In Table 4.2 the number of children in the
age ranges is reported as 1,333; 581; and 352 respectively. Beside these
inconsistencies, the three age categories used to convert raw scores to standard
scores are presented in what seem to be fairly large bands. The manual (p. 15)
refers to the age ranges as "elementary," "middle" and "high school" age ranges.
There is no empirical justification presented for dividing the normative data in
The SAED does not include
Social Maladjustment in any of the norms for children below the age of 12
“because many of the items are about behaviors in which elementary children
would not typically engage (e.g., exhibits precocious sexual behavior)" (p. 18).
This seems naive and a bit arbitrary. Examination of the SAED items found close
similarities between those on the Inappropriate Behaviors scale and those on the
Socially Maladjusted scale. For example, on the Inappropriate Behavior scale one
finds: “Cheats, Lies, Steals"; "Destroys or ruins things"; and "Uses obscene,
profane, or sexually oriented language." In comparison, on the Socially
Maladjusted scale, one finds the items: “Steals in the community or at home,"
"Vandalizes property in the community," and "Exhibits precocious sexual
behavior." The only distinction between these items seems be that those
described on the "Inappropriate Behaviors" scale occur in the home and in the
schools, while those on the "Socially Maladjusted" scale happens solely in the
These reviewers completed the
SAED on eight students, aged 10 to 14, classified as emotionally disturbed by
individual school districts and placed in a school specializing in the treatment
of children with emotional problems. Of the eight students, only three seemed
accurately assessed by the SAED. For only three of these children did the SAED
scales indicate characteristics of SED. For the other five students, none of the
SAED scales reached a level considered significant, suggesting that they did not
have characteristics of SED, although they were already classified as such.
This same concern (scores of
students identified as having emotional disturbance obtaining average scores on
the SAED) is again raised when one examines some of the scores obtained
by the various samples used in the SAED validity studies. Table 6.5
provides the subscale and SAED quotients for the NonED and ED standardization
groups. While the NonED group has an SAED Quotient of 100.00, the ED group's
SAED quotient is, as would be expected, much higher, with a mean of 122.66.
However, in Tables 5.6 and 5.7 the various ED groups have mean SAED Quotients of
94.00, 100.32, and 98.27 respectively. Why are the mean quotients for these
selected smaller samples of ED children so different from the ED norming
sampling? They are well below what would be expected and in fact are
either “average" or somewhat "below average" in overall rating.
The SAED possesses reportedly
strong psychometric properties and might possibly be useful in gaining a deeper
and clearer understanding of a child and his or her functioning status. These
reviewers, though, do have some skepticism regarding the usefulness of, and need
for, such a scale. Although the SAED may be useful at times in differentiating
between Emotionally Disturbed and non-Emotionally Disturbed children, it, like
many other similar scales, does not provide any information for remediation of
identified problems. The SAED is a deficit-oriented scale, but it would be
useful for professionals working with children to have information regarding
strengths. Such an approach (strength-based) might be useful in writing
individual education plans and creating treatment methodology. Examiners must be
careful to use SAED and similar scales only for their narrow purposes. As noted
above, the SAED does not diagnose the underlying psychological condition that is
presumed to cause one or more of the five "characteristics." That diagnosis must
still be done by the examiner by additional means. The SAED does not rule out
social maladjustment as an alternative cause of the "characteristics." It is up
to the examiner and the Team to determine by other means whether a student is
emotionally disturbed, socially maladjusted, or both. The "period of time"
assessed by the SAED extends back, at most, only to the rater's first contact
with the student and, really, only as far back as the length of contact the
rater has in mind while completing the form.
Achenbach, T. M. ( 1991 ).
Manual for the Teacher Report Form and 1991 profile. Burlington, VT:
University of Vermont. Department of Psychiatry.
Epstein, M.H., & Cullinan, D.
( 1998). The Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance. Austin,
Quay, H. & Peterson (1996)
Revised Problem Behavior Checklist Professional Manual. Odessa FL:
Psychological Assessment Resources.
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| 0.862971 | 442 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2002.12.35
Georgia L. Irby-Massie, Paul T. Keyser, Greek Science of the Hellenistic Era: A Sourcebook. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. Pp. xxviii, 392. ISBN 0-415-23847-1. $90.00 (hb). ISBN 0-415-23848-X. $28.95 (pb).
Reviewed by David A. Traill, University of California, Davis ([email protected])
Word count: 1087 words
Classicists have been very successful in packaging segments of Greek and Roman civilization and culture into courses that have proved extremely popular with large numbers of students. Courses on mythology, etymology, women, and ancient history are familiar examples. We have been much less successful, however, in similarly exploiting one of the most fascinating aspects of Greek society: their remarkable accomplishments in science. Many of us, of course, in our survey courses, draw students' attention to the importance of the Presocratics' attempts to explain the universe in rational terms, to the role of Socrates and Plato in developing modes of reasoned argument, and to Aristotle's astonishing achievement in introducing scientific method to a wide range of disciplines. Some might screw up enough courage to demonstrate how, with a simple experiment and some elementary geometry, Eratosthenes was able to arrive at a remarkably accurate estimate of the circumference of the earth. We might also retell the "Eureka!" story but few of us will venture beyond this to show why Archimedes is regarded as one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time. One reason for this is fairly obvious. Once you get beyond the generalizations and the anecdotes, ancient science and mathematics are not easy. Most classicists feel comfortable talking about myth but distinctly uncomfortable if called upon to discuss problems in hydrostatics. Another reason has been the lack of appropriate textbooks. Classicists interested in incorporating more ancient science into their courses, or perhaps even developing a complete course on the subject, will welcome this new sourcebook by Irby-Massie and Keyser (I & K).
I & K's book is an anthology of texts that illustrate the methods and findings of Greek scientists. It is designed to replace the old standby, Cohen and Drabkin (C & D), now out of print.1 While most of the excerpts have been reprinted from earlier works, I & K have contributed some three dozen new passages, often from sources not hitherto translated into English. I & K have restricted themselves to the Hellenistic period. Since this was the golden age of Greek science, the narrower scope generally means little more than that C & D include excerpts from Aristotle, whereas I & K do not. The absence of Aristotle is most keenly felt in the zoology section, where his contributions far surpassed those of his successors.
After a general introduction, the book is divided into eleven chapters: Mathematics, Astronomy, Astrology, Geography, Mechanics, Optics, Hydrostatics and Pneumatics, Alchemy, Biology (Botany and Zoology), Medicine and "Psychology." Each chapter has an introductory segment, in which the authors summarize the progress in that field up to the death of Aristotle. Within each chapter the illustrative excerpts are organized under individual scientists rather than by sub-field, as in C & D. Brief introductory notes on each scientist precede the excerpts illustrating his work. Naturally, those who worked in more than one field turn up in more than one chapter. I & K's arrangement has the advantage of allowing students to form a better idea of the achievements of specific individuals, and, since scientists are arranged chronologically, better appreciate the development of each discipline.
I & K is much better indexed than C & D, being equipped with separate indexes of: 1) terms (e.g. "circumference of the earth," "digestion"); 2) metals, stones, plants, and animals; 3) people (excluding extracted authors); 4) places; 5) passages cited (but not excerpted). These should prove useful to many beyond the directly targeted audience. The strange exclusion from indexes 3 and 5 of what is after all the meat of the book, is explained by the detailed table of contents, where this information can be readily (but less conveniently) found. To the very useful bibliography, sensibly restricted, for the most part, to works in English, should be added: Sherman Stein, Archimedes: What Did He Do Besides Cry Eureka? (Washington 1999).
A major departure from the format of C & D is the lack of explanatory footnotes. To some extent, the authors have compensated for this by adding brief notes in square brackets within the excerpted texts themselves. But footnotes would have allowed for the more detailed commentary that many of these texts require. The authors explain their decision as follows: "We have also preferred to include more text at the expense of some notes, believing that there is greater value in having more material available, and given that even book-length commentaries on some of these texts would not suffice." Clearly, choices had to be made. Personally, I would have preferred more notes. These texts are, as I & K's own remarks imply, often formidable. The more assistance that is provided, the more accessible they become to students and potential teachers alike. Certainly, guidance is often to be found in G.E.R. Lloyd's excellent Greek Science After Aristotle (New York 1973), which every teacher should have constantly within reach. Lloyd's book, however, deals only with a small percentage of the passages in I & K and, although it would have been an ideal choice for an accompanying text, is now, sadly, out of print.
Here are some minor criticisms that occurred to me. The decision to use the "purist" method of transliteration is unfortunate. It adds a layer of confusion to an already difficult subject. Even seasoned classicists are likely to be nonplussed if asked, "What do you think of the work of Eukleides?" and many students, familiar with Dionysius and Epicurus, will not necessarily connect them with Dionusios and Epikouros. The title of chapter nine, "Alchemy," though technically correct, is bound to mislead and puzzle many students. A more informative title would have been "Minerals, Metallurgy and Chemistry." Finally, since students will find it simply incredible that Herophilus practiced human vivisection (p. 427), it is both surprising and disappointing that the passage in Celsus' De Medicina documenting this has not been included.
These are, however, small points. The important thing is that this new book makes more than enough good material available in an attractive format. A comprehensive course on Greek science is once again a practicable possibility. Teachers will often have to seek illumination on specific texts from Lloyd or elsewhere, and a sympathetic colleague in a science department will be a godsend. Those who think their knowledge of science or mathematics may not be up to the challenge can turn to the prefatory remarks in "To the Scientifically Faint-Hearted Reader" in T. E. Rihll's recent book for encouragement.2 I & K deserve the thanks of the profession for providing us with an extremely useful textbook.
1. M.R. Cohen and I.E. Drabkin, A Source Book in Greek Science. Cambridge, MA: 1958.
2. T.E. Rihll, Greek Science. Oxford: 1999.
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Lyles Station, Indiana
|American History American History Forum - United States, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America |
March 19th, 2012, 03:42 PM
Joined: Feb 2012
Lyles Station, Indiana
March 19, 2012
Black History: African-American settlements
Blacks formed their own settlements in the state
This story was originally published in The Indianapolis Star on Feb. 2, 1997
LYLES STATION, Ind. - In the bleak years following the Civil War, blacks fleeing the racism, violence and devastation of the South created more than 40 all-black farming communities in Indiana.
The little settlements had wonderful names. Snow Hill and Cabin Creek in Randolph County. Colored Freedom in Dubois County. Lost Creek in Vigo County. Lick Creek in Orange County.
Sadly, over the long years, they've slowly disappeared, largely for economic reasons. All that remains are the crumbling stone foundations of houses, and the overgrown cemeteries with headstones slowly sinking into the earth at odd angles.
But Lyles Station is still here, right along a country road just north of Ind. 64 in Gibson County, in the sweet, sandy soil of the Wabash River bottomlands.
Only about six families now call this place home. Every spring, they tenaciously turn the soil that their ancestors stumbled onto 150 years ago, and every fall, they rev up the great, green John Deere combines in preparation for harvest.
Norman E. Greer, 59, is one of those diligent farmers.
He grew up here, of course. His great-great-grandfather, Levy Greer, a white man, was an original settler, coming from Alabama shortly after the Civil War with his black girlfriend.
"Let's see," said Norman Greer, sitting in his kitchen counting families on his fingers. "I'm still here, I think, and then there's Chavis, Cletus Hardiman, Glen Marsh and my brother, Gerald Greer. 'Bout it, I guess."
Like generations of Lyles Station families, Norman and his wife, Doris, have raised remarkably successful children who know the value of hard work. All six of the Greer children have graduated from or are attending college. All six have left Lyles Station.
And like farmers everywhere, Norman has his grouchy moments. The world, he believes, is against farmers. He grumbles and grouses about crop prices, loan rates, treacherous and greedy white bankers - and, of course, the weather. Always the weather.
"I farmed all these years, I did. It's either drought or flood. This sandy soil is either too wet or dried-up like concrete. But I survived," he said, stroking his Amish-style beard.
In the 1980s, Norman was whipsawed between soaring interest rates on his bank notes, a failing crop and plunging land values. The guarantor of those notes, the federal government, came calling with one simple, unyielding demand. Pay up or get out. Now.
It took several years to untangle that mess, but not before Norman sold off several sizeable chunks of land to satisfy the loans and get those miserable federal people off his aching back.
He's still sputtering mad about it, but he kept his home, his considerable pride and his farm equipment. He's still fuming at the white bankers in nearby Princeton who he claims make life miserable for black farmers.
That, however, is not a universally held opinion around here.
"Norman, you're nuts," said Doris. "Bankers care about one color, and that's green."
Of course, racial problems exist, she explains, but they're more complex and subtle than Norman's ranting version.
Anyway, Norman's hanging in there in a comfortable home he built himself on a hill next door to the old schoolhouse. A few years ago, someone wanted to buy the abandoned two-story school, demolish it and fill the lot with junk cars. Norman found that unacceptable.
"I bought it for $3,500," said Norman. "I went to school in that building, and I didn't want it turned into a junk lot." He meant to restore it, but it fell down first, the roof collapsing right onto Norman's fifth grade classroom, naturally.
Norman believes Lyles Station will someday vanish and sink into the earth, like all the other black settlements. Poof. Just like that. The sky is falling. Nothing can stop it. Some racist, double-talking white bankers will trick him off the land, and he'll be homeless.
"Norman has a negative attitude," Doris said. "I go along with his ups and downs. He says he's gonna ship out of Lyles Station when he wins the lottery, but he's going without me because I love it here, I raised my children here, my home is here, my job is here, my church is here, and I'm staying."
Norman sat quietly. Hat still respectfully in hand.
Lyles Station will survive, Doris flatly predicts, and that's that, Norman.
"This is my outlook on it," she patiently explained. "Our church is still going, and it's still going for a good reason. The church is our beacon of hope, and a beacon never dies. Norman's been saying the town will die since I came here and married him 39 years ago."
Norman didn't argue. He twisted his hat and smiled weakly.
Back in the safety of his pickup truck, he allows as how his wife might be right. She usually is, he concedes, blasting through snow drifts down gravel roads, grumbling about the Arctic cold, bankers and other threats, both real and imagined.
"See over there? An old log house sat there. My Aunt Cleta lived there with Grandpa Thomas Greer, son of Willis, son of Levy. And over there is old Levy's place.
Grandpa Willis Greer lived there, too," noted Norman, warming to his new role as tour guide.
There is nothing there now. Just winter fields, raked by strong winds blasting across the flat bottomlands. The old houses are all gone.
"They just burned down and stuff like that," Norman said.
"You can't imagine how it was when I was a little bitty boy. I'd go to Princeton twice a year in a buggy with Dad. We didn't have cars. I didn't think we were poor, but I guess we were."
He said he figures Lyles Station probably is a beacon that will never be extinguished. He hadn't thought of it that way, until Doris yelled at him.
But, truth is, the history here is powerful.
In the beginning
Lyles Station got its start sometime around 1840 when a benevolent Tennessee slaveowner freed two brothers named Joshua and Sanford Lyles, gave them money and urged them to seek freedom in a northern state.
They journeyed up the turbulent Tennessee River to the wide Ohio and up the twisting Wabash River to where they stopped right here, in far southwestern Indiana.
Why here, no one knows. Probably because Indiana was a free state, although Illinois is just on the other side of the river bank.
Though Indiana had outlawed slavery, it was hardly Negro-friendly - but it unquestionably was an improvement over the state-sanctioned brutality and slave auctions of Tennessee.
The brothers walked two miles east of the Wabash and bought a chunk of government land. In 1840, Indiana was still a dense, tangled wilderness, the western edge of an emerging nation. The brothers cleared their ground and planted crops. Eventually, they would accumulate more than 1,200 acres of fertile river bottomlands.
Following the Civil War, Joshua returned to Tennessee and encouraged newly freed slaves to join him in this Indiana Garden of Eden, where cantaloupes and tomatoes grew as big as pumpkins in the sandy soil. And where, better yet, whites won't bother you much.
The migration began.
Lyles Station flourished in large part because, in 1870, Joshua donated five acres to the railroad on the condition it build a train station here. The train allowed Lyles Station farmers to export their grain, produce and timber without making the arduous, 5-mile, uphill wagon trip east into Princeton, the exclusive domain of often hostile white people.
In 1886, a post office opened. A school started. The Wayman Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church was established to serve the soul of the community. It still stands, the beacon of hope Doris spoke about. Two grocery stores followed. A lumber mill. A bandstand. A blacksmith, 55 homes and the Sand Hill Cemetery.
By the dawn of the 20th Century, 800 people lived and farmed in and around Lyles Station and Patoka Township, a financially independent community, free of troubling whites. The promise of Civil War victory was realized here.
A mighty flood
Then in the spring of 1913, the Wabash River that carried people North to freedom in the promised land rose up like an avenging Southern angel.
A few miles north, the Patoka River also rose, and north of there the White River and all the creeks and streams that fed both of them rose. And while they kept rising, it kept raining, until southwestern Indiana looked like a roiling, churning inland sea.
The fury and strength of the great wall of water flattened homes, drowned cattle, bent railroad tracks into steel pretzels, and lifted and drove the railroad ties into the ground at right angles until they resembled a picket fence.
Carl Chester Lyles Sr., the great-great-grandson of Joshua, is 85, a retired high school principal and college professor, now living in Evansville.
He remembers his father's stories of the mighty flood that drove a terrible stake through the heart of the community. It did more than sweep away possessions and destroy a season's crop. It dashed dreams born over decades of backbreaking, bone-numbing field work and took away the promise of a better tomorrow.
"It washed away the good old days and all the dreams we had," recalls Carl Lyles in his strikingly strong, clear voice.
He bears a startling resemblance to Daddy King, the father of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., both in appearance and demeanor. His voice booms and thunders like a country preacher, exhorting the dead to rise and once again sing the old Negro spirituals.
"I remember Daddy could only shake his head mournfully and say `It just kept coming and coming,' " thundered Lyles, who grew up in Lyles Station and went on to become one of southwestern Indiana's most respected educators for 42 years.
Disheartened and defeated, many country residents fled to the safety and security of regular paychecks in the factories of Evansville, Terre Haute, faraway Indianapolis and points beyond.
Reasons to leave
As the 20th Century progressed, the lure of steady paychecks slowly drained the populations of other small farming settlements, both black and white. Besides that, young people everywhere wanted more - and the more appeared to be anywhere but on the farm.
In black settlements, there was another reason to flee.
Where once blacks were limited to farming, teaching in segregated schools and cleaning white people's toilets, new options became available. Legal segregation ended, and black students could attend college and explore a wider world beyond the sandy river bottoms.
For all these reasons, and probably more, most black settlements slowly began to fade and finally disappeared entirely.
But Lyles Station lives, hanging on by a frayed thread against all odds, the last link to a vital, overlooked chapter in Indiana's proud black history. The school Norman bought is a wreck; the post office closed 50 years ago, and the grocery stores are gone.
But the beacon of hope, the Wayman Chapel A.M.E., remains. The Great Flood of 1913 spared the church with the tall steeple. It was as if the hand of God reached down and split the roaring waters and spared this one small place, so that those who lived here could keep the home fires burning.
And every Sunday at 10 a.m., the Rev. Lucretia Guest from Evansville preaches a sermon to a tiny group of believers, including Norman and Doris.
They are the keepers of Joshua's flame.
www.indystar.com | Printer-friendly article page
Last edited by glorybound; March 19th, 2012 at 03:54 PM.
March 19th, 2012, 03:51 PM
Joined: Feb 2012
The following is the obituary for my math teacher at Dexter Elementary, Evansville, Indiana, for the years 1967-'68. He was one of my favorite teachers, and there are a whole lot of us 'older' kids out here who will miss him. He was born in Lyles Station, Indiana. He died last last wednesday, th 14th.
William Emmett Lyles, Sr., 93, of Evansville, passed away Wednesday, March 14, 2012. He was a resident at Willow Park Resident Center.
He was born at Lyles Station, IN, August 27, 1918. He was the fourth child of Jonathan Morton and Mary Alice (Stewart) Lyles. His formal education started at the Lyles Consolidated School in grades 1-7 and the Patoka School in grade 8. His four years of high school were completed at Lincoln High School in Princeton. He entered Indiana State University and completed his junior year prior to being drafted into the military during WWII. He was inducted into the Army Air Force in 1942 where he served three years and two months as a Technical Sergeant in the Signal Corps. He was awarded four bronze stars and the Belgian Fourragere during his active duty in Western Europe. He was honored to be part of the United States Military and was proud of his contributions to his country.
William returned to Indiana State University and received his BS and MS degrees in Education. He began his teaching career in 1947 with the Jeffersonville Public Schools. In 1951, he accepted a teaching position with the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation. William dedicated his life to the field of education with 40 years of service. He taught at Third Avenue School and Dexter School, was Social Studies Supervisor for the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, and taught Geography as an instructor at the University of Evansville and the University of Kentucky community College in Henderson, Kentucky.
He served on numerous state and national committees. He was a member of the National Council for Social Studies, Indiana Council for Social Studies, the Indiana Council for Economic Education, twenty-five year member of Phi Delta Kappa Fraternity, Social Studies Supervisors Association, Educational Supervision and Management Association, Association of Educational Administrators – Evansville, State Social Studies Advisory Council, Indiana Department of Civil Defense and Emergency Management, and Indiana Council for Economic Education Purdue University, and the first African American to be appointed to serve on the Police Merit Commission.
William was preceded in death by his parents, Mary Alice (Stewart) and Jonathan Morton Lyles; brothers, Carl and Earl Lyles; and sister, Allie Lyles Clift.
He is survived by his devoted wife of 68 years, Wilma (Major) Lyles; son, William (Dalerie) of Evansville; daughters, Debra (Kenneth) Stewart of Newburgh, Cheryl (Glenn) Hodge of Mobile, AL and Sheilah Lyles of Indianapolis; grandchildren, Shadia (Marlon) Anderson of Houston, TX, Chezik (Kudo) Tsunoda of Seattle, WA, Kaleah (Peter) Lemon of Newburgh, Jared (Cindy) Hodge of Atlanta, GA, Jason Hodge of Cedar Rapids, IA, Ashlyn Lyles of Bowling Green, KY, Joshua Hodge of Mobile, AL, Talia Young of Indianapolis; Cory Lyles of Evansville and Chelyn Lyles of Evansville; great-grandchildren, Zoe Anderson of Houston, TX, Caleb Anderson of Houston, TX, Hannah Anderson of Houston, TX, Madeleine Stewart of Newburgh, Ise Tsunoda of Seattle, WA and Nicholas Lemon of Newburgh; nieces, nephews and cousins.
William's life was devoted to working with children, traveling to distant places, and his family. His love for people was considered by him as his "greatest gift."
Services will be 10:00 AM Tuesday, March 20, 2012, at Alexander East Chapel, officiated by Rev. Tom Vanselow, with burial in Locust Hill Cemetery. Friends may visit Monday from 2:00 to 6:00 PM at the funeral home.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer's Association
, 4770 Covert Avenue, Evansville, IN 47714. William Lyles, Obituary: View Obituary for William Lyles, by Alexander Funeral Home-East Chapel, Evansville, IN
March 19th, 2012, 03:58 PM
Joined: Feb 2012
EVANSVILLE — William Lyles, who integrated Evansville elementary schools in 1957 when he accepted a teaching position at Dexter, died last week. He was 93.
Lyles taught at Third Avenue School, an all-black school, before it closed. He then transferred to Dexter, which had all white students at the time.
He told the Courier & Press in 2003 that he took the job with some trepidation, and that two reporters were camped out by his classroom, waiting for "something to happen."
But he said everything went OK, and what he remembered most is "this gentleman came in before class, a well-dressed Caucasian. And he said to me, 'We are happy to have you at the school. If you have any problems, just let me know. I live right across the street.' And I thought this was probably going to work out after all."
Lyles served three years in the Army Air Force during World War II, stationed in Europe, before embarking on a 40-year career in education.
He taught in Jeffersonville, Ind., before coming to the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. in 1951.
In addition to his time at Third Avenue and Dexter, Lyles also was social studies supervisor for the EVSC and taught part-time at the University of Evansville and Henderson (Ky.) Community College.
Lyles' community involvement included being the first African American on the Evansville Police Department Merit Commission. Survivors include his wife of 68 years, Wilma; three daughters and a son.
"His greatest gift was in trying to help people, especially his students," said Lyles' nephew, Ron Lyles. "He was a mentor to a number of students ... He was well-respected not only by teachers but by parents as well." William Lyles, educator who helped integrate Evansville schools, dies at 93 » Evansville Courier & Press
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The Arabian Peninsula is divided into seven independent countries.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia occupies about four fifths of the peninsula.
The other countries are the Emirate of Kuwait, the Emirate of Qatar,
and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on the Persian Gulf; the Emirate
of Bahrain, consisting of eight islands in the Persian Gulf; the Sultanate
of Oman, facing the Arabian Sea; and the Republic of Yemen, on the
Red and Arabian seas. The northern part of the Syrian Desert extends
into Jordan, Syria, and Iraq.
The people of the Arabian Peninsula are Arabs, members of the Semitic
subgroup of the Caucasoid race, with some admixture of other Caucasoid
groups and of Negroids from Africa in the coastal areas. The Negroid
admixture is due chiefly to the importation of slaves from Africa,
which was an active trade until recent years. Arabic is the chief
written and spoken language. Practically all of the indigenous inhabitants
are Muslims. The small, chiefly urban foreign colony is composed mostly
of diplomatic personnel and employees of foreign-owned firms. The
population (est. 1994) totals 35,200,000. (See also Arabs.)
The Arabian Peninsula is essentially a great tilted block of rock,
highest in the west and sloping gradually eastward. Its surface presents
a considerable diversity of relief features. This pattern is broken
only in the southeast by the highlands of Oman. The area can be divided
into the following landform regions: (1) Western and Southern Highlands;
(2) the Nejd; (3) the Sand Areas (Great Nafud, Dahana, and Rub` al
Khali); (4) the Syrian Desert; (5) the Persian Gulf lowlands; and
The Western and Southern Highlands vary in elevation from 1,500 feet
(460 meters) near Mecca to 12,000 feet (3,700 meters) in Yemen. The
northern segment, from the Gulf of Aqaba to 100 miles (160 km) south
of Mecca, is known as Hejaz. It has a general elevation between 2,
000 and 3,000 feet (600-900 meters), with some mountains attaining
6,000 to 9,000 feet (1,850-2,700 meters). Many streams rise in these
highlands and flow onto the narrow (20-to-40-mile-wide [32-to-64-km])
coastal plain, the Tihama, but the waters evaporate before reaching
the Red Sea. Southward the highlands continue into Asir but at a considerably
higher elevation; much of the area lies between 5,000 and 7,000 feet
(1,500-2,150 meters), with peaks above 9,000 feet (2,700 meters),
and is very rugged. The mountains of Yemen in the southwestern corner
of Arabia are the highest of the peninsula. Sizable areas are between
6,500 and 9,000 feet (2,000-2,700 meters), with peaks reaching 10,
000 to 12,000 feet (3,000-3,700 meters). Eastward, through the Hadhramawt,
the highlands gradually decline to 2,000 feet (600 meters) in Dhofar.
These mountains are extremely rugged.
The Nejd lies to the east of the Western Highlands and is bordered
on its north, east, and south by sand areas. Western Nejd is a desolate
tableland crossed by dry watercourses (wadis), which become filled
with torrential streams after storms. Separating western Nejd from
eastern Nejd is the Nafud Dahi, a series of sand hills or ridges that
runs from the Great Nafud (An Nafud) on the north to the Rub` al Khali
on the south. Eastern Nejd is marked by conspicuous north-south ridges
with steep western fronts.
The two great sandy areas of the peninsula, the Great Nafud in the
north and the Rub` al Khali in the south, are connected on the east
by the Dahana, a belt of sand hills and ridges that varies in width
from 15 to 50 miles (20-80 km). A similar but discontinuous band of
sand ridges lies on the western edge of the Nejd, also connecting
the Great Nafud and Rub` al Khali. The Great Nafud has an estimated
area of 22,000 square miles (57,000 sq km) and is composed of many
hills, ridges, and mounds of sand, most 20 to 50 feet (6-15 meters)
high, with some rising to as much as 100 feet (30 meters) above the
surrounding features. The sand surface may be hard-packed, rippled,
or so loose that men and animals sink easily into it. Between the
sand hills are sand- or gravel-covered basins. Some surfaces have
been stripped clean of loose material by wind, but a sandy cover is
characteristic. Sand of a reddish or pink color is widespread in the
Great Nafud and Dahana. South of the Nejd is the Rub` al Khali, or
``Empty Quarter,'' one of the larger sand areas of the world. Like
the Great Nafud, it is a sea of sand hills, dunes, and ridges, some
of which are as high as 500 feet (150 meters). In the southern half
of the Dahana and the northern Rub` al Khali are extensive areas of
shifting sand dunes.
North of the Great Nafud is the Syrian Desert, which stretches into
Iraq, Jordan, and Syria. The surface consists mainly of alluvial material
from which most of the fine materials have been stripped; it is referred
to as desert pavement. Wadis, occasional mesas and buttes, and sandy
areas break the monotony of the desert scene. The most dissected part
is the divide area between the Persian Gulf and the Euphrates drainage
The Persian Gulf lowlands extend from the head of the Persian Gulf
to the Musandam Peninsula of Oman. Largely a low plains area (less
than 600 feet [180 meters]), the relief is broken in a few places
by elevated ridges or escarpments. The immediate coast is fringed
with coral reefs, mud islands, and bars; marshes and lagoons are common.
Inland are silt-filled lagoons and sand plains that give way northward
to the gravel surface of the Syrian Desert and westward and southward
to the sands of the Dahana and the Rub` al Khali.
Oman has a series of rugged mountain ranges parallel to the coast.
The Jabal al Akhdar attains a height of 9,957 feet (3,035 meters)
in the peak of Jabal Ash Sham.
Climate and Water Resources.
The climate, except in the higher mountains and parts of the Syrian
Desert, is tropical desert. In summer the whole region is intensely
hot and very dry. Summer daytime temperatures regularly reach or exceed
100°F. (38°C.) and may reach 130°F. (54°C.). The daily range of temperature
during summer is commonly 30°F. to 40°F. (-1.1°C. to 4°C.), so that
nights are relatively cool. The average temperature for the hottest
month is generally well above 90°F. (32°C.). The winter temperatures
are less extreme and more pleasant. Days are warm to hot and nights
cool. The average nighttime low is in the vicinity of 40°F. (4°C.),
and only in the far south have night temperatures never fallen to
Except in the immediate coastal regions, the relative humidity is
low, making the heat more bearable. The coastal areas have a constantly
high humidity that makes activity very trying, especially in summer.
The low night temperatures are important since they often produce
heavy dew that is of some importance to natural vegetation.
The major part of the peninsula receives less than 5 inches (125 mm)
of precipitation annually, many areas receiving as little as 3 and
4 inches (75-100 mm) a year. Not only is the amount meager, but it
is also highly variable, so that a given locality may receive no rain
for several years. Winter is the season of maximum precipitation;
summers are almost entirely dry. The mountains in Asir (a region in
Saudi Arabia along the Red Sea north of Yemen), Yemen, and Oman receive
larger amounts of rain because of elevation: probably 10 to 15 inches
(250-380 mm), except in Yemen, where the highest areas receive up
to 30 inches (760 mm). Yemen is unique in Arabia in receiving more
rain in summer than in winter. The higher land in Hejaz and Nejd gets
more rains than the lower areas of the plateau and plains. There are
virtually no permanent streams in Arabia. Surface runoff from storms
gathers into the wadis and seeps into the alluvium of their beds.
Wadis usually carry water for only a few hours or days or, at best,
for a few weeks during the winter.
Although deficient in surface waters, Arabia has considerable reserves
of underground water, which may be brought to the surface in various
ways. Existing surveys indicate the eastern Nejd and Hasa as the best
endowed with such groundwater resources. Natural springs occur in
the limestone southeast of Riyadh. Many of the older wells were hand-
dug; today there is an increased use of modern drilling and pumping
devices. Water, however, remains the critical element of life and
is strictly conserved.
Almost nothing is known in detail about the soils of Arabia; no surveys
have been made, and less than one percent of the area is in crops.
In general, desert and steppe soils are high in mineral but low in
organic content. There is always danger in arid climates of the accumulation
of excessive salts in the upper horizon of soils, which destroys their
agricultural value. This may occur through natural means or, where
irrigation water is regularly used, by raising the water table and
bringing salts to the surface. When properly cared for, irrigated
alluvial or volcanic soils can be highly productive.
Except in areas of relatively high moisture, natural vegetation is
sparse and scanty. There are few areas entirely devoid of plant life,
but vegetation is rarely sufficient to produce a continuous cover.
Most plants are highly drought-resistant (xerophytic). Exposed rock
surfaces, shifting dune areas, and some salt flats maintain little
or no plant life. Perennial plants, shrubs, and a few trees are widely
but unevenly distributed over the peninsula, as are annual plants
and various types of grasses. No systematic survey or classification
of natural vegetation has ever been made for Arabia. Traditional Arabic
names are thus the only means for identifying many of the region's
plants and shrubs.
Among the more common trees are acacia and tamarisk, the latter now
grown widely in oases for its wood, which is valuable for construction
purposes. Once abundant in the Southern Highlands, but now greatly
reduced in number, are the trees that yielded frankincense and myrrh
as resins. Among the bushes valuable as fuel and fodder are ghaza,
'abl, and rimth, found in the sand hill areas and on the gravelly
plains. Many of the flowering plants and grasses appear only after
rains and may temporarily cover considerable areas of desert surface;
these plants and grasses provide forage for livestock. In the more
humid mountain areas, there is subtropical and middle-latitude vegetation.
Animal life, like vegetation, is severely restricted by the natural
environment. The most common larger animal is the gazelle, which is
found in almost all areas north of the Rub` al Khali. Within the Rub`
al Khali, the oryx, a large member of the antelope family, is still
found. Leopards and baboons survive in small numbers in the southeast.
Among the carnivorous animals still reasonably abundant are wolves,
foxes, lynxes, wildcats, and jackals. Hares and kangaroo rats are
the most common rodents. Reptiles include a variety of nonvenomous
lizards and several types of snakes, some venomous. Game birds, depleted
by hunting, and smaller species of birds are widely distributed. Fish
abound in the coastal waters, especially in the Gulf of Oman and in
the Persian Gulf east of Qatar.
Arabia is unique among the major regions of the world in that its
economic development has been linked to a single factor, the discovery
and exploitation of oil. The enormous disparities in wealth among
countries and within countries in the region are invariably traceable
to the presence or absence of petroleum resources. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates sheikhdom of Abu Dhabi
have come to be dominated by oil production and related activities
such as refining and transport. In Yemen, where oil is not a factor,
sedentary subsistence farming and nomadic herding are the dominant
activities, as they once were in all of Arabia.
A comparison of Kuwait and Yemen underscores the extent of this uneven
development. In Kuwait, with a population (est. 1996) of about 2 million,
one percent of the labor force is in agriculture, 33 percent in processing
and manufacturing, and the remainder is in services and government.
About 93 percent of the people live in urban centers. Because of Kuwait'
s wealth in petroleum, which accounts for almost all of its export
earnings, the per capita national product was about $15,000 in 1978.
In Yemen, with a population (est. 1996) of 11.8 million, about 90
percent of the labor force is in agriculture, and only 11 percent
of the population lives in urban centers. Coffee and other agricultural
products provide all of the export earnings. The per capita product
in 1978 was only $600. Similar disparities show up in health, education,
and social welfare facilities and in the development of the foundations
of a modern national economy, such as roads and power plants.
Within the group of oil-rich states some significant economic gradations
occur. In Saudi Arabia the land is too vast and the population too
diffuse to permit total absorption into the oil economy. Many regions
still rely on subsistence agriculture and animal husbandry, and the
oil and subsistence economies function in relative isolation from
one another. The extent of this duality is perhaps best exemplified
by the fact that most urban points in the country are connected only
by airlines and camel caravans. In Oman oil revenues, although substantial,
have not nearly sufficed to overcome the general level of poverty.
In the United Arab Emirates the laws of confederation did not provide
for full economic integration. Thus, profitable oil exploitation in
Abu Dhabi and Dubai has had little direct effect on the other five
members, where economic activity continues to center on fishing and
Although the great majority of the people of Arabia depend on agriculture
for a livelihood, only a small portion of the area is cultivated.
Estimates are as low as one percent for Saudi Arabia and Yemen combined.
Agriculture is restricted to three areas. Sedentary cultivation dependent
on rainfall alone occurs in Oman, Yemen, and Asir at elevations above
one mile (1.6 km). Sedentary cultivation also occurs in highland areas
with moderate rainfall and additional water in the form of runoff
from adjacent mountains. Oasis cultivation occurs where an adequate
water supply is available from springs or wells.
A variety of crops are grown in the highlands. In Yemen millet, wheat,
and barley are grown at elevations of 8,000 to 9,000 feet (2,400-
2,700 meters). Mangoes and citrus fruits are raised at altitudes ranging
up to 6,500 feet (2,000 meters). A wide assortment of fruits are grown
between 600 and 5,000 feet (180-1,500 meters). Coffee and qat, a stimulant,
are the major cash crops of Yemen, while coffee and henna, used in
dye making, are cash crops in the highlands of southwestern Saudi
Date palms and cotton are raised below 2,500 feet (750 meters). Dates
are the principal crop in the oases and are grown there along with
fruit trees and clover, which is used as livestock feed. About one
fifth of the agricultural land in Saudi Arabia is in date palms, and
one sixth is in vegetables. Vegetable cultivation is concentrated
in the Medina, Jidda, and Mecca regions along with date palms, fruit
trees, and summer field crops, such as rice, millet, and sorghum.
Nomadic herding traditionally has complemented sedentary farming.
Sheep, goats, and camels are even more important than date palms as
a source of wealth in the rural economy. The bedouin Arabs specialize
in pastoral activities. The camel, the distinctive animal of this
economy, requires the use of large land areas. Yet the bedouin do
not live in isolation from sedentary settlements but rather in close
economic association with the villagers. In recent decades petroleum
production and associated activities together with the growth of cities
have offered new economic opportunities to the bedouin, especially
in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the oil states of the Persian Gulf. (See
With the exception of oil processing and refining, there is little
modern industry in Arabia. A small amount of handicraft production,
largely for home consumption, takes place both in villages and in
cities. In the coastal areas fishing, pearling, and shipbuilding are
important. There has been profitable mining of gold in the west, with
silver and copper as by-products.
Petroleum is the only significant source of wealth in Arabia. The
oil fields are concentrated in the Persian Gulf area from Oman north
to Kuwait. They account for about one half of the known reserves of
the non-Communist world and they supply about one third of the world'
s total oil production. Royalties from petroleum production are the
primary source of government income. In 1979 they amounted to more
than $90 billion.
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are the two major petroleum producers. The
Neutral Zone, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman have significant
oil resources, but follow far behind the two leaders. More than half
of the crude oil is marketed in Europe, about 20 percent goes to other
parts of Asia, and some 10 percent to North America. Only about 7
percent is used locally, although this share is increasing. Crude
and refined oil is shipped from ports near the producing fields or
from Sidon in Lebanon, which is connected to the oil fields by the
Trans-Arabian Pipeline. Refineries in Arabia produce 2 percent of
the world's refined oil.
Petroleum production and associated activities have brought vast changes
to some areas, of which the United Arab Emirates is an excellent example.
Before 1966 the seven states depended primarily on contraband commerce
and on pastoral nomadism. Since then petroleum production in Abu Dhabi
has given it immense wealth. A new highway links it with Dubai, a
thriving contraband port with more than 4,000 registered traders.
Thousands of illegal immigrants from India, Pakistan, and Iran, lured
by jobs in the petroleum industry, arrive each month. Fujaira, by
contrast, remains relatively untouched by these developments although
it is less than 100 miles (160 km) from Abu Dhabi.
Developments in the petroleum industry were especially significant
in the 1960's and 1970's. During the 1960's, new fields were discovered
both onshore and offshore in the Persian Gulf area; new pipelines,
export facilities, and refineries were built; and national efforts
to discover and exploit oil reserves were increased, particularly
in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. In the 1970's the oil-producing countries
gained control of the petroleum industries, which had been primarily
foreign-owned; and they also, through the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC), won huge increases in the price paid for
petroleum, including a fourfold increase in 1973-1974.
Petroleum production has affected development directly and indirectly.
The direct influence comes about through the payment of royalties-
-which have, of course, increased greatly, as the price charged for
oil has gone up--and wages and the local purchase of materials and
supplies by the petroleum companies. Kuwait has used royalties to
support a welfare state as well as to furnish development funds for
other Arab states. Saudi Arabia has invested royalties in oil refining,
petrochemical, steel, and other industries.
Indirect influence has been important in a number of ways. Private
enterprise has flourished, especially in associated service activities.
Commerce, transport, and public and private services have expanded
to absorb the majority of the nonagricultural workers. These commercial
activities and services continue to grow in importance, although the
proportion of the labor force in industry and petroleum production
remains relatively low and stable. New transport networks have been
built to fit the inflexible location of the petroleum fields. The
road networks in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are the most highly developed.
A new railroad links Riyadh with Ad Dammam. New facilities have helped
to expand foreign trade at a number of ports. Aden, although far removed
from the main oil fields, has had related growth, as it is the major
bunkerage port for petroleum tankers from the Persian Gulf.
Both the direct and the indirect influences are perhaps most evident
in the growing urban centers. Riyadh has experienced recent rapid
growth as have most of the regional capitals of Saudi Arabia, such
as Mecca, Medina, and Jidda. Kuwait City has also grown. Most urban
population growth is due to internal migration in search of new employment.
Of the new towns developed near the major oil fields, the Dhahran
cluster is the largest.
Development has only increased the economic differences between and
within states. The gap between the oil states and those without oil
has increased, in some cases dramatically. Kuwait is unique in that
it is small and internal development is guided by central planning.
Saudi Arabia has undertaken regional urban and rural planning in an
attempt to reduce regional disparities by spreading development more
evenly. However, the Saudi attempt has been only moderately successful.
The problems of uneven development will become more critical as the
pace of development accelerates throughout Arabia.
Knowledge of Arabia on the part of Europeans dates back to the time
and the works of Herodotus and other early Greek geographers and much
later to studies by Arab geographers. The best-known work of classical
antiquity on Arabia is Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, compiled by
an unknown Alexandrian Greek in the first century a.d. It described
the trade and the coasts of the Red Sea, south Arabia, and the western
Indian Ocean. Exploration by Europeans began in the 16th century,
when the Portuguese circumnavigated Arabia and occupied Muscat and
other points on the Gulf coast. Between 1762 (when Carsten Niebuhr
started his expedition in southwest Arabia) and 1900, Europeans had
gained knowledge of the major physical lineaments of the peninsula
except for the great sand area of the Rub` al Khali. Information on
exact locations, on archaeology, on tribal life and customs, and on
flora and fauna had also been collected. The Rub` al Khali was first
crossed by a European in 1931. Exploration since has been largely
a matter of refinement of preexisting knowledge and the correction
of minor details.
European explorers entered Arabia for various reasons: a few of them
were Arabic scholars; most were military or political officers; others
were naturalists, archaeologists, or scientists. Almost all of them
had great curiosity about the region. Their observations varied considerably
in acumen, but they presented a wealth of important information, and
some of their writings have become literary classics.
a German mathematician and surveyor, traveling with a party of five
under the auspices of the king of Denmark, landed at Jidda in 1762.
The group of which Niebuhr was a member, and also the only survivor,
consisted of Peter Forsskal, a physician and botanist; Christian
Kramer, a surgeon and zoologist; Frederick von Haven, a philologist
and orientalist; and George Baurenfeind, an artist. The objective
of the expedition was to explore the fertile regions of southeast
Arabia. The party examined the Tihama in detail from Loheiya (Al Luhayyah)
to Mocha (Al Mukha). They then ascended to Sana`, in Yemen, where,
because of ill health, they remained only about ten days. Two of
the party died in the Yemen. Niebuhr continued on to Muscat and the
Persian Gulf, returning to Europe by way of Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).
Although Niebuhr covered relatively little ground, he is outstanding
because of the high quality of his observations and reporting.
Johann Ludwig Burckhardt,
a Swiss, had lived for a number of years in the Levant and was well
known as the discoverer of the ancient site of Petra. He was a fine
scholar and Arabist and a convert to Islam. Under the auspices of
Muhammad Ali, who was then engaged in occupying Hejaz and Nejd, Burckhardt
entered Arabia at Jidda in 1814 and remained at Mecca and Medina for
about nine months. Ill health forced him to leave, and he died in
1817 in Cairo before entirely completing his reports.
Burckhardt, like Niebuhr, covered relatively little territory, but
what he did see he described in minute detail. He was resident in
Mecca both during and after the main annual pilgrimage, and his description
of the pilgrimage and of everyday life in Mecca and Medina left little
to be added by those following him. He also collected much information
about other parts of Arabia, which he incorporated in his Travels
in Arabia and Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabys.
George Forster Sadlier,
a captain of the British army, was commissioned in 1819 to congratulate
Ibrahim Pasha on his reduction of the Wahhabi power and to offer him
the aid of Great Britain. Sadlier landed on the east coast of Arabia
in June and proceeded from Hofuf to Diriyah and then to Unayzah and
Medina, where he met Ibrahim. He proceeded to Yanbu on the Red Sea,
thus completing the first crossing of the peninsula. Sadlier was
able to fix scientifically a number of points hitherto incorrectly
J. R. Wellsted,
a young lieutenant in the Indian Navy, was the first European to set
foot in the interior of Oman. Beginning in 1820 the Arabian coasts
were explored and accurately charted for the first time by officers
of the Bombay Marine (later the Indian Navy) and the British Royal
Navy, some of whom ventured into the hinterland along the south and
east coasts. Starting late in 1835 from the easternmost point of Oman,
Wellsted made his way westward through the Ja`alan region to the
Wahibah Sands and then struck north up the Wadi Batha to Samad. There
he was joined by Lieutenant F. Whitelock, also of the Indian Navy,
who had set out from Muscat later. Together they reached Nazwa, the
ancient capital of Oman, and climbed the lower slopes of the Jabal
al Akhdhar, in central Oman. In January 1836 they arrived on the Al
Batinah coast and then turned west, recrossing the Hajar mountains
and emerging on the edge of the Dhaharah, the rocky steppe that stretches
west toward the Rub` al Khali. Their intention was to travel north
to Nejd, but they were barred by a Wahhabi raiding party and forced
to return to Muscat. Nearly 100 years elapsed before another European
penetrated as deeply into Oman as had Wellsted and Whitelock.
Georg August Wallin,
a trained and distinguished Arabist from Finland, traveled in northern
Arabia in the service of Muhammad Ali. He started his journey in 1845
and traveling by the Wadi Sirhan reached Al Jawf. He next crossed
a section of the Great Nafud and came to Ha`il, the seat of the Rashid
family in Jabal Shammar. After staying there some time, Wallin next
went to Medina and Mecca and then returned to Cairo. Before reporting
on his journey, in 1848 Wallin again returned to Arabia. This time
he landed on the west coast at Al Muwaylih and struck directly inland
into Midian. He proceeded to the oases of Tabuk and Tayma' and on
to Ha`il. From Ha`il he traveled northeastward to Meshed Ali (An Najaf)
and Baghdad. Wallin was the first European to traverse much of northern
Sir Richard F. Burton
is probably the most widely known of all the 19th-century explorers
of Arabia, in part because of his other explorations, his literary
works, and his colorful personality. Burton's first journey to Arabia
in 1853 was in disguise as a pilgrim to Mecca and Medina. After several
expeditions to Africa and tours in the British diplomatic service,
Burton returned to Arabia in 1877 under the auspices of the Egyptian
government to explore Midian for gold. Burton and his Egyptian crew
found few signs of gold but did a first-rate job of geographic exploration.
Especially important was Burton's tracing of the drainage system of
the Wadi Hamdh, which was found to extend considerably farther into
Nejd than had originally been thought.
William Gifford Palgrave
is perhaps as well known for his remarkable personality and background
as for his work in exploration. A member of a Jewish family originally
named Cohen, he converted to Roman Catholicism and became a Jesuit.
In 1862, Palgrave and one companion entered Arabia, ostensibly to
begin missionary work, but actually under the auspices of Napoleon
III, who desired the friendship of Arabian leaders in an area that
was shortly to become of major importance to France because of the
opening of the Suez Canal.
Palgrave's route was by way of the Wadi Sirhan to Al Jawf and thence
to Ha`il and eventually Riyadh. From there he proceeded into southern
Nejd as far as Aflaj, farther than any of his predecessors; from Nejd
he went next to Hasa, where he remained some time, and then to Muscat
before he returned to Europe in 1863. Palgrave's major contributions
to a knowledge of Arabia were his findings in and descriptions of
southern Nejd, never before penetrated, and Hasa, seen and described
only briefly by Sadlier.
A certain amount of mystery and conjecture surrounds Palgrave's work
in Arabia. His descriptions are more flamboyant than most, and there
are numerous exaggerations and overstatements of fact; but there was
no real question by his contemporaries as to his travels and his main
a French Jew born in Adrianople, Turkey, entered the Yemen in 1869
in the guise of a Jerusalem rabbi. He was interested primarily in
the history of the area, its ancient civilizations, and its present
He descended the eastern slope of the uplands of the Yemen and reached
the southern Al Jawf oasis, where he discovered the ruins of Ma`in,
which site he ascribed to the Minaeans, an ancient Semitic people.
From Al Jawf he traveled northward along the western edge of Rub`
al Khali to the oasis of Najran (ancient Negrana), not visited by
any European since 24 b.c., when the Roman prefect Aelius Gallus scouted
the region for Augustus. The importance of this area was its position
between the Yemen and Nejd, which constituted a trade route bypassing
the Rub` al Khali.
On leaving Najran, Halévy retraced his route and proceeded south till
he reached the Wadi Dana and the ruins of Ma`rib and its famous dam,
built in the eighth century b.c. and associated with the Sabaeans
and Queen Balk of Sheba (Saba). Halévy was the first to cover the
entire wadi area of important oases between the eastern slope of the
Yemen and the Rub` al Khali.
Charles Montague Doughty
traveled by himself for about two years (1877-1878) in north-central
Arabia as a Christian and an Englishman--which makes him unique. As
he made no attempt to conceal his identity, he left himself open to
abuse and real danger. His fame as an explorer has grown with time,
and his book, Travels in Arabia Deserta, became a classic of English
Doughty's curiosity and interest in things Arabian was omnivorous,
but he was especially interested in all phases of bedouin life, in
ancient inscriptions and ruins, and in hydrography. He explored and
correctly determined the headwater areas of both the Wadi Hamdh, which
flows into the Red Sea, and the Wadi ar Rumma, which originates in
the Harrat Khaybar.
Wilfrid S. Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt's
journeys were primarily to gain information on the Arabian horse and
secondly to satisfy a curiosity about bedouin life. This English couple-
-she was the granddaughter of Lord Bryon and the first European woman
to enter the peninsula--went to Arabia in 1879 under the auspices
of a noble Arab family of Palmyra. They continued south across the
Great Nafud to Ha`il and and the Shammar tribal areas. Lady Anne's
journals contain geographic information about the region.
Charles Huber and Julius Euting
did their most significant work in concert in 1883-1884. Huber, an
Alsatian Frenchman, had been in Nejd on a previous trip (1878-1880)
under the auspices of the French government. He had discovered a number
of important inscriptions but was not qualified to decipher or understand
them. He had also made a significant contribution, as did Doughty,
to the existing knowledge of the hydrography of Nejd. In 1883 Huber
was joined by Julius Euting, a German scholar of Semitic epigraphy.
Together they made copies and rubbings of the inscriptions of the
Tayma' oases. Inscriptions from early Arabian cultures and also some
of ancient Syrian origin (500 to 400 b.c.) were uncovered. They also
purchased a stele, the Tayma' Stone, which recounts the introduction
of a foreign worship into the oasis. This stone, now in the Louvre,
is accounted fourth in importance among ancient Semitic inscriptions.
Shortly afterward Euting returned to Germany. Huber, having gone to
Jidda to send his finds to Europe, was murdered by his guides (1884)
on his return to Ha'il.
J. Snouck Hurgronje,
a learned Dutch Arabist, is noted for his studies of Arab life in
Jidda and Mecca and also as a historian of Hejaz. Hurgronje's work
is similar to that of Burckhardt but is important because Hurgronje
had a remarkable command of Arabic. He also had the friendship and
confidence of local authorities, which enabled him to come and go
with ease. He spent five months in Jidda prior to going to Mecca,
where he stayed another five months. Hurgronje's picture of Meccan
society during and between pilgrimage (hajj) is detailed and accurate.
an Austrian archaeologist, is associated primarily with southwest
Arabia through three trips that he made during the 1880's under Turkish
authority. Glaser is best known for the collection of Himyaritic inscriptions
he gathered in and about Ma'rib, center of the ancient Sabaean civilization,
where he remained for about a month in 1889. Besides collecting some
400 inscriptions, he also made a sketch survey of the district.
Earlier (1884), Glaser had penetrated the Yemeni upland north of '
Amran, farther north than any of his predecessors. Glaser found that
it was essentially a flattened inward (western) edge of the eastern
Yemeni slope to the Rub` al Khali and the area in which a number of
wadis (Jawf, Najran) had their origin. This trip enabled cartographers
to fill in a hitherto empty section of the map of the Yemen.
an Austrian orientalist, is the first explorer of Arabia of the modern
period. His travels took place between 1896 and 1915, and although
most of his time and effort was expended in the Syrian Desert, he
did explore northwestern Arabia and northern Nejd and added valuable
information and maps to the growing store of detailed knowledge of
Musil's general objectives were to gain an insight into the origin
and evolution of monotheism, to get an understanding of the part Arabia
has played in the broader history of civilization, and to obtain detailed
information on topography. He attained his goals through his friendship
with powerful tribal rulers as well as through his own scholarship.
His published works contain a wealth of material on the area's history,
tribal culture, and physical geography.
Harry St. John Philby
is undoubtedly the best known of the 20th-century explorers of Arabia.
He spent more time there than any other European in the pursuit of
geographic information. In 1917 he first visited the Nejd as an Indian
political officer on a mission to Ibn Saud. He later returned to Saudi
Arabia as a private citizen, became the confidant of Ibn Saud, and
explored the peninsula. He published his findings in a number of books,
including The Arabian Highlands, The Heart of Arabia, and Land of
Probably the greatest disappointment of Philby's career was that he
was not the first European to traverse the Rub` al Khali. When in
1932 he managed the crossing, it had already been accomplished the
year before by Bertram Thomas.
Bertram S. Thomas
spent a number of years in British political service in Arabia and
other parts of the Middle East. He was the first European to cross
the Rub` al Khali (1931). Thomas held a post in the Muscat government
when he became fascinated by the great sand area to the west. For
several years prior to his crossing, he spent winters exploring and
traveling in Oman and Dhufar to gain experience. He reached Dhufar
in late 1930, and after a long wait he found guides who would accompany
him across the eastern side of the desert to the Qatar Peninsula.
Thomas published an account of the trip in Arabia Felix: Across the
Empty Quarter of Arabia (1932).
Wilfred Patrick Thesiger,
an Englishman with wartime experience in Africa, became interested
in Arabia while a member of the Middle East Anti-Locust Survey after
World War II. The Rub` al Khali especially fascinated him, and in
the winter of 1945-1946 he explored the southern margin of the area.
The following winter he crossed from Dhufar in the Trucial Coast near
Abu Dhabi (Abu Zaby) and back to the Arabian Sea along the eastern
base of the Oman highlands. Much of this trip was through unexplored
Thesiger's most remarkable journey was made in 1948, when he crossed
the western Rub` al Khali from Wadi Hadhramaut to As Sulayyil oasis
at the southern end of the Tuwayq Mountains in Nejd. Although Philby
had cut well into the desert in 1932, Thesiger was the first to cross
it completely at its western end, from south to north. His record
of his journeys, Arabian Sands (1959), is probably the last epic of
The history of Arabia has been dominated by the region's physical
geography, by its relative isolation from the rest of the world, and,
since the seventh century, by Islam. The Arabs call the peninsula
jazirat al-arab, the Arab island, because it is surrounded on three
sides by the sea and enclosed on the fourth side by the sands of the
Great Nafud and the vast stretches of the Syrian Desert. In ancient
times it was only in the mountains of the southwest and the southeast
that settled cultivation and local civilizations developed. In the
northern and central reaches of the peninsula, cut off from the southwestern
and southeastern corners by the sand sea of the Rub` al Kali (Empty
Quarter), the life of the early inhabitants was nomadic, based upon
widely scattered oases. But with the domestication of the camel in
the second millennium b.c. the deserts that divided and hemmed in
Arabia no longer limited the wanderings of these nomads. Instead,
the deserts afforded the nomads access not only to the more remote
parts of the peninsula but also to the civilizations of the Fertile
Crescent (Syria and Mesopotamia). From that time on, the history of
Arabia was one of migration and warfare.
Of Arabia's ancient history very little is known, and that depends
almost entirely upon archaeological finds and epigraphic evidence.
Archaeological investigation has been limited, and the usefulness
of the epigraphic evidence, mostly from the numerous stone inscriptions
in south Arabia, is impaired by the absence of references to the events
recorded there in the extant literature of the ancient world.
It is known that the Egyptians made voyages down the Red Sea to obtain
spices and incense at least as early as the third millennium b.c.
and that in the second millennium they competed with the Assyrians
for control of the trade route leading out of Arabia. There is evidence
in the cuneiform inscriptions of Assyria of intercourse with eastern
Arabia as early as the third millennium b.c., and mention is made
of a land (or even, perhaps, of a civilization) of Dilmun lying southeast
of Mesopotamia. Archaeological discoveries point to the possible identification
of Dilmun with the island of Bahrain and the adjacent region of the
The earliest historical references to the Arabs or their forebears
occur in the Assyrian and Babylonian records, in the Bible, and in
the south Arabian inscriptions. The Arabs were part of the Semitic
group of peoples (including, for example, Hebrews Aramaeans, and Assyrians),
but where they originated, how they were differentiated from the
other Semites, and how they came to inhabit Arabia is not known. One
basic theory, based upon the resemblance between the civilizations
of south Arabia and those of the Fertile Crescent, claims that the
Arabs originated somewhere in the northern borderlands of Arabia and
later migrated north into the region between Syria and Mesopotamia
and south to the fertile southwestern corner of the peninsula. The
other theory, taking note of the two distinct groups inhabiting Arabia
in the second half of the first millennium b.c.--the Bedouin, or nomads,
of the north and the settled cultivators of the south--postulates
a dual origin for the Arabs. This theory echoes Arab genealogical
tradition, which holds that the Arabs are descended both from Qahtan
(Joktan of the Bible), the offspring of Shem, and from Adnan, the
descendant of Ishmael. The progeny of the former are the ``true Arabs'
' (al-arab al-ariba) of south Arabia, whereas the descendants of the
latter are the ``Arabized Arabs'' (al-arab al-mustariba) of the north.
However, neither group remained wholly separate from the other, as
Qahtani Arabs later migrated northward and the Adnani southward. To
render the picture even more confused, Arab genealogists also speak
of the ``lost Arabs'' (al-arab al-baida), who may have been the original
inhabitants of Arabia.
Arabs appear in the records of the Assyrian and Babylonian empires,
sometimes as tributaries but more often as marauders threatening
the trade routes from the Persian Gulf into Syria and from south Arabia
to Egypt and the Mediterranean coast. The struggle for control of
these trade routes was one of the principal features of Middle Eastern
history in the first millennium b.c., and the northern Arabs, because
of their geographical position, were drawn into the struggle, in turn
by the Babylonians, Achaemenids, Hellenes, Seleucids, Egyptians, and
Romans. Alexander the Great of Macedonia dispatched a naval expedition
to reconnoiter the Persian Gulf in 326 b.c. as a preliminary to the
circumnavigation and conquest of Arabia. His death in 323 b.c., however,
ended the project. A century later the Ptolemies of Egypt sent naval
squadrons into the Red Sea and established a base on the Arabian coast
above Yanbu in an effort to cut the incense road south of where it
branched northwestward toward Syria and the Seleucid empire. They
were frustrated by the opposition of the Nabataeans, a people of Arab
stock from the tribe of Anbat, one of the first of the northern Arab
tribes to abandon nomadism and lead a settled life. By the fourth
century b.c. the Nabataeans had made their capital, Petra, one of
the most important stations on the caravan route to Syria; for two
centuries thereafter they held the balance of power between the Ptolemies
Himyarite-Sabaean Civilization of Southwestern Arabia.
The civilization that evolved in southwestern Arabia in the second
half of the first millennium b.c. was founded upon agriculture and
trade, especially upon the spice trade between India and the Mediterranean
and upon a frankincense trade monopoly. Frankincense was cultivated
along the south coast of Arabia--in the Hadhramaut (in southwest Arabia),
the Mahrah country (west of the Hadhramaut), and Dhufar (along the
southeastern coast of the peninsula). A succession of kingdoms emerged
in this corner of Arabia beginning in the fifth century b.c. They
included the Saba (biblical Sheba), Ma`in, Qataban, Hadhramaut, and
Himyar, of which the Sabaean was the most influential. Sabaean merchants
and seafarers monopolized the trade in pearls, spices, silks, slaves,
ivory, gold, and incense between the Mediterranean world and Africa,
India, and Arabia. Saba's economy was also supported by extensive
agriculture, made possible by an elaborate system of irrigation fed
by a great dam at Marib, the Sabaean capital. The dam was breached
several times, and the consequent disruption to the country's life
caused a series of migrations to other parts of Arabia. Attracted
by the wealth of Saba, the Romans sent an army under the command of
Aelius Gallus, prefect of Egypt, to conquer the kingdom in 24 b.c.
The rigors of the Arabian climate and terrain, however, forced the
expedition to retreat to Egypt.
Soon after the beginning of the Christian era Saba fell under the
Himyarite kingdom, which originated on the south coast west of Al
Mukalla, probably in the third or second centuries b.c. Two centuries
later it absorbed the Qataban kingdom, and by the first century a.d.
it had formed a dual monarchy with Saba, with its capital at Zafar,
in the mountains of Yemen.
The decline of the Himyarite-Sabaean civilization is traditionally
ascribed to the final bursting of the great dam at Marib in the middle
of the sixth century. But its decline began at least three centuries
earlier, when the Romans penetrated the Red Sea and the Seleucids
and Parthians diverted the spice trade from western Arabia to the
Persian Gulf and Mesopotamia. Little is known of events in western
Arabia from the end of the third century until the early sixth century,
when southwestern Arabia was subdued by the Abyssinians. They in
turn were driven out by the Sassanians of Persia, who had subjugated
most of eastern Arabia in the preceding century.
Ghassanid, Lakhmid, and Kinda Kingdoms.
The Abyssinian and Sassanian invasions of Arabia stemmed from the
lengthy struggle between the Sassanians and the East Roman (Byzantine)
Empire for dominance of all western Asia. As their struggle continued
it drew in, on either side, most of the petty states of Arabia. The
Ghassanid and Lakhmid kingdoms of north Arabia served the East Roman
and Sassanian empires respectively as buffer states in the fifth and
sixth centuries. Both kingdoms had been founded by south Arabian tribes
that had migrated northward in the first century, the Ghassanids to
southeast Syria, the Lakhmids to Hira in lower Mesopotamia, not far
from the ruins of Babylon. In time the Ghassanids were converted to
Monophysite Christianity, but the Lakhmids, although most of their
subjects were Nestorian Christians, remained pagans. A third petty
kingdom, Kinda, also founded by a south Arabian tribe, arose in central
Arabia in the second half of the fourth century. At its zenith Kinda
stretched from the Hejaz to Bahrain and successfully challenged both
the Ghassanids and the Lakhmids; but by the middle of the sixth century
it had disintegrated. The Ghassanid and Lahkmid kingdoms were swept
away from the Islamic expansion from Arabia in the seventh century.
Politics and Religion on the Eve of Islam's Birth.
Muslim Arabs describe the period before the coming of the Prophet
Muhammad as al-jahiliyah, the age of ignorance. The term applies to
the century preceding Muhammad's proclamation of his mission in the
second decade of the seventh century, but it is also loosely used
to denote the entire span of Arabian history before that time. As
a description of the condition of most of the peninsula's inhabitants
on the eve of Islam, it is somewhat justified. However, it could scarcely
be applied to the civilization of the Minaeans, Sabaeans, and Himyarites.
That civilization, however, was now in ruins, and throughout the greater
part of Arabia there was disorder and disunity.
The Bedouin tribes of northern and central Arabia were constantly
at war with one another and with their neighbors, harassing the trade
routes and raiding the frontiers of the Byzantine and Sassanian empires.
Their conflicts gave rise to a body of heroic poetry, and its diffusion
throughout northern and western Arabia contributed to the eventual
triumph of northern Arabic as the dominant language of the peninsula.
The religion of the northern tribes was as primitive as their politics.
Caves, trees, springs, and stones were held to be the abode of spirits;
the desert was believed to be peopled with malevolent beings, jinns;
and the moon was worshiped as a beneficent power.
In the Hejaz, Asir, and Yemen, religious beliefs and practices also
focused largely upon sacred stones and springs, the most famous of
which were the Black Stone, a meteorite set in the southeast corner
of the Kaaba in Mecca, and the well of Zemzem in the adjacent courtyard.
In other towns kaabas, or cube-shaped structures, housed similar sacred
objects. A pantheon of deities was worshiped in the Hejaz, whose sanctuaries
were places of pilgrimage. The principal deity of Mecca, Allah (al-
ilah, the god), was held to be the ultimate god, the creator of the
world and the heavens.
The emergence of this concept of an immanent supreme being was probably
due in part to the influence of Christianity and Judaism, which had
penetrated the Hejaz and Yemen in preceding centuries. Many of the
merchants of the Hejaz, during their travels abroad, had also been
brought into contact with the monotheistic religions of the Mediterranean
world. There were, in addition, several Christian and Jewish communities
in western Arabia; the most well known were the Christians of Najran,
in the southwest corner of modern Saudi Arabia, and the Jews of Yathrib,
on the spice route 300 miles (480 km) north of Mecca.
Muhammad and the Rise of Islam.
It was in this environment that Muhammad, son of Abd Allah of the
tribe of Quraysh, began preaching to the people of Mecca his doctrine
of redemption, salvation, and the oneness of God. His fellow citizens
disliked his preaching, especially his condemnation of idolatry and
his insistence upon his role as the prophet of Allah. In a.d. 622
they forced him and his converts to flee Mecca. Muhammad and his followers
found refuge at Yathrib, which became known as madinat al-nabi (the
city of the prophet), or simply Medina (the city). The year of the
flight (hegira) marked the beginning of the Muslim era. Muhammad lived
for ten years at Medina, converting its inhabitants, expelling the
Jewish community, and eventually, in 630, making Mecca subject to
him. By the time he died in 632 several towns and districts in the
Hejaz acknowledged his authority and paid him tribute, and there were
converts to his teaching in many parts of Arabia.
The new religion of Islam (that is, resignation or submission to the
will of God, Allah) provided the unifying force that Arabs had lacked.
The process of unification was aided by the use of northern Arabic
as the language of the Koran, the posthumous transcription of Muhammad'
s revelations. Islam and Arabic were henceforth inseparable, and together
they eventually gave the Arabs a sense of a common identity.
Muhammad's death left the Muslim community without a leader. Because
he and his followers had believed him to be the last of the prophets,
he could not be replaced. Thus the new leader, Abu Bakr, who was
Muhammad's father-in-law, was simply designated caliph (khalifa, or
successor) of the Prophet of God. Abu Bakr's two-year reign was almost
wholly occupied with bringing back into the Muslim fold those tribes
that had apostatized on the death of Muhammad and with converting
the rest of Arabia. When Abu Bakr died in 634 the peninsula was unified
for the first and only time.
The Diminishing Influence of Arabia in the IslamicEmpire.
Because the tribes of Arabia were forbidden by the new Islamic theocracy
to fight among themselves, they had to direct their warlike energies
to conquest beyond Arabia. Under the caliphs Omar and Othman they
overran the Sassanian empire and inflicted defeats upon the armies
of Byzantium before being stopped at the Taurus mountains in modern
Turkey. Syria and Mesopotamia were absorbed into the Arab empire along
with Egypt, conquered in 640.
With the accession in 656 of the fourth caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib,
the son-in-law of Muhammad, the unity of the empire was shattered.
Ali easily defeated a rebellion by the Prophet's widow, Aisha, and
some of the Prophet's former companions, but he faced a more formidable
adversary in Mu`awiya, the governor of Syria and a kinsman of the
late caliph Othman. To cope with Mu`awiya, Ali moved his capital from
Medina to Kufa in lower Mesopotamia. In the spring of 657 the armies
of the two rivals battled at Siffin on the Euphrates River. Because
the fighting was inconclusive the two commanders submitted their contest
to arbitration, which developed into a wrangle over the legitimacy
of Ali's succession. When the arbitrators declared both Ali and Mu`awiya
ineligible for the caliphate, Ali broke off the arbitration. A number
of his followers denounced him for having submitted his claim to the
judgment of men when the decision lay with God alone, and the more
extreme among them, the khawarij (outsiders or seceders), violently
rejected his rule. Although Ali crushed their revolt, his authority
was crumbling, and in 661 he was assassinated. His son Hasan succeeded
him, but abdicated shortly afterward in favor of Mu`awiya, who had
been proclaimed caliph in Jerusalem in 660.
Under the Umayyad caliphate (Mu`awiya's family name), which lasted
from 661 to 750, the Arab empire reached its greatest extent. In the
east, Persia and Afghanistan were subdued and India invaded, while
in the west, North Africa and most of Spain were brought under Muslim
Inevitably these sweeping events diminished the status of Medina and
the importance of Arabia in the Islamic empire, especially as the
number of converts to Islam among the conquered peoples far exceeded
the Arab Muslims of the peninsula. The capital was moved to Damascus,
from where the entire empire was ruled. Shortly after Mu`awiya's
death in 680 an attempt was made to restore the Islamic capital to
Medina when Ali's son Husain, together with Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr,
the son of one of the Prophet's principal companions, rebelled against
the Umayyads. Husain was slain at Karbala in Iraq, and Ibn al-Zubayr
was killed when an Umayyad army captured Mecca in 692.
Proliferation of Islamic Sects.
The death of Ibn al-Zubayr signified the passing of the Arabian (or
Medinan) caliphate and the relegation of Arabia to a position of relative
obscurity in Islamic history. Arabia was little affected by the overthrow
of the Umayyads (Ommiads) of Damascus by the Abbasids of Baghdad in
750 or by subsequent dynastic changes. The annual pilgrimage (hajj(hajj))
to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina gave the peninsula some importance,
but its main distinction from the eighth to the 18th century was
as a breeding ground for rebellion and as a refuge for dissident Islamic
A remnant of the khawarij, the Ibadiya, found their way into Oman,
where they converted many tribes. Their chief belief denied dynastic
succession to the caliphate or imamate (leadership) of Islam, even
in the Prophet's own family. Beginning in the mid-eighth century,
the Ibadiya of Oman elected their own imams, although sometimes the
imamate was in abeyance.
A greater source of trouble to the Umayyad caliphs, and later to the
Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad, were the Shiites. The death of Ali had
opened a split in Islam between the Sunnite, or orthodox, Muslims,
who held that the caliphate should remain in the Prophet's family
(the Quraysh), and the Shiites, who preferred the title of imam and
insisted that the imamate be confined to the line of Ali. Doctrinal
differences widened the political breach, and in time a proliferation
of Sunnite and Shiite sects destroyed the original unity of Islam.
One of the earliest and more important of the Shiite sects was the
Ismaili, who split off from the main body of the Shiites in 765 and
began an unremitting campaign of subversion against the Abbasid caliphs.
Under the name of Karmathians (Qarmatians) they established an independent
state in eastern Arabia at the close of the ninth century. They discarded
prayer, fasting, and the pilgrimage, which made them detested by pious
Muslims, and espoused revolution. In 930 they captured and sacked
Mecca, carrying off the sacred Black Stone from the Kaaba; they were
only persuaded to return it 20 years later by the Fatimid rulers of
North Africa, an Ismaili dynasty set up in Tunis in the early tenth
century. The Karmathians broke with the Fatimids shortly afterward
and then went into decline. Their disintegration was accelerated in
the 11th century by the increasingly intense Sunnite reaction against
Shiite excesses. By the end of the century the Karmathian state in
Hasa had vanished.
Triumph of Sunnitism.
Much of the impetus for the Sunnite reaction against the Shiites came
from the Seljuq Turks, Sunnites who conquered Baghdad in 1055 and
declared themselves the protectors of the Abbasid caliphate. The Abbasid
empire had for well more than a century been a hollow shell, its caliphs,
like the later Roman emperors, mere puppets of their praetorian guards.
Other Turkish dynasties also appointed themselves champions of Sunnite
The Ayyubids of Damascus (a Turkish dynasty of Kurdish origin), under
the leadership of Salah al-din (Saladin of the Crusades), conquered
Egypt in 1171 and suppressed the Fatimid caliphate. Salah al-din next
turned his attention to southwest Arabia, where Ismaili and other
Shiites had wielded much influence since the second half of the eighth
Between the eighth and the twelfth century a bewildering assortment
of Shiite dynasties and principalities had come and gone in Yemen,
of which the most long-lived was the Zaidi imamate of Sa`dah in the
north. In 1174 Salah al-din sent his brother, Turan Shah, to conquer
Yemen, and by 1176 the petty Shiite states had been crushed, marking
the triumph of Sunnitism over Shiitism throughout Arabia.
Yemen and the Hejaz from the 10th to the 16thCenturies.
An Ayyubid kingdom, organized on military lines, was set up in Yemen
by Turan Shah with its capital at Ta`izz; it was displaced in 1230
by the Rasulid dynasty, another Turkish line. When the Mongols under
Hulagu Khan captured Baghdad in 1258 and put to death the last Abbasid
caliph, the reigning Rasulid proclaimed himself Caliph of Islam, but
none of his successors claimed that title. For the next two centuries
the Rasulids ruled from their capital at Ta`izz over most of Yemen,
Asir, and Hadhramaut and controlled the commerce of the Red Sea.
In the mid-15th century, they were overthrown and Hadhramaut regained
its independence. Similarly, southern Arabia and the interior were
fragmented into small tribal holdings.
Under the Abbasids the Hejaz had remained a backwater of the empire,
although the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, endowed with great
wealth by pious Muslims, became centers of learning, poetry, and music,
as well as places of refuge for political malcontents. Mecca was
dominated by the descendants of Ali's son, Hasan, and Medina by those
of Hasan's brother Husain. In the mid-tenth century, in the wake of
the disorders caused by the Karmathians in Arabia, the head of the
ruling Hasanid family of Mecca assumed the title of sharif (exalted
or noble), thus founding the generally independent sharifate of Mecca
(which endured until 1925). As the Abbasid empire disintegrated the
Hejaz became increasingly isolated and turbulent, its holy places
the scenes of strife, plunder, and sacrilege. Mecca was occupied by
Turan Shah in 1173 on his way to Yemen. Four years later the Crusader
Renaud de Châtillon sent a squadron of galleys to cruise in the Red
Sea and harry the ports of the Hejaz. The Mamluk (often spelled Mameluke
in older literature) sultans of Egypt, who came to power in the mid-
13th century, exercised a sporadic overlordship of the holy cities
for two-and-a-half centuries. Their rule ended in 1517 when Egypt
was conquered by the Ottoman sultan Selim I and the Hejaz became,
in name at least, part of the Ottoman empire.
European Influence in the Early Ottoman Period.
Beginning in the early 16th century Arabian history was influenced
by European nations in quest of trade and dominion, as well as by
the Ottoman Turks. The first Europeans to venture into Arabian waters
in modern times were the Portuguese, who had discovered the sea route
to the East at the end of the 15th century and became determined to
acquire control of Asia's trade with Europe. That trade--consisting
of spices, aromatics, drugs, dyes, precious stones, ivory, and gold-
-was controlled by Arab merchants and seafarers, who carried the precious
goods up the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf to Egypt and Syria, where
they passed to the Venetians. Hoping to gain control of the Red Sea
and the Persian Gulf, the Portuguese in 1507 attacked the island kingdom
of Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. Hormuz was made tributary
to Portugal and for the next 100 years the Portuguese monopolized
the trade of the Persian Gulf. They also attempted to take Aden in
1513, and although they failed, they did considerable damage to trade
and shipping in the Red Sea. Inevitably, the forays by a Christian
power provoked a Muslim reaction. The Ottoman Turks, who after conquering
Egypt had asserted control over the coastal lowlands of Yemen, unsuccessfully
challenged the Portuguese at sea several times between 1529 and 1589.
A more serious threat to Portugal's dominance came from the English,
who, after the formation of the English East India Company in 1600,
established factories, or trading stations, on the west coast of
India. In 1622, in alliance with Shah Abbas I of Persia, they successfully
stormed the Portuguese stronghold of Hormuz and ended Portugal's monopoly
of the Persian Gulf trade. With the rise to power of the Ya`ariba
line of Ibadi imams of Oman, the Portuguese lost control of their
remaining strongpoints at Muscat and other places on the coast of
The first of the Ya`ariba line, Nasir ibn Murshid, was elected in
1624. By the time of his death in 1649 only Muscat remained in Portuguese
hands, and it fell the following year. The Ya`ariba imams made Muscat
the greatest non-European naval power in the eastern seas in the second
half of the 17th century, plundering Portuguese, English, and Dutch
shipping alike and driving the Portuguese from Mombasa and other ports
on the east coast of Africa.
The power of the Ya`aribas, however, lasted barely a century. Civil
war broke out in Oman in the early 1720's over the succession to the
imamate and continued for more than 20 years, splitting the country
and subjecting it for a time to Persian occupation. In the 1740's
the war was brought to an end and the Persians expelled by Ahmad ibn
Said, of the clan of Al Bu Said; he was elected imam in 1749. His
interests, like those of the Ya`ariba, lay in trade and overseas expansion,
and under his rule and that of his successors Muscat became the great
emporium for the trade of eastern Arabia and the east African slave
The decline of Portuguese power in Arabia was paralleled by the decline
of Turkish power. Only about 100 years after they had subdued the
region, the Turks were expelled from Hasa in eastern Arabia in 1664
by the Bani Khalid tribal confederacy; in southwest Arabia they retained
footholds only along the coast of Yemen. There was a strong religious
animosity between the Turks and the Yemeni tribes because the Turks
were Sunnite Muslims of the Hanafi rite, whereas the coastal tribes
were mostly Sunnites of the Shafi rite; the upland tribes were predominantly
Shiites of the Zaidi sect, owing allegiance to the imams of Sa`dah.
A determined campaign by successive Zaidi imams early in the 17th
century drove the Turks from Sana, which became the Zaidi capital.
And in 1635 the Turks lost their hold on the coastal plain, the Tihama.
As the fortunes of Aden, hard hit by Turkish and Portuguese attacks,
declined, Mocha, the principal port of the Yemen, began to prosper.
Coffee had been introduced into Yemen from Abyssinia, probably in
the 15th century, and it became the country's principal export, attracting
European traders to Mocha, particularly the Dutch and English, who
opened trading stations there. The Dutch trading post was withdrawn
in 1738 as a consequence of the successful cultivation of coffee in
the East Indies, but the English post remained for another 100 years.
In the Persian Gulf beginning in the late 17th century the Dutch,
English, and French competed for the commercial ascendancy relinquished
by the Portuguese. By the late 18th century only the English remained,
and they too would probably have left it had it not been for the
landing of Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt in 1798. The defense of their
possessions in India and the need to suppress piracy in Arabian waters
kept the English East India Company in the Gulf after the turn of
the 19th century.
By far the most significant development of the 18th century was the
emergence of the Wahhabi, or Saudi, state of Nejd. It originated in
central Africa as a religious reform movement begun by Muhammad ibn
Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792) of Ayaina. Ibn Abd al-Wahhab's mission was
to persuade his fellow Muslims to return to a simpler and more rigorous
observance of the tenets of Islam, according to the Hanabali rite.
He particularly deplored the cult of saints, which to him smacked
of idolatry and polytheism, and he carried his objections to the point
of condemning what seemed to him the excessive veneration of Muhammad.
His message was fundamentalist and puritanical and represented Islam
in its most pristine form. Perhaps the chief reason it was adopted
by the easygoing townsmen and the superstitious Bedouin of central
Arabia was that it carried with it a license to persecute and plunder
non-Wahhabis. Another reason was the Ibn Abd al-Wahhab converted Muhammad
ibn Saud, a chieftain of the Anaiza tribe, who resided at Ad Dir`iyah
in the Nejd. With Ibn Saud's military backing, Ibn Abd al-Wahhab was
able to persuade or coerce the tribesmen of Nejd to accept the reformed
faith and to unite in a military-religious confederacy for its dissemination
Muhammad ibn Saud died in 1765. His son and successor, Abd al-Aziz,
married the daughter of Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and at some time around
the reformer's death in 1792 Abd al-Aziz was acknowledged as imam
by the Wahhabi community. Under the command of Abd al-Aziz' son, Ibn
Saud, the Wahhabis between 1792 and 1795 subdued Hasa and then raided
the frontiers of Turkish Iraq. In 1801 they sacked the holy city of
Karbala, burial place of the Shiite martyr, Husain, arousing the fury
of the Shiite world. Turning west they invaded the Hejaz, occupied
Mecca in 1803, and captured Medina in 1804. Neither the pasha of Baghdad
nor the sharif of Mecca was able to halt the Wahhabis, who in the
next few years raided and pillaged as far north as the outskirts of
Damascus. To the south they made inroads into Oman and provoked the
tribes of the southern shore of the Persian Gulf, the so-called Pirate
Coast, into making widespread attacks upon Arab, Indian, and European
The Ottoman sultan, unable to restore his nominal authority over the
Hejaz, ordered his vassal, Mehemet Ali Pasha, vali (governor-general)
of Egypt, to retake Mecca and Medina. Mehemet Ali's campaign began
in 1811 and was successfully concluded by his son, Ibrahim Pasha,
seven years later, when the Wahhabi capital of Dir`iyah was destroyed.
The ruling Wahhabi imam, Abd Allah ibn Saud, was taken prisoner and
sent to Constantinople (now Istanbul), where he was beheaded. The
British government in India, which had tried unsuccessfully in 1809-
1810 to extirpate the piratical strongholds along the Pirate Coast,
sent a second expedition in 1819. It managed to subdue the maritime
tribes and force them to conclude a treaty in which they forswore
The Wahhabis recovered under the imam Turki ibn Abd Allah (r. 1824-
1834), who established a new capital at Riyadh, not far from the ruins
of Dir`iyah. Once more, however, they had to contend with Mehemet
Ali Pasha, who sought to extend his control to Damascus and Baghdad
as well as to the trading routes through the Red Sea and the Persian
Gulf. In 1833 Mehemet Ali forced the Ottoman sultan to cede most of
Syria, and at the end of the same year he began an invasion of Yemen.
Early in 1837 he sent a second expedition into Nejd. Riyadh fell in
May 837 and at the close of the following year Egyptian troops reached
the Persian Gulf. The Wahhabi imam, Faisal ibn Turkik, was sent to
Cairo as a prisoner. The invasion of Yemen was less successful, and
it was forestalled in its ultimate object, the capture of Aden, by
a British expedition from India, which occupied that port in January
1839. At the end of 1840 Russia, Great Britain, Austria, and Prussia
intervened to end the hostilities. They issued the London Convention,
which forced the pasha to relinquish control of most of the Ottoman
territory he had captured, including Syria and the Hejaz, and to return
Egypt nominally to the Ottoman empire.
During the middle of the 19th century the fortunes of Arabia were
largely controlled by the Wahhabi imam, Faisal ibn Turki (r. 1834-
1838, 1843-1865) and by the British government in India. The British
were concerned principally with protecting the maritime approaches
to India, ensuring the safety of shipping in the Persian Gulf and
the Red Sea, and suppressing the slave trade. A perpetual maritime
truce was subscribed to in 1853 by the sheikhdoms of the Pirate Coast,
which then became known as the Trucial Coast. British relations with
the Wahhabis were confined to opposing sporadic Wahhabi attempts to
conquer Bahrain, Oman, and the Trucial Coast sheikhdoms, to prevent
the truce from being endangered. The campaign against the slave trade
was directed primarily toward Oman, ruled from 1806 to 1856 by Said
ibn Sultan, the most famous of the Al Bu Said line. Said was compelled
by the British government in 1845 to forbid the export of slaves from
his east African dominions of Zanzibar and the adjacent coast. Subsequent
treaties imposed by the British upon the Trucial Coast sheikhdoms,
Bahrain, and Persia gradually closed the area to the slave trade.
The slave trade also brought Said into contact with the United States
and France, which led to commercial conventions in 1833 and 1844,
On Said's death in 1856 his sons quarrelled over succession to the
sultanate. The British government in India intervened and, largely
to suppress the slave trade more effectively, divided the sultanate
in 1861. Al Bu Said rule in Oman, already shaken by various Wahhabi
invasions, was further weakened by the loss of Zanzibar. Successive
Al Bu Said rulers had also estranged many of the tribes by allowing
the Ibadi imamate to lapse, preferring to reign as temporal sovereigns
with the title of sayyid (lord), while by Europeans they were called
sultans. Tribal rebellions plagued Oman into the 20th century.
Growing Turkish Control.
After the withdrawal of the Egyptians from the Hejaz in 1840 effective
power there was applied by the sharif of Mecca, Muhammad ibn Aun.
It was not until his death in 1858 that the Ottoman sultan was able
to wield full authority in western Arabia. In the middle of the century
the Turks subdued the Asir and occupied the Tihama, Mocha, and Hodeida
(Al Hudaydah). No effective opposition was offered by the Zaidi imam
at Sana. Anarchy reigned in the highlands as a series of sanguinary
conflicts was fought over the imamate. With the opening of the Suez
Canal in 1869 the Turks were able to move troops and supplies to Arabia
with greater rapidity. They tightened their hold on the Hejaz and
extended their control of Yemen to the western highlands. Sana was
occupied in 1872, a Turkish vali appointed to its government, and
the imam reduced to the status of a vassal. Turkish rule, however,
was never secure in the Hejaz or in Yemen. To the south, Aden remained
in British hands and grew in importance and prosperity as the traffic
through the newly built Suez Canal increased. Great Britain gradually
extended its control over the hinterland of Aden by means of treaties
of protection with the local rulers.
The Turks also took the offensive in eastern Arabia after the opening
of the Suez Canal. When the Wahhabi imam Faisal ibn Turki died in
1865 his sons Abd Allah and Saud disputed the succession. After sitting
on the throne for six years, Abd Allah in 1871 called upon the Turks
for help in subduing his brother. They responded by invading and subduing
Hasa, which remained under Turkish control for the next 40 years.
The fortunes of the Al Saud now declined steeply as the imamate changed
hands seven times within the next five years. Their power was eclipsed
by that of the rival house of Ibn Rashid, also Wahhabis but Turkish
vassals as well, whose capital lay to the north, at Hail in Jabal
Shammar. The Rashidis captured Riyadh in 1885 and six years later
incorporated it into their dominions, the Saudi head being forced
into exile at Kuwait.
Kuwait at this time was nominally under the suzerainty of the Ottoman
sultan, although in fact it enjoyed virtual independence. German and
Russian plans for the construction of a railroad to the head of the
Persian Gulf led the British government in 1899 to obtain from the
ruler of Kuwait a pledge not to alienate any of his territory or conduct
relations with a foreign power. To counter Russian, German, and French
activities in the Gulf, similar pledges had already been extracted
by the British from the Trucial Coast sheikhdoms and Bahrain in 1892.
The sultan of Muscat had bound himself in 1891 not to alienate any
portion of his territories except to Great Britain.
Arabia in the 20th Century.
The increase in Ottoman and European political and strategic interest
in Arabia at the beginning of the 20th century resulted in the first
attempts to define frontiers within the peninsula. Lengthy negotiations
between the Ottoman and British governments brought about agreements
in 1913 and 1914 that defined, in the east, the frontiers of Kuwait
with Turkish Iraq and Hasa and the frontier of Hasa with Qatar and
the Trucial Coast, and, in the southwest, the frontier of Yemen with
the western Aden protectorates. The convention embodying the settlement
in eastern Arabia was never ratified by the Turks, and in any case
its usefulness was nullified by the expulsion of the Turks from Hasa
by the Saudis.
The resurgence of Saudi power was accomplished by Ibn Saud, the grandson
of Faisal ibn Turki. In 1901-1902 he came out of exile in Kuwait and
expelled the Rashidis from Riyadh. Rallying the tribes of Nejd to
him, he reasserted the authority of the Al Saud in central Arabia,
and in May 1913 he drove the Turks from Hasa.
With the outbreak of World War I, in 1914, the British government
in India sent an expeditionary force to Turkish Iraq. Shortly afterward
the British opened negotiations with Ibn Saud, which resulted in the
conclusion of a treaty in December 1915 recognizing him as ruler of
Nejd and Hasa. In return he assumed obligations toward Great Britain
similar to those entered into earlier by the Trucial sheikhs. Ibn
Rashid, the Saudis' dynastic enemy to the north, remained loyal to
the Turks. So also did the imam of Yemen, Yahya ibn Muhammad, his
passivity enabling the Turks to invade the western Aden protectorate,
occupy Lahej, and hold it until the end of the war. The sharif of
Mecca, Husain ibn Ali, was also approached by the British with the
suggestion that he rebel against the Turks. After hesitating for a
year and a half while he secured promises of substantial subsidies
and independence after the war, the sharif revolted in June 1916.
The Turkish garrison at Medina was besieged, and a tribal army was
raised under the command of Husain's sons, Faisal, Abd Allah, and
Ali, to harry the Turks along the Hejaz railroad. With the aid of
Colonel T. E. Lawrence of the British army, the sharifian army in
the next two years gained much notoriety. The Turkish garrison at
Medina, however, held out comfortably until the war was over.
Ibn Saud's attention during the war had been directed mainly toward
his rival, ibn Rashid of Jabal Shammar. It was not until 1921, however,
that Ibn Saud was able to defeat him and annex his principality.
In the meantime the British had placed Husain's sons, Faisal and Abd
Allah, on the thrones of the newly created kingdoms of Iraq and Transjordan
(modern Jordan), respectively. Raids by Ibn Saud's fanatical warriors,
the Ikhwan (brethren), into Iraq and Transjordan provoked a strong
British reaction, and in 1922 and 1925 Ibn Saud was forced to conclude
agreements fixing the frontiers of Nejd with Iraq, Transjordan, and
Kuwait. The animosity that had always existed between the Hashemite
sharifs of Mecca and the Saudi imams flared into open warfare in 1924,
when Husain ill-advisedly assumed the title of caliph after the Ottoman
caliphate had been abolished by republican Turkey. Condemning him
as a heretic, Ibn Saud's Ikhwan swept down upon the Hejaz and occupied
Mecca in October 1924. Husain abdicated as king of the Hejaz (a title
he had adopted during the war) in favor of his son Ali; but Ali could
not withstand the Saudis and in December 1925 he too abdicated, surrendering
Medina and Jidda (Juddah) to the Wahhabis. Ibn Saud, who had adopted
the title of sultan of Nejd in 1921, now assumed the title of king
of the Hejaz as well. His dual sovereignty and independence were recognized
by Great Britain in 1927 in the Treaty of Jiddah. In 1932 Ibn Saud
changed the name of his kingdom to Saudi Arabia, which immediately
achieved full international recognition as an independent state. Both
Husain and Ali died in exile.
After the conquest of the Hejaz, Ibn Saud incorporated the Asir into
his dominions. This provoked a quarrel with the imam Yahya, the ruler
of Yemen, which had been independent since the departure of the Turks
after World War I. Early in 1934 a Saudi force occupied Hodeida, but
it withdrew in May after agreement was reached to define the Yemen-
Asir border, a task accomplished two years later. In 1934 Ibn Saud
also entered into a treaty with Great Britain to define the Aden-Yemen
frontier and began a series of negotiations to determine the frontiers
of Saudi Arabia with the Trucial Coast sheikhdoms, Qatar, Muscat and
Oman, and the eastern Aden protectorate.
Border determination had been made necessary by the granting of oil
concessions during the 1930's by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and
the other Persian Gulf states. Oil was first discovered in Bahrain
in 1932. It was struck in Kuwait and in Saudi Arabia in 1938. Border
negotiations continued until the eve of World War II, but in 1939
the British and Saudi governments had still not agreed on frontiers.
U.S. interest in Arabia, aroused initially by missionary activities
and later by oil exploration, increased during World War II. Both
the United States and Great Britain gave financial aid to Saudi Arabia,
in spite of its official neutrality until 1945. After the war, U.S.
interest in Arabia continued, for strategic reasons and because large
reserves of oil had been discovered in Hasa.
Oil exploration was resumed and resulted in important oil finds in
Qatar, some of the Trucial States, and Oman, reviving the question
of Saudi Arabia's eastern and southern frontiers and reawakening Ibn
Saud's ambition to extend his influence in the manner of his ancestors
over the littoral states. Negotiations between the Saudi and British
governments on frontiers were again unsuccessful, and the situation
was complicated by new developments in Arabia and the rise of nationalism
in the rest of the Arab world.
In Oman, dissatisfaction with Al Bu Said rule had led the highland
tribes to elect an Ibadi imam in 1913 and again in 1920. In the latter
year the reigning sultan at Muscat signed a written guarantee not
to interfere in the affairs of the Omani tribes. This compromise between
the Ibadi imam and the sultan of Muscat lasted until the post-World
War II period, when rivalries, involving both conflicting Arab claims
and British interests, developed for control of the Buraimi oasis,
which was believed to contain oil. When the second imam, who died
in 1954, was succeeded by a third elected imam who proclaimed an independent
state of Oman and began to receive support from Saudi Arabia and Egypt,
the sultan was provoked into intervening in the interior. Eventually,
British troops were sent to help the sultan suppress the revolt.
Oil was discovered in Oman in 1964, and by 1970 Sultan Said ibn Taimur
had lost the confidence of the British, who welcomed his overthrow
in a coup intended to modernize and unify the country.
Oil had also changed Saudi Arabia. Ibn Saud died in 1953 and was succeeded
by his oldest surviving son, Saud, who was deposed 11 years later
by the Saudi family and succeeded by his brother Faisal. Saud's downfall
was due as much to extravagance as to misgovernment; the vast revenues
from oil production had seduced many of the Al Saud from their adherence
to the stern doctrines of Wahhabism and sapped the religious foundations
of Saudi society. Under King Faisal the erosion was slowed.
Events in Yemen and Aden in the 1960's caused considerable uneasiness
throughout Arabia. Yahya, who was assassinated in 1948, had been succeeded
by his son Ahmad. Dissatisfaction with Ahmad's rule grew in the 1950'
s, particularly among officials and army officers who admired the
successful military coups in other Arab countries. When Ahmad died
in September 1962 they rose against his successor, declared the imamate
abolished, and proclaimed Yemen a republic. Almost immediately troops
and ammunition arrived from republican Egypt to help consolidate the
revolution and to exploit the opportunity now afforded President Gamal
Abd al-Nasser (commonly spelled Gamal Abdel Nasser) to realize the
ambitions once held by Mehemet Ali. Nasser's aim was to replace Great
Britain's waning influence in Arabia with his own and to bring about
the downfall of the traditional regimes. His troops, however, were
unsuccessful, and six months after Egypt's defeat in the Arab-Israeli
war of 1967 Nasser withdrew his forces from Yemen. Nevertheless, the
republican government survived in Yemen on the basis of a compromise
worked out by the republicans and the royalists.
Egypt's intervention between 1962 and 1967 in Yemen also intensified
unrest in Aden and the adjacent protectorates. Since its occupation
in 1839 Aden had been ruled by the British Indian government, but
in 1937 Aden was declared a crown and brought under the control of
the Colonial Office in London. In 1963 Aden was joined to the protectorates
in a British-sponsored federation that was expected to become independent.
Arab nationalists in Aden, however, resented sharing power with the
traditional rulers of the more populous protectorate states. Supported
and armed by Yemen and Egypt, they waged a successful guerrilla campaign
against the federal government and the British. In November 1967 the
British abandoned Aden, the protectorates, and the federation, and
independent Southern Yemen came into being.
Shortly after abandoning Aden, Great Britain announced its intention
to terminate its agreements with the Persian Gulf states and withdraw
from the area by the end of 1971. A first step in this direction had
been taken in 1961, when the 1899 agreement with Kuwait had been abrogated
and British protection ended. Iraq immediately asserted a claim to
sovereignty over Kuwait, but was rebuffed by the deterring presence
of British and Saudi troops in Kuwait. A similar claim of much longer
standing by Iran to sovereignty over Bahrain was withdrawn in 1970
after a majority of the island's population voted for independence
in a plebiscite conducted under UN auspices. The persistence of Saudi
Arabia's and Iran's territorial claims to the Trucial States did not
deter Britain from withdrawing from the Gulf. Before leaving, the
British had endeavored to persuade Bahrain, Qatar, and the Trucial
States to join in a federation, but Bahrain and Qatar both chose to
become independent separately during 1971. The Trucial States achieved
independence as the United Arab Emirates in 1971.
Great changes occurred in Arabia after World War II, the most striking
of them brought about by the exploitation of oil. Wealth brought the
products of the Western world in profusion, and to a lesser degree
elements of Western culture and philosophy. It also attracted to the
oil-rich Gulf states many Arabs from the more advanced Arab countries,
as well as non-Arabs. Arabs from the north of Arabia brought with
them not only the intellectual and emotional baggage of Arab nationalism
but also novel political doctrines of republicanism and revolution.
As wealth from oil poured into the Persian Gulf states, the juxtaposition
of sheikhs ruling as patriarchs with an urban proletariat of detribalized
peninsular Arabs, Iranians, and others and with a restless quasi-intelligentsia
from the northern Arab lands provided a classic situation for revolution.
Non-Arab powers with economic or strategic interests in Arabia, like
the United States, Great Britain, and Japan, looked with apprehension
upon the peninsula's future. Other nations, such as the Soviet Union,
prowled expectantly around its edges. The last remnants of Arabia'
s isolation have been dispersed, and its history has entered upon
a new era of turbulence. For recent developments, see Bahrain; Kuwait;
Oman; Qatar; Saudi Arabia; United Arab Emirates; and Yeman, as well
as Persian Gulf War (1990-1991).
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| 0.951603 | 19,978 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Investigators: _______________________________________________________________________Date: _______________________
1. Locate evidence (numbered envelopes) taken from suspects.
2. Obtain a sample of evidence from one of the numbered envelopes and place in container labeled with the word “Suspect” and the envelope number.
3. Locate evidence (envelope) from victim and place a piece of “Murder Victim” evidence in a separate container labeled “MurderVictim.”
4. Proceed to work station with labeled evidence from suspect and victim.
1. Water droplet placed on slide
2. Evidence examined with dissecting microscope
3. Small piece of clean tape obtained
4. Speck-like cleistothecia secured on tape
5. Tape pressed over water drop on slide
6. Check for successful evidence transfer to tape
7. Evidence examined with compound microscope
1. Type of appendage (arm) identified with key, using compound microscope
2. Cleistothecia gently smashed to observe number of asci (sacs) inside.
3. Information and drawings recorded on Forensic Evidence Data Table below.
Forensic Evidence Data Table
Characteristics of Cleistothecia
Types of Appendages
Number of asci (sacs) per cleistothecium (one or several)
Murder Suspect (YOU) #______
1) Compare the forensic plant pathology observations you have recorded for the two different samples. Are the appendages observed on the two different samples the same or are they different?
2) If the appendages you observed on the cleistothecia found on the plant material taken from your shoelaces (murder suspect) are different from appendages on the cleistothecia found on the plant material taken from the murder victim, what does this evidence suggest?
3) If the appendages on the cleistothecia found on the plant material taken from your shoelaces (murder suspect) are the same as the appendages on the cleistothecia found on the plant material taken from the murder victim what does this evidence suggest?
4) Do you need an alibi as to where you were when the murder took place? Explain.
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| 0.867734 | 459 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.02.02
Stephen R. L. Clark, Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy: An Introduction. Bloomsbury history of philosophy. London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. Pp. xi, 245. ISBN 9781441123596. $27.95 (pb).
Reviewed by Jenny Bryan, University College London ([email protected])
This engaging introductory work is original in several respects. First, it is presented as an introduction not to ancient ‘Greek’ or even ‘Classical’ philosophy, but to ‘Ancient Mediterranean Philosophy’. This quite deliberate choice to venture beyond Greece and Rome to Egypt, Israel and beyond enables Stephen Clark to offer a richer and rather more provocative account than one would generally expect from such a book. It is worth noting, however, that the traditional canon of Greek philosophy provides the work’s central focus. The basic structure is chronological: after two chapters discussing methodology (‘Beginnings’, 1-22) and significant cultural influences (‘Influence from outside’, 23-54), Clark moves through Early Greek Philosophy to Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and then from Hellenistic Philosophy into Late Antiquity. This chronological structure is refined into thematic chapters, so that the pre-Platonic period is treated in two chapters on ‘Inspired thinkers’ (55-80) and ‘Travellers and stay-at-homes’ (81-101), whilst post-Aristotelian philosophy is discussed in ‘Living the philosophical life’ (143-55) and ‘Ordinary and supernatural lives’ (157-84, followed by ‘Late Antiquity’, 185-201). Plato and Aristotle are both afforded their own chapters. Overall, the book is perhaps rather more challenging than clarifying. At some points, the breadth of sources cited and the connections made are almost dizzying. This is not an introduction offering students a clear and straightforward summary of standard interpretations of ancient philosophical works. In fact, I think that students without a fair degree of familiarity with ancient philosophy may find it a struggle to follow Clark’s allusive and fast-moving exposition, not least because part of Clark’s purpose is to challenge dominant modern characterizations of ancient thought. However, those students who are familiar with this area, or who have already read a more straightforward introduction, could only benefit from being asked to engage with this text too. Those who are willing to follow up Clark’s allusions and to try to keep pace with his train of thought will find themselves returning to the original texts with a challenging and rewarding new perspective. The volume’s brief section of ‘Recommended Reading’ (217-19) provides starting points for further thinking in a range of directions and disciplines.
Clark’s refreshingly open-minded and original approach is also reflected in his characterization of philosophy within the Ancient Mediterranean. From the outset, Clark resists the relatively common desire to repackage ancient thought as a story of the triumph of rationality. This is set out most clearly in his opening chapter, which challenges, among others, the ‘Whiggish’ (20) narrative of a progression from mythos to logos, pointing out along the way that the birth and development of ‘Greek Science’ was neither particularly Greek nor particularly scientific. In the end, the story that Clark tells is one with a recurrent interest in man’s thinking about his relationship with god. This is reflected both in the themes to which he dedicates chapters (the chapter on Plato bears the Plotinian title ‘Divine Plato’), and particularly in the points of connection he finds between different cultures. Perhaps as a result, his discussion seems to have more of a focus on ethics and theology than, say, metaphysics or logic, or even physics (which is not to say that such topics are ignored). This is a focus which Clark presents good reasons for thinking both reflects the preoccupations of ancient thinkers and addresses questions relevant to a modern reader.
Another important question considered by Clark in his first chapter is what we can really claim to know about ancient thought. He points out the necessity of reminding ourselves not to be deceived into thinking that the texts available to us represent the totality of ancient thought. This emphasis on the dangers of treating sources as authoritative is partnered by a willingness on Clark’s part to build his exposition of any given point around evidence from an immensely broad chronological and thematic range of texts. The twenty-one pages of his chapter on Plato include quotations from Xenophon and Plato, as one might expect (although one would not necessarily expect the Laws to be the most dominant dialogue), alongside Valerius Maximus, Diogenes Laertius, Plotinus, Augustine, William James, Gödel and Stephen Hawking. In one paragraph on the relative importance of form and matter, we move swiftly from Herodotus to Isaiah to Augustine (83). Elsewhere, a quotation from Wordsworth is used to illustrate a point about the similarity of the Stoic and Hebrew attitudes towards the causal role of god (173). These connections are a testament to Clark’s breadth of knowledge and set genuinely thought-provoking challenges for his reader. For some the challenge may prove too great, but those willing and able to engage with Clark’s suggestions will find themselves satisfyingly provoked.
Throughout the book, Clark sets up intriguing parallels and contrasts between different schools of thought and cultures. Some illustrative section-headings include ‘Philosophers and Jews’, ‘Hebrews and Zoroastrians’ and ‘Epicureans and Buddhists’. Clark sometimes stresses the possibility of direct and significant cross-cultural influences. Elsewhere he asks us simply to consider what such similarities or differences may indicate about human nature in general. Such parallels may well serve to stimulate those already familiar with ancient philosophy (as it is commonly categorized) to look beyond the canon and, indeed, beyond traditional geographical and cultural boundaries. I think they will also give students more confidence to propose their own potential parallels and thus to consider the relevance of these ideas to their own experience.
This is an original and, at times, challenging introduction, which provokes as much as it elucidates, if not more. In combination with its extensive breadth and ambition, its relative brevity means that it offers less depth of analysis than some introductions. Nevertheless, it is certainly worthy of a place on introductory bibliographies for courses on ancient philosophy, where it will provide a fresh and hugely knowledgeable perspective.
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The World's Women reports
|UNITED NATIONS RELEASES MOST RECENT STATISTICS ON WORLD'S WOMEN|
Latest Comprehensive Report on Available Data Shows Gains But Persistent Disparities Between Women and Men Worldwide
(New York, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division) -- The United Nations today released The World's Women 2000: Trends and Statistics, a one-of-a-kind compilation of the latest data documenting progress for women worldwide in six areas: health, human rights and political decision-making, work, education and communication, population, and families. The report, produced by the United Nations Statistics Division, becomes public just prior to a Special Session of the General Assembly to review progress governments have made in improving women's lives since the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 and to agree on future priority actions for women.
"This report attempts to answer the urgent but complex question of what real progress are the world's women making in their lives," said Nitin Desai, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs. "Available data show that women are making gains, but persistent disparities exist between women and men. We can see that the gender gap in enrolment in primary and
secondary levels of schooling is closing, but it is unlikely this gap will be closed by the target date of 2005. While the gender gap in rates of economic activity is narrowing, women still must reconcile their family responsibilities with employment outside the home. Recent declines in early marriage and early childbearing in most regions show real change in the quality of women's lives, but in 3 of 5 countries in Southern Asia and in 11 of 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, at least 30 percent of young women aged 15 to 19 have been married."
Citing progress in collecting gender statistics, the report also stresses that new data is needed on issues unique to women, such as violence against women and maternal health. For example, new importance is being placed on women's reproductive health and safe motherhood, but the report states that data are not yet available to show whether the new concern with safe motherhood has been translated into improved maternal care.
The World's Women 2000 is the third in a series of reports that has broken new ground. The first, issued in 1991, was a direct response to a rising demand by a wide range of users for data on women. The field continued to evolve with a second edition in 1995 and now the current edition that looks at the status of women through the lens of statistical data and analysis. The information and data in the present publication are intended to provide a "snapshot" of some of the more salient statistical findings since 1995, while also drawing out recent changes and long-term trends.
In the last seven years, governments, institutions and non-governmental organizations have worked at every level to implement and incorporate the agendas of a series of UN conferences into national programmes for action. The success---or lack of success---of these efforts is the subject of The World's Women 2000. The topics within each field of concern were shaped both by the availability of data and by the calls for action emerging from the global conferences. Highlights and important findings in The World's Women 2000 include:
Human Rights and Political Decision-Making
Education and Communication
Women and Men in Families
"Despite the fact that considerable progress has been made in the development of gender statistics, anecdote and misperception abound in measuring women's progress," said Mr. Desai. "On many issues of particular concern, there is no data collected anywhere. On other relevant issues, data are collected but only in a few countries. Even basic statistical series on women are not collected routinely in many countries.
The improvement of national statistical capacity---the ability to provide timely and reliable statistics---is essential for improving gender statistics. The United Nations Economic and Social Council has recognized the importance of statistical capacity building for the implementation and follow-up of the global conferences. It has urged countries, international and regional agencies to work together to create effective systems, especially in developing countries, to produce vital and necessary data so that we may truly understand women's advancement around the world."
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The application notes include recommended starting dilutions; optimal dilutions/concentrations should be determined by the end user.
Use at an assay dependent concentration.
RelevanceThyroid stimulating hormone, also known as thyrotropin, is secreted from cells in the anterior pituitary called thyrotrophs, finds its receptors on epithelial cells in the thyroid gland, and stimulates that gland to synthesize and release thyroid hormones. TSH is a glycoprotein hormone composed of two subunits which are non covalently bound to one another. The alpha subunit of TSH is also present in two other pituitary glycoprotein hormones, follicle stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone, and, in primates, in the placental hormone chorionic gonadotropin. Each of these hormones also has a unique beta subunit, which provides receptor specificity. In other words, TSH is composed of alpha subunit bound to the TSH beta subunit, and TSH associates only with its own receptor. Free alpha and beta subunits have essentially no biological activity.
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Childhood obesity can have complications for your child's physical, social and emotional well-being.
- Type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that affects the way your child's body uses sugar (glucose). Obesity and a sedentary lifestyle increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.
- Metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome isn't a disease itself, but a cluster of conditions that can put your child at risk of developing heart disease, diabetes or other health problems. This cluster of conditions includes high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, low HDL ("good") cholesterol and excess abdominal fat.
- High cholesterol and high blood pressure. Your child can develop high blood pressure or high cholesterol if he or she eats a poor diet. These factors can contribute to the buildup of plaques in the arteries. These plaques can cause arteries to narrow and harden, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke later in life.
- Asthma. Children who are overweight or obese may be more likely to have asthma.
- Sleep disorders. Obstructive sleep apnea is a potentially serious disorder in which a child's breathing repeatedly stops and starts when he or she sleeps. It can be a complication of childhood obesity.
- Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This disorder, which usually causes no symptoms, causes fatty deposits to build up in the liver. NAFLD can lead to scarring and liver damage.
- Early puberty or menstruation. Being obese can create hormone imbalances that may cause puberty to start earlier than expected.
Social and emotional complications
Nov. 03, 2015
- Low self-esteem and bullying. Children often tease or bully their overweight peers, who suffer a loss of self-esteem and an increased risk of depression as a result.
- Behavior and learning problems. Overweight children tend to have more anxiety and poorer social skills than normal-weight children have. At one extreme, these problems may lead overweight children to act out and disrupt their classrooms. At the other, they may cause overweight children to socially withdraw.
- Depression. Low self-esteem can create overwhelming feelings of hopelessness in some overweight children. When children lose hope that their lives will improve, they may become depressed. A depressed child may lose interest in normal activities, sleep more than usual or cry a lot. Some depressed children hide their sadness and appear emotionally flat instead. Either way, depression is as serious in children as in adults.
- About BMI for children and teens. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/childrens_BMI/about_childrens_BMI.html. Accessed Feb. 27, 2015.
- Understanding childhood obesity. American Heart Association. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/WeightManagement/Obesity/Childhood-Obesity_UCM_304347_Article.jsp. Accessed Feb. 27, 2015.
- Normal childhood nutrition & its disorders. In: Hay WW, et al. Current Diagnosis & Treatment: Pediatrics. 2nd ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2014. http://www.accessmedicine.com/. Accessed Feb. 27, 2014.
- Huang JS, et al. Childhood obesity for pediatric gastroenterologists. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. 2013;56:99.
- Klish WJ. Definition; epidemiology; and etiology of obesity in children and adolescents. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed Feb. 27, 2015.
- Barlow SE, et al. Expert committee recommendations regarding the prevention, assessment and treatment of child and adolescent overweight and obesity: Summary report. Pediatrics. 2007;120:S164.
- Currie C, et al. Is obesity at individual and national level associated with lower age at menarche? Evidence from 34 countries in the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children Study. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2012;50:621.
- Keeping children at a healthy weight: A review of the research on ways to avoid becoming overweight or obese. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. http://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/search-for-guides-reviews-and-reports/?pageaction=displayproduct&productID=1714. Accessed Feb. 17, 2015.
- Skelton JA. Management of childhood obesity in the primary care setting. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed Feb. 27, 2015.
- Petjar R, et al. Pharmacological management of obese child. Archives of Diseases in Childhood Education and Practice Edition. 2013;98:108.
- Sherafat-Kazemzadeh R, et al. Pharmacotherapy for childhood obesity: Present and future prospects. International Journal of Obesity. 2013;37:1.
- Braet C, et al. The assessment of eating behaviour in children who are obese: A psychological approach. A position paper from the European childhood obesity group. Obesity Facts. 2014;7:153.
- Klish WJ. Clinical evaluation of the obese child and adolescent. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed March 2, 2015.
- Media and children. American Academy of Pediatrics. https://www.aap.org/en-us/advocacy-and-policy/aap-health-initiatives/pages/media-and-children.aspx. Accessed March 2, 2015.
- Klish WJ. Comorbidities and complications of obesity in children and adolescents. http://www.uptodate.com/home. Accessed March 3, 2015.
- Papoutsakis C, et al. Childhood overweight/obesity and asthma: Is there a link? A systematic review of recent epidemiologic evidence. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2013;113:77.
- Helping your overweight child. Weight-control Information Network. http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/over_child.htm#d. Accessed March 25, 2015.
- Barlow SE, et al. Expert Committee Recommendations Regarding the Prevention, Assessment, and Treatment of Child and Adolescent Overweight and Obesity: Summary Report. American Academy of Pediatrics. Pediatrics. 2007;120:S164.
- Fitch A, et al. Prevention and management of obesity for children and adolescents. Bloomington, Minn.: Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement; 2013.
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A lost combination: Ancient European hunter-gatherers had traits that surprised scientists, including dark skin with eyes resembling Scandinavians.
DNA reveals surprising details of ancient Europeans
- February 1, 2014 - 5:08 PM
BERLIN – A hunter-gatherer who lived in Europe 7,000 years ago probably had blue eyes and dark skin, a combination that has largely disappeared from the continent in the millennia since, scientists said.
The discovery, published in the journal Nature, was made by scientists from the United States, Europe and Australia who analyzed ancient DNA extracted from a male tooth found in a cave in northern Spain.
Lead researcher Carles Lalueza-Fox, who works at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, said the man’s skin would have been darker than most modern Europeans, while his eyes may have resembled those of Scandinavians, his closest genetic relatives today.
The researchers also found the man had genes that indicated he was poor at digesting milk and starch, an ability which only spread among Europeans with the arrival of Neolithic farmers from the Middle East. The arrival of this group was also believed to have introduced several diseases associated with proximity to animals — and the genes that helped resist them.
But the hunter-gatherer whose remains were found in the La Brana caves near Leon already had some genes that would have helped him fight diseases such as measles, flu and smallpox. This came as a surprise to researchers, indicating that the genetic transition was already underway 7,000 years ago, Lalueza-Fox said. The lack of such genes among pre-Columbian populations in the Americas was one of the reasons they were so susceptible to these diseases when the Europeans arrived.
© 2016 Star Tribune
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When studying the lives of women throughout history, it is important to consider the questions that have not been asked: where are the women? how would the inclusion of womens experiences enrich interpretations of the past? and "why were the roles women played the subject of limited attention in, or omission from, particular historical discussions?" The traditional invisibility of women in history does not mean that they were absent from pivotal events or did not play important roles in their societies.
Consider, for example, how warfare often has been represented in history books: a narrative of battles and military prowess. The visual record of war—from the narrative on the Royal Standard of Ur, through those on vases, wall frescos, mosaics, and illuminated manuscripts, to the Bayeaux Tapestries in France—is overwhelmingly one of men fighting men. In many traditional histories, the dates of wars bracket the beginnings and ends of different eras.
As long as historians focus remained on fighting, the analysis of war centered on death and heroism, together with military hierarchies and strategies. Questions often raised in connection with war addressed issues of diplomatic, military, and political history. This interpretation of warfare is popularly reflected in the predominantly male figurative statues in memorials throughout North America and Europe. Women are only occasionally found, and those who are depicted are usually shown healing or mourning the dead.
Women were more easily omitted from analysis of the fighting front because, until World War II, when significant numbers of women participated as soldiers in the Soviet Unions Red Army, they were only rarely found on or near the battlefield. Occasionally mythological figures like the Amazon warriors of Ancient Greece or Tomoe Gozen, the Japanese female samurai, or exceptional real women—such as Joan of Arc, the 15th-century French heroine of the Hundred Years War against England—became part of war legend. In rare cases, lesser-known women donned mens clothing to participate in battle as males. Beyond that, only camp followers, and later nurses, would find places in this history.
What happens, though, when we change the focus? When we consider war as having both a home front and a fighting front? Then the discussion of war expands to include not only womens varied wartime activities, but also the experiences of families, children, and noncombatant males. This approach permits examination of nonheroic accounts of the male experience of war, differing attitudes toward male and female collaboration and resistance, and postwar social continuity and change.
Standard primary sources, such as government documents and newspapers, contain a wealth of material reflecting womens wartime experiences. These include accounts of civilian rationing and food supplies as well as statistics on birth, death, marriage, and divorce rates. Private sources, ranging from civilian letters to womens commentaries about life on the home front, in captivity, or in exile, also help us understand wartime in a broader framework. Taking into account class, cultural, gender, and racial aspects of wartime society expands our understanding of the reach of war.
This example of how the history of war changes when we broaden our focus can be applied to any aspect of world history. When we take this broader view, women emerge from the shadows and become active and important players in our analysis of the past.
Considering the place of women in world history does not simply expand our understanding of events, but reshapes that understanding. Therefore, it is important to think about women, and gender more broadly, as more than adding voices to the historical record. By investigating women in world history, we gain a new way to understand social relations at every level—the personal and the political, the local, the national, and even the international.
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Lawrence was largely self-taught. He painted this portrait, his first full-length, at the age of nineteen. It put him on the map when the sitter introduced him to her friend, Queen Charlotte, who then commissioned her own portrait. Lawrence turned this into a virtuoso performance. He became the leading British portrait painter, and President of the Royal Academy. His fluent, expressive style and powerful characterisation were admired throughout Europe.The 1st Viscountess Cremorne was a granddaughter of William Penn, founder of Philadelphia. The wild background landscape must refer to Ireland, her husband’s home, if not to the American wilderness.
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The effect of dietary nucleotides when fed to young chickens and turkeys, on performance, N and amino acid metabolisability
The aim of this study was to determine the effect of supplementary nucleotides (Ohly GmbH, Hamburg) on dietary N and amino acid availability when fed to young chickens and turkeys.
Year of Publication2009
Nucleotides are not considered to be essential nutrients because they can be synthesized endogenously. However, their synthesis is a metabolically costly process, suggesting that the use of dietary nucleotides when DNA and RNA turnover is rapid, e.g. in early nutrition or during an immune response, may be effective in improving performance and health of birds. It has been reported that supplementation of the diet with nucleotides improves gut development and functioning, and also the growth performance of chicks in the first week after hatch. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of supplementary nucleotides (Ohly GmbH, Hamburg) on dietary N and amino acid availability when fed to young chickens and turkeys. Four hundred day-old male birds (two-hundred Ross 308 chickens and two-hundred BUT 8 turkeys) were assigned to eighty metabolism cages (five birds each species per cage). The birds were fed one of five mash wheat-soybean meal based diets; The control diet was based on NRC (1994) recommendations for chickens and turkeys respectively, to which was supplemented 0, 0.15, 0.30, 0.60 or 1.20 g of nucleotides/kg feed from 0 to 21 days of age. The diets were randomised across all cages in a randomised block design, with block representing tier height. Total excreta output was collected and feed intake determined during the last 48 hours of the study. Feed and excreta samples were analysed for N and amino acid content. Growth and intake were also determined over the whole 21 day period.
This item is categorised as follows
- Subject Collection > Livestock & dairy > Animal health & welfare
- Subject Collection > Livestock & dairy > Poultry & egg production
Additional keywords/tagsgrowthamino acidschickensnucleotidesturkeys
Supporting the development of the national rural economy.Website
This is a brief summary of an item in the OpenFields Library. This free online library contains items of interest to practitioners and researchers in the agricultural and landbased industries.
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| 0.941373 | 506 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study.
"We hypothesize that candesartan, or other members of the ARB group, may not only slow progression of Alzheimer's but also prevent or delay its development."
|Subscribe to the Alzheimer's Reading Room|
In laboratory neuronal cultures, an FDA-approved drug used to treat high blood pressure reduced cell damage often linked to Alzheimer's disease, say researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) and the National Institutes of Health.
What is Atacand?
Atacand (Candesartan) belongs to a class of drugs called angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs). It works by relaxing blood vessels so blood can flow more easily. Candesartan keeps blood vessels from narrowing, which lowers blood pressure and improves blood flow.
Atacand is used to treat high blood pressure (hypertension).
Resarechers say their work, published online in the journal Alzheimer's Research and Therapy, provides information supporting the potential effect of the drug candesartan -- as well as other Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) for the early treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
"Our findings make sense in many ways." Hypertension reduces blood flow throughout the body and brain and is a risk factor of Alzheimer's disease. Previous epidemiological studies found that Alzheimer's progression is delayed in hypertensive patients treated with ARBs," says senior author Juan M. Saavedra, MD, from GUMC's Department of Pharmacology and Physiology.Using neuronal cultures, the researchers explored the action of candesartan on the neurotoxic effects of exposure to excessive glutamate, a demonstrated injury factor in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
The scientists found that candesartan prevented glutamate-induced neuronal death. They conducted in-depth gene analyses of the laboratory results, demonstrating that candesartan prevented neuronal inflammation and many other pathological processes, including alterations in amyloid metabolism, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.
"The correlations were impressive -- the expression of 471 genes that were altered by excess glutamate in our cultures were also altered in brain autopsy samples from patients who suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Candesartan normalized expression of these genes in our cultures," Elkahloun says."We hypothesize that candesartan, or other members of the ARB group, may not only slow progression of Alzheimer's but also prevent or delay its development," Saavedra says.
Custom Search - Alzheimer Disease Stages
The researchers say this work has immediate translational value, supporting testing candesartan, or other ARBs, in controlled clinical studies on patients at early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Candesartan prevented glutamate upregulation or downregulation of several hundred genes in cultures. Ingenuity pathway analysis and gene set enrichment analysis revealed that inflammation, cardiovascular disease and diabetes signal transduction pathways and amyloid β metabolism were major components of the neuronal response to glutamate excitotoxicity.
Further analysis showed associations of glutamate-induced changes in the expression of several hundred genes, normalized by candesartan, with similar alterations observed in hippocampus from Alzheimer’s disease patients. Gene analysis of neurons and cerebrovascular endothelial cells obtained by laser capture microdissection revealed that genes up- and downregulated by glutamate were preferentially expressed in endothelial cells and neurons, respectively.
Data may be interpreted as evidence of direct candesartan neuroprotection beyond its effects on blood pressure, revealing common and novel disease mechanisms that may underlie the in vitro gene alterations reported here and glutamate-induced cell injury in Alzheimer’s disease.
Observations provide novel evidence for candesartan neuroprotection through early molecular mechanisms of injury in Alzheimer’s disease, supporting testing this compound in controlled clinical studies in the early stages of the illness.
An integrative genome-wide transcriptome reveals that candesartan is neuroprotective and a candidate therapeutic for Alzheimer’s disease
The Alzheimer's Reading Room contains more than 5,000 articles and has been published daily since July, 2009.
You are reading original content the Alzheimer's Reading Room
The work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health including the National Human Genome Research Institute (MD 20892) and the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 002762-16). The authors report having no personal financial interests related to the study.
About Georgetown University Medical Center
Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health).
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What is Infertility?
Infertility is a disease of the reproductive system. One third (30%) of infertility can be attributed to male factors, and about one third (30%) can be attributed to female factors. In about 20% of cases infertility is unexplained, and the remaining 10% of infertility is caused by a combination of problems in both partners.Frequently Asked Questions About Infertility Find the answers to the most frequently asked questions about infertility diagnosis and treatment. How Do I Know if I Have an Infertility Problem If you are trying to have a baby and it is not happening as quickly as you expected, you may wonder if you have an infertility issue. This section is designed to determine if you should see an infertility specialist. Infertility Diagnosis Infertility is defined as the inability to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term after 12 months of trying to conceive. If you are over the age of 35, the time of trying to conceive is reduced to 6 months. It is important to see a specialist, or a Reproductive Endocrinologist, or in some cases your OB/Gyn or urologist for a complete fertility work-up and diagnosis. Do You Need to See a Specialist? According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, you should seek the care of a specialist if you are unable to achieve pregnancy after 12 months of unprotected intercourse and the women is under the age of 35, six months if the women is more than 35 years of age. You should also seek the care of a specialist if you have had more than one miscarriage. Learn more here. Hidden No More: The Hidden Emotions of Infertility Infertility affects approximately 10% of the population. Since infertility strikes diverse groups-affecting people from all socioeconomic levels and cutting across all racial, ethnic and religious lines- chances are great that a friend, relative, neighbor or perhaps you are attempting to cope with the medical and emotional aspects of infertility. Fast Facts About Infertility Infertility is a disease that results in the abnormal functioning of the male or female reproductive system. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the World Health Organization (WHO) recognize infertility as a disease.
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Definitions for radius of action
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word radius of action
Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms
radius of action
The maximum distance a ship, aircraft, or vehicle can travel away from its base along a given course with normal combat load and return without refueling, allowing for all safety and operating factors.
The numerical value of radius of action in Chaldean Numerology is: 8
The numerical value of radius of action in Pythagorean Numerology is: 2
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"radius of action." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2016. Web. 1 Jul 2016. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/radius of action>.
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Ill. MATERIALS FOR REASONING
Degrees of Evidence
[Nouns] certainty; necessity [more]; certitude, surety, assurance; dead certainty, moral certainty; infallibleness; infallibility, reliability; indubitableness, inevitableness, unquestionableness.
gospel, scripture, church, pope, court of final appeal; res judicata, ultimatum positiveness; dogmatism, dogmatist, dogmatizer; doctrinaire, bigot, opinionist, Sir Oracle; ipse dixit.
fact; positive fact, matter of fact; fait accompli.
render certain; insure, ensure, assure; clinch, make sure; determine, decide, set at rest, "make assurance double sure" [Macbeth]; know (believe) [more].
dogmatize, lay down the law.
unqualified, absolute, positive, determinate, definite, clear, unequivocal, categorical, unmistakable, decisive, decided, ascertained.
inevitable, unavoidable, avoidless; ineluctable.
unerring, infallible; unchangeable [more]; to be depended on, trustworthy, reliable, bound.
unimpeachable, undeniable, unquestionable; indisputable, incontestable, incontrovertible, indubitable; irrefutable (proven) [more]; conclusive, without power of appeal.
indubious; without doubt, beyond a doubt, without a shade or shadow of doubt, without question, beyond question; past dispute; clear as day; beyond all question, beyond all dispute; undoubted, uncontested, unquestioned, undisputed; questionless, doubtless.
authoritative, authentic, official.
sure as fate, sure as death and taxes, sure as a gun.
evident, self-evident, axiomatic; clear, clear as day, clear as the sun at noonday.
[Adverbs] certainly; for certain, certes, sure, no doubt, doubtless, and no mistake, flagrante delicto, sure enough, to be sure, of course, as a matter of course , a coup sur, to a certainty; in truth (truly) [more]; at any rate, at all events; without fail; coute que coute, coute qu'il coute; whatever may happen, if the worst come to the worst; come what may, happen what may, come what will; sink or swim; rain or shine.
[Phrases] cela va sans dire; there is no question, not a shadow of doubt; the die is cast (necessity) [more]; " facts are stubborn things [Smollett].
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Essay Topic 1
What impact has ON FOOD AND COOKING had on the culinary world? How do you think chefs could use the book to improve their cooking methods?
Essay Topic 2
What makes Harold McGee such an authority on food? What is McGee's reputation in today's culinary circles?
Essay Topic 3
Choose one of the following and discuss any advancements in that area since the writing of the book.
1. Vitamin intake.
2. Food and mental heath.
3. Food and healthy society.
Essay Topic 4
What are the best way to preserve diary products? What are the health risks surrounding dairy products? How can people reduce the health risk of dairy products? How has the production, storing of milk changed since the book was written in 1984?
Essay Topic 5
What are the concerns about the chicken egg industry? How have governments tried to combat these concerns?
Essay Topic 6
Why have meat products been such an...
This section contains 507 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page)
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Publications for Teachers
We offer a selection of guides, finding aids, microfilm catalogs, and special archival publications useful to anyone, especially scholars, archivists, historians, and researchers, and educators interested in teaching with primary sources.
Titles, descriptions and ordering information are listed below.
Bill of Rights: Evolution of Personal Liberties (Curriculum Unit)
The Bill of Rights is designed for upper elementary through college-level classrooms. The boxed unit contains 46 facsimiles of documents, historical background for the documents, and 10 lesson plans that trace the history of the Bill of Rights and the evolution of liberties protected by the great charter. 1998.
Discovery Book About Federal Courts
What is a Federal court? How were Federal courts established? What kind of Federal courts are there? What is the purpose of a trial? These and many other questions about our court system are answered in this educational activity book for fifth- and sixth-grade students. Published to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Judiciary Act of 1789, Federal Courts contains a variety of exercises and activities based on records of actual court cases in the National Archives. 1989.
Our Mothers Before Us: Women and Democracy, 1789-1920 (Curriculum Unit)
Produced by the Center for Legislative Archives, Our Mothers Before Us traces the history of women’s organized petition campaigns from the First Congress in 1789 to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. 2000.
Teaching With Documents (Article Compilations)
The following four volumes feature 113 articles, most of which have appeared in Social Education, the journal of the National Council for the Social Studies. Each article supports a document from the National Archives, providing historical context and related teaching activities. Various dates.
Teaching With Documents (Curriculum Units)
These curriculum units are designed to help students of US history, government, and economics to understand the process by which history is written and to develop analytical skills. Each unit contains about 50 reproductions of documents, charts, photographs, letters, drawings, and posters and a detailed teacher's guide. The materials deal with key issues of the period, with governmental and political responses to these issues, and with public attitudes. Various dates.
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NASA Goddard Provides Environmental Testing for Hubble Components
Space is not a hospitable place, and when scientists and engineers design and build new components for the Hubble Space Telescope, that fact is always clearly in mind.
Hubble must endure harsh temperature swings of 215 F, micro-meteor impacts and exposure to solar radiation. On top of that, before a spacecraft like Hubble can operate in orbit, it has to survive the trip to get there. That’s where the environmental testing chambers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., come into play.
When astronauts travel to the telescope in 2009 on Servicing Mission 4, they will take with them 22,000 pounds of cargo, including Wide Field Camera 3 and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, Hubble’s new, high-powered scientific instruments.
Most of that cargo -- tools, supplies, instruments, and the like -- gets run through Goddard’s centrifuge, acoustics and thermal vacuum chambers to ensure it can endure the rigors of launch on the space shuttle and the harshness of space travel while orbiting more than 350 miles above Earth’s surface.
These chambers, only a sample of the dozens at Goddard, are housed in the center’s Environmental Test and Integration Facilities.
High-Capacity Centrifuge Facility
The centrifuge simulates the increased feeling of gravity’s pull during a launch. For astronauts, that’s normally a few minutes at two or three times the force of Earth’s gravity, measured in Gs. The equipment being carried in the shuttle’s cargo bay usually sees between 6 and 7 Gs because of vibration.
Goddard’s 120-foot-diameter centrifuge can accelerate a 2.5-ton payload up to 30 Gs, well beyond the force experienced in a launch. The most intense roller-coasters in the world top out at about 5 Gs, and then only for brief moments.
Technicians did not subject the new components going to Hubble on Servicing Mission 4 to the centrifuge’s full intensity, because they will never experience forces that great in their operational lifetimes.
Still, engineers run the tests a little beyond actual environment conditions. “We take the structural loading conditions that we expect to see during launch and then jack them up 25 percent,” says Mike Weiss, Hubble’s technical deputy program manager at Goddard.
Instruments should be able to handle actual conditions if they hold up to the increased, simulated experience. Two 1,250-horsepower motors help the centrifuge produce that experience.
Acoustic Test Chamber
It’s true that in space no one can hear you scream. Blastoff, on the other hand, can make quite a racket, which is why the Hubble engineers use the Acoustic Test Chamber.
In this 42-foot-tall chamber, technicians expose payloads to the noise of a launch. To do that, they rely on 6-foot-tall speakers.
The speakers (more accurately called horns) use an altering flow of gaseous nitrogen to produce a sound level as high as 150 decibels for two-minute tests. That’s about the level of sound heard standing next to a jet engine during takeoff.
The speakers are still audible -- at greatly reduced volume -- outside the chamber, even through the insulation of the massive metal doors.
Thermal Vacuum Chamber
Weiss calls the thermal vacuum “the granddaddy of them all.” More so than any of the other chambers, this chamber exposes the Hubble components (and other payloads) to conditions they will experience in space.
The chamber has massive mechanical vacuum pumps, which are essentially large versions of the vacuum cleaners people use at home. To augment those, the chamber uses cryopumps to ensure that the hard vacuum of space is simulated in the test chamber. The cryopumps use liquid nitrogen to condense remaining gases out of the chamber once the mechanical pumps have done their work.
The two types of pumps work together to eliminate all but the tiniest trace of air in the chamber, down to about a billionth of Earth’s normal atmospheric pressure.
To simulate the hot and cold extremes possible in Hubble’s neighborhood, 350 miles up, the thermal vacuum chamber can reach temperatures in a 600-degree range from 302 F all the way down to minus 310 F. This chamber is the perfect place to test Hubble’s thermal protection for that reason, though the chamber will not need to be pushed to its extremes for the trials.
Wide Field Camera 3, built at Goddard, has also spent considerable time in the chamber. This powerful new camera will replace Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, installed on the telescope during the first servicing mission in 1993.
Engineers tested the new camera in the vacuum chamber by sending commands identical to those it will receive in orbit. Temperature, vacuum and commands combine to make the camera behave exactly as it will once astronauts install it. The vacuum chamber tests have shown that the instrument will function properly.
Hubble may seem like a fragile telescope at first, and in a lot of ways it is. Its solar arrays, antennas and data-gathering instruments are delicate, but Hubble has a robust structure well suited for durability in low-Earth orbit and servicing by shuttle astronauts, Weiss says.
But even after completing their chamber run-throughs, the Hubble components will have one last layover in the Space Systems Development Facility at Goddard. This facility houses the world’s largest Class-10,000 clean room, a place where Hubble’s hardware will be tested and inspected one last time before launch.
> Read the other stories in the "Next Stop: Hubble" series
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
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Learn how immunizing a critical portion of a community protects most members of the community from the spread of many contagious diseases.
Streptococcus pneumoniae are bacteria frequently found in the upper respiratory tract of healthy children and adults. These bacteria, however, can also cause a range of infections—from relatively mild ear infections to fatal pneumonia, meningitis, and sepsis. Serious pneumococcal infections can occur throughout life, but children under 2 years old and the elderly are at highest risk.
Serious pneumococcal infections are a major global health problem. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 1.6 million people—including more than 800,000 children under 5 years old—die every year from pneumococcal infections. Nearly all these deaths occur in the world’s poorest countries. Pneumococcal meningitis is the most severe form of pneumococcal disease and one of the most fatal childhood illnesses. In developing countries, it kills or disables 40 to 70 percent of children who get it.
The primary causes of death from pneumococcus are pneumonia, in which fluid fills the lungs, hindering oxygen from reaching the bloodstream; meningitis, an infection of the fluid surrounding the spinal cord and brain; and sepsis, an overwhelming infection of the bloodstream by toxin-producing bacteria.
Pneumonia can be diagnosed in a number of different ways. A chest X-ray is the most specific way to diagnose pneumonia. Healthcare providers can also diagnose many cases by using a stethoscope and/or observing a child’s respiratory rate and breathing patterns.
Data from a recently published study suggest that the problem of pneumococcal disease will increase in the wake of increasing HIV infection. Data from a South African study show that children with HIV/AIDS are 20 to 40 times more likely to get pneumococcal disease than children without HIV/AIDS.
New, lifesaving pneumococcal vaccines are safe and highly effective in preventing pneumococcal disease. Since 2000, when U.S. infants began receiving routine vaccination against pneumococcal disease, the country has nearly eliminated childhood pneumococcal disease caused by vaccine serotypes. In addition, vaccination of infants has reduced the spread of pneumococcal bacteria so that adults have less contact with pneumococci and are thus indirectly protected from pneumococcal disease.
back to top
Last Updated January 31, 2014
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Renal Bone Disease
Calcium and phosphorus are minerals found in many foods and are important for your body's function. Your body works best when these minerals are in balance. Excess phosphorus is usually wasted by the kidney. But if you have kidney disease, phosphorus may build up in your blood. Excess phosphorus in the body tends to bind with calcium and gets deposited in blood vessels and other organs. Because most of the calcium is in the bones, this constant "robbing" of the calcium by phosphorus leads to lowered calcium levels in the blood. Kidney disease also leads to reduced vitamin D levels in the body. All these changes lead to a health problem called renal bone disease.
How renal bone disease can affect the body
If it is not controlled, your bones can become weaker over time. This can increase your risk of bone fractures. The spine, ribs, and bones in the hands and feet are often at greatest risk. If your bones weaken too much, walking or coughing can be all it takes to cause a fracture. Controlling the phosphorus level in your blood is the best way to protect your bones.
If renal bone disease progresses
The following problems may occur as the disease worsens:
Bone and joint pain
Deposits of calcium phosphate appear in organs, such as the heart, lungs, eyes, skin, and gums
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postulates first published in 1990 (Teachers for Our Nation's Schools)
and then revised in 1994 (Educational Renewal: Better Teachers, Better
Schools) imply about five dozen conditions necessary to robust teacher
education programs. They imply also specific responsibilities for both
individual institutions and agencies as well as necessary collaborations.
A twentieth postulate, which pertains to strengthening and sustaining
teachers, was added in September 2000. An "unpacking" or discussion
of the implications of Postulate Twenty is available here.
Below are the revised postulates published in Educational Renewal,
plus the newest one.
for the education of the nation's educators must be viewed by institutions
offering them as a major responsibility to society and be adequately supported
and promoted and vigorously advanced by the institution's top leadership.
for the education of educators must enjoy parity with other professional
education programs, full legitimacy and institutional commitment, and
rewards for faculty geared to the nature of the field.
for the education of educators must be autonomous and secure in their
borders, with clear organizational identity, constancy of budget and personnel,
and decision-making authority similar to that enjoyed by the major professional
exist a clearly identifiable group of academic and clinical faculty members
for whom teacher education is the top priority; the group must be responsible
and accountable for selecting diverse groups of students and monitoring
their progress, planning and maintaining the full scope and sequence of
the curriculum, continuously evaluating and improving programs, and facilitating
the entry of graduates into teaching careers.
group of academic and clinical faculty members described above must have
a comprehensive understanding of the aims of education and the role of
schools in our society and be fully committed to selecting and preparing
teachers to assume the full range of educational responsibilities required.
group of academic and clinical faculty members must seek out and select
for a predetermined number of student places in the program those candidates
who reveal an initial commitment to the moral, ethical, and enculturating
responsibilities to be assumed, and make clear to them that preparing
for these responsibilities is central to this program.
for the education of educators, whether elementary or secondary, must
carry the responsibility to ensure that all candidates progressing through
them possess or acquire the literacy and critical-thinking abilities associated
with the concept of an educated person.
for the education of educators must provide extensive opportunities for
future teachers to move beyond being students of organized knowledge to
become teachers who inquire into both knowledge and its teaching.
for the education of educators must be characterized by a socialization
process through which candidates transcend their self-oriented student
preoccupations to become more other-oriented in identifying with a culture
for the education of educators must be characterized in all respects by
the conditions for learning that future teachers are to establish in their
own schools and classrooms.
for the education of educators must be conducted in such a way that teachers
inquire into the nature of teaching and schooling and assume that they
will do so as a natural aspect of their careers.
for the education of educators must involve future teachers in the issues
and dilemmas that emerge out of the never-ending tension between the rights
and interests of individual parents and interest groups and the role of
schools in transcending parochialism and advancing community in a democratic
for the education of educators must be infused with understanding of and
commitment to the moral obligation of teachers to ensure equitable access
to and engagement in the best possible K-12 education for all children
for the education of educators must involve future teachers not only in
understanding schools as they are but in alternatives, the assumptions
underlying alternatives, and how to effect needed changes in school organization,
pupil grouping, curriculum, and more.
for the education of educators must assure for each candidate the availability
of a wide array of laboratory settings for simulation, observation, hands-on
experiences, and exemplary schools for internships and residencies; they
must admit no more students to their programs than can be assured these
for the education of educators must engage future teachers in the problems
and dilemmas arising out of the inevitable conflicts and incongruities
between what is perceived to work in practice and the research and theory
supporting other options.
for the education of educators must establish linkages with graduates
for purposes of both evaluating and revising these programs and easing
the critical early years of transition into teaching.
for the education of educators require a regulatory context with respect
to licensing, certifying, and accrediting that ensures at all times the
presence of the necessary conditions embraced by the seventeen preceding
for the education of educators must compete in an arena that rewards efforts
to continuously improve on the conditions embedded in all of the postulates
and tolerates no shortcuts intended to ensure a supply of teachers.
and organizations that prepare the nation's teachers, authorize their
right to teach, and employ them must fine-tune their individual and collaborative
roles to support and sustain lifelong teaching careers characterized by
professional growth, service, and satisfaction.
Goodlad, John I., Educational Renewal: Better Teachers, Better Schools
(San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994), pp. 72-93.
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Aging and Scoring White-tailed Deer (FBCEC)
This lesson is for older participants. They will view a short PowerPoint presentation on using teeth to field-age white-tailed deer and get hands-on practice. They will learn how to score deer antlers by scoring real antlers in the classroom.
Indoor or outdoor classroom
Fred Berry Conservation Education Center, Yellville, AR
Education Program Coordinator, 870-449-3484
1 -2 hours (Choosing to include only aging or scoring will shorten the duration of this lesson.)
Suggested Number of Participants:
Up to 30
- Determine the age of several white-tailed deer using their jawbones.
- Identify factors that contribute to a large set of antlers on a buck.
- Understand how to accurately score the antlers of white-tailed deer.
- Understand the history of deer population changes in Arkansas.
*See glossary for definations
- “AGFC Deer Season Summary” (current issue)
- “How To Age White-Tailed Deer” posters
- “Deer Aging” PowerPoint
- Measuring tape/rulers and/or string or narrow, flexible steel tapes
- Several sets of deer antlers
- Several sets of teeth and jaw bones (Replicas can be purchased from wildlife education vendors.)
- Antler scoring sheet
Biological data such as weight, age, antler size and lactation rates are routinely collected at deer check stations during hunting season. The most reliable method for field-aging deer is by examining the lower jaw teeth. Teeth wear at a characteristic rate. Antler measurements reflect a buck’s health as well its genetics and, to a much lesser degree, its age. Boone and Crockett scoring method (used in this lesson) is the most popular for scoring white-tailed deer and other North American big game. Pope and Young is the method most archers use.
- Ask the class about their own hunting or deer-watching experiences.
- Briefly summarize the history of white-tailed deer in the state including population decline and management practices that helped the species recover.
- Review the most current issue of AGFC’s “Arkansas Deer Season Summary” and discuss how and why deer data are collected.
- Show the “Aging Deer” PowerPoint presentation, and then cover the method of deer aging by lingual crests, buccal crests, dentine, enamel, infundibulum, molars and premolars.
- Give participants, in groups of two or three, sets of deer jaws to practice aging. When they think they know the age, they should explain their guess.
- Spend some time aging deer, and then move to scoring the antlers.
- Discuss the characteristics and growth of white-tailed deer antlers. Discuss the burr, spread and difference between nontypical and typical tines.
- Begin the scoring section by discussing what can be learned about a deer from its antlers. The buck’s health, nutrition and genetics will impact the size and shape of the rack. This will, in turn, influence breeding with does.
- Give participants a score sheet and go over the scoring procedure with them. Place antlers at their stations and let the participants score them. When they are finished, instruct them to compare results.
- Compare the teeth of a fawn with an adult white-tailed deer.
- Determine the age of a white-tailed deer by observing a jawbone.
- List the factors that impact the size and shape of a buck’s antlers.
- Explain the difference between horns and antlers.
- What factors caused the drastic decline of white-tailed deer in Arkansas around the turn of the century?
Antler – fast-growing bony structure shed each year from the head of an adult male deer or elk, female caribou and other cervid; frequently branched with multiple points
Buccal crest – the crest of a molar located next to the check
Burr – a rough protuberance on an antler
Dentine – soft, dark material beneath the surface enamel of deer teeth; visible dentine indicates an older deer whose teeth have worn
Enamel – a hard calcareous substance that caps the tooth
Infundibulum – the dark area that lies between the buccal and lingual crests of a deer tooth
Lingual crest – the crest of a molar next to the tongue
Molar – back tooth of deer used to chew food; can be used to estimate deer age by looking at visible amount of wear or by cross-sectioning and counting annual growth rings; adult deer have 24 molars
Nontypical tines – mismatched tines; abnormal points from an antler
Pedicles – the “button” formations in the early stages of deer antlers
Premolar – tooth found in front of the molar
Spread (antler) – the measurement between the inside of the main beams of a deer antler at the widest point; measured perpendicular to the centerline of the skull
Tine – the slender projecting part of an antler
Typical tine – point that projects from the top of the antler’s beam
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Section 8: Joint Repair
In PCC pavements, joints are provided to accommodate concrete volume changes due to temperature and moisture variations. In concrete pavement contraction design (CPCD), both transverse and longitudinal joints are used. Only longitudinal joints are used in continuously reinforced concrete pavement (CRCP) except for expansion joints at the bridge approaches and transverse construction joints. These joints relieve stresses in concrete, thereby preventing or minimizing the potential for uncontrolled cracks. The concrete movement at the joints could be substantial, and joint sealants are provided to seal and protect the joints from the infiltration of water and incompressible foreign materials.
Joints are one of the weakest areas in PCC pavement. There is a discontinuity in concrete at saw-cut joints and wheel load is not 100% transferred from one slab to the next, which results in higher wheel load stress. When incompressible materials get into the joints, expansion of concrete slabs due to high temperature will squeeze the incompressible materials and high localized stresses will develop in the concrete. Localized high concrete stresses can cause spalling in the joints. Also, if a good joint seal is not maintained, water can get into the joint and cause rust problems in dowel bars as shown in Figure 10-21.
Figure 10-21. Rusted dowel bar.
At the transverse joints in CPCD, dowel bars are used to improve load transfer efficiency (LTE). The higher the LTE the lower the wheel load stress and the better the pavement performance. For dowel bars to perform as they are intended, their alignment should be parallel to the direction of concrete movement, both horizontally and vertically. If dowel bars are misaligned, high stress concentration and cracking will result in concrete. Figure 10-22 illustrates a misaligned dowel bar.
Figure 10-22. Misaligned dowel bar.Anchor: #i1004205
Pavement Distresses that Require Joint Repairs
In CPCD, any cracking, breaking, or spalling of slab edges on either side of a transverse joints need to be repaired. The repair can be full depth repair (FDR) or partial depth repair (PDR), depending on the extent of the breaking or spalling. If the distress extends through the depth of the slab or hinders the ability of dowel bars to transfer load, FDR is required.
In CRCP, failures in transverse construction joints require joint repairs. Additional longitudinal steel is used at the transverse construction joints to accommodate large concrete stresses, which requires special attention for concrete consolidation under the longitudinal steel. If proper consolidation is not provided at the transverse joints, delamination and distress can result as shown in Figure 10-23. Any repair of the transverse construction joints requires FDR.
Figure 10-23. Construction joint failure.
As for the boundaries of joint repairs in CPCD, if the patch boundary falls within 6 ft. of an existing undoweled transverse joint that does not require repair, extend the patch to the transverse joint. If the boundary falls on an existing doweled transverse joint, and the other side of the joint does not require repair, extend the patch beyond the transverse joint by about 1 ft. to remove the existing dowels.Anchor: #i1004235
Load Transfer Devices
During the joint repair in CPCD, dowels need to be provided at transverse joints and tie bars at longitudinal joints. For CRCP joint repair, tie bars need to be provided as described in Section 2, “Full-Depth Repair.”
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| 0.893436 | 734 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Author: Mike McGrath
Publisher: In Easy Steps, 2007
Aimed at: The complete beginner
Pros: Deals with XML core technologies
Cons: No real explanation of what you might use XML for.
Reviewed by: David Conrad
This is a slim book on XML as a technology in its own right - which is an unusual approach and probably isn't very useful.
It starts off with a basic introduction to creating XML files with helpful discussions of tags and attributes. Then come chapters on creating DTD and XSD schemas - something that you are only likely to do if you think up a new use for XML. Most users of XML have the actual format in use forced upon them and if any validation is needed a schema is provided. So while creating schemas is logically the very next topic after creating XML files it isn't always the thing you most want to do next. What is worse is that schema creation is much more difficult than other topics and if you find this part of the book is stopping you getting to later chapters simply skip schema creation and come back to it when you have to do the job.
After this we have XML namespaces, XSL style sheets and XPath - all core XML technologies. If you want to find out how XML works without too much reference to what it is used for then this is a fairly painless way of doing it.
The remainder of the book covers SVG and scripting XML using the XML DOM and Ajax. I'm not at all sure why these have been included when other important topics such as the new XML document formats have been left out, but they are well explained and if you want to know about them, useful.
The main problem with this book is that XML isn't a technology that has much obvious usefulness in isolation - it is always used with some other technology. As a result you might well be left wondering what XML is for and how it can be used in your projects. In most cases the answer is that, unless you are a programmer, you are probably not going to invent a new use of XML and you certainly aren't going to implement one - so there isn't a lot of point in mastering it at this level.
If you are a programmer then you will probably find the pace just too slow and the depth just too shallow.
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| 0.958744 | 469 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Google has received permission to use its fully autonomous vehicles on the streets of California. Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation on Thursday that allows the driverless cars to operate on state roads. California follows Nevada and Florida in legalizing the autonomous vehicles.
The Mountain View, California based company is perhaps the most recognizable tech firm to be working on driverless vehicles, and their efforts to date have astounded researchers as Google’s vehicle continue to operate flawlessly in real world situations.
In signing the autonomous vehicle bill into law, Governor Brown proclaimed:
“Today, we’re looking at science fiction becoming tomorrow’s reality. This is the place where new ideas, risk, and imagination come together to really build the future,” he said.
While California is touting its “innovation first” approach, Google actually received a license to start driving the autonomous vehicles in Nevada months ago. Similar legislation is also on the table in Hawaii and Oklahoma.
Under the new California law, the Department of Motor Vehicles must draft specific regulations for the vehicles by 2015. While the vehicles can drive themselves, those regulations will require a licensed driver to stay behind the wheel as as sort of failsafe mechanism.
Autonomous vehicle supporters, in the meantime, continue to tout the automobile’s ability to increase highway capacity by two to three times through better controlled driving. Supporters believe the vehicles could ultimately save millions of people from traffic related deaths. That sentiment was echoed in a 2010 National Highway Traffic Safety study that predicted 81 percent of vehicle crashes would be avoided with self-driving vehicles.
Google’s driverless vehicles have been in two accidents to date, and neither of those accidents were blamed on Google’s autonomous driving technology. In fact, it was when human drivers took over driving responsibilities from Google systems and drove manually that they were involved in accidents.
Would you like to own a self driving vehicle?
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| 0.967408 | 390 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Chevruta is Aramaic for friendship and is used to refer to learning with a partner. Both the learning and the partner are called chevruta, as in “I have a chevruta every morning”, or “He has been my chevruta for 20 years.”
The Talmud declares, “Two scholars learning together sharpen one another” (Ta’anit 7a). It also advises that scholars who try to learn Torah alone will become stupid.
Whether it is because you can correct each other’s mistakes or that talking out ideas brings greater clarity and creativity, or because it saves one from spacing out and losing concentration so much, Judaism has always valued learning in pairs or groups. Non-Jewish educators have taken an interest in chevruta as a powerful educational tool for empowering students to tackle difficult topics themselves and help each other learn.
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| 0.958573 | 184 | 3.34375 | 3 |
|Central Eurasian Water Crisis: Caspian, Aral, and Dead Seas (UNU, 1998, 203 pages)|
|Part II: The Aral Sea|
|5. the Aral Sea and socio-economic development|
Preserving the cultural heritage of Central Asia
Why Kenesari saved Aristan
There is a story in a modern Kazakh novel by Iliyas Esenberlin (1969) about Sultan Kenesari, who lived in the first half of the nineteenth century (1802-1847) just before the completion of the Kazakh annexation to Russia in the 1860s. He tried to establish a Kazakh khanate independent of Russia. One day his followers captured an esteemed Kazakh folk-poet, Aristan, from the Atighay Kazakh clan (belonging to the Middle Horde). Aristan, however, was greedy for money and he received a great for deal helping the Russians to get a map of the Kazakh plains and to identify the location and movement of Kazakh tribes. Aristan had amassed considerable wealth by the time he was captured. When he was taken to Kenesari, he kissed Kenesari's boots and begged him not to kill him. Kenesari tried to hold back his anger and turned pale. He said:
The man who sells his nation is like an infected horse. In order to save other horses, there should not be any mercy for that infected horse. There is only one sentence - death! Although it sounds cruel, the sentence is just.
The followers of Kenesari remained silent. They did not react to Kenesari's decision. Aristan begged Kenesari to allow him to speak for the last time. When Kenesari agreed, Aristan sang a song:
O brother Kenesari, if you like me, I am your dear
Even if you hate me, I'm one of your Alash [Kazakh nation].
I'm the son of Atighay Qarauli,
Who gave your father six wives.
[Keneke, jaqsï körseng qarashïngmïn,
Jek körseng de özîngnîng alashïngmïn,
Atanga altï qatïn alïp bergen
Atïghay Qarauïlding balasïmïn.]
Hearing these lines, Kenesari forgave this greedy poet. Then Kenesari's followers immediately applauded him for his correct decision about Aristan. The reason Kenesari forgave the poet was not because Aristan reminded him that he was an old friend, or because the poet was his kinsman. Aristan was a poet who knew thousands of Kazakh folk tales, epics, and songs. Killing him was equivalent to destroying a rich source of Kazakh culture and identity. Therefore, Kenesari's followers did not react when he sentenced the poet to die, but applauded his decision to free him.
Though this story reminds us of the wisdom and justness of the leaders of the Kazakh as free and independent adventurers, it draws attention to the preservation of the cultural heritage of Central Asia while emphasizing group consciousness.
The difficult situation in Central Asia
Scientists and young researchers are now in a difficult position in Central Asia. If they speak a foreign language and are asked to act as an interpreter, they can earn as much money in one day as their monthly salary. If they can arrange a deal with a foreign business, they may well be tempted to quit academic work. What does this mean? It means that the accumulated scientific legacy will rapidly disappear. Young graduates will not seek a career in the academic world, and the future of Central Asia will not be based on the sound development of society. Once science and culture have disappeared, it will take a very long time to regenerate them.
As for the Aral Sea problem, the main concern is whether the partners in any international cooperative action in Central Asia can afford to establish an effective institution there. The political structure is not stable because the transitional economy is deteriorating. A more powerful and reliable group would be the researchers in each country's research institutes. Science needs a common logic and common values. We should take notice of the researchers' talent and ability, and, more important, foster exchanges with researchers in foreign countries who have the capability to deal with the environmental and other problems that they face.
Coordinating Central Asia research
Research in Central Asia is carried out by three groups: national academies of sciences, institutes of higher learning, and industrial research institutes and centres. The national academies of sciences of Central Asia are the most prestigious centres of scientific research, to the extent that almost all leaders of each country are full members of their academy. The national academy, though fully retaining its independence, cooperates with the government in formulating plans for scientific research and development. The academy is a state agency whose main functions are to organize scientific management and to supervise theoretical research in the natural and social sciences being conducted in all the country's research centres. also determines the main directions of this research and coordinates it countrywide.
Among the academy's activities are the training of research personnel, the strengthening of ties between science and education, and the introduction of the latest knowledge and discoveries into the curricula and research programmes of higher education institutions. The broad cornerstone of an academy's activities is to blend the development of fundamental and applied research and to strengthen relations between science and the needs of the economy.
It seems clear that we need a carefully developed comprehensive research project for the regeneration of the environment of Central Asia, which should have an international level of significance and be implemented in close cooperation with colleagues from abroad. And it is the national academies of sciences of each republic that possess sufficiently high and versatile scientific potential to produce such a project. Their academies have great experience in the study of natural resources, the environment, and ecology - suffice it to say that a score of academic institutes deals directly with the research problems of the environment and nature.
The establishment of an international research centre
Researchers from Kyoto University in Japan and the Kazakh National Academy of Sciences propose to establish an International Centre for Central Asian Ecology in Central Asia. Its first aim is to undertake research on such global environmental problems as desertification, climate aridization, and radioactive pollution. A second goal is to identify and adapt new technologies and new institutions to Central Asian countries. This International Centre will welcome talented scientists in various fields from abroad as well as supporting (both morally and financially) scientists from Central Asia. The International Centre project proposes to integrate the resources of various scientific specialties on an interdisciplinary basis in order to offer solutions to the major environmental problems of the contemporary world. To achieve this will require a concentration of scientific expertise at an international level, and soundly based cooperation between the academic and industrial sectors. I hope that the international community will agree to this idea and help Central Asia achieve sound development.
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| 0.94584 | 1,431 | 2.953125 | 3 |
1. The Sun is shrinking - should we worry?
The Sun loses about five and a half million metric tons of mass every second. Most of this is due to nuclear fusion changing mass into energy according to Einstein's famous equation E=mcsquared. In addition, a stream of charged particles, called the solar wind, is being blown out from the Sun's atmosphere.
But we needn't worry. Although it may sound like a lot of lost matter, the amount is insignificant compared to the mass of the Sun. Our star contains 99.8% of the mass of the whole Solar System, the remainder comprising the planets, dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, comets, Kuiper Belt objects and interplanetary gas and dust.
2. Although Mercury is the planet nearest the Sun, Venus is hotter than Mercury.
Clear nights on Earth tend to be colder than cloudy ones, because clouds act like a blanket to keep the heat in. Venus seems to have suffered from a runaway greenhouse effect and is covered in a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. It's ended up with an atmosphere so thick that the surface air pressure is 90 times that on Earth. The surface temperature is 460 °C - well above the temperature needed to melt lead.
3. The days on Earth are getting longer.
Evidence from fossil corals shows that 350 million years ago a day was about 23 hours long, and older fossils indicate even shorter days. Earth's rotation is slowing due to tidal interactions with the Moon and the Sun. But if you feel that there aren't enough hours in the day, I should mention that it takes a century to lengthen the day by 1.7 milliseconds. This adds up in geologic time, but isn't much help now for a busy person.
4. There are pieces of the asteroid Vesta on Earth.
Although it's not normally possible to say that a meteorite came from a particular asteroid, there is substantial evidence that a certain type of meteorite came from Vesta. These meteorites are thought to be some of the debris from the massive impact which created the Rheasilvia crater. The Dawn spacecraft took this picture of it. You might have some difficulty picking out the crater in the picture. It's 505 km (314 miles) across and covers most of the southern hemisphere, so the picture is almost all crater.
5. The biggest volcano in the Solar System dwarfs Everest.
Olympus Mons on Mars is nearly three times the height of Mount Everest at nearly 22 km (14 miles). You can see a picture taken from orbit with the size of Olympus Mons compared to the state of Arizona in the USA.
Olympus Mons is a shield volcano, the same type as Earth's largest volcano, Mauna Loa in Hawaii. Mauna Loa rises 17 km (10.6 miles) from its base on the sea floor and its weight bends the ocean's crust under it. However the lower gravity of Mars allows a volcano to grow much bigger than it could on Earth.
6. Jupiter is bigger than all the other planets put together.
If you had a container as big as Jupiter, you could fit the other seven planets inside it, plus all the moons, dwarf planets and asteroids in the Solar System. In fact, after stuffing all that into your container, there would still be space left over.
7. One of Saturn's moons has an atmosphere similar to Earth's.
Most moons with an atmosphere have a very tenuous one. Saturn's moon Titan is the exception. We tend to think of our own atmosphere in terms of the amount of oxygen (21%). However 78% of it is nitrogen. Titan's atmosphere is predominantly nitrogen, but also contains methane and other organic molecules. Its atmosphere is closer to Earth's atmosphere of long ago, before photosynthesizing organisms started to release quantities of oxygen into the atmosphere. Titan may well have the elements needed for life to begin.
8. Uranus orbits on its side.
Earth's axis is tilted about 23°, causing our familiar seasons. But the axis of Uranus is tilted 98°, which means it's orbiting on its side. Earth's polar regions get periods of continuous darkness or light around the times of the solstices. On Uranus the polar regions get 42 years of light alternating with 42 years of darkness. There are day and night cycles around the equator during the times of the spring and fall equinoxes.
9. Saturn isn't the only planet with rings.
All of the giant planets have rings, but Saturn's are the prettiest and most prominent. Uranian moons were discovered from Earth, but not by being seen. It was because of the way the light from a star dipped several times when it was occulted (hidden) by Uranus. There was also some occultation evidence for rings around Neptune and this was confirmed by the Voyager spacecraft. It was Voyager 1 that discovered Jupiter's faint dusty rings in 1979.
10. Neptune was discovered a little over a year ago.
Johann Galle found Neptune on September 24, 1846, but there wasn't a full Neptunian year until July 12, 2011.
My Pinterest board Amazing Solar System has images related to this article.
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| 0.955268 | 1,077 | 3.484375 | 3 |
How To Program the Roland TB-303
Part I - Entering The Pitches
OK, here's how to program patterns into the 303. First turn the MODE dial to PATTERN WRITE. This puts the 303 in a step-record mode. (You should only use PATTERN WRITE or TRACK WRITE modes during editing and creating new patterns. Remember to switch back to PATTERN PLAY or TRACK PLAY when you are finished editing.)
Select the PATTERN NUMBER where your pattern will be stored. For example, we will choose pattern location #1 which is the 'C' key (also labeled '1') to the right of the function button. You may choose any of the 16 locations. Your patterns will remain in these memory locations as long as there are working-batteries in the 303.
Lets clear out any information that may already be stored here. Hold down your PATTERN NUMBER button and PATTERN CLEAR simultaneously.
Now enter the Pitch-Mode by pressing the PITCH MODE button.
Now we can enter the notes of our pattern using the 13 pitch buttons. The buttons are laid-out like a one octave keyboard. You will be able to hear the pitches as they are entered. Enter each note for your pattern, one at a time. The note-lengths will be determined in Part II. Later you will see how to transpose notes up and down in Part III.
When you're done press the FUNCTION button to exit pitch mode.
Part II - Entering The Timing
Now we need to create the rhythmic element of our pattern by entering the lengths of each note, such as eighth-notes, quarter-notes, etc... To begin, push TIME MODE to enter the timing mode.
The timing info is entered using combinations of 16th notes, 16th holds, and 16th rests. These keys are also labeled TRANSPOSE DOWN, UP and ACCENT. So lets say we want to enter 2 quarter-notes and 4 eighth-notes, your entry should look like this:
Once you are in TIME MODE, the 303 is waiting for your input for the first position in the 16-note pattern. We want to designate that note as a quarter-note. To do this, hit the key (also labeled Transpose Down [TD]). Next hit the [o] (Transpose Up [TU]) key three times. This combo of one 16th-note followed by three 16th-holds creates a quarter note. The pitches you entered in Part I will only occur wherever you place a note. If you hit the [-] (Accent) key in place of the [o] key then you will have entered three rests and your first note will be a true sixteenth note. Becoming creative or being random with these three buttons is the key to finding the types of patterns that made the 303 and Acid-lines famous! Finish off this pattern by pressing the keys: TD, [o] TU, [o] TU, [o] TU, TD, [o] TU, TD, [o] TU, TD, [o] TU, TD, [o] TU. This completes our simple measure. Once you've entered all 16 notes of timing info you will automatically return to the FUNCTION MODE.
Part III - Entering Accents and Slides
Now we may want to enter slides, octave transpositions and accents. Hit PITCH MODE to return to the pitch entry mode.
We will scroll through to the pitch where we want to add any slides, accents or transpositions. Press WRITE/NEXT to scroll through the notes. Scroll through your pattern (counting in your head) until you know that the next time you hit the WRITE/NEXT key it will be for the particular note you are planning to edit.
For example, if we wanted to add an ACCENT and SLIDE to the 3rd note (the eighth-note in position 9) in our pattern from above: Press the WRITE/NEXT button two times, and then hold it down for the third time and simultaneously hit the ACCENT and SLIDE keys (their LEDs will light up) to apply them to the third note in our sequence. Do the same wherever you want to add slides, accents, transpose a note up or down.
When you are done with that, hit FUNCTION to leave the pitch mode.
Now you can hit RUN/STOP to hear your pattern. At anytime you can re-enter any of these modes to change the timing, pitches, or effects. Just remember to use the WRITE/NEXT button to scroll through your pitches+effects or your timing info.
GO TO THE TB-303 PAGE.
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| 0.912934 | 997 | 2.796875 | 3 |
It comes as a surprise to some people that the word Internet is always capitalized. Ditto for the abbreviation “Net.” Why is this?
The Internet is like a place. It is a large computer network that connects computers all over the world. In grammatical terms, it is treated as a proper noun. However, as Wikipedia points out, when we refer to the World Wide Web and the Internet, we want to capitalize that, but if we are referring to smaller internet channels, we don’t necessarily have to capitalize them.
By and large, when people write about the Internet, they are referring to the big picture, hence the need for caps. One way to make sure that you spell this right is to perform a spellcheck at the end of your e-mail, article, or manuscript.
It will pick that error up right away.
Sigrid Macdonald is the author of three books, including Be Your Own Editor http://tinyurl.com/7wnk5se and two erotic short stories, which she wrote under the pen name Tiffanie Good. Silver Publishing just released “The Pink Triangle,” a tale of friendship, lust, and betrayal. You can view her story here: http://tinyurl.com/6v65rgr
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en
| 0.95413 | 268 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Mummy dearest: Images tell child's history
DRAWING BY DEBORAH DERR McCLINTOCK
Q. In the hands of imaging experts, what is "mummography" designed to reveal? a) cancer in women? b) other illness? c) the "patient's" age? d) the patient's gender? e) his or her name?
A. All of the above except a, because unlike mammography, mummography is intended to unlock the secrets harbored by well-preserved ancient mummies, says Stanford Medicine magazine of the University's Medical School.
For instance, a CT scanner at the school was used recently on a 2000-year-old mummified Egyptian child. While early low-resolution scans seemed to indicate that the child, its head drooping forward, had died from a broken neck, better later scans suggest the neck is simply curved, "perhaps because the child's family had stood the mummy up in their home–a common practice among Egyptians of Roman times. After a while the head must have tilted down."
Another goal of the study (still in progress) is to decipher the child's name, written on a plate inside the wrappings. As one museum curator put it, "In a sense the researchers are bringing this particular mummy back to life, which is exactly what the ancient Egyptians wished for."
Q. For new Moms-to-be, what is it about "morning sickness" that isn't? –U. Turner
A. It isn't something that necessarily hits in the morning, and it isn't a sickness at all because healthy women experience the symptoms and bear healthy babies, say Cornell behavioral ecologist Paul W. Sherman and Samuel M. Flaxman in American Scientist. So it's a complete misnomer, prompting the medical community now to use NVP instead, for "nausea and vomiting of pregnancy."
NVP's likely function is to protect the fetus by causing Mom to expel any dangerous foods and to develop aversions to foods that might contain harmful chemicals, such as alcohol and caffeinated beverages. Plus there's likely protection against food-borne microorganisms and against phytochemicals (natural plant defenses, such as in spices).
Accordingly, some studies have indicated strongest aversions to meat, fish, poultry, vegetables, alcohol and caffeinated beverages, say Sherman and Flaxman; cravings run in the opposite direction, for fruits and fruit juices, sweets, chocolate, desserts and dairy–just naturally keeping the menu closer to baby's needs.
Q. Can you name all the colors of the rainbow? Know Roy G Biv? –R. Bratton
A. That's "Roy" as in Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue- Indigo-Violet of the mnemonic, where the shorter wavelength- higher frequency violet light gets slowed more in water and therefore refracted (bent) more than does red light, say Raymond L. Lee Jr and Alistair B. Fraser in The Rainbow Bridge: Rainbows in Art, Myth, and Science.
But water drops in the atmosphere can vary greatly in size, above 2.5 mm radius rarely, typically .5 mm, .1 for a drizzle. Only a shower with quite large drops can produce a bow with vivid colors, and indeed below a drop radius of about 1/3 mm red falls out of the bow. With small drops, the colors may overlap into a pallid or even white bow. With bigger and bigger drops, bow brightness increases, until at .25-1 mm radius the canonical rainbow colors finally appear: "If you like, you may find seven or more colors. We suspect that most readers will, like us, find at most only six distinct colors–red, orange, yellow, green, blue (or perhaps cyan), and violet–for the .3-mm radius drops. Bigger drops, and blue actually disappears," the authors say.
So Roy G Biv may become someone else instead!
Send Strange questions to brothers Bill and Rich at [email protected].
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Municipal Finance and Construction Element
How Clean Water Projects Are Prioritized For Funding
To decide which clean water projects get funded, a priority system was created. The system, which was first developed in 1982, is constantly evolving. Historically, the state's highest priority was to upgrade primary treatment plants to achieve secondary levels, thereby significantly reducing pollutant discharges. With the elimination of primary facilities in New Jersey, the primary discharge category has been deleted from the priority system-a major milestone that signals progress is being made under the state's financing programs. The state's highest priority wastewater needs now include combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and major pipe rehabilitation to stop discharges of raw sewage. These types of problems are frequently found in older urban areas, where pollution impacts streams and rivers near large population centers and where the cost to correct these problems is a serious concern. Priority is also placed on projects in coastal areas, where pollution impacts from outdated sewage treatment and conveyance systems can harm the shore environment and the tourism industry.
To prioritize wastewater projects under the Environmental Infrastructure Financing Program, the division uses a point system, which ranks projects based on the nature of the wastewater problem. In addition, projects discharging to surface waters receive points that reflect the existing uses of the waterway. These uses include drinking water supplies, boating, fishing, swimming, and water used for industrial or agricultural purposes. The point values reflect the relative priority of the water uses, with drinking water and recreational uses being the highest priorities. Points are also given to projects that would eliminate failing septic systems, a public health threat.
Finally, projects receive points that correlate with an area's existing water quality when compared with the Department's water quality standards. The more polluted an area is, the higher the ranking points it receives.
After a project's discharge, water use, and water quality points have been compiled, it is placed on a priority list in rank order. In the case of a tie, areas designated by the State Planning Commission receive highest priority and, if still tied, the higher priority is given to the project that serves the greater number of people.
Funding from the Environmental Infrastructure Financing Program is made available to projects in the order they appear on the list. While a project's rank is important, a lower ranked project may still be able to secure financing if it meets planning, design, and loan application dates, or, if sufficient monies are not available, it may be able to receive "pre-award approval" to start construction and receive loans for reimbursement of costs in a future year.
How Drinking Water Projects Are Prioritized For Funding
The drinking water priority system reflects Congress's intent that States must give maximum priority to
- projects needed for Safe Drinking Water Act compliance,
- projects that provide the greatest protection to public health, and
- projects which assist systems most in need on a per household basis. States must develop a priority list that reflects this intent and to fund projects in this order, to the maximum extent practicable.
The principal elements of the Priority System are: compliance and public health criteria, approved drinking water infrastructure plan, conformance with the New Jersey State Development and Redevelopment Plan, and affordability. In the case of a tie, projects are assigned points based on the permanent population of the water system area.
Priority points are based upon several different subject categories. However, to be eligible for ranking, a project scope must include the actual repair, rehabilitation, correction of a problem, or an improvement clearly related to compliance and public health criteria. Any points assigned from the remaining categories are added to the points received
in this category.
Due to the annual addition of new projects to the Project Priority List, or to periodic revisions to the Priority System, individual project rankings may change annually. Projects including multiple elements, are listed separately by the elements involved, with priority points being assigned for each element.
A prospective applicant must notify the Department of any changes to project scope or any other circumstance that may affect the calculation of priority points. The Department would then recalculate, if appropriate, the prospective applicant's ranking utilizing the new information submitted and revise the priority ranking accordingly.
Funding from the Environmental Infrastructure Financing Program is made available to projects in the order they appear on the priority list. While a project's rank is important, a lower ranked project may still be able to secure financing if it meets planning, design, and loan application dates. If sufficient monies are not available, it may be able to receive 'pre-award' approval to start construction and receive loans for reimbursement of costs in a future year.
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The bridge sits directly between two of California's major faults, the San Andreas Fault to the west of the bay, and the Hayward Fault to the east. Due to the constant threat of major earthquakes, designers on the new bridge engineered several components to minimize damage from seismic activity.
Here's what you need to know:
1. Crumple zones absorb kinetic energy
Crumple zone technology has been used for years in automotive manufacturing, utilizing “crush space” to absorb kinetic energy during a collision and minimize impact on the passengers.
Crumple zones on the new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge are designed to absorb energy during earthquakes through controlled deformations. Engineers say the new bridge won’t collapse, even in a powerful quake.
“The safest place [to be during a quake] would be on top of the tower of this bridge,” says Marwan Nader, a Bay Bridge architect who was a grad student at UC Berkeley during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, in which a 50-foot section of the original bridge collapsed. “It would be one heck of a joyride, but it would be safe.”
2. Shear link beams increase flexibility
Inside the 525-foot tower on the self-anchored suspension bridge, the shear link beams can absorb energy by bending and deforming during an earthquake.
“The shear link beam is the heart and soul of how we made the single tower work,” Nader explains. “Those link beams actually reduce the forces that go onto the bridge.”
The shear link beams also allow the tower’s four legs to move independently, which releases even more energy. This idea of maximizing flexibility is crucial to minimizing an earthquake’s impact on the new bridge.
“The stiffer the structure, the more rigid it is, the more force the earthquake applies on it,” Nader says. “The more flexible the structure is, the less forces go into it.”
3. Hinge-pipe beams move horizontally to prevent structural damage
“[The hinge-pipe beam] is basically a big steel dowel,” explains Caltrans employee Andrew Gordon. “This is one of those sacrificial elements where we want this to be damaged in order to protect the bridge deck itself.”
Twenty of these hinge-pipe beams are strategically placed in the heart of the bridge, high above the Bay, but still below traffic. In the event of an earthquake, the hinge pipe beams move horizontally, “like an accordion,” Gordon says. This movement displaces energy from the quake that would otherwise cause structural damage. The hinge-pipe beams are also designed to be easily replaceable when damaged.
“That’s where the seismic energy is going to be concentrated, so by designing sections of the bridge to fail, that will protect the more structural elements,” says Gordon. “After an earthquake, workers can go up, inspect them, determine if there is any damage. If there is, it can be repaired or cut out and replaced.”
4. Battered piles allow lateral movement
Battered piles are new to bridges but have been used for years to stabilize oil rigs that sit in the middle of the ocean. One hundred and sixty of them stretch down from the base of the new bridge deep into the Bay, standing at an angle to allow more lateral movement and energy displacement during a quake. At 8.5 feet in diameter and 300 feet long, the battered piles give the new Bay Bridge even more stability during an earthquake.
To learn even more about preventative earthquake engineering on the new Bay Bridge, watch "TechKnow," Sunday 7:30ET/4:30PT.
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|Yellowstone Microbe Cleans Up Wastewater|
By Kate Ruder
Posted: October 28, 2004
The microbe itself would not be used in the cleanup. Instead, scientists extract a protein from the microbe and add it directly to industrial wastewater. The protein breaks down hydrogen peroxide, which is often used to bleach clothes and paper before they’re dyed or to sterilize paper food packages such as juice boxes.
The Yellowstone protein is impressive. It works 80,000 times longer than what’s currently used to clean up hydrogen peroxide, although the researchers point out that it has only been tested in the laboratory and not on a large-scale. They are in talks with commercial manufacturers about scaling up the process, but it’s unclear when this might happen.
“It’s amazingly better than what’s out there now,” says Vicki Thompson of Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho Falls, who led the research.
She and her colleagues accidentally stumbled across the microbe in samples they had collected from a Yellowstone hot spring on an expedition to find microbes that would help in processing sugar beats. Instead of sugar beat solutions, they found a microbe that breaks down hydrogen peroxide at high temperature and pH. The microbe is called Thermus brockianus.
It wasn’t immediately clear what application it could have until they heard about hydrogen peroxide problems in the textile industry.
A technology industry magazine called R&D Magazine recently featured the discovery as one of the 100 most significant achievements of the year. Thompson says she suspects the editors liked the fact that the research involved microbes that live in extreme conditions in Yellowstone.
“Because of our proximity to the park, Yellowstone is a natural place for us to go look for things,” says Thomson.
She and her colleagues found the microbe in a hot spring just north of Old Faithful that goes by the name LNN2 (for Lower geyser basin No Name 2).
To extract the protein, researchers grow large amounts of the microbe and then break them apart to retrieve the protein. They purify the protein and then add it directly to the wastewater in a liquid form.
They can also attach the protein to small beads, which can be filtered out of the wastewater so that the protein can be used over and over again.
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|OFFICE OF MEDICAL HISTORY AMEDD REGIMENT AMEDD MUSEUM|
HISTORY OF THE OFFICE OF MEDICAL HISTORY
Invasion of Southern France
Preparations for the Invasion
After the close of the Sicily Campaign in August 1943, Seventh Army was stripped of its combat units to provide troops for operations in Italy. Seventh Army retained some occupation duties, however, and continued to maintain a skeletonized headquarters in Palermo, pending high-level decisions as to its ultimate employment.
The merits of an amphibious operation in the Toulon-Marseille area of southern France had been discussed at Quebec in August 1943. Under the code name ANVIL, the proposal was approved by Marshal Joseph Stalin at Tehran before its formal adoption at the second Cairo conference in December 1943. By this date a tentative outline plan, envisioning a 2- or 3-division assault with a build-up to ten divisions, had been prepared.1
General Patton was already scheduled for a command in the forthcoming invasion of France and would leave Seventh Army in January. His successor was to be General Clark, who would, however, retain command of the Fifth Army for the time being, confining his new role to that of participation by a deputy in the planning activities. The Seventh Army planning staff, designated for purposes of security as Force 163, opened in Algiers on 12 January 1944 and eventually became a joint and combined staff.
For the next two months the Seventh Army planning staff, on which Brig. Gen. Benjamin F. Caffey, Jr., represented Clark, worked in a vacuum. No troops had been actually designated, no staging areas set aside; even the size of the force to be used was not known. The only available forces were those fighting in Italy, and no one could say when it would be possible to withdraw any of them. After the initial failure of the Anzio Campaign to develop as intended and the setback before Cassino, General Alexander was convinced the Germans would stand south of Rome and insisted that every man of his command would be needed for the spring offensive in Italy. With VI Corps bogged down in the mud of Anzio beachhead and the Liri Valley still secure against every Allied thrust, Clark was relieved on 15 February of any further responsibility of ANVIL.
On 4 March 1944 Maj. Gen. Alexander M. Patch of Guadalcanal fame had
1 Sources relied upon for the origin and military planning of ANVIL are: (1) Churchill, Closingthe Ring; (2) Biennial Rpt, CofS, 1944-45; (3) Rpt of Opns, Seventh U.S. Army; (4) Truscott, Command Missions; (5) Robert Ross Smith, The Riviera to the Rhine, a forthcoming volume in the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II.
become commander of the Seventh Army. The army's objective remained the same--to invade southern France in force simultaneously with, or immediately following, the Normandy landings, and exploit up the Rhône Valley, but the target date for both operations had been postponed to June. In mid-April the ANVIL D-day was again put off, this time to late July, because of the requirements of the May offensive in Italy and the needs of OVERLORD for landing craft. All first priorities went elsewhere, and the ANVIL planners were kept busy revising in terms of new unavailabilities. Rome had fallen and the Allied forces had secured the Normandy beaches before it was certain that ANVIL would even be launched.
Planning and Mounting the Invasion
On 15 June the commander of Allied Armies in Italy, General Alexander, was directed to release the U.S. VI Corps, consisting of the 3d, 36th, and 45th Divisions; two French divisions; and various auxiliary troops to Seventh Army. Alexander and General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, still opposed the southern France operation, urging most strongly that all troops in Italy be retained there for a knockout blow against the disorganized and retreating enemy, and then turned east through the Ljubljana Gap toward Hungary. In this proposal they were backed by Prime Minister Churchill. On the other hand, it was probably General Eisenhower's insistence that Marseille and other French Mediterranean ports were essential to supply his own forces, and that neither men nor matériel were available for two major fronts on the Continent, which tipped the scale in favor of ANVIL.2 On 2 July General Wilson was directed to launch ANVIL on 15 August. Two days later Seventh Army headquarters moved from Algiers to Naples, where headquarters of VI Corps and of the French forces, known as Army B, were also established.
Broadly, the plan called for a 3 division daylight assault by VI Corps, under command of General Truscott, over selected beaches between Cap Cavalaire and Agay. The night before the main attack the 1st Special Service Force was to seize the offshore islands of Port Cros and Levant, a French commando group was to go ashore at Cap Nègre on the left flank to block the coastal road, and a French naval assault group was to carry out a similar mission at Pointe des Trayas on the right flank. At the same time, an airborne task force was to be dropped in the vicinity of Le Muy, about ten miles behind the landing beaches, to cut off enemy reinforcements and neutralize gun positions. Two French corps, which made up Army B under General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny, were to begin landing over the secured beaches on D plus 1, and to swing west to invest Toulon and Marseille, while VI Corps advanced up the Rhône Valley toward Lyon and Vichy. The French forces were to be made up in part of Moroccan and Algerian troops to be withdrawn, like VI Corps, from Italy. Army B also included the 9th Colonial Division, which had captured the island of Elba late in June against stubborn German resistance.
2 Eisenhower, Crusade In Europe, pp. 281-84.
A Coastal Base Section, organized 7 July, was to follow the combat troops at the earliest practicable date. Its commander, Maj. Gen. A. R. Wilson, was named on 26 June, and base section personnel were attached to the planning group near the end of July.
The training of the assault divisions began in June, as soon as possible after their assignment. The 36th and 45th Divisions trained at Salerno, where the Invasion Training Center, now attached to Seventh Army, had been established in the spring. The 3d Division trained at Pozzuoli, on the northwest rim of the Gulf of Naples; and the airborne task force established a glider and parachute school near Rome. Final dress rehearsals were completed on the night of 7-8 August, after which loading of the transports began at various ports in Italy, Sicily, North Africa and Corsica.
DRAGOON, as ANVIL had been rechristened on 1 August, was under way.
Medical Plans and Organization
By the end of 1943 the Seventh Army medical section had been reduced to a total of 10 officers and 18 enlisted men.
At that time the surgeon, Colonel Daniel Franklin, 3 officers, and 5 enlisted men moved to Algiers to assume the medical planning function for Force 163. At the same time the medical supply officer, the dental officer, and 6 enlisted men joined other Seventh Army supply units in Oran to work out ANVIL supply plans with SOS NATOUSA and the base sections. The remainder of the medical personnel continued at Palermo until May. The entire medical section was not reunited until Seventh Army headquarters moved to Naples early in July.3
The Seventh Army medical organization was similar to that of the Fifth Army, with staff sections for administration, operations, and personnel. Hospitalization, evacuation, and medical supply came under operations. There was a medical inspector, with a venereal disease control officer under him. On the professional side were a dental surgeon, veterinarian, and director of nurses, with consultants in surgery, neuropsychiatry, and chemical warfare.
On 18 June Colonel Rudolph, who had been surgeon of the declining Eastern Base Section, became Seventh Army surgeon. Key officers in the medical section as D-day for DRAGOON approached were: Colonel Robinson, executive officer; Lt. Col. (later Col.) Joseph Rich, operations; Lt. Col. (later Col.) Norman F. Peatfield, hospitalization; Lt. Col. (later Col.) Robert Goldson, evacuation; Colonel Alexander, personnel; Maj. (later Lt. Col.) Guy H. Gowen, medical inspector; Maj. (later Lt. Col.) Augustus J. Guenther, commander of the 7th Medical Depot Company, supply; and Maj. (later Lt. Col.) Charles Raulerson, administrative officer. In the professional positions were Col. Frank B. Berry, surgical consultant; Col. Alexander, who doubled as chemical warfare consultant; Lt. Col. (later Col.) Daniel S. Stevenson, veterinarian; Lt. Col. (later Col.) Webb B. Gurley, dental surgeon; Capt. (later Maj.) Alfred O. Ludwig, neuropsychiatric consultant; and Maj. Edith F. Frew, director of nurses. Colonel Berry had been chief of the surgical service, 9th Evacuation Hospital, and Major Frew had been that units chief nurse. Captain Ludwig had been commander of the Fifth Army Neuropsychiatric Center. Colonel Stevenson had been commanding officer of the 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital, while Colonel Gurley came to Seventh Army from the 21st General Hospital.
Like other aspects of the planning for ANVIL-DRAGOON, the medical plans were incomplete and subject to constant change until the assignment of units and final approval of the operation. The basic work, within the limitations imposed by insufficient data, was shared at the theater level by the NATOUSA and the communications zone staffs, and at the corps and division levels was directed by Colonel Bauchspies, the VI Corps surgeon. The point of stabilization coincided with the arrival of Colonel Rudolph, who directed the final revision of the medical plans in terms of actual mis-
3 Principal sources for this section are: (1) Annual Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 1944; (2) After Action Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 15 Aug-31 Oct 44, ans. 277 and 278; (3) Rpt of Naval Comdr, Western Task Force, Invasion of Southern France, Navy: A16-3 (01568) 15 Nov 44. (4) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, MTOUSA, 1944; (5) Clift, Field Opns; (6) Davidson, Medical Supply in MTOUSA; (7) Unit rpts of the individual med units mentioned in the text.
sion, combat forces involved, and target date.
Medical Plans for the Assault- The pattern followed in earlier amphibious operations in the Mediterranean was again the basic guide. The Navy was to be responsible for all medical care on shipboard and to the high-water mark on the landing beaches. The Army was responsible for medical care ashore. As in the Sicilian, Salerno, and Anzio landings, each combat division in the assault was to be accompanied by its own medical detachments and its organic medical battalion. In addition, each regimental combat team was to be supported in the landing phase by a collecting company and clearing platoon of a separate medical battalion. This was an improvement over the technique previously employed in the theater, whereby one of the collecting companies of each assault medical battalion had been forced to rely upon an improvised clearing platoon made up of station section personnel.4 The airborne task force was to be supported by a collecting company with clearing ele-
4 See pp. 149, 224, above
ments attached. Each assault division was to have the services of two field hospital platoons, with enlisted men drawn from the fixed hospitals substituted for the nurses who were not to arrive until D plus 4. The field hospital platoons were to function in immediate proximity to the division clearing stations.
Twenty-eight surgical and other specialist teams of the 2d Auxiliary Surgical Group were to be attached to the field hospitals and other assault units.5 Additional teams for the troop transports were made up of personnel of the 750-bed evacuation hospitals and the general hospitals scheduled to come into France at later dates. Dispensary teams of one officer and two enlisted men each, similarly drawn from personnel of hospitals already closed for future movement, were to serve aboard the cargo vessels in the assault convoy. When the ships withdrew from the beach area, these teams were to report to the nearest evacuation hospital for reassignment until their own units arrived. The forward distribution section of a blood transfusion unit was to be attached to one of the field hospitals, but was to serve the entire corps.
During the landing phase the three separate medical battalions were to be attached to the beach groups in the three areas into which the invasion coast was divided. Their commanding officers were designated as beach group surgeons, each being responsible for the setting up and operation of medical installations in his area and for co-ordination with the medical sections of the Navy beach battalions. The beach control group surgeon was to take over all Army responsibility for medical care and evacuation on the beachhead when the area was secure.
The 3-plus French divisions scheduled to go ashore on D plus 1 were to be similarly accompanied by their own medical units, though the support available was less extensive than that assigned to the assault troops of VI Corps. The initial French medical complement included a medical battalion, a field hospital, and a blood transfusion unit.
Hospitalization- In addition to the beds available in the clearing stations and field hospital platoons, each of the three assault divisions was to be accompanied by a 400-bed evacuation hospital, to be established between D plus 1 and D plus 4, or as soon as the situation permitted. Two comparable evacuation hospitals, U.S. equipped but French staffed, were to accompany the landing elements of Army B.
By D plus 10, when the French forces were to have reached 7 divisions, the medical support for Army B was to be augmented by 2 field hospitals, 2 400-bed evacuation hospitals, and 2 750-bed evacuations. The 3 divisions of VI Corps
5 Annual and Special Rpts, 2d Aux Surg Gp, 1944. The D-day troop list in Report of Operations, Seventh Army, III, 908, and Annual Report, Medical Section, MTOUSA, 1944, are probably incorrect in placing the number at 30 teams. Annual Report, Surgeon, Seventh Army, 15 August-31 October 1944, Annex 277, both identify only the 26 teams that were attached to the field hospitals in the landings, leaving 2 surgical teams--or possibly 4--unaccounted for. One of these, together with 3 medical officers of the 43d General Hospital, accompanied the 1st Special Service Force in its H minus 8 attack on the islands of Levant and Port Cros. Another may have accompanied the airborne task force, although no conclusive evidence to that effect has been found. It is the recollection of Dr. Berry, then surgical consultant to Seventh Army, that 2 teams accompanied the 95th Evacuation Hospital, but these were probably among the 10 already counted as being assigned to the ALPHA Attack Force. (See recorded interv, Dr. Berry, 4 Nov 58. commenting on preliminary draft of this volume.)
were to be backed up by 3 750-bed evacuation hospitals, with a convalescent hospital scheduled for somewhat later arrival.
To supplement these mobile units, plans also called for the establishment of 14,250 fixed beds in southern France as rapidly as the military situation permitted. Three 2,000-bed general hospitals, three 1,500-bed generals, seven 500-bed station hospitals, and a 250-bed station hospital were assigned to the Coastal Base Section, organized in Naples 6 July by SOS NATOUSA, with Colonel Bishop as surgeon. Bishop had been executive officer to the groups working on typhus control in Naples, and more recently surgeon of the Mediterranean Base Section. The assigned hospitals were to be withdrawn from Africa, Italy, and Corsica.
Evacuation- Evacuation from the beaches in the early hours of the assault was to be by landing craft and water ambulance to the transports. During the entire assault phase of the operation, seaward evacuation was a Navy responsibility, the Army being responsible only for the transportation of casualties to the Navy evacuation stations.
Two hospital ships were to arrive in the landing area on D plus 1, after which one ship was to arrive at dawn each day until D plus 10. Hospital ships were then to be sent forward on call of the Seventh Army surgeon. Twelve such vessels were to be made available for this purpose, operating from Corsica. All casualties were to be evacuated to Naples until D plus 7. Thereafter U.S. and British casualties were to be evacuated to Naples and French casualties to Oran. Air evacuation was scheduled to begin on D plus 7. For evacuation from the combat zone to rear areas in France, motor ambulances were to be used until rail lines were repaired for the operation of hospital trains.
Medical Supply- The ANVIL-DRAGOON plans provided for two levels of medical supplies and equipment. The assault forces were to carry with them supplies adequate for the landings and the early expansion from the beachhead. A further build-up was to be available to meet the needs of Seventh Army and the attached French Army B until a normal supply system could be established by the base section personnel scheduled to follow the combat troops after the ports of Toulon and Marseille had been secured. It was not possible to determine either level until the size of the operation was known, yet if the supplies were to be delivered on time, it was essential that orders be placed months in advance. It was therefore necessary to requisition initially through SOS NATOUSA solely on the basis of the 3-division assault and 7-division follow-up called for in the outline plan.
Calculations were based on supply from within the theater for 60 days, after which there would be direct deliveries to southern France from the States. Each subtask force in the landings was to carry medical supplies for 7 days maintenance, which were to be collected at dumps and issued by the beach groups. The assault troops were to carry individual supplies of such items as atabrine and motion-sickness pills, while the medical personnel going ashore were to carry litters, blankets, and splints, as well as necessary drugs in sealed, waterproof containers. The bulk of the supplies for the
landing forces, however, was to be in the form of the newly devised beach maintenance units, each containing a balanced stock of medical items sufficient to maintain 5,000 troops for 30 days. These were to be supplemented by such additional critical items as blood plasma, morphine syrettes, plaster of paris, sulfaguanadine, paregoric, oxygen, and dressings. Medical supplies were to be packed in clearly marked boxes, not exceeding 70 pounds in weight. Supplies for the French forces were to be identically packed, but marked with the tricolor.
Advance detachments of the Army medical depot company were to accompany the assault, functioning as elements of the beach groups for collection and distribution of medical supplies. All medical units in the assault, in addition to making up any equipment shortages, were authorized to draw supplies 20 percent in excess of their normal allowances.
Supplies for subsequent phases of the campaign were to be delivered as operational medical maintenance units, a revised and modified version of the old medical maintenance unit. Like the MMU relied upon in earlier campaigns, it was designed to provide balanced medical supplies to meet the needs of 10,000 men for 30 days.
Assignment and Training- The first assignment of medical personnel to the southern France operation, other than in a purely planning capacity, was the attachment of three officers and three enlisted men from the Seventh Army medical section to the beach control group formed at Mostaganem, Algeria, early in May. The group included representatives of the various supply services concerned with the coming campaign. The medical complement was to direct the unloading of hospitals over the beaches, evacuate casualties, and control the flow of medical supplies from ship to dump until Seventh Army and the Coastal Base Section were able to take over their own respective supply functions. The 7th Medical Depot Company was later assigned to Seventh Army, and the 1st Advance Section was attached to the beach control group.
Assignment of medical personnel to the task forces necessarily had to be delayed until the combat elements themselves were assigned and the invasion plan completed. As finally approved, plans called for four major task forces, one to be airborne and three to strike the beaches between Cap Cavalaire and Agay from the sea. The three attack forces known as ALPHA, DELTA, and CAMEL, were built respectively around the 3d, 45th, and 36th Infantry Divisions. The medical units assigned to each attack force trained with the combat troops, the ALPHA Force at Pozzuoli the DELTA and CAMEL Forces at Salerno, and the 1st Airborne Task Force near Rome.
The medical support assigned to the task forces was as follows:
ALPHA Attack Force: 3d Division medical detachments; 3d Medical Battalion (organic); 52d Medical Battalion, including the 376th, 377th, and 378th Medical Collecting Companies, and the 682d Medical Clearing Company; Headquarters and 1st Platoon of the 616th Medical Clearing Company, 181st Medical Battalion; the 1st and 3d Hospitalization Units, 10th Field Hospital, with
ten teams of the 2d Auxiliary Surgical Group, and the forward distribution section of the 6703d Blood Transfusion Unit attached; 95th Evacuation Hospital.
DELTA Attack Force: 45th Division medical detachments; 120th Medical Battalion (organic); 58th Medical Battalion, including the 388th, 389th, and 390th Medical Collecting Companies and the 514th Medical Clearing Company; the 2d Platoon, 616th Medical Clearing Company; the 2d Hospitalization Unit, 10th Field Hospital, and the 2d Hospitalization Unit, 11th Field Hospital, with nine teams of the 2d Auxiliary Surgical Group attached; the 93d Evacuation Hospital.
CAMEL Attack Force: 36th Division medical detachments; 111th Medical Battalion (organic); 56th Medical Battalion, including the 885th, 886th, and 887th Medical Collecting Companies, and the 891st Medical Clearing Company; the 1st Platoon of the 638th Medical Clearing Company, 164th Medical Battalion; the 1st and 3d Hospitalization Units, 11th Field Hospital, with seven teams of the 2d Auxiliary Surgical Group attached; the 11th Evacuation Hospital.
The 1st Airborne Task Force was to receive support from the medical detachments of its own component units, which included a British parachute brigade; the 517th Parachute RCT and 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion from the Italian front; the 1st Battalion, 551st Parachute Infantry; the 550th Infantry Airborne Battalion; and miscellaneous artillery, infantry, engineer, signal, antitank, chemical, ordnance, and supply units. To serve the whole task force, the 676th Medical Collecting Company of the 164th Medical Battalion, with clearing elements attached, went through special glider training. Six officers, a technician, and a team of the 2d Auxiliary Surgical Group constituted the medical support for the 1st Special Service Force.
Training of medical troops followed techniques similar to those used in earlier amphibious operations, including waterproofing of vehicles and equipment, shore-to-ship evacuation, and ambulance and litter carries under simulated combat conditions.
Medical Support of Seventh Army in the Field
The invasion of southern France, fifth and last amphibious operation in the Mediterranean, was by all odds the most successful of the five. The landing beaches were secured and all initial objectives taken within thirty-six hours. In less than a month a German army had been virtually destroyed, all southern and eastern France had been liberated, and Seventh Army had linked its front with that of the Normandy invasion force and was more than 400 miles north of its landings. In this spectacular dash, the achievements of the medical troops were no less decisive than the triumphs of the combat arms.
The Military Campaign
In the early evening of 14 August 1944 a mighty convoy of 855 ships, out of a dozen Mediterranean ports, rendezvoused off the west coast of Corsica and sailed northwest toward the famed French Riviera. For the past 10 days the
Mediterranean Allied Air Force had pounded targets from Genoa to Sète, slowly closing in to isolate the landing beaches. A feigned attack including a dummy parachute drop on beaches 60 miles west of the real objective was then being mounted, but there was no fake about other preparatory missions. In the early hours of 15 August, troops of the 1st Special Service Force scaled the cliffs on the seaward side of Port Cros and Levant; French commandos landed at Cap Negre west of the assault area; and other French troops went ashore at Pointe de Trayas to the east. Allied paratroops began dropping through fog around Le Muy 10 miles behind the designated beaches, and were followed by glider troops as soon as light permitted. Swarms of landing craft, covered by carrier-based planes and naval guns, headed for the indented shore between St. Tropez and St. Raphael, the first troops landing about 0800.6
The Germans, though misled for about an hour by the covering operations to the west, had expected the Allied forces to land where they did and had alerted their units. However, their forces were dispersed and opposition was relatively light on all beaches. The French on the right flank had failed in their mission, but the commandos on the left and the 1st Airborne Task Force, 10,000 strong, in the rear of the landing area, had cut off the possibility of enemy reinforcement. The assault troops, aided by the Maquis--or French Forces of the Interior as the underground was officially known--pushed rapidly inland. In the late afternoon of 15 August patrols of the 45th Division made first contact with the airborne force, and by the close of D plus 1 the "blue line"--drawn far enough inland to protect the beaches from enemy artillery and to give control of main routes north and west--had been reached.
The next few days were decisive. The 36th Division on the right pushed east far enough to protect the beachhead, then turned north after being relieved on 20 August by infantry elements of the airborne task force. The 45th Division in the center advanced northwest toward the Durance River, and the 3d Division on the left struck west to capture the key road center of Aix-en-Provence just north of Marseille on 21 August. On the 19th the German commander of Army Group G began to withdraw all troops, except the two divisions garrisoning Toulon and Marseille, up the Rhône Valley.
A fast-moving armored task force led by the VI Corps deputy commander, Brig. Gen. Frederick B. Butler, was already ahead of the German forces. Task Force Butler had left its assembly area on 18 August, racing north toward Grenoble, where mountain passes had been blocked against any attempt on the part
6 Principal sources for this section are: (1) The Seventh United States Army: Report of Operations, France and Germany, 1944-1945 (Heidelberg, Germany: Aloys Graf, 1946), vol. I; (2) Rpt of Naval Comdr, Western Task Force, Invasion of Southern France; (3) Rpt of Opns, VI Corps, Aug, Sep, 44; (4) Truscott, Command Missions; (5) Général [Jean] de Lattre de Tassigny, Histoire de Ia Premiere Armée Francaise (Paris: Plon, 1949); (6) Samuel Eliot Morison, "History of United States Naval Operations in World War II," The Invasion of France and Germany l944-1945 (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1957); (7) Craven and Cate, eds., Europe: ARGUMENT to V-E Day, pp. 408-38; (8) Taggert, ed., History of the Third Infantry Division in World War II; (9) Huff, ed., The Fighting 36th; (10) The Fighting Forty-Fifth; (11) WD Special Staff, Hist Div, Invasion of Southern France, OCMH files; (12) Smith, Riviera to the Rhine
of the enemy to reinforce from that direction. The task force had then turned west to close the escape route in the Montdimar area, where the Rhône Valley narrows and the corridor is dominated by high ground to the northeast. Butlers forces were not adequate, however, and the Germans won the opening round on 23 August, when elements of the 141st Regiment of the 36th Division reached the area but were unable to seize the city of Montélimar. The Germans rushed forward their best unit, the 11th Panzer Division, to force open the Montélimar Gate for their retreating columns, while the remainder of the 36th Division from the east, the 45th from the southeast, and the 3d from the south hurried to the aid of hard-pressed Task Force Butler. The battle raged for eight days, with the larger part of the German forces escaping before the trap was completely closed. The enemy nevertheless suffered heavy losses and left thousands of vehicles and guns, including five heavy railroad guns, as wreckage lining the route north.
Meanwhile, one corps of General de Lattre's French Army B, consisting of the 3d Algerian, the 9th Colonial, and the 1st Armored Divisions, a provisional infantry division, and two groups of Moroccan tabors (each group equivalent to a regiment) and special troops, had relieved VI Corps in the coastal area and enveloped Toulon and Marseille from the land side, in conjunction with naval assaults from the sea. Both cities fell on 28 August, and the French forces, augmented by newly arrived divisions, turned northward up the Rhine to join VI Corps.
On the eastern flank the airborne task force, with the 1st Special Service Force attached, had taken the famous resort towns of Cannes and Nice and had cleared the mountainous area north and east of those cities.
By 31 August, D plus 16, Seventh Army had taken 57,000 prisoners, with a loss to itself of 2,733 killed, captured, and missing in action. U.S. patrols were at the Italian border, French patrols were at the Spanish border, and the Germans were fighting only with stubborn rear-guard actions as they sought desperately to slip through the narrowing gap between Seventh Army, now in the vicinity of Lyon, and General Patton's Third Army, which was pushing east from Paris.
The advance was now a pursuit. Lyon was occupied on 3 September. The 3d Division took Besançon after hard fighting on 8 September, and two days later the French 1st Armored Division reached Dijon. On 11 September patrols of Seventh and Third Armies met at Saulieu a few miles west of Dijon, and the Allied front was continuous from the Swiss frontier to the English Channel.
On 15 September Army B became the 1st French Army, forming with Seventh Army the 6th Army Group under General Devers. At this time the DRAGOON forces came under operational control of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, and the troops were regrouped in accordance with SHAEF plans. 1st French Army shifted to the right flank, hinging on the Swiss border, while VI Corps turned north to cross the Moselle in the vicinity of Épinal, and advanced toward Strasbourg beyond the Vosges Mountains.
The exploits of Seventh Army thereafter belong to the history of the European Theater of Operations.
Field Medical Service
The Assault Phase- Although the prearranged landing schedules were not always followed to the letter, medical service during the beach phase of the invasion worked smoothly. Delays were caused primarily by a more rapid advance than had been anticipated, with consequent unexpected demands for trucks and landing craft by the combat troops; and in some instances by dispersal of unit equipment among several vessels. While medical personnel supporting each task force had their own problems, certain principles were common to the whole operation.
Litter teams from the collecting companies of the organic medical battalions were attached for the landings to the assault units, not less than three nor more than four 5-man teams to each infantry battalion, and these, with the personnel of the battalion aid stations, were the first medical troops ashore. Ideally, they were to be followed by the beach medical battalions, each organized for the landings into 3 collecting-clearing companies, with the collecting element of each company further divided into 3 sections of one officer and 22 enlisted men each. The remaining elements of the collecting companies of the organic medical battalions were to come next, accompanied or immediately followed by the field hospital units, which were stripped down to 50-bed capacity. The personnel of the evacuation hospitals were then to land and go into bivouac to await their equipment. The clearing companies of the organic medical battalions were to be held back until it was possible to establish them at least 5 miles inland, where the field hospital units, already ashore, would join them. Medical supply personnel were to land on D plus 1.7
The 3d Division assault on the left flank went pretty much according to plan. Landings were made in two separate areas: on the Bay of Cavalaire, east of the town of that name, by the 7th and 30th Regimental Combat Teams; and on the Bay of Pampelonne, about six miles northeast of the Cavalaire landings and three miles southeast of St. Tropez, by the 15th RCT. The battalion medical sections, reinforced by collecting company litter squads, landed behind their infantry battalions within the first two hours. On the Cavalaire beaches, Collecting Company C of the organic medical battalion, supporting the 30th Infantry, came ashore ahead of schedule at H plus 4 and had its station established by 1400. Company A, supporting the 7th Infantry, did not land until H plus 12, its station going into operation at 2200. Neither company had any ambulances until D plus 1.
At H plus 6 a collecting company and the 1st Platoon of the Clearing Company, 52d Medical Battalion, went ashore at Pampelonne beach and had the beach clearing station in operation by 1600. The landing of the Cavalaire beach group medical complement--the
7 Principal sources for this section are: (1) After Action Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 15 Aug-31 Oct 44, an. 278; (2) Rpt of Naval Comdr, Western Task Force, Invasion of Southern France; (3) ETMD, MTO, for Oct 44; (4) Ltr, Col Reeder to Surg, NATOUSA, 18 Aug 44, sub: Med Observers Rpt, Seventh Army Opn; (5) Annual and/or Monthly Rpts of the following med units: Surg, 3d Inf Div; Surg, 36th Inf Div; Surg, 45th Inf Div; 3d Med Bn; 52d Med Bn, 56th Med Bn; 58th Med Bn; 111th Med Bn; 120th Med Bn; 164th Med Rn; 181st Med Bn; Surg, VI Corps; Surg, Seventh Army; 10th Field Hosp; 11th Field Hosp; 11th Evac Hosp; 93d Evac Hosp; 95th Evac Hosp; 2d Aux Surg Gp; 7th Med Depot Co.
remaining two collecting companies and the 2d platoon of the clearing company, 52d Medical Battalion, and the 1st Platoon of the 616th Clearing Company, the 181st Medical Battalion--was two hours later, the beach clearing station being set up at 1800.
By midafternoon the ALPHA beaches were clear and the combat spearheads already several miles inland, making it possible to land the remaining medical units. At H plus 8-1600, or four in the afternoon--the 1st and 3d Platoons of the 10th Field Hospital came ashore, one unit at each beach. The Pampelonne unit was receiving patients by 2000, but the Cavalaire unit did not recover its equipment until D plus 1. At the same time the 3d Medical Battalion clearing company and personnel of the 95th Evacuation Hospital landed at Cavalaire. The 95th went into bivouac to await its equipment, while the 3d Division clearing company moved inland and set up station two miles north of La Croix, opening at 1915. The site of the clearing station was about equidistant from the beaches and some five miles inland. The collecting company in support of the 15th Infantry did not debark at Pampelonne beach until 0400 on D plus 1, and remained without ambulances until noon. (Map 30)
The division clearing station moved on D plus 2 to Cogolin, where it was joined by one unit of the 10th Field Hospital and the 95th Evacuation, which was still not in operation. All three installations moved to Gonfaron, some twenty miles inland, on D plus 3. The
95th opened the following morning, 19 August, at 0800. The other 3d Division platoon of the 10th Field Hospital went into bivouac in the same locality on 20 August.
The 45th Division, constituting with its reinforcements the DELTA Force, landed on a strip of beach no more than three miles wide in the dead center of the VI Corps landing area just northeast of the town of Ste. Maxime. Here expediency and availability of landing craft rather than the prearranged schedule determined the order of landing for medical units.
As on the ALPHA beaches, the medical detachments and the litter teams of the organic collecting companies went ashore with the infantry battalions making the assault, closely followed by units of the beach medical battalion and the remainder of the 120th Medical Battalion organic to the division. One collecting-clearing unit of the 58th Medical Battalion was ashore at H plus 2 1/2 and had its station in operation one-half mile northwest of Ste. Maxime by 1230. A second collecting-clearing unit landed on the easternmost of the 45th Division beaches at H plus 4, opening station three miles northeast of Ste. Maxime. The third collecting-clearing unit of the beach battalion was delayed until 1930, finally landing on the ALPHA beaches south of St. Tropez and opening station a half mile inland.
All personnel of the 20th Medical Battalion were ashore by H plus 6. Collecting stations for the two assault regiments were in operation by 1100. Jeeps borrowed from the infantry were used until the ambulances arrived. The clearing company went into bivouac, the 1st platoon setting up station about six miles inland near Plan de la Tour late on 16 August.
Units of the 10th and 11th Field Hospitals attached to the DELTA Force both landed about noon of D-day, but neither went into operation. The 2d Platoon of the 10th Field received patients at Plan de Ia Tour on 17 August but the 2d Platoon of the 11th Field did not operate at all during the beach phase. The 93d Evacuation Hospital, which landed near Ste. Maxime at H plus 4, opened at Plan de la Tour on 17 August.
Here, as on the ALPHA beaches, expansion inland was rapid. The 2d Platoon of the division clearing company opened 5 miles south of Vidauban and about 15 miles from the beach shortly before noon on 18 August, while the 1st Platoon moved more than 20 miles northwest from Plan de la Tour to Silans-la-Cascade. Beach clearing stations of the 58th Medical Battalion moved into Ste. Maxime and St. Tropez on D-day and D plus 1, respectively.
The westernmost of the beaches assigned to the 36th Division, or CAMEL Force--a beach on the Gulf of Fréjus within a mile of the town of that name and equally close to St. Raphael--was not actually used because underwater obstacles had not been cleared. Instead, all landings were made on three beaches east of St. Raphael and about a mile apart. Litter sections of the organic collecting companies landed with the battalion aid stations of the assault troops. All personnel of the 111th Medical Battalion were ashore by H plus 8, although the equipment of the clearing company was not unloaded until the evening of D plus 1. By that time the fighting was so far inland that the division clearing station was first established near Le Muy, fif-
teen miles from the beach, in the early afternoon of 17 August. The station moved ten miles farther inland the following day, to a site near Draguignan.
The collecting-clearing units of the 56th Medical Battalion, meanwhile, had experienced similar delays in landing their equipment. The first beach clearing station in the CAMEL area was set up four miles east of St. Raphael at H plus 14, or 2200. Before this time all casualties were evacuated to offshore craft by the Navy beach group. The other two beach clearing stations were set up in St. Raphael on D plus 2 and D plus 3, respectively.
The two platoons of the 11th Field Hospital attached to the CAMEL Force and the 11th Evacuation Hospital landed together at 1900, or H plus 11, going into bivouac near the landing area. The evacuation hospital and one unit of the field hospital followed the division clearing station to Le Muy on 17 August, going into operation the following morning. The other field hospital platoon joined the clearing station at Draguignan on 18 August. On the CAMEL beaches, one surgical team served with each clearing platoon of the beach medical battalion.
The 1st Airborne Task Force was supported initially by parachute medical troops making up the parachute infantry detachments. Personnel of the 676th Medical Company began landing in the vicinity of Le Muy by glider about 0800 on D-day, the last wave touching down at 1851. Medical supplies and equipment, preloaded in 12 jeeps with ¼-ton trailers, were landed safely. A collecting station was established in a barn at Le Metan soon after the first wave landed, personnel and equipment being added as they arrived. The station moved to larger quarters on 16 August. In all, 227 casualties were treated before evacuation to the CAMEL beaches by Army transportation was possible on 17 August.
On the supply side, the advance section of the 7th Medical Depot Company landed in the vicinity of Ste. Maxime on 16 August, and a detachment consisting of one officer and twenty enlisted men took over operation of the DELTA beach supply dump from the 58th Medical Battalion on that date. The following day one officer and eighteen enlisted men of the depot company were attached to the 52d Medical Battalion for temporary duty to operate the 3d Division medical supply dump, and on 18 August a similar detachment relieved the 56th Medical Battalion of supply functions in the 36th Division area.
The VI Corps surgeon, Colonel
Bauchspies, set up headquarters near Ste. Maxime at 1800 on D-day, but for the next 2 or 3 days could do little except keep in touch with medical units functioning under divisional control. The breakout from the beachhead was so rapid, however, that it was possible to resume a normal organizational pattern within 3 or 4 days. The 58th Medical Battalion reverted to Seventh Army on 17 August and was attached to the beach control group. The field hospitals passed from division to corps control on 18 August, while the evacuation hospitals reverted to army control on the same date. On 19 August the 56th Medical Battalion was attached to VI Corps.8
Nurses of the field and evacuation hospitals and of the surgical group landed and joined their units on 19 August.
Delays in landing equipment of clearing companies and hospitals might have been serious had casualties been heavier than they were. Air and naval cover attacks in widely separated areas, however, kept the enemy from concentrating his forces, and opposition on all beaches was lighter than had been anticipated. Hospital admissions, including admissions to clearing stations, for the beach phase of the operation were approximately 3,000. (Table 23) Mean troop strength for the week ending 18 August was 113,854.
8 Sources disagree as to exact dates. The text follows the contemporary account of the theater medical observer, Colonel Reeder. See Ltr, Reeder to Surg, NATOUSA, 18 Aug 44, sub: Medical Observer's Rpt, Seventh Army Opn. Slightly later dates given by some of the medical units concerned probably indicate only that there was some lag in completing the change-over.
The Montélimar Gate- With the beaches secure and the ports of Toulon and Marseille under seige by Army B, VI Corps was free to exploit up the Rhône Valley. The road net was excellent and with the formidable aid of the French resistance forces there was fair prospect of trapping a large part of the German Nineteenth Army if the corridor along the east bank of the Rhône could be closed off somewhere below the Drôme River--the so-called Montélimar Gate--before the enemy forces could be withdrawn.9
The rapid pace put a heavy strain on medical installations. The evacuation hospitals could not keep pace, and main reliance had necessarily to be placed on the organic medical battalions and on the field hospital units, supplemented when necessary by clearing platoons of the corps medical battalions. Collecting companies of the same battalion were sometimes as much as 150 miles apart. Clearing companies often operated two stations, while ambulances and borrowed trucks were in continuous movement over excessively long evacuation lines. Good roads made aid stations easily accessible to ambulances, permitting the diversion of many litter bearers for assignment as relief drivers.
A reinforced collecting company of the 111th Medical Battalion accompanied Task Force Butler in its dash toward Grenoble and its subsequent swing west down the valley of the Drôme. The collecting station of this unit was already in Sisteron, sixty-five miles north of the battalion headquarters at Draguignan before the end of the day, 18 August. Two days later it was at Lac on the Drôme, fifty miles northwest of Sisteron; and on 21 August it was at Marsanne, overlooking the Rhône from the heights northeast of Montélimar.
The 36th Division followed on the heels of Task Force Butler, swinging farther north to protect the flank. The 143d RCT entered Grenoble on 22 August, where a collecting station was set up by the 885th Medical Collecting Company, borrowed from the 56th Medical Battalion to replace the company attached to the task force. The next day the collecting station of the 143d was sixty miles southwest of Grenoble at Romans, close to the junction of the Isère and the Rhône above Valence, thence moving south with its combat team to the area occupied by the Butler Task Force.
The 141st and 142d combat teams of the 36th Division were also on the high ground above Montélimar by 23-24 August, their supporting medical units keeping pace by leapfrog tactics and almost continuous movement. The 36th Division clearing company leapfrogged its platoons from Draguignan to Sisteron to Aspres to Crest in 4 days, single moves covering up to 120 miles. Until the last 2 or 3 days of August, when the combat forces began pursuit of enemy remnants toward Lyon, 36th Division medical units remained clustered a few miles north and east of Montèlimar evacuating to the clearing station at Crest, a maximum distance of 10 miles.
The 1st Platoon of the 11th Field Hospital, which opened at Crest on 22 August, acted as an evacuation hospital for three days, since there was no evacuation nearer than the beach area, more than
9 Principal sources for this section are: (1) After Action Rpt, Surg. Seventh Army, 15 Aug-31 Oct 44, an. 278; (2) Annual Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 1944; (3) Annual Rpt, Surg, VI Corps, 1944; (4) Unit rpts of med units mentioned in the text.
200 miles distant by highway. On 25 August the 3d Platoon joined the 1st at Crest, and the 11th Evacuation opened in the vicinity of Aspres, 65 miles to the rear. Thereafter evacuation was to Aspres, which became the medical center of VI Corps with the arrival of the corps surgeon on 26 August. During the Crest period, from 22 through 31 August, the clearing station of the 111th Medical Battalion admitted 2,174 patients, of whom 840 were battle casualties and 411 were prisoners of war. The heaviest day was 27 August, when 202 of the 322 admissions were battle casualties. The largest number of prisoner patients was received on 29 and 30 August, the totals being 120 and 191, respectively.
In the Montélimar area, both the collecting stations and the clearing station at Crest were intermittently under enemy fire.
Movement of 45th Division medical units, following a pattern similar to those of the 36th, was characterized by long and frequent jumps. The 179th Regimental Combat Team, which had been in reserve during the landings, spearheaded the drive north behind the 36th Division, occupying Grenoble on 23 August. A collecting company of the 120th Medical Battalion took over the station
established the day before in support of the 143d RCT, remaining at the site for six days. The 180th RCT turned east from the Sisteron-Aspres-Gap triangle to occupy Briançon, only 5 miles from the Italian frontier. The collecting company in support moved 140 miles from the beach area to Embrun on 23 August, evacuating casualties more than 50 miles over mountain roads to the division clearing station near Serres on the Sisteron-Aspres road. The 3d Platoon of the 10th Field Hospital joined the clearing station there on 23 August, the 2d Platoon arriving the following day. The clearing station of the 56th Medical Battalion also set up in the Serres area, where it served as a holding hospital for minor medical cases. During the last week of August the 10th Field Hospital units at Serres admitted 201 medical cases and 64 battle casualties.
A platoon of the 120th Medical Battalion clearing company moved forward to Pont-de-Claix just south of Grenoble on 27 August.
The 157th RCT of the 45th Division met strong opposition at Apt, a few miles north of its Durance River crossing, on 22 August, but reached the Serres area by the 24th. The regiment proceeded north, crossing the Drôme east of Crest and protecting the north bank of the river. Evacuation from the collecting station of the 157th for the next two days was to the 36th Division clearing station at Crest.
The 3d Division, meanwhile, had advanced northwest from Aix-en-Provence to Avignon at the junction of the Durance and Rhône Rivers, taking the city on 25 August. The division then turned north, pursuing the retreating enemy up Highway 7. Montélimar was finally captured by the 3d Division on 28 August the same day on which both Toulon and Marseille fell to the French forces of General de Lattre. Although badly battered, the bulk of the German troops had already slipped through the Montélimar Gate. Clearing stations of the 3d Division, with their accompanying field hospital units, were successively at Brignoles, Aix, the vicinity of Carpentras northeast of Avignon, and Nyons southeast of Montélimar.
The last three days of August saw VI Corps moving north from the Drôme on a wide front in another attempt to encircle the enemy before he could reach the Belfort Gap and the Rhine. The 45th Division swung northwest from Grenoble, and the 36th advanced north toward Lyon, while the 3d delayed only long enough to mop up in the Montélimar battle area. French Army B began a simultaneous march up the west bank of the Rhône to make contact with VI Corps in the vicinity of Lyon. Task Force Butler was dissolved, its components reverting to their own organizations.
Expansion to the Moselle- The rapid pursuit of the enemy north from the Montélimar battle area put field medical units to a severe test. Lyon fell to the French 2d Corps on 3 September, but most of VI Corps was already well beyond that point. Four days later the 3d Division, with the 45th on its right and the 36th on its left, stormed the ancient fortress city of Besançon more than 200 miles from the Drôme River line of 28 August.10
10 Sources for this section are the same as those mentioned in n. 9 above.
During this period, clearing stations made almost daily moves, platoons leapfrogging one another, while evacuation hospitals were hastily brought up to the combat area to shorten the ambulance runs. In spite of the frequent and lengthy changes of station, medical battalions gave close support throughout the pursuit. For example, a clearing platoon of the 111th Medical Battalion, moving sixty miles from Bourg to Poligny on 6 September, was held up for four hours to allow armored and infantry elements to pass. Collecting stations were in almost continuous movement.
After the capture of Besançon, German resistance stiffened, and rain helped to further retard the advance. VI Corps units were nevertheless within twenty miles of Belfort when Seventh Army turned north again just after the middle of the month in response to SHAEF orders. Medical installations were still on the heels of the advancing lines when the Moselle crossing began on 21 September.
In the race to the Moselle each of the three divisions of VI Corps was supported
by its own organic medical battalion. A collecting company and clearing platoon of the 58th Medical Battalion supported the 13th Field Artillery Brigade after 17 September. Units of the 10th and 11th Field Hospitals continued to accompany forward clearing stations of the divisions, while evacuation rearward was the responsibility of the 56th Medical Battalion. Until the rainy season began in mid-September, turning dirt roads into quagmires, litter bearers were used to only a minimum extent. The well-settled nature of the country also made it possible to site clearing stations much of the time in buildings.
The corps surgeons office remained close to the front throughout the period, moving from Aspres to Salins, twenty miles south of Besançon on 6 September. Headquarters were in Vesoul by the 16th and on 22 September moved to Plombières.
Casualties during September were more from disease than from battle wounds, with respiratory ailments and exhaustion making substantial inroads. Trench foot cases began to appear before the end of the month. Admissions by the three division clearing companies totaled 11,805, of which 4,101 were battle wounds. Of the aggregate admissions, 1,136, or approximately 10 percent, were prisoners of war.
Hospitalization in the Army Area
Hospitalization on the Beaches
Until the base organization, with its fixed hospitals, could establish itself in southern France, it was necessary for Seventh Army to leave some hospital facilities in the beach area to care for service troops and for replacements and reinforcements staging in the vicinity, as well as to provide transient beds for those being evacuated to Italy. This function fell in the first instance to the 58th Medical Battalion, which reverted to Army control on D plus 2, and was reattached to the beach control group.11
When the last of the assault clearing stations closed on 21 August, a provisional hospital was opened by the clearing company of the 58th Medical Battalion in the Hotel du Golf at Beauvallon, a resort village between St. Tropez and Ste. Maxime. One collecting company remained at Ste. Maxime, operating a smaller unit that served as an annex to the main hospital. Both units were relieved on 4 September by the 164th Medical Battalion, which continued to operate the two facilities until fixed hospitals came into the area toward the end of the month. During the period 24 August-1 September, twelve French medical officers and a Senegalese clearing platoon were attached to the Beauvallon hospital, the majority of admissions at that time being French troops and German prisoners.
After being relieved by the 164th Medical Battalion, the 58th established another provisional hospital in the Hotel Hermitage in Nice, primarily for the support of the 1st Airborne Task Force and the 1st Special Service Force then fighting along the Italian border. This hospital was still in operation when all
11 Sources for this section are: (1) Annual Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 1944; (2) After Action Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 15 Aug-31 Oct 44, an. 278; (3) Annual Rpt, Surg, VI Corps, 1944; (4) Unit rpts of the individual med units mentioned in the text.
military units in southern France were formally transferred from the Mediterranean to the European Theater of Operations.
Between 11 and 30 September the 675th Medical Collecting Company of the 164th Medical Battalion operated a provisional station hospital in Marseille--the only American hospital facility in that city. The hospital was caring for 200 patients when it was relieved by the 80th Station Hospital on 30 September.
The provisional hospitals in the landing areas were augmented late in August by 750-bed evacuation hospitals, which were brought in according to schedule. The 9th Evacuation, which landed on 25 August, went immediately into the combat zone, but the 51st and 59th Evacuations, which arrived at the same time, and the 27th, which reached southern France on 30 August, were retained initially in the coastal area. Original plans had called for three 750-bed evacuation hospitals for the support of VI Corps and two to back up the forward units of Army B. After the capture of Marseille, however, French medical commanders found it possible to make greater use of local hospitals than had been anticipated, and all four of the larger evacuation hospitals were used primarily for U.S. troops.
The 51st Evacuation opened at Draguignan on 27 August. Its personnel served in a captured German hospital at the site while their own tents were being erected. The hospital remained at Draguignan until 20 September. The bulk of its admissions were from the 1st Airborne Task Force, received both directly and through the provisional hospital at Nice. The staff of the 51st was augmented during this period by 18 medical officers, a nurse, and 19 technicians attached from other organizations. Approximately 2,000 patients were cared for.
The 59th Evacuation Hospital opened on 28 August at Carpentras near the site about to be vacated by the 3d Division clearing station. The hospital remained in the area until 7 September, taking a total of 611 patients and performing 222 surgical procedures in the 10 days of operation.
The 27th Evacuation operated at Bouc-bel-Aire, a few miles south of Aix-en-Provence from 1 September to 20 September. At this site it was the closest U.S. hospital to Marseille, where it operated a prophylactic station and gave dispensary service and station hospital care to all U.S. troops in the area. In addition to U.S. Army personnel, the 1,169 patients treated during the twenty days of operation at Bouc-bel-Aire included French troops and civilians, and American and British sailors, both naval and merchant marine.
Hospitalization in the Combat Zone
The 10th and 11th Field Hospitals, operating in 50-bed units rather than the 100-bed units used in Italy, served throughout the campaign as forward surgical hospitals, remaining close to, and moving with, the division clearing stations. They were backed up as closely as transportation and available sites permitted by the 400-bed evacuation hospitals and later by the larger evacuation units. During the period of rapid movement, however, the field units were often far ahead of any evacuation hospital support. On these occasions, clearing pla-
toons of the 56th Medical Battalions were used to increase bed capacity.12
The speed of the campaign up to late September necessitated frequent and long moves, with advance reconnaissance to the front lines themselves in search of hospital sites. The 400-bed evacuations were generally able to move by echelons with their own organic transportation, but the 750-bed evacuations had to rely on Seventh Army for trucks, which were not always available when needed. (See Maps 31, 32, 33.)
Long evacuation lines to the rear meant that hospitals were often overcrowded, while periods of intense combat activity placed a severe strain upon surgical staffs and postoperative facilities. It was frequently necessary to leave holding units behind to care for nontransportable patients when hospitals moved forward. All of the evacuation hospitals used civilian personnel in various capacities, the most frequent being as litter bearers.
The first evacuation hospital to move away from the landing beaches was the 93d, which advanced forty-five miles northwest from Plan de la Tour to Barjols on 22 August. For a few days, while elements of the 45th Division were forcing a crossing of the Durance River just north of Barjols and fighting their way toward Sisteron, the hospital was busy, but was soon left with little to do.
August 25 saw the 11th Evacuation leap ahead 128 miles from Le Muy to Aspremont in support of the forces fighting from Montélimar to Crest. In 15 hours after receiving movement orders, the hospital had evacuated 300 patients, dismantled and packed its equipment, and was on the road. The first patient was received at the new site just 18 hours after the hospital had closed at the old. Three hundred patients were admitted on the first day of operation at Aspremont.
The 750-bed 9th Evacuation Hospital, which arrived combat-loaded on 25 August, was sent immediately to the support of the 11th. Proceeding in 4 motor convoys, the 9th moved to a site at Beaumont, 30 miles beyond Aspres on the road to Crest, and began receiving patients at 0800, 28 August, just 54 hours after touching French soil. Two hundred and sixty patients were received and 39 surgical operations performed in the first 24 hours at Beaumont.
On the first day of September the 93d Evacuation, moving in three echelons with its own organic transportation, opened at Rives, 20 miles northwest of Grenoble and 180 miles from the hospitals previous site at Barjols. Between noon and midnight, 1 September, 127 patients were admitted and 28 surgical procedures performed. The move was completed on 5 September, the hospital remaining open at Barjols until the last echelon was ready to leave. (Map 31)
The 95th Evacuation was the next Seventh Army unit to leapfrog from the rear to the most forward position. The hospital left Gonfaron on 3 September, its personnel spending the night as guests of the 9th at Beaumont. The intention had been to set up about 50 miles beyond that point, but the front lines had already moved so far forward that a new reconnaissance was necessary. The site finally designated by the VI Corps surgeon was at St. Amour, more than 300 miles by
12 Ltr, Col Rollin L. Bauchspies, USA (Ret), to Col Coates, 15 Apr 59, commenting on preliminary draft of this volume. Colonel Bauchspies was VI Corps surgeon.
road from the landing area. The 95th spent the night of 4 September in bivouac at the 3d Division clearing station near Ambérieu, opening at St. Amour at 0900, 5 September.
As the most forward evacuation hospital, the 95th carried a heavy load of surgical cases for the next few days. At the same time, it was necessary to hold patients overlong owing to the difficulties of evacuation. The railroads had not yet been restored to service and motor transportation was critical. The situation was somewhat eased by the beginning of air evacuation from Ambérieu on 9 September, but fuel shortages and bad weather combined to make flight schedules uncertain. On the credit side, the hospital was deluged with gifts of eggs, chickens, rabbits, and ducks from the local farmers, whose normal city markets were temporarily cut off.
The 9th Evacuation, meanwhile, had closed at Beaumont, and on 8 September opened at Poligny, 40 miles beyond St. Amour and 2.35 miles from the Beaumont site. At Poligny the 9th received 578 patients in the first 30 hours of operation. Surgical teams worked in 16-hour shifts.
The next forward move was made on 11 September when the 11th Evacuation opened at Aissey, 15 miles east of Besançon, after a 265-mile jump from Aspremont. With the aid of borrowed trucks, the first echelon was able to carry 300 beds, all surgical nurses, and half the officers of the medical service as well as all those of the surgical service. The hospital admitted 158 patients during the first 5 hours at Aissey.
On 15 September the 93d Evacuation moved up from Rives to Rioz, 20 miles north of Besançon. Using 15 borrowed trucks and 25 ambulances of an attached ambulance company, the first 2 of 3 echelons were able to move together. The hospital opened at 1300 on 16 September. By midnight 219 patients had been received and 27 operations performed. The 185-mile move was completed on 17 September. (Map 32)
The 59th Evacuation Hospital, which had closed at Carpentras on 7 September, also opened in Rioz after a 10-day wait for transportation. For the 59th the move covered 240 miles. September 17 was also the opening date for the 2d Convalescent Hospital in Besançon, though part of its equipment remained on the docks at Marseille where organic vehicles had been commandeered for more urgent uses. The unit was caring for 1,200 patients before all of its equipment was brought up by its remaining vehicles shuttling between Besançon and Marseille.13
The 95th Evacuation again became the most forward Seventh Army hospital on 18 September when it opened at Saulx, 25 miles northeast of Rioz. The 11th moved from Aissey to Conflans, 10 miles north of Saulx, 3 days later; and on 23 September the 9th Evacuation opened at Plombières on the Moselle. The first contingent of the 27th Evacuation arrived at Xertigny, about eight miles north of the 9th, the following day, but the hospital was not in full operation before the end of the month. All but the advance detachment of the 27th made the 450-mile jump from Bouc-bel-Aire by rail. On 25
13 In the Southern France Campaign, the 2d Convalescent Hospital carried only 2,000 rather than its former 3,000 beds and was organized to operate in two independent sections of 1,000 beds each.
September the 93d Evacuation joined the 9th in the vicinity of Plombières. (Map 33)
With the single exception of the 51st Evacuation, all Seventh Army hospitals were now concentrated close to the main highway north from Besançon to Épinal. The 51st was packed at Draguignan and ready to move by 23 September, but transportation was not available until early October.
During the last two weeks of September almost continuous rain and cold hampered hospital movements and made operation a constant struggle with the elements. All tents had to be ditched, access roads graveled, and tent pegs periodically reset in the soft ground. Heating facilities were often inadequate to keep patients warm.
Special Hospital Facilities
In addition to field and evacuation hospitals, Seventh Army maintained provisional hospitals for the specialized treatment of venereal disease and neuropsychiatric cases and, until the 2d Convalescent Hospital got into full operation, a provisional convalescent hospital as well. The venereal disease and neuropsychiatric hospitals had been planned in advance, on the pattern of those set up by Fifth Army in Italy, and the clearing platoons designated to operate them had been given special training as well as specialist personnel attached from other units. The convalescent hospital was an afterthought, made necessary by the unexpectedly rapid advance of the lines and the late date predetermined for phasing in the regular convalescent facility.
The convalescent hospital was the first of the three specialized units to be established, though the procedure was very informal. On18 August--D plus 3--the 682d Medical Clearing Company of the 52d Medical Battalion, then at Plan de la Tour, arranged to hold the lightly wounded and mildly ill who could return to duty in a short time if they could be kept off the hospital ships bound for Italy. The project grew. Beds and equipment were borrowed wherever they could be had, and personnel were diverted from other duties. Within a week the unit was operating 400 convalescent beds and was unable to perform its normal functions.
The 164th Medical Battalion, less one platoon of the 638th Medical Clearing Company already in France, arrived on 26 August, and the following day a collecting company of the 164th took over the convalescent hospital, which moved forward to Aspres on the last day of the month.
The venereal disease and neuropsychiatric hospitals, meanwhile, had both been established according to plan on 20 August by the 616th Medical Clearing Company of the 181st Medical Battalion, released from its beach assignment the previous day. Both hospitals were organized as 250-bed units, and both opened at Le Luc, close to the Gonfaron site of the 95th Evacuation Hospital. The neuropsychiatric hospital carried a light patient load at this time, but the venereal disease unit found it necessary almost immediately to expand capacity to 375 beds to care for a backlog of cases arising from contacts in Italy.
By definition both of these specialized hospitals were forward units, and both were moved to the Aspres area at the end of the month. By this time long evacuation lines, scattered forces, and acceler-
ated build-up in the beach area had brought about an acute shortage of mobile medical units. The 164th Medical Battalion was given a beach assignment, and without advance notice the 616th Clearing Company was directed to take over the provisional convalescent hospital on 4 September. The hospital at that time held almost 500 patients, but the 616th had only 3 officers and 8 enlisted men who could be spared from the venereal disease and neuropsychiatric centers. The men staffed the convalescent hospital until additional personnel from collecting companies of the parent medical battalion could be rushed to their aid.
The neuropsychiatric hospital moved forward to Rives on 4 September; to Samson, midway between Poligny and Besançon, six days later; and on 24 September joined the growing group of medical installations around Plombières on the Moselle. The venereal disease center moved to St. Jean de Paris, a suburb of Ambéieu, on 6 September, where the convalescent hospital had been established the day before; to Rioz on the l3th; and to Plombières on 28 September. The convalescent hospital, its usefulness ended with the establishment of the 2d Convalescent in Besançon, closed on 25 September. An annex, operated at Rioz in connection with the venereal disease hospital, closed two days later.
The convalescent hospital had reached a peak load of more than 800 patients, while the neuropsychiatric center, reflect-
ing the growing severity of combat and the deterioration of the weather, was caring for 300 patients by the end of the month.
A second venereal disease center was operated in connection with the provisional hospital at Beauvallon by the 638th Medical Clearing Company from 4 September. This center was still in operation when the 164th Medical Battalion passed from army to base section control early in October.
Medical Summary: Seventh Army
Table of Organization bed strength in Seventh Army hospitals by the end of September was 5,000, not counting clearing stations and special hospitals operated by clearing companies, plus 2,000 convalescent beds. Admissions to Seventh Army medical installations, including clearing stations, totaled more than 28,000 for the period 15 August-30 September, of which 13,000 were evacuated to the communications zone and more than 9,000 were returned to duty. (Table 24) Troop strength by the end of September was approximately 40,000.
Evacuation From Seventh Army
Evacuation Within the Combat Zone
When VI Corps pushed inland from its landing beaches, evacuation of division clearing stations was carried out by the 56th Medical Battalion. Highways were generally excellent, but through much of the advance the terrain was mountainous and until the concentration of evacuation hospitals along the Moselle in late September, distances were great. To minimize the factor of distance as much as possible, holding hospitals were set up during periods of rapid advance by a platoon of the corps clearing company and a field hospital unit to retain patients until an evacuation hospital could move forward.14
The battalion maintained liaison with VI Corps through an officer stationed in the corps surgeons office, and with the evacuation hospitals through a noncommissioned officer stationed in the registrars office of each hospital serving the corps. Bed status reports from each evacuation hospital were submitted every four hours, or oftener if the situation demanded, the reports being carried by ambulance drivers or telephoned to battalion headquarters. This information permitted the corps surgeon to direct the flow of patients to the evacuation hospitals in terms of current information.
Medical support for the 1st Airborne Task Force followed an unorthodox pattern, the three collecting stations of the 676th Medical Collecting Company being comparable to small clearing stations. Casualties were evacuated by ambulances of the company to the provisional hospital operated by the 514th Medical Clearing Company of the 58th Medical Battalion in Nice. After 6 October autorail trains staffed by personnel of the 676th made daily runs between the collecting stations and the hospital. The hospital was cleared by the 58th Medical Battalion.
14 Principal sources for this section are: (1) After Action Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 15 Aug-31 Oct 44; (2) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, MTOUSA, 1944; (3) Annual Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 1944; (4) Annual Rpt, Surg, VI Corps, 1944; (5) Unit rpts of the med units mentioned in the text.
Evacuation to the Communications Zone
During the first day of the invasion of southern France, casualties were evacuated from the beach clearing stations by small craft to the transports and carried by LST to Ajaccio, Corsica, where the 40th Station Hospital was prepared to receive them and to send the more serious cases on to Naples by air. A little over 300 reached Ajaccio by LST on 15 August. 15
15 According to the Seventh Army Surgeon's After Action Report for the period 15 August-31 October 1944, only 380 patients were evacuated from southern France by LST. (See Table 26, below.) The 1944 annual report of the Northern Base Section surgeon, however, says 489 evacuees from the Riviera beaches were received by the 40th Station Hospital, and the report of the hospital itself for the same period puts the figure above 500. The presumption is that one or more of the hospital ships discharged some critical cases at Ajaccio to be flown to Naples, but there is a tendency in Army reports to lump all sea evacuation as by hospital ship. It may be that the LST total was actually considerably higher than indicated. For example, the report of the Naval Commander, Western Task Force, page 368, says that approximately 1,800 casualties were evacuated to hospital ships during the period of the automatic schedule (D plus 1 through D plus 6), whereas the ETMD report for August 1944 gives a figure of 3,262 for the same period.
General sources for this section are: (1) ETMD, MTO, for Aug 1944; (2) After Action Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 15 Aug-31 Oct 44; (3) Rpt of Naval Comdr, Western Task Force, Invasion of Southern France; (4) Annual Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 1944; (5) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, MTOUSA, 1944; (6) Unit rpts of med units mentioned in the text.
Three hospital ships arrived off the landing beaches on D plus 1 as planned, although they were not there as early in the day as had been expected. The relatively small number of casualties, however, made it possible to hold in the clearing stations those patients whose condition required the better accommodations of the hospital ships. The automatic schedule continued through 21 August-3 ships on D plus 2, one on D plus 3, 2 each on D plus 4 and D plus 5, and one on D plus 6.
Vessels used during the first 3 days carried surgical teams drawn from personnel of the 3d, 36th, and 43d General Hospitals, and the 59th Evacuation Hospital, all on the DRAGOON troop list. The USAHS John Clem, smallest of the hospital ships, carried only one surgical team, while the Acadia, with a capacity of 788 patients, carried 3. The Shamrock, Thistle, Algonquin, Chateau Thierry, and Emily Weder carried 2 surgical teams each.
After D plus 6, hospital ships were sent into the area on a one-a-day basis until 28 August, and thereafter at the request of the Seventh Army surgeon. One ship was held in continuous readiness at Ajaccio. Until D plus 5 hospital ships called at all three landing beaches, but beginning on D plus 6 all evacuees were taken by ambulance to the clearing station of the 58th Medical Battalion at Ste. Maxime, where the ships were loaded. Through 21 August all hospital ships discharged at Naples with no segregation of casualties by nationality. From 22 August through 29 August vessels loaded to 60 percent or more with French casualties or prisoners of war were sent to Oran.
With the fall of Marseille and Toulon, enough fixed hospital beds became available to the French forces to make evacuation out of France unnecessary. This factor, combined with the beginning of air evacuation on D plus 7, greatly reduced the need for hospital ships and none were requested by Seventh Army after 30 August.
Air evacuation from southern France was carried out by the 802d and 807th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadrons, which continued at the same time to clear forward areas in Italy. Beginning on 22 August, flights were made initially from the most forward airfields available directly to Naples and occasionally to other Italian bases. Airfields in the vicinity of the landing beaches--St. Tropez, Le Luc, and Aix-en-Provence--were quickly left behind. Sisteron and Crest both served for a time, and flights began from Ambérieu northwest of Lyon on 9 September.
By this date, the weather was becoming uncertain and the distances to Italian bases were lengthening. With the great air base at Istres, about twenty-five miles northwest of Marseille available, flights were directed there, where patients could be relayed on by air to Naples or sent to one of the fixed hospitals moving into the Rhône delta. Before the end of September air evacuation in France had been largely reduced to a single route, from Luxeuil close to the bulk of Seventh Army medical installations, to Istres.
Air evacuation from France to Italy, and from the Seventh Army area to Istres, for the period 22 August through 7 November, when the two air evacuation squadrons from Italy were withdrawn, is summarized in Table 25.
Seventh Army evacuation hospitals from their first establishment were
cleared by the 52d Medical Battalion. Patients were carried by ambulance to the Riviera beaches for hospital ship evacuation, to holding units at airfields or railheads, or to fixed hospitals as these became available close to the front. Air evacuation holding hospitals were operated by the clearing companies of the 52d and 164th Medical Battalions. The largest of these was at Istres, operated by the 52d Medical Battalion until 17 September and thereafter by the 164th. More than 1,000 beds were available, with a daily patient turnover often greater than 600. The fall rains made flight schedules erratic with a highly variable patient census as a consequence. Property exchange with air evacuation units was a continuous problem because the personnel carriers used generally had full loads on the incoming trip, and often made one or more trips in Italy before returning to France.
As soon as the rail lines were back in operation, hospital trains were pressed into service for evacuating forward hospitals. The 42d Hospital Train, veteran of both North Africa and Italy, made its
first run between Marseille and the rail-head at Mouchard, about twenty miles southwest of Besançon, on 25 September. The 66th Hospital Train, also a veteran unit, though with less service in the theater than the 42d, left Besançon for Marseille on its initial run on 9 October. Both trains used reconditioned French passenger cars.
The slower pace of the campaign after crossing the Moselle, and the relatively stable front, permitted the establishment of fixed hospitals well forward before the end of October, with ambulance evacuation taking the place of air and rail for the shorter runs.
Throughout the campaign it was possible to handle the tremendous job of clearing army hospitals over long distances from a rapidly moving front only by constant juggling of the inadequate number of ambulance platoons available. Ambulances were kept going around the clock and on occasion passing trucks were commandeered to carry patients to the rear.16
Table 26 summarizes evacuation from forward installations to the communications zone, including Italian and North African base sections and those established in France, for the period of Mediterranean theater jurisdiction over DRAGOON.
Extension of the Communications Zone
Before DRAGOON could be transferred completely to the European Theater of Operations, it was necessary to free the operation of its logistical dependence on Italy and North Africa. It was therefore contemplated throughout the planning phase that the communications zone would be extended to southern France at the earliest possible date. To this end the Coastal Base Section was organized in Naples early in July.
Organization of the Base Sections
The Coastal Base surgeon, Colonel Bishop, and key members of his staff were in close touch with the Seventh Army surgeon throughout the planning stage, and were early arrivals in France. The first echelon of the medical section came ashore between D plus 1 and D plus 10, and the entire section was in France by 29 August. The early arrivals remained in the landing areas to work with the beach control group, and the rear echelon set up a headquarters in
16 See, e.g.. 9th Evac Hosp, Med Hist Data, 1 Jan-31 Oct 44.
Marseille. The medical section was already supervising rear army installations as well as evacuation and supply activities on the beaches when the base section formally assumed operational control of the coastal region of southern France on 9 September.17
By that date, Seventh Army was beyond Besançon in its spectacular dash toward the Rhine, and the communications zone organization appeared inappropriately named. The Coastal Base Section became the Continental Base Section on 12 September 1944, and as of 1 October was split into the Delta Base Section, with headquarters in Marseille, and the Continental Advance Section (CONAD) with headquarters in Dijon. Colonel Bishop continued as surgeon of CONAD while Colonel Jeffress became Delta Base surgeon.
Both medical section organizations were similar to those elsewhere in the Mediterranean, with functional subdivisions for administration, personnel, hospitalization, evacuation, medical records, medical supply, dental, and veterinary. The Delta Base medical section was primarily concerned with incoming supply, evacuation to Italy and to the zone of interior, and hospitalization of service troops, long-term patients, and prisoners of war. The medical section of CONAD was primarily concerned with the more immediate support of Seventh Army and of the 6th Army Group.
Both Delta Base and CONAD came under the general jurisdiction of the Southern Line of Communications (SOLOC), on 20 November, when all COMZ functions in southern France
17 Sources for this section are: (1) Annual Rpts, Med Sec, Delta Base See, 1944, 1946; (2) Monthly Rpt, Delta Base Sec, Oct 1944; (3) Annual Rpt, Continental Adv Sec, 1944; (4) CONAD History, 1944-1945: (5) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, MTOUSA, 1944; (6) Hist of Med Sec, Hq, COMZ NATOUSA; (7) Ltr, Gen Stayer, Surg, NATOUSA, to Gen Kirk, TSG, 26 Sep 44.
passed finally from MTO to ETO. The SOLOC medical section was essentially the medical section of COMZ, NATOUSA, which had been functioning in Naples since February 1944, with Colonel Shook as surgeon.18 An advance echelon of the COMZ medical section had been established in Dijon early in October by Colonel Cocke, Colonel Shook's deputy.
Establishment of Fixed Hospitals
U.S. fixed hospitals with an aggregate Table of Organization strength of 14,250 beds were on the DRAGOON troop list, to be phased in between D plus 25 (9 September) and D plus 60 (14 October). The installations included were drawn from North Africa, Italy, and Corsica. The unexpected speed with which Seventh Army moved north made the schedule unrealistic before the first hospital arrived. In only three instances, however, was it possible to advance the schedule, and these were balanced by others in which even the retarded landing dates originally fixed were not met. (Table 27) The accelerated pace of the campaign, moreover, brought such heavy demands for transportation that the establishment of hospitals was often unduly delayed after their arrival. Another delaying factor was the difficulty in locating suitable sites in a densely populated country at a season when tents could not be satisfactorily used.19
18 See pp.
323-26, above, 486-88, below.
The first U.S. fixed hospital to operate in southern France was the 36th General, which took over a captured German hospital--originally a French tuberculosis sanatorium--at Les Milles near Aix-en-Provence on 17 September. Approximately 600 prisoner of war patients were in the hospital at that time, but these were concentrated in about half the ward area. Two days later the 36th General also began operating in Aix-en-Provence itself, in the buildings of a French psychiatric hospital. To avoid unnecessary dispersion of staff members, all surgical cases were handled at Les Milles, with medical cases going to Aix. (Map 34)
Both hospitals were turned over, with their patients, to the 43d General--Les Milles on 25 September and Aix on the 27th. The 3d General Hospital took over the installation in Aix-en-Provence on 9 October, taking 763 medical patients from the 43d at that time. The 43d General continued to administer the prisoner of war hospital at Les Milles in addition to its normal functions. The German hospital captured at Draguignan was consolidated with the Les Milles facility, which operated under U.S. supervision with German protected personnel. German enlisted men were used as litter bearers throughout the hospital.
The 78th Station Hospital, meanwhile, had opened in a resort hotel in St. Raphael on 19 September, and the 80th Station had relieved the 675th Medical Collecting Company, which had been operating a provisional hospital in the buildings of an old ladies home in Marseille.
The first fixed hospital to open in the forward area, which would come under operational control of the Continental Advance Section on 1 October, was the 46th General, which was rushed at the request of the Seventh Army surgeon to Besançon. The hospital opened with a minimal portion of its equipment in the Caserne Vauban, a former French infantry barracks, on 20 September. The front was only a dozen miles away, and the 9th Evacuation Hospital, from which the first group of patients came, was at Poligny 40 miles to the rear. The patient census of the 46th General rose to almost 3,000 within 3 weeks.
The 36th General, after surrendering its two sites at Aix-en-Provence, was assigned to CONAD and opened at Dijon on 13 October in a former French cavalry barracks. The 36th had a census of 1,400 patients within a week. It was joined at Dijon on 20 October by the 180th Station, one of the few 250-bed units left in the theater.
On 14 October the 35th Station Hospital opened at Chalon-sur-Saône, south of Dijon, the accommodations again being a French caserne, or military barracks. A week later the 2,000-bed 21st General opened at Mirecourt, just west of the Moselle, in the unfinished plant of a large, modern French psychiatric hospital. The 51st Station, which had been functioning as a neuropsychiatric hospital in both Africa and Italy, continued the same specialty in France, opening at Auxonne on 4 November. In this case the military atmosphere of the French barracks that housed the unit was regarded as an asset.
The 23d General Hospital opened on 5 November at Vittel, so close to the front that its first 300 patients were received direct from Seventh Army by ambulance. The hospital was adequately housed in a group of resort hotel buildings. Last of the CONAD hospitals trans-
FIXED HOSPITALS AND SUPPLY UNITS TRANSFERRED FROM MTO TO ETO, 20 NOVEMBER 1944
Delta Base Section
Continental Advance Section
ferred from MTO was the 23d Station, which opened in a school building at Épinal on 10 November, almost two months after its arrival in France.
Two late arrivals in Delta Base, the 69th and 70th Station Hospitals, completed the DRAGOON troop list. The 70th opened in a French mental hospital in Marseille on 1 November and, because of the facilities its site afforded, became the principal center for handling closed-ward neuropsychiatric cases in Delta Base. The 69th Station did not arrive in France until 18 November and was not ready to receive patients until 8 December.
Counting the still inoperative 69th Station, there were 5,000 Table of Organization beds in Delta Base and 9,250 in CONAD as of 20 November 1944,
when southern France passed completely to ETO control.
In addition to these fixed hospitals, the 7607th Station Hospital (Italian) opened at La Ciotat, on the coast between Marseille and Toulon, in October to care for personnel of Italian service units. Though nominally a 500-bed hospital, the 7607th operated 1,000 beds. The venereal disease center maintained by the 638th Medical Clearing Company of the 164th Medical Battalion at Beauvallon was shifted on 9 October to a staging area between Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, where it continued to carry on the same mission under Delta Base control. The 4th Medical Laboratory, which arrived in southern France on 9 September, served both base sections. The base laboratory, with the 6703d Blood Transfusion Unit attached, was located in Marseille; a mobile section consisting of one officer and four enlisted technicians, was sited in Dijon. Both sections occupied university laboratory buildings of functionally suitable design.
Evacuation From CONAD and Delta Base
As soon as the base sections were set tip, they took over responsibility for clearing hospitals in the Army area and distributing the patients among the available hospitals. The base sections were also responsible for interbase transfers; Delta Base evacuated to the zone of interior, beginning in October.20
During October 1944, CONAD evacuated from its own hospitals to Delta Base, 1,325 patients by air, 1,496 by motor, and 871 by rail. In the same month, Delta Base transferred 2,808 patients to the Peninsular Base Section in Italy by air and 2,843 by sea, while 9.3 were evacuated by sea to the United States.
With fixed beds in the forward 'area still at a premium, CONAD followed no fixed evacuation policy, but cleared its hospitals to Delta Base as rapidly as transportation and the condition of the patients allowed. Toward the end of October, Delta Base established a 45-day policy for evacuation to PBS, retaining all patients expected to recover in less than that time.
Delta Base continued to evacuate some patients to Italy until 20 November, the totals for the period 1-20 November being 29 by air and 433 by hospital ship. The slack was taken up by the greatly increased number of beds available in southern and eastern France by early November, and by the beginning of direct air evacuation from CONAD to the United Kingdom on the 12th of that month.
Medical Supplies and Equipment
By the time medical supplies began coming across the landing beaches of southern France in appreciable quantities about D plus 3, the army and base responsibilities in the supply area were being differentiated. Both the Seventh Army medical supply officer, who was also commanding officer of the 7th Medical Depot Company, and the Coastal Base Section medical supply officer on temporary duty with Seventh Army came ashore on D plus 1. The three beach dumps were taken over from the beach medical battalions by the advance sec-
20 This section is based primarily on: (1) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, CONAD, 1944; (2) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, Delta Base, 1944; (3) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, MTOUSA, 1944.
tion of the 7th Medical Depot Company on 16-18 August.21 Three days later a single point for the receipt of incoming medical supplies was established at Ste. Maxime. At this time supervision passed to the base supply organization, although 21 enlisted men of the advance section, 7th Medical Depot Company, were detached to help operate the dumps for the beach control group. These men did not rejoin their own unit until 15 September.
Seventh Army Medical Supply
The first forward issue point for Seventh Army was set up at Le Cannet, near Le Luc, on 21 August, moving to St. Maximin, about 20 miles east of Aix-en-Provence, 2 days later. The main body of the 7th Medical Depot Company joined the advance section there on 25 August. On 29 August the base section of the depot moved to Meyrargues, to miles north of Aix, while one storage and issue platoon jumped forward to Aspremont in the vicinity of VI Corps' forward medical installations.22
It was at this time that the battle of Montélimar came to its indecisive close and Seventh Army raced ahead to cut off the retreating enemy before he could slip through the Belfort Gap. In this stage of the campaign, medical supply dumps were hard pressed to keep within any kind of reasonable distance of the installations they served. The Meyrargues dump closed on 5 September, and a new issue point opened the same day at Voreppe, ten miles northwest of Grenoble. The Aspremont dump closed the following day.
The next move was from Voreppe to Sellières, ten miles north of Lons-le-Saunier, on 12 September. The area was already too far behind the advancing Seventh Army installations, however, and a second forward dump was opened the next day at Baume-les-Dames, fifteen miles northeast of Besançon. With the change of direction following the shift to SHAEF command, the Baume dump moved to Vesoul on 19 September, where it was joined a day later by the group from Sellières. At Vesoul the dump was in a building for the first time, being housed in a large tobacco warehouse.
On 2 October the 1st Storage and Issue Platoon opened at Épinal, with the remainder of the company moving up gradually until 17 October, when the Vesoul dump was closed. On the same day a second dump was opened at Lunéville, some thirty miles north of Épinal. The Épinal and Lunéville dumps were in buildings large enough to accommodate mess and billets as well as the depot itself.
Throughout the early weeks of the campaign, transportation presented the greatest difficulty. While the army issue points were still close to the beaches, medical supplies were unloaded from the ships to DUKWs, which ferried them ashore and delivered them directly to the dumps. As the army moved forward, medical supplies were brought up in organic vehicles of the 7th Medical Depot Company, operating around the clock. The pressure was relieved only after the
21 See p.
Services of Supply organization was able to build up substantial stock levels in the rear areas and took over responsibility for delivering supplies to Seventh Army depots. The evacuation hospitals were similarly pressed for vehicles to carry their own supplies from the army issue points, which were sometimes as much as 150 miles away. Only the extra stocks carried by each Seventh Army hospital prevented critical shortages of some items.
Until the inauguration of rail transportation in late September, it was difficult to keep a sufficient volume of medical supplies in the army area. Many items were distributed on a ration basis through most of October, but there were no actual failures to meet minimum requirements. Local procurement was unnecessary to any important extent since quantities of captured German supplies were available. Housekeeping equipment, such as wood-burning stoves, pots and pans, knives, dishes, enamelware, electric refrigerators, and kerosene lamps generally came from this source. In emergencies, requisitions were filed with SOS NATO USA in Naples by cable and supplies were sent by air.
Two portable optical units of the 7th Medical Depot Company averaged twenty-four pairs of spectacles and six repair jobs a day for army troops. Two dental prosthetic teams joined the depot company, one in late September and one in early October, serving variously with the 2d Convalescent Hospital, the 35th Field Artillery Group, and the parent unit.
During the months in which the 7th Medical Depot Company was supported by the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, monthly tonnage issued rose from 64.5 in August to 356.8 in November. (Table 28)
Medical Supply in the Communications Zone
The 231St Medical Composite Battalion--with its two attached medical base depot companies, the 70th with 2 officers and 29 enlisted men, and the 71st with one officer and 30 enlisted men--was activated in Oran on 15 August 1944, absorbing personnel and equipment of the 2d Medical Depot Company, and was assigned immediately to the DRAGOON operation.23 The unit reached St.
23 See p. 345, above.
Raphael on 9 September. The 71st Medical Base Depot Company took over operation of the Ste. Maxime depot, while the 70th accompanied the battalion to Marseille. A large garage and hangar had already been obtained by the Coastal Base Surgeon as a depot site. Eight operational medical units, each sufficient to maintain 10,000 men for 30 days, reached Marseille simultaneously with the supply personnel, and within 72 hours the depot was able to issue supplies.24
When the depot was in full operation, the 231st Medical Composite Battalion was sent to Dijon to set up a more forward base, the 71st Medical Base Depot Company moving to the Marseille depot on 24 September. It was at this time, however, that the decision to establish two base sections was made, and late in October the 231st returned to Marseille to resume operation of the Delta Base depot. The 70th and 71st Medical Base Depot Companies were assigned to CONAD, joining forces to operate the Dijon depot, which was sited in a French barracks. Italian service units and French civilians were used as needed by both base section depots.
Both Delta Base and Continental Advance were supplied by COMZ NATO-USA, but all supplies for CONAD passed through Delta Base. They were often transferred by DUKW from ships to freight cars bound for the forward area without ever entering a Delta Base dump. For about two months supplies were not received in Delta Base in large enough quantities to maintain adequate stock levels in either base section. Arrival times were uncertain, the condition of the only partially restored port of Marseille made unloading difficult, and transportation shortages frequently delayed movement of supplies from the docks to the depot. All together, the Delta Base supply organization was able to fill during October only about 60 percent of the requisitions from Seventh Army, 1st French Army, CONAD, and Delta Base. All base section medical units, however, carried 90-day supply levels with them to France and were not seriously handicapped by the slow buildup. The authorized stock level of 30 days of operating supplies and a 45-day reserve was reached in mid-November. Supplies adequate for 7 days of operation, with an 8-day reserve, were in the CONAD depot and the remainder in Delta Base warehouses.
As many items as possible were procured locally, including motor vehicles, which greatly facilitated the movement of supplies. Inducements were offered for the return of salvage and emphasis was placed on repair. After the return of the 231st Medical Composite Battalion to Delta Base, CONAD was without any medical maintenance and repair service of its own. Some repair work was farmed out to other military units, but many items had to be shipped to Marseille for repair.
The transfer of supply functions to the European theater was actively under discussion through October. The method
24 Principal sources for this section are: (1) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, MTOUSA, 1944, an. K; (2) Rpt of Med Sec. Hq, COMZ NATOUSA; (3) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, Delta Base Sec, 1944; (4) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, CONAD, 1944; (5) Med Hist Data, 231st Med Composite Bn, 28 Oct 44; (6) Hist Journal, 231st Med Composite Bn, 13 Aug 44-31 Dec 45; (7) Annual Rpt, 7th Med Depot Co, 1944; (8) Davidson, Med Supply in MTOUSA, 150-56.
finally adopted was to transfer six officers and twenty-six enlisted men, all specialists in medical supply, from Headquarters, COMZ NATOUSA, to Headquarters, Southern Line of Communications. The effective date of the transfer was 20 November 1944.
The supply build-up in southern France is well shown by the record of receipts and issues of the 231st Medical Composite Battalion set forth in Table 29.
Professional Services in Southern France
Medicine and Surgery
In both medicine and surgery, the practices developed in earlier Mediterranean campaigns carried over to southern France. Medical officers and enlisted technicians who had gained their combat experience in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy supplied the continuity, while the theater consultants--Colonel Churchill in surgery and Colonel Long in medicine--gave the same attention to the medical service of Seventh Army, Delta Base, and CONAD that they gave to other armies and the base sections in the theater.
Forward Surgery- Field hospital platoons, operating within litter-carrying distance of the division clearing stations, continued to be the primary unit for forward surgery. In the Southern France Campaign, these units were set up to accommodate a maximum of 60 patients. The number actually cared for at any one time was usually between 25 and 40. Nontransportable patients went directly to these hospitals, where teams of the 2d Auxiliary Surgical Group performed such surgical procedures as were necessary to save life and limb and to put the patient in condition to be moved to an evacuation hospital farther to the rear. Cases going to the field hospitals usually included severe hemorrhage, wounds of the abdomen, severe chest wounds, multiple fractures, traumatic amputations, and those in immediate need of transfusion.
Other surgical cases went directly to the evacuation hospitals, as did those who had received initial treatment in the field units. The forward evacuations were organized and their tents laid out with the efficiency of the surgical service as the main consideration. In periods of heavy combat, evacuation hospital surgeons worked as teams in 12- and sometimes 16-hour shifts, with operating rooms continuously in use. The maxi-
mum holding period was seven days.25
The theater consultant, Colonel Churchill, spent three weeks visiting forward and base installations in southern France, beginning 16 September. He was followed in mid-October by the orthopedic consultant, Lt. Col. Oscar P. Hampton, Jr. The Seventh Army surgical consultant, Colonel Berry, was active in organizing and supervising the surgical work of army hospitals from the start of the campaign.26
In addition to adequate supplies of penicillin, which had largely replaced the sulfonamides, Seventh Army surgeons also had the advantage of daily deliveries of whole blood. From D plus until D plus 8, blood was flown from the 15th Medical General Laboratory in Naples to Corsica and relayed to the invasion beaches by fast PT boats. Thereafter it was flown directly to the most forward airfield, where personnel of the 6703d Blood Transfusion Unit received and distributed it on a priority basis first to the field hospital units, then to the 400-bed evacuations, and finally to the 750-bed evacuations. The field hospitals averaged 3.5 to 4 units of whole blood per patient transfused, the evacuation hospitals 2 to 2.5 units. Blood also came by way of Naples from the French blood bank in Algiers.27
As the army moved forward and flight distances from Naples lengthened, forward hospitals drew blood locally wherever possible and maintained small blood banks of their own. In November a section of the 6707th Blood Transfusion Unit set up a blood bank in Marseille, where donors were available among service troops. Many civilians were also induced to give blood by the offer of flight rations to those who participated. A mobile Section operated in the forward area, but the number of donors was too limited to be relied upon.28
Neuropsychiatry- The procedure for handling neuropsychiatric cases in Seventh Army was patterned on the increasingly successful system developed in Italy by Fifth Army under the guidance of the theater neuropsychiatric consultant, Colonel Hanson. Again continuity was provided by transfer of personnel, including the army consultant Major Ludwig, who had been commanding officer of the Fifth Army Neuropsychiatric Center.
Owing largely to the rapid initial advance of Seventh Army, with accompanying high morale among the combat troops, the incidence of psychiatric disorders was low during the first month of the campaign. Beginning in mid-September, however, as the terrain became more difficult, the weather deteriorated, and enemy resistance stiffened, an increasing number of neuropsychiatric casualties passed through the division clearing stations. The three divisions of VI Corps had been in almost continuous combat since the Salerno landings, and the impact of battle fatigue was cumulative.29
25 (1) Annual
Rpt. Surg, Seventh Army, 1944. (2) Annual Rpt, 2d Aux Surg Gp, 1944. (3)
Annual Rpts, 1944, of 10th and 11th Field Hosps; and 9th, 10th, 27th, 51st,
59th, 93d and 95th Evac Hosps.
The basic consideration was to treat neuropsychiatric casualties as far forward as possible. Cases were first examined by the division psychiatrists in the clearing stations, where every effort was made to get the men back into combat without delay. Those that did not respond promptly were sent to the Seventh Army Neuropsychiatric Center, operated by the 2d Platoon of the 616th Medical Clearing Company, 181st Medical Battalion. The center had a staff of eighty-five enlisted men, with four psychiatrists attached. The chief of the psychiatric service was Capt. (later Maj.) Stephen W. Ranson. All cases in which a psychiatric diagnosis was made at an evacuation hospital were also transferred to the center without further treatment.
At the center, treatment followed the pattern used in Fifth Army. Patients were kept under mild barbiturate sedation for twenty-four hours, but were maintained in ambulatory status. After the initial period of rest and quiet, they were interviewed and a course of therapy prescribed. Patients were kept active and were urged to interest themselves in the recreational and orientation facilities of the hospital.
Every effort was made to dispose of
cases as quickly as possible. Except in special circumstances, four days was the maximum holding period. Those who could be returned to duty were then reequipped and sent back to their own divisions without passing through a replacement command. Those who needed further care went to a fixed hospital for more extensive treatment. Evacuation to Italy was necessary for a time, but among the fixed units transferred to southern France the 3d General Hospital at Aixen-Provence was equipped to handle psychiatric cases, while the 51st Station, which opened on 4 November at Auxonne, was exclusively a neuropsychiatric installation.
Returns to duty from the division clearing stations were 50 percent of all neuropsychiatric cases treated for the period 15-31 August, 37 percent for the period 1-15 September, and 23 percent for the period 16-30 September. Returns to duty from the Seventh Army Neuropsychiatric Center and other Seventh Army hospitals for the same periods were 29 percent, 11 percent, and 12 percent, respectively.
During the period that southern France was under Mediterranean theater control, there were few problems in preventive medicine. Most serious of these was venereal disease control. Malaria had been anticipated as a problem and prepared for, but proved to be minor. Trench foot was developing into a problem of major concern at the time operations passed to ETO.
Venereal Disease Control- The Seventh Army Venereal Disease Treatment Center, operated by the 616th Medical Clearing Company, 181st Medical Battalion, was initially overloaded with cases contracted in Italy during the staging period. The hospital, staffed by 8 officers and 93 enlisted men, had a planned capacity of 250, but had to expand almost immediately to 375 beds.30
Additional contacts were made in the coastal area, but as the army advanced northward through predominantly agricultural country, opportunities for sexual contacts lessened. The rapidity of movement also helped to reduce the
30 Primary sources for this section are: (1) Annual Rpt, Surg. Seventh Army, 1944; (2) Annual Rpt, 181st Med Bn, 1944; (3) Ltr, Col Barnes, VD consultant, MTOUSA, to Surg, MTOUSA, 2 Nov 44. Sub: Venereal Disease Control Activities in Seventh Army, Continental Base and Delta Base Sees; (4) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, MTOUSA, 1944, an. J; (5) Annual Rpt, Med See, Delta Base, 1944; (6) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, CONAD, 1944.
venereal rate. (Table 30) In the main, the preventive measures taken under the direction of Major (later Lt. Col.) James E. Flinn, Seventh Army venereal disease control officer, were effective. These included an intensive educational program in the individual units, with emphasis on the importance of immediate prophylaxis; rigid enforcement of off-limits restrictions on known brothels; and curfew hours that limited the time available for contacts. The rapidity of cures, under the new penicillin treatment, tended to discourage any deliberate exposure to escape hazardous duties. Acute gonorrhea cases were returned to duty from the Venereal Disease Center within twelve hours, and mild cases were treated on duty status.
In the base sections, particularly in Delta Base, the problem was more difficult. Two metropolitan prophylactic stations were established in Marseille, but more were needed. All of the 31 licensed houses of prostitution in that city were placed off-limits, but indications were that the women simply moved to rooms and to small hotels, where they were even harder to control. Five brothels in Dijon were also placed off-limits apparently with more effect. Dispensaries and fixed hospitals in CONAD saw relatively few venereal cases.
Malaria- A malaria problem in southern France had been anticipated during the planning of DRAGOON, and a malariologist, Maj. Arthur W. Hill, was attached to Seventh Army, together with the 132d Malaria Control Unit. While a considerable number of cases were treated in the early weeks of the campaign, they were virtually all contracted in Italian staging areas before sailing. Individual preventive and suppressive measures were continued until 11 October, but were then discontinued as of no further value, and Major Hill returned to the 2655th Malaria Control Detachment in Italy.31
The 132d MCU went to the Coastal Base Section in September, being replaced in Seventh Army by the 131st MCU from Corsica. In October the 132d went to CONAD and the 131st to Delta Base. Both passed to ETO in November. Neither of these units, however, engaged in actual malaria control work. Inspection of the Marseille area immediately after occupation of the city revealed no malaria-infested mosquitoes, and none were found in the advance north. The malaria control units, under both army and base section jurisdiction, were used primarily for fly, roach, and bedbug control, and for general sanitation work.
Trench Foot- Trench foot appeared among Seventh Army troops toward the end of September, becoming an increasingly severe problem through the succeeding months, but that story belongs rather to the ETO than to the MTO period. The major contributing factor was the same as it had been in Italy-- cold and wet weather in which men at the front had no opportunity to change socks or dry their feet for days at a time. Wool socks and shoe pacs were issued, but only after the condition had appeared. Even had they been available at the start of the bad weather, however, they would have had only a minimal
31 Principal sources for this section are: (1) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, MTOUSA, 1944, an. J; (2) Annual Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 1944; (3) Annual Rpt, Med Sec, CONAD, 1944; (4) Annual Rpt, 9th Evac Hosp, 1944.
preventive effect, since the nature of the action required that men stay in the lines for considerable periods of time.32
During the staging period before leaving Italy, Seventh Army dental officers, under the direction of Colonel Gurley, Seventh Army dental surgeon, made every effort to bring the dental health of the assault troops to a high level. Except for emergencies, little dental work was possible during the early weeks of the invasion. Ninety percent of the division dental officers did none at all until D plus 15, functioning during that period in various medical and administrative capacities. The dental services of the evacuation hospitals and of the combat divisions were supplemented around the beginning of October by two dental prosthetic teams assigned to the 7th Medical Depot Company and a third assigned to serve U.S. troops operating with 1st French Army.33
Inspection of the combat dental service of Seventh Army early in October by the theater dental surgeon, Colonel Tingay, revealed no dental problems. Colonel Tingay was particularly impressed by the manner in which the dental work of the 3d Division was being carried on. He reported:
One officer from each infantry regiment, the officer assigned to special troops and one officer from the medical battalion have been- attached to the division surgeons office and thus come under the direct control of the Division Dental Surgeon. With this nucleus of five officers, clinics are established in rearward areas in the most feasible locations and a large volume of work accomplished during actual combat. The other dental officer of each infantry regiment is left with the regiment and the officer assigned to artillery is left with the division artillery. In addition to providing emergency treatment these officers are also able to accomplish some constructive dentistry. A prosthetic laboratory truck has been constructed and is placed in operation wherever the rearward clinic is established.34
In the base sections dental work was performed by dental personnel of the fixed hospitals.
The first veterinary unit to arrive in southern France was the 890th Medical Service Detachment (formerly T Detachment), which had been active in the theater since North African days. The unit landed on the invasion coast on D plus 8-23 August--and began supervising the issue of field rations at quartermaster Class I supply dumps in the beach area. Throughout the period of MTO control, the detachment worked in close co-operation with the Seventh Army quartermaster section, supervising the issue of rations at army railheads.35
The 45th Veterinary Company (Separate) arrived on schedule on D plus 20 (4 September). The veterinary detachments, consisting of 3 officers and 12 enlisted men each, of the 601st and 602d Field Artillery Battalions arrived about
Rpt, Surg, Seventh Army, 1944. (2) Annual Rpt, Surg, VI Corps, 1944.
(3) Annual Rpt, Surg. 3d Inf Div, 1944.
the same time, together with 1,200 animals of the 2 units. The 601st had come in by glider as a component of the 1st Airborne Task Force, and was then fighting in the Maritime Alps, where it was joined by the 602d, its animals and its veterinary personnel. The animals were shipped from Italy on LST's whose holds had been converted to stall space by the use of earth and sandbags. The 2d Platoon of the 45th Veterinary Company was assigned to support the two field artillery battalions, while the balance of the company went to Lons-le-Saunier for staging.
The Seventh Army
veterinary surgeon, Colonel Stevenson, arrived in southern France on D
plus 25, or 9 September, along with the 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital,
of which he had been commanding officer. The hospital staged for a few
days at St. Raphael, then opened on 18 September in a French artillery
barracks at Grenoble. Three days later the 45th Veterinary
On 24 September both the 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital and the 45th Veterinary Company were attached for operational control to First French Army, which had 6,000 animals in the Maritime Alps between Nice and the Swiss border and another 6,000 in the Vosges area. From the Vosges, French animal casualties went to Grenoble by animal hospital train. Though its Table of Organization stall capacity was only 150, the 17th Veterinary Evacuation Hospital operated up to 236 stalls.
In the base sections, as distinct from the army area, the veterinary service was confined primarily to inspection of cold storage plants for perishable foods and continuous inspection of locally processed foodstuffs.
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Swoboda Gem Trees
The First Tumbled Stone Trees
A Swoboda bonsai-style gemstone tree in a small planter with fused quartz gravel. The tree has several beautiful gemstone flowers, each formed by several tumbled stones surrounding a central pearl. The flowers were made from tumbled amethyst, aventurine, citrine, rose quartz, peridot and amazonite. Photo by Ilze Kuhlman.
Many Swoboda gemstone trees were sold with a metal base. This one has flowers made from amethyst, dyed howlite, citrine, sodalite and rhodochrosite. It also has leaves made from green aventurine.
Gem Trees With Tumbled Stones
Swoboda Jewelry manufactured the first tumbled stone jewelry made in the United States. They also made wonderful gem trees in a variety of styles. The bonsai-style tree shown at right was one of the most popular gem tree styles made by Swoboda.
The trunks and branches of these trees were made from a single base metal casting that was typically gold plated. The branches had pads where a number of colorful tumbled stones were glued to produce small flowers or a cluster of leaves. The tumbled stone flowers were made of gemstone petals surrounding a pearl or gemstone bead.
A close-up of a few flowers and aventurine leaves from the metal-base gemstone tree shown in the right column. This shows how the gemstone flowers are formed from a cluster of tumbled stones around a central pearl. Flowers shown here are made from dyed howlite, sodalite, amethyst, and white quartz.
Swoboda trees were generally small, starting at about five inches with a few dozen gemstones. The larger trees were over one foot tall, weighed several pounds and were covered with hundreds of gemstones.
The leaves of Swoboda trees were usually green aventurine or jade. Swoboda used a wide variety of stones as petals of the flowers. Some of the most commonly seen petal stones are amethyst, rose quartz, amazonite, citrine, peridot, sodalite, lapis, carnelian, moonstone, rhodochrosite, and howlite dyed to a turquoise color.
This beautiful Swoboda tree is mounted on a mineral specimen base that is either barite or dolomite. The flowers have petals of green aventurine tumbled stones surrounding a natural pearl. The branches and roots have a gold-tone finish. Photo by Kelly in California.
Swoboda Base Styles
Swoboda gemstone trees had three different types of bases: planter bases, metal bases and mineral bases.
Many Swoboda trees were placed in a small planter such as the bonsai-style tree at the top of the right column. These planters were generally filled with a gemstone gravel that was glued or fused in place. White quartz and green aventurine were common gravels.
Some Swoboda trees had a metal base. The second tree from the top in the right column has a metal base. These often depict the gnarly roots of a tree on a rocky landscape. Although one might expect these metal bases to make the trees very heavy, the features were often hollow to save on metal and reduce weight.
A third type base used by Swoboda was a rock or a mineral specimen. These gave the trees a natural look. A bonsai-style tree on a rocky landscape gave the impression that it was tenaciously clinging to the Earth. The third photo in the right column is an example of a Swoboda tree with a mineral specimen base.
Swoboda Jewelry produced many variations of their “Christmas tree brooch.” This tree has tumbled peridot for foliage and garnet beads for ornaments, with a planter accented with peridot beads.
Swoboda Christmas Tree Brooch
The most popular Swoboda tree was a small Christmas tree that was worn as a brooch.
These were small pins that ranged from about 1 1/2" to 2 1/2" in height and had gemstone foliage and ornaments. Green aventurine, jade and peridot were often used as foliage. Many different stones were used as ornaments with garnet, dyed howlite and pearls being very popular. A photo of one of their Christmas tree brooches is displayed in the right column of this page.
Swoboda Tree Trivia
Nancy Reagan, wife of then California governor Ronald Reagan, liked Swoboda gemstone trees. When the 1966 national Governor’s Conference was hosted in California, she commissioned Swoboda Jewelry to produce miniature cypress trees as gifts for the governors. [source]
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ḤAYYAṬ, JUDAH BEN JACOB:
Spanish cabalist; lived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Himself one of the exiles from Spain, he describes in vivid colors his sufferings and those of his brethren (preface to his "Minḥat Yehudah"). In the winter of 1493 Ḥayyaṭ and his family, with 250 other Spanish refugees, were ordered to leave Lisbon. For four months the ship on which they had embarked remained at sea, as no port would allow the Jews to land for fear of the plague. Finally, the vessel was captured by Biscayan pirates, plundered, and taken to Malaga. The officials of that port would allow the Jews neither to land nor to depart; nor were provisions given them. They were, however, visited by priests who came on board every day to preach Christianity. Driven by hunger, hundreds were converted. Ḥayyaṭ's wife died of starvation, and he himself lay between life and death.
At last the Malaga authorities allowed the Jews to set sail for Africa. Ḥayyaṭ settled in Berbera, but there a new calamity befell him. A Mohammedan, a native of Spain, testified that, during the rejoicings at the conquest of Granada, Ḥayyaṭ had ordered his flock to drag through the streets the effigy of Mohammed. Accordingly he was thrown into a dungeon, and was offered the alternatives of death or the adoption of Islam. After forty days of incarceration he was ransomed by the Jews of Luza, to whom he presented two hundred volumes from his library. He then went to Fez; but a famine which raged there was so severe that he was compelled to turn a hand-mill for a piece of bread scarcely fit for a dog. At night he slept upon the ash-heaps of the town. After many struggles and sufferings he reached Italy and settled at Mantua.
Ḥayyaṭ was one of the greatest cabalists of his time. At the request of Joseph Jabez of Mantua, he wrote a commentary on "Ma'areket ha-Elahut," a cabalistic system of theology, attributed to Perez ben Isaac. This work, together with the text, was published at Ferrara in 1557, under the title "Minḥat Yehudah." In the preface, in which the events of his stormy life are narrated, he glorifies the Cabala, and advises its students concerning the works to be consulted on that subject. According to him, Isaac ibn Laṭif is to be relied upon in everything except in Cabala, "in which he stands only upon one foot"; and Abraham Abulafia is a mere swindler. Ḥayyaṭ recommends: the "Sefer Yeẓirah," which he attributes to the tanna R. Akiba; the "Bahir"; the works of Joseph Gikatilla; those of Shem-Ṭob de Leon; the "Sodot" of Naḥmanides; and the writings of Menahem Recanati.
- Introduction to Ma'areket ha-Elahut;
- Conforte, Ḳore ha-Dorot, p. 30a;
- De Rossi-Hamberger, Hist. Wörterb. p. 72;
- Nepi-Ghirondi, Toledot Gedole Yisrael, p. 149;
- Zunz, Z. G. pp. 231, 377;
- Steinschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 1300;
- Fuenn, Keneset Yisrael, p. 396.
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The Egyptian goose often grazes on land, feeding on a variety of plant matter including grasses, seeds, shoots, leaves, grain and crops. It also takes food items from shallow water, including algae and aquatic plants, and sometimes takes animal matter such as worms, locusts or winged termites (2) (5). In some areas, individuals undertake seasonal movements linked to water availability (2) (3) (5) and, after breeding, large flocks of Egyptian geese may gather during the annual moult (2) (6) (7).
The breeding season of this species varies with location (2) (5), but usually occurs in the spring or at the end of the dry season (5). In South Africa, breeding may occur at any time of year, but is mainly recorded from May to December with a July to October peak (11). The introduced population in the Netherlands breeds from February to August (8).
Pairs of Egyptian geese nest singly, typically building the nest out of reeds, leaves and grass, lined with down. The nest may be built among vegetation on the ground or near water, in a hole in an embankment or tree, on a cliff ledge or building, or even in the abandoned nest of another bird species (2) (5). Between 5 and 12 unmarked, white or creamy eggs are laid, hatching after 28 to 30 days. The female alone incubates the eggs, while the male guards the nesting territory (12). The chicks fledge at around 60 to 75 days, but do not reach sexual maturity until about two years old (2) (5). The Egyptian goose has lived up to 25 years in captivity (2).
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Some analysts estimate that Moore’s Law — the ability of manufacturers to double the number of transistors on a chip every 18 months — will end in 10 years. At a certain point, the electrons of silicon circuits become unstable and can no longer be used to process information. While the end of the road may be coming for silicon-based transistors, there may be a rising contender to the computing throne.
The 2010 Nobel Prize in physics went to two men — Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov — for their research on graphene. The graphite-based material is perfect for data center applications — not to mention consumer electronics, high-speed Internet networking and medical equipment — because it is not only highly conductive, but it also handles electron movement and heat better than silicon.
Graphene has been tapped as a possible material to make flexible touchscreen displays for consumer devices, and its single-electron properties makes it an excellent choice for the transistors of the future.
Envision, if you will, the size of a current enterprise data center. Now imagine if each processor could hold 3 billion transistors and take up only the width of a pencil tip. Add in the fact that a processor based on graphene transistors would run cooler than current silicon-based processors, and you’ve got a change in cooling infrastructure as well.
If graphene keeps rolling at its current development pace, we’ll be in the future before you know it.
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Skip to comments.Genetic link shown between Indian subcontinent and Mesopotamia
Posted on 09/30/2013 8:08:00 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Ancient DNA methodology was applied to analyse sequences extracted from freshly unearthed remains (teeth) of 4 individuals deeply deposited in the slightly alkaline soil of Tell Ashara (ancient Terqa) and Tell Masaikh (ancient Kar-Assurnasirpal) Syrian archaeological sites, both in the middle Euphrates valley... [also] fifty-nine dental non-metric traits on a sample of teeth from 350 human skeletons excavated at three sites in the lower middle Euphrates valley. This showed a stable population until after the Mongolian invasion which resulted in a large depopulation of northern Mesopotamia in the 13th century CE. The final major change occurred during the 17th century with Bedouin tribes arriving from the Arabian Peninsula...
Three others were analysed only to confirm their origin on the basis of HVR-I sequence. Studied remains were excavated at two archaeological sites in the middle Euphrates valley and dated between the Early Bronze Age and the Late Roman period (between 2500 BCE and 500 CE)...
The studied individuals carried mtDNA haplotypes corresponding to the M4b1, M49 and/or M61 haplogroups, which are believed to have arisen in the area of the Indian subcontinent during the Upper Palaeolithic and are absent in people living today in Syria. However, these same haplogroups are present in people inhabiting todays Tibet, Himalayas, India and Pakistan...
The suggestion is that these analysed remains from Mesopotamia belonged to people with a genetic affinity to the Indian subcontinent as the distribution of identified ancient haplotypes indicates a solid link with populations from the region of South Asia-Tibet (Trans-Himalaya).
This may represent either that the individuals are descendants of migrants from much earlier times (Palaeolithic), spreading the clades of the macrohaplogroup M throughout Eurasia and founding regional Mesopotamian groups like that of Terqa, or they are from merchants moving along trade routes passing near or through the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at pasthorizonspr.com ...
Distribution of haplogroup L of Y-Chromosome Possible time of origin 25,000-30,000 years BP. Image. Wikimedia
Lycian Influence To The Indian Cave Temples
Capital City Of Ancient Superpower Discovered (Medes)
There wuz DNA technology in ancient timz?
We're gonna need a population IQ distribution analysis.
Pathans are Indo-Europeans as are Indians, Iranis, Slavs, Germanics, Italics, Armenians, Greeks, Celts etc.
However, culturally they are Islamic just as other indo-european members are culturally indic (well, Hindu) or Christian-Graceo-Roman.
I wuz always “learned” to recognize that race and skin color are widely NOT the same.
Wise men from the east?
Perhaps the way the Vikings are related to the British nobility. (Vikings who had settled in northern France, the Normans(Northmen) invaded England in 1066, becoming the new ruling class there).
The intelligent ones in what's currently Pashtun territory, noticed that it is not a very good location, and LEFT for elsewhere, leaving the genetic dregs behind.
The Pushtun (Pashtoon / Pathan) are genetically linked to Semitic Jews.
Could the Taliban be genetically linked to the Jews?
Could the Taliban be genetically linked to the Jews?
Scientists research the genetic link between the Indian, Afghani Pathans tribe and the lost tribes of Israel.
By Haaretz Service
Published 16:17 14.01.10
Israel has asked an Indian geneticist to study the link between the Indian Pathans tribe and certain tribes of Israel, the Times of India reported this week.
Geneticist Shahnaz Ali has been asked to study the link between the Afridi Pathans, based in the Lucknow region of India, and certain tribes of Israel who migrated across Asia thousands of years ago.
Ali is based in Haifa where she is working in collaboration with Israel’s prestigious university the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.
Some experts attribute Israel’s decision to fund the research to a theory supported by many that Afghanistan’s Pashtun fighters, the community from which the Taliban draw their strength, are descendants of Afridi Pathans.
This is not the first time speculations of a deep rooted connection between the two seemingly unrelated people have been raised, yet this is the first time Israel’s Foreign Ministry has offered to fund the research.
Ali has been genetically analyzing blood samples of the Afridi Pathans of Malihabad which she collected earlier to confirm their Jewish origin.
In an interview with the Times of India, Dr. Navras Aafreedi, a researcher in Indo-Judaic studies and one of the first proponents of the common-origin theory in India said “Shahnaz’s research would be important if it does establish the genetic link between Pathans and Jews, as it could be seen as a scientific validation of a traditional belief about the Israelite origin of Pathans and can have interesting ramifications for Muslim-Jew relations in particular and the world at large.”
The Pahtans in India are believed to be descendants of the Ephraim tribe, one of the 10 Israelite tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel who were exiled by Assyrian invaders in 721 B.C.E.
Some descendants of these lost tribes are said to have settled in India between 1202 C.E. and 1761 C.E., Afridi Pathans of Malihabad being one of them.
“Malihabad in Lucknow district is the only Pathan, or Pashtun, territory safely and easily accessible to those interested in the probable Israelite origins of Pathans. It is certainly not possible to collect DNA samples in Afghanistan or the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, where most of the Pathans or Pashtuns live,” Aafreedi said.
There are few Pathans left in India, primarily at places like Malihabad near Lucknow and Qayamganj in Farrukhabad, all of whom Aafreedi approached for the academic research.
According to Aafreedi, the Afridi Pathans in India, even though they claim Israeli origin, are just as hostile and antagonistic towards Israel as Muslims anywhere else in the world.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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By Alexander Ač, Czech Globe
Thanks to Luboš Motl for providing me the place for a guest post.
Natural greenhouse effect is a well described and for a long time understood scientific phenomenon. Without greenhouse gases (GHGs), such as water vapor, CO2, CH4, O3, and some others, global average air temperature would be about 33 °C lower.
Nobody in the scientific community is denying the fact that the rise in atmospheric CO2 is solely due to burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. And finally, nobody in the serious scientific community is denying the fact that the rise in CO2 is leading to at least some climatic warming.
The basic points of disagreements can be summarized accordingly:
- A) Is the observed rise in surface air temperature by 0,8 °C/century mostly due to human activities (i.e. burning of fossil fuels and deforestation)?
- B) Is the current temperature rise of 0,166 °C/decade rapid in a historical/paleoclimatological perspective?
- C) Is the net effect of global warming (increasingly) negative?
- D) Can the rise in weather extremes be attributed to climatic warming?
A) I think the short answer is yes. Climate doubters often say that “we do not know enough to say that”. Obviously, I disagree. The argument that often follows is that “it is the Sun”. (But there are 173 other arguments, see here.) Well, I need to find at least one climate doubter who would explain to me how the stratosphere can be cooling, if the Sun is supposedly increasing its activity? What would be the physics behind? Another argument which often follows is that “we do not have direct evidence for AGW”. Again, I disagree, simply because it is not true. We do have direct evidence based on satellite measurements. The first one is a decreased outgoing long wave radiation (Harries et al., 2001) at the spectral bands of greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, CFCs, and O3) where they explicitly write:
„Our results provide direct experimental evidence for a significant increase in the Earth's greenhouse effect that is consistent with concerns over radiative forcing of climate.“
Their results were confirmed by later studies using data from other satellites. The second evidence is in increased amount of infrared radiation returning to Earth, which again is a result of increased amount of GHGs in the atmosphere (Evans, 2006; Wang and Liang, 2009). Evans writes in the abstract:
„This experimental data should effectively end the argument by skeptics that no experimental evidence exists for the connection between greenhouse gas increases in the atmosphere and global warming.“
Why “most” of the observed warming in the last century, and especially in the last 40 years can be attributed to GHGs? Simply because sun activity is decreasing during this period, and using 11-year running averages, sun activity peaked in 1960. Further, we are also emitting significant amount of aerosols, which are effectively masking unknown amount of warming (Ramanathan and Feng, 2008). According to their estimates, fixing GHGs concentrations at 2005 level, we are already committed to at least 2,4°C of warming, as compared to the pre-industrial temperature. Can a climate doubter point me to a natural factor that would lead to a significant global warming, if it is not the Sun?
B) The rate of warming matters . For natural, and that much for managed ecosystems (hey, ask those forests in British Columbia), adaptive success declines with the rate of (climate) change. That is basic ecological knowledge. The current rate of warming (0.0166°C/y), which is BTW increasing on a decadal time scale, is about 50 times faster (0.0003°C/y) than during the PETM (Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum) geological event. Back then most of organisms were able to adapt, but it was a very turbulent era, new geological period emerged, and many plant and animal species dyed out forever. While mammals thrived and spread, it was a mass extinction event for others. According to one recent estimate 1 in 10 species is endangered by extinction by 2100, if current climate change impacts continue. This makes it a very conservative estimate in my opinion, since the impacts are expected to increase/speed up significantly. There is also evidence that climate change played a significant role in mass extinctions of mammals 50 000 years ago. But such a link (correlation) between climate change and mass extinctions is quite significant also over the past 520 million years. That the current rate of climate change is unprecedented (excluding e.g., the collision with asteroid), is indirectly shown by the fastest rate of ocean acidification in at least 300 millions years, as well as by unprecedented rate of CO2 increase.
And no, global warming did not stop in 1998 (or whenever), since Arctic ice continues in its “death spiral”, with its oldest (and thickest) ice disappearing even faster than the young ice. The inevitable disappearing of summer arctic ice (with a current melting rate of 300 km3/year) by 2040, or maybe by 2020, should matter also to climate doubters. Why? Because there is a surge of peer-reviewed literature that Arctic ice decline is linked with unusual jet stream patterns that are causing winter cold surges and snowfall in Europe and USA. And as far as I know, climate doubters hate cold weather (and me too).
C) The short answer is yes. Between 1980-2010 the frequency of great floods and hot extremes has increased 3,5-fold, and the number of meteorological events has increased 2,5-fold. Such a dramatic rise cannot be explained by rise in global population or rise in global GDP, since frequency of non-climate/weather events (earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami) rose much less during the same period (0,5-fold). The link with global warming should be obvious, as more trapped energy in the atmosphere has to manifest somehow/somewhere. But if it is not, here are some suggestions and we are smoothly coming to a final point:
Carbon dioxide behind weather extremes
D) Yes, at least some of the weather extremes are demonstrably stronger (more damaging/deadly) by warming, and some possibly would have not occurred without increased GHGs concentrations. I have yet to find a climate doubter to show me how a global warming should/would/could NOT affect the weather around the globe.
- a) global warming at least doubled the risk (probability) of 2003 European summer heatwave (Stott et al., 2004)
- b) the probability of hot temperature record in Moscow in July increased by 80 %, as a result of a long-term warming trend (Rahmstorf and Coumou, 2011). July temperature record in Moscow was associated with unprecedented heat-wave in Russia.
- c) Min et al. (2011) found that “human-induced increases in greenhouse gases have contributed to the observed intensification of heavy precipitation events found over approximately two-thirds of data-covered parts of Northern Hemisphere land areas”. Pall et al. (2011) found that “nine out of ten cases our model results indicate that twentieth-century anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions increased the risk of floods occurring in England and Wales in autumn 2000 by more than 20%, and in two out of three cases by more than 90%.”
- d) Kevin Trenberth writes in the journal Climatic Change (Trenberth, 2012): “All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to.”
Alexander Ač, Sunday, April 8th, 2012.
L.M.: I will preserve a kind of hospitable atmosphere for the guest but that doesn't mean that you're not allowed to disagree or criticize the arguments in the text above. The discussion takes place in the international Echo fast comments. People who see this blog in a domain different from motls.blogspot.com should click at the pirate icon below to access the international discussions.
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The magnificent Chinese Arch, standing proudly over Faulkner Street, proclaims the important place Chinatown has become in Manchester. The arch is painted in red and gold and adorned with dragons and phoenixes, colours and symbols of luck and prosperity. The arch, the first true Imperial Chinese arch erected in Europe, looks as though it might have stood for a hundred years. Yet the arch has been here merely since 1987 and Chinatown is still less than thirty years old.
Although the first Chinese restaurants arrived in the city shortly after World War Two, with the Ping Hong in 1948, the first real flurry of Oriental activity was in the early 1960's when several restaurants opened across the city centre. For as yet unexplored reasons these had all closed their doors by the later part of that decade.
Manchester's Chinatown, as a concentrated separate city centre quarter owes its present origins to the 1970s. Gradually in the old cotton warehouses around Nicholas Street, Faulkner Street and George Street, several restaurants began to open such as Charlie Chan's, 1973, the Woo Sang, 1976 and the Little Yang Sing, 1978.
The growth in restaurants in Manchester led to a corresponding growth in the services developed to serve them and their customers. This became more pronounced when the area became the focus for the Chinese community in the whole of the north of England on Sundays - the day most Chinese in take-aways and restaurants take off. This is when the area really comes alive as the community comes into the city centre to promenade and chat, visit Chinese medicine shops and health centres, visit Chinese financial and legal services, pop in and out of the shops and supermarkets and drop the children in at the Sunday schools. In this way Manchester Chinatown has become the Chinese village for the north of England. This role has been enhanced with creation of several old peoples homes in the city centre. Other landmark events include the opening of the Chinese Arts Centre in 1989, and the celebration, for more than a decade now, of the Chinese New Year complete with fireworks and dancing dragons.
Most of the first Chinese in Manchester were Hakkanese from the New Territories of Hong Kong. These tended to be rural people with a chief clan in each settlement - such as Tang or Lee or Man. In 1950's their land was being bought up by the Hong Kong government to cater for the rapid growth of the city. Clans had to substitute a leading position in an agricultural community with an inferior position in a factory with low wages. One way to avoid this was to emigrate to the UK. If their restaurants and take-aways were a success, profits could be reinvested or sent back to provide retirement homes or help out their families in Hong Kong. Some communities in Hong Kong were known as emigrant communities because they earned their income from the money sent back. As the community here developed, other immigrants arrived from Hong Kong Island and Kowloon often made up of the professional classes. Now there is a third grouping of the Chinese population in Manchester made up of the British Chinese born here.
In this way Manchester Chinatown has become the Chinese village for the north of England. This role has been enhanced with creation of several old peoples homes in the city centre.
Away from Manchester the Chinese have had a resident population in the UK for well over a hundred and fifty years. The first communities, the oldest Chinese communities in the West, grew in the port cities of Liverpool and London. They arrived on the ships of the British Empire, and set themselves up in the occupation they had undertaken on the high seas, the laundry trade. By the 1950's with the growth of home washing and chain laundries the community had moved into take-aways and restauranting at the same time as the British palate began to diversify. It is no coincidence that Manchester's Chinatown began to grow in significance as the port of Liverpool declined and business dried up in that city.
The significance of the Chinese community in Manchester's cultural life was underlined with the opening of the Chinese Arts Centre in 1989. However, the most obvious occasion in which Chinatown and the city join together in celebration is at Chinese New Year when thousands of spectators and performers come together to make up one huge party led by the biggest dancing dragon in Europe. This is one of those occasions which make you realise how much, modern Manchester has become its own rainbow nation. In February 2000 these celebrations will be extended over a whole week and will prove once more that Manchester's Chinatown is full of confidence and set to grow and grow.
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A HISTORY OF ANIMAL ABUSE AND DEATHS:
Orcas And Dolphins:
In July 1998, Midori, a three month old orphaned sea lion was "cooked to death" when a heater was mistakenly turned on driving the temperature to 100 degrees in the pup's glass enclosure. The USDA investigated and Six Flags was fined $2,000.
In addition, at least 22 other animals have died under Six Flags care since 1997, including, 5 elephants, and 12 kangaroos and wallabies. In November 2000, Kala, a two year old baby elephant, died of a virus after only six months at Marine World. Animal experts had warned of the dangers of separating a baby from its mother, when it is known that elephant babies nurse for about 5 years, and males naturally stay with their mothers for 10-15 years.
In November 2002, Tika,a 24 year old African elephant was euthanized due to massive internal infection after carrying a dead, full term fetus in her womb for several weeks. Tika had been artificially inseminated. Four months later, another elephant, Misha, a 23 year old African elephant who had been artificially inseminated, gave birth to a stillborn calf. On June 1, 2004, Misha gored a trainer. Elephants are normally gentle, but after years of abuse, they may strike back like Misha did. Elephants at Marine World are often chained by two legs for prolonged periods, and trainers use "bull hooks" to hit, jab and hook elephants to dominate and control them.
Captivity for large, highly intelligent and social marine mammals like orca whales, which can grow to as large as 26 feet and weigh in at 4 to 8 tons, is a death sentence. After the violent capture of orcas in the wild, they often refuse to eat and are force fed and "broken" to submit to the will of their captures. Eventually they do submit and eat dead fish, learn to do the "tricks" taught to them, and bond with their human caretakers.
Orcas evolved over about 60 million years into highly intelligent animals with brains 4 times the size of humans, and with complex social structures. Orcas bond for life in matriarchal pods with their own distinct dialects. They are very smart, curious, interactive, emotional, and communicative, utilizing a repertoire of calls, squeaks, and whistles. In the wild, orcas swim 50-100 miles a day with their pods. In captivity, the isolation from their families in the sterile confines of concrete tanks with harsh acoustics and chlorinated water, takes a heavy toll. Depression with chewing and head butting on the pool sides is common. Suppressed immune systems with frequent infections are treated with massive doses of antibiotics. Although a marine park may do the best they can to give their whales medical care, and say they love their animals like the Marine World signs stating "We Love Shouka," the statistics show that captive orcas rarely live more than 9-10 years in captivity. Shouka's fate now is one of a lone performing whale, who is denied her birthright of living with her family pod in the natural ocean environment. She will surely die a premature death like Yaka and Vigga and the other orcas at Marine World.
For photos and links to more information on captivity, please click here.
Get Involved -- Help Leaflet at Marine World!
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is a mountainous province
with potentials of land, mineral resources.
In terms of
geography, it has not only high moutainous areas but also large midland areas
alternating rich delta areas.
1- Geographic position
is located in the latitude from 21007' to 210
37' north; in the longitude from 105053' to 107002' east. It is 50 km far from
to the north, 110 km far from Huu Nghi international border gate, 100km far from Hai Phong port to the east. Bac
shares it’s north and northeast border with Lang Son, west and northwest border with Bac
Ninh, Thai Nguyen and Ha Noi capital, south and southeast one with Bac
Ninh, Hai Duong and Quang Ninh. In Bac
Giang, there are 09 districts and 01 city, in which there are 06 mountainous districts, 01 ethnic district (Son Dong); 229 communes, precincts and towns.
2- Terrain characteristic
Giang's territory is made up of two minor areas of mountain and midland which are alternated by deltas. The midland area includes Hiep Hoa district, Viet Yen district and Bac
city. The mountainous area includes seven districts: Son Dong, Luc Ngan, Yen The, Tan Yen, Yen Dung, Lang Giang.A part of each (Son Dong, Luc Ngan, Yen The) is highly mountainous
The main characteristic of mountainous region
(accounts for 72% of area of
province) is intensive division, complication and huge difference of high. There are many areas which are convenient for developing forest. Area of low hill and mountain can be used to plant fruit trees, industrial crops such as: (Thieu) litchi, orange, lemon, sugar apple, persimmon, soybean, tea...and to breed animal husbandry, livestock, and aquaculture.
Midland region (ocupies 28% of
area) has mounds and hills alternating deltas, being large or narrow
due to it’s location. This region can be used to plant food and foodstuff trees, fruit trees and industrial crops, and to breed animal husbandry, livestock, fish and other aquaculture.
lies in monsoon tropical climate zone of the northeast. There are 4 seasons in one year. The average temperature is 22-23oC, humidity is from 73% to 87%.
Annual rainfall is enough to meet the demand of water for production fields and living life.
Annual average sunlight is from 1,500 to 1,700 hours, convenient for growing tropical trees and subtropical trees.
4- Natural resources
Giang, there are 382,200ha natural land, in which there are 123,000ha agricultural land, 110,000 hectare forestry land, 66,500ha residential and urban land, specialized land, and the left is other land. In general,
owns many favorable conditions to develop industry, agriculture, forestry and aquaculture. The completed new 1A national road will create advantages to develop industry and service. In terms of farmland, it is not only used for intensive farming of rice crops but also favourable for growing vegetable, fruit and bulb trees, all can supply Ha Noi and neighbour provinces.The province
has plan to move tens ha farmland from cultivating rice to growing fruit trees, industrial crops and breeding aquaculture. Over 20,000 ha of hilly and moutainous land has not been used, which is strong potential for enterprises and investors to cooperate in developing forest, processing forestry products and raising aquaculture.
Up to the end of 2005, in
Giang, there are 129,164 ha of forestry land which has been covered in and 30,000 ha of hilly and moutainous land which can be used to develop forestry. There are about 3,5 million m3
of wood, 500 million trees of bamboo and neohouzeaua. Apart from the function of supplying wood, firewood, medicine, aquatic system, Bac
Giang’s forest system also forms beautiful and attractive landscape with many rivers, streams, lakes, dams and varied primeval trees.
Up to the end of 2005, in
Giang, there are 63 registered mines with 15 kinds of different
such as coal, metal, industrial minerals, building materials. Most of them were evaluated their reserves or defined
their estimated potentials.
Although there are not many big mines, there are some kinds of
which are important resources of materials to develop provincal industry. For example, coal mines in Yen The, Luc Ngan, Son Dong have reserves of about 114 million tons (including anthracite, lean-coal, peat-coal), in which Dong Ri mine (107.3 million tons) can serve centrally
industrial-scale development. In Yen The, Iron ore reserves is estimated about 0.5 million tons. Moreover, there are about 100.000 tons of bronze ore in Luc Ngan, Son Dong, 3 million tons of kaolin in Yen Dung. Clay also has large reserves of 360 million m3
mainly in Viet Yen, Lang Giang, Luc Nam, Yen The and Hiep Hoa, in which 100 m3
are used to made fire-bricks. Gravels and conglomerates are in Hiep Hoa and Luc Nam.
Giang, there are 3 rivers with total length of 347 km, large flow and full water all year round. Additionaly, there are systems of ponds, lakes, marshs and
underground waters. Quatity of surface water, rain water and underground water is enough to meet the demand of living life and economic sectors.
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Most of us considered whooping cough a rare disease affecting small children but it's no longer rare and it's more common among adults than children.
California's health department Thursday announced cases of whooping cough doubled in the first quarter of the year.
Some counties in the midwest report a 10-fold increase.
Doctor William Cochran of Geisinger Medical Center near Danville fears his own ordeal proves it could happen in Pennsylvania.
After examining several children last fall, Dr. Cochran headed to Alabama to help his son fix up an old house. The doctor soon got sick.
"I would just go ahead and start coughing. Just cough and cough and cough and cough and cough and cough and cough and cough and cough" Cochran said.
So much coughing Dr. Cochran could not help his son. He left Alabama and headed home to Danville, wondering what was wrong with him.
"This was the worst disease I've ever had in my life," Dr. Cochran added.
He returned to Geisinger as a patient, too sick to work. After treatment he received a shocking diagnosis.
Cochran and other doctors thought his asthma was worsening, then they heard the sound of his cough.
"You would hear a little whoop which is part of the reason they call it whooping cough," the doctor explained.
Whooping cough is the clinical name for pertussis.
What was once primarily a childhood disease nearly wiped out by vaccines is now making an insidious comeback.
Doctor Cochran couldn't believe he had whooping cough. He was vaccinated against it a child in the 1950s.
But throughout his 30 year medical career the doctor, like 80 percent of Americans over 25, did not get revaccinated as an adult.
What does it say when a doctor doesn't know? "I think that shows how much education we really need to do for the general. I think it is a very serious public health concern," said Cochran. Serious because more parents now refuse to vaccinate their children.
They fear preservatives in vaccines cause autism, a fear Cochran said could lead to the spread of whooping cough.
"If you take that unvaccinated child, who then develops one of those illnesses, and they go see grandma and grandpa, who have not been re-vaccinated, that illness can be extremely severe in that elderly person," explained Cochran.
Pertussis is also known as the 100 day cough and that's how long it took Dr. Cochran to fully regain his health.
He's now helping a Pennsylvania Department of Health campaign urging adults to get booster shots for pertussis and other illnesses.
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STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Well, the shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to land tomorrow morning. This final mission is the latest milestone for American manned spaceflight.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, host:
Mercury capsules got Americans into space half a century ago.
INSKEEP: The Gemini program added to their accomplishments.
KELLY: The Apollo program took Americans to the moon.
INSKEEP: And the shuttle aspired to make orbiting the Earth ordinary.
KELLY: Now NASA leaders say they're getting ready to build a new vehicle to send astronauts exploring deep into space.
INSKEEP: But as NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports, some experts doubt this vision of NASA's future will get off the ground.
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE: To understand the big question mark looming over NASA's future, let's go back to 2004, the year after the space shuttle Columbia disaster. President George W. Bush declared that NASA would finish building the International Space Station and then retire its aging shuttles.
President GEORGE W. BUSH: It is time for America to take the next steps. Today I announce a new plan to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: NASA would build a new capsule and a pair of rockets. First, a rocket to take astronauts up to low Earth orbit, where the station is, and then a bigger rocket, to return to the moon by 2020.
The new program was called Constellation. For years that was the post-shuttle plan. But after President Obama took office, he ordered a review. A panel of experts said despite the billions already spent, Constellation had been under-funded, was behind schedule, and couldn't reach its goals without a lot more money.
Last year, President Obama said let's kill it.
President BARACK OBAMA: The bottom line is, nobody is more committed to manned space flight, to human exploration of space, than I am. But we've got to do it in a smart way.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He said a smarter plan was to forget about a rocket for routine flights to the station. NASA should turn that work over to commercial companies. They'd develop space taxis. NASA would just buy rides. This would let the agency focus on designing a big new rocket for deep space missions, though it wouldn't be the rocket planned under Constellation, and it wouldn't first aim for the moon. An asteroid was the new goal.
The loss of Constellation was a shock to many NASA workers. Shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach recently expressed those feelings to his team at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The launch controllers had just completed a practice countdown for the final mission and Leinbach spoke over their communications link.
Mr. MIKE LEINBACH (Shuttle Launch Director, NASA): Throughout the history of the manned space flight program, we've always had another program to transition into - from Mercury to Gemini to Apollo, Apollo-Soyuz test program, to Skylab, and then the shuttle - we've always had something to transition into. And we had that, and it got cancelled and now we don't have anything, and I'm embarrassed that we don't.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He said, as a senior NASA manager he'd like to apologize.
Mr. LEINBACH: You know, the end of the shuttle program is a tough thing to swallow, and we're all victims of poor policy out of Washington, D.C., both at the national(ph) level and the executive branch of the government.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: These blunt words got applause. The audio got posted on websites. Not surprisingly, leaders in Washington don't share those views.
Former astronaut Charles Bolden is the head of NASA.
Mr. CHARLES BOLDEN (NASA): Mike is an incredibly talented person and I think he is to be touted for the job that he has done as the launch director down there. I would disagree with him in terms of there is no program going forward.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Bolden says the future is robust.
Mr. BOLDEN: We will begin to fly commercial spacecraft taking cargo to the International Space Station as early as hopefully the first quarter of 2012, next year.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: And until those commercial providers can carry people as well as cargo, astronauts will ride on Russia's rockets.
Mr. BOLDEN: American astronauts will continue to be going to the International Space Station. We just named a new crew about two weeks ago, and we will continue to name crews until 2020.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Plus, he says, NASA is designing the big new rocket - the one that will carry a crew capsule out beyond the station, to go exploring.
Mr. BOLDEN: It'll be a system that the nation will be proud of, that will enable us to get humans beyond low Earth orbit and eventually on to Mars.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Congress recently told NASA to build that system by 2016, and to use existing industry contracts as much as possible. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida flew on the space shuttle. He thinks that building the big new rocket is what NASA needs to do, no matter where it's going next.
Senator BILL NELSON (Democrat, Florida): Maybe it's going to be an asteroid, as the president suggested, for 2025. It's possible we may go back to the moon. There may be other destinations. All of these are going to develop as we develop technology. But the first thing we have to have is a big rocket that can get all of these different components and refueling up into Earth orbit.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: But given that NASA just canceled its first post-shuttle rocket program, this latest one is being greeted with skepticism.
Mr. JEFF GREASON (XCOR Aerospace): I think the most likely outcome is that the big rocket will be canceled, and the only uncertainty is will it be canceled shortly before or shortly after it starts flying.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: That's Jeff Greason. He's an executive with a rocket company called XCOR Aerospace. He served on the committee that reviewed NASA's options for the president. He says, look, NASA's rocket plan is too expensive in an era of shrinking budgets. He thinks the space program needs to rethink what the goals of exploration are and how to realistically accomplish them.
Mr. GREASON: The ultimate purpose of space, in my mind, is to open a frontier for humanity. That resonates. And many people, even going back to the Apollo era, supported the space program because they thought that's what it was about.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: What do you think it's about now?
Mr. GREASON: I don't think it's about anything right now.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says decision-makers should consider the lessons of the soon-to-be-retired shuttle.
Mr. GREASON: It was a very impressive machine. And the people who built it, you know, should be proud of it. But I also think that in some ways it warns us of the trap that we can get into when we get carried away by the desire to build something, as a nation, without stopping to ask the question of what's the purpose of it.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says maybe NASA doesn't need to build its own rocket for exploring deep space. It could find ways of using commercially available rockets, just like it's doing closer to home, for getting to the space station. Private companies are seizing the opportunities that NASA has opened up. Commercial capsules could be taking people to the station in just a few years.
Astronaut Chris Ferguson is the commander of the final shuttle mission. He says once the shuttle lands for the last time...
Mr. CHRIS FERGUSON (Astronaut): The next person that flies a U.S. rocket to low Earth orbit probably will not have a NASA badge on, will probably have a badge that has Boeing or SpaceX or Sierra Nevada. Which is kind of an interesting concept, if you think about it.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: And it's a concept that's supposed to free up NASA for exciting new missions. But after 30 years of flying the shuttle, it's not clear what those should be.
Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
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India's government says it is not concerned that China will divert or reduce the flow from a major river it shares with India. That assessment comes in large part from Indian surveillance satellites deployed over Chinese territory, which are said to have world-class capabilities.
Indian government sources say "extremely high caliber" satellite technology is able to produce "superb" imagery of what China is doing just over its northeastern border. Primarily for that reason, the sources said New Delhi has no concerns whatsoever at this time that China is seeking to curb the flow of a major river that flows into India from Chinese-controlled Tibet.
India's External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna hosted the chief minister of India's northeastern Assam state, Tarun Gogoi, in New Delhi on Thursday. Gogoi had publicly expressed concern over renewed media speculation that a dam China is constructing upstream along a shared river would result in reduced water flows. India's Brahmaputra river, known in China as the Yarlung Tsangpo, is a lifeline that provides irrigation and hydroelectric power for several Indian states and Bangladesh.
Minister Krishna said assurances from China, along with information that India is able to verify on its own, indicate the planned Chinese dam project poses no threat to India's river access.
"The question of diversion, or the question of any storage of water, doesn't arise," said Krishna.
China and India describe the Chinese dam as a run-of-the-river hydroelectric project that does not actually block the river's flow, but instead uses the natural flow of the river to generate energy.
Gogoi emerged from his meeting with Krishna apparently reassured. "I am convinced there is no shortage of water... since there is no diversion of water, there is no cause for worry," said Gogoi.
No formal agreement exists between India and China for the sharing of water from the Brahmaputra river. However, Indian government sources say the two countries, in their words, "discuss what we need to discuss" via working groups on water that meet frequently.
One of the Indian states served by the river, Arunachal Pradesh, is not formally recognized by Beijing as part of India. It shows up on Chinese maps as "Southern Tibet." For that and other reasons, issues regarding India's Himalayan border with China come with an inherent, if minor, element of tension.
Indian government sources say they will continue to monitor Chinese activity along the Brahmaputra using satellite capabilities, which have dramatically improved over the past two years. Those same capabilities, the sources point out, also allow India to keep an eye on China's military deployments along the border.
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Plans to provide reliable high-speed wireless Internet access everywhere in the United States are in the works by both government and industry. Instead of desktop computers, access will be achieved with personal-digital-assistant-sized full-strength computers, but it's going to take years for this to come to fruition.
Be aware, too, that access may not be through the localized arrangements that now exist, and it's unlikely that access for businesses will be “free.”
Let's look at the possible technology scenarios for mobile computing and at devices meant to use it.
Ancient metal might enable 21st century technology
Broadband over power lines (BPL) is the term given to the latest attempt to use copper power lines to carry high-speed communications services, including Internet. Early efforts were aimed at using 110/220V AC circuits only for intra-building data communications, but none of those early efforts worked well. Some caught fire, “noise” contaminated signals, and transmission speeds were considered slow even back in the days when speeds were measured in kilobits/second.
Today, the goal is to make entire electrical grids (the distribution system for a community) into high-speed (megabits/second) data communication networks, with each network tied into the Net. Businesses and consumers will plug a PC's modem cable into a low-cost adapter, which would be plugged into any AC power outlet.
Challenges to low-cost, clean, high-speed data transmission over power lines are still substantial, but the benefits would be even more considerable. Businesses and consumers wouldn't need to install telephone lines in new/rehabbed offices, factories, homes, etc.; there would be no need to pay for cable TV lines when ordering service; no need to run new computer network wiring when adding new devices; no need to install wireless “routers” to connect computers to the Net; and no concerns about anyone outside a building illegally using the signal like sometimes currently happens in the Wi-Fi wireless world.
Any kind of data that can be digitized would be transmitted over power lines. (Many phone calls are already being conducted over the Net using Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP). Power lines would simply replace the current medium of transmission). The use of power lines for digital transmission would also save cable and phone companies billions because they would be able to economically solve the “last mile” problem, which refers to the great expense for carriers to install fiber-optic cable between each switching station and each customer's premises. Instead, they would rent the use of power lines external to premises.
Electrical wholesalers could lose sales as a result of BPL, because much less special wire and cable would be needed for voice, data, video and security systems. Sales of wireless devices, a growing market for electrical wholesalers, could also decrease.
By the end of 2006, most of the Dallas area should be involved in the United State's largest BPL experiment. Even if it works well, the technology is proprietary, and not necessarily compatible with BPL technology used elsewhere — just as wireless computing today involves different protocols.
Universal wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi vs. Wi-Max
The Wi-Fi wireless Internet access sites that exist now are growing in number and being upgraded to handle much more throughput, but an alternate method of Internet access, Wi-Max, is evolving. Wi-Max definitely will not be free; it might even stifle the growth of free access.
Wi-Fi wireless Internet access available today is only possible when situated near a “hot spot” — a wireless router. Hot spots tend to be in coffee shops (think Starbucks), casual restaurants, bookstores, copy shops, airport waiting areas and hotel lobbies.
Wi-Fi usually has a range of about 300 feet, although some routers provide a range of up to 1,000 feet. Wi-Fi uses an unlicensed portion of the broadcast spectrum and sometimes results in interference between Wi-Fi devices and other wireless devices using those frequencies (like portable telephones).
There are no official Wi-Fi standards. The throughput rate of Wi-Fi is less than most cable-modem circuits and digital subscriber lines (DSLs). Although the throughput is OK for most uses, it can be limiting when transmitting large files.
Hundreds of local governments are planning to build and operate hot spots that use a new protocol called Wi-Max, which operates over a 30-mile range at speeds six to seven times faster than Wi-Fi. The longer range means that only a few routers would be needed to handle an entire city, making Wi-Max relatively affordable.
Wi-Max will make wireless real-time video an in-focus, jitter-free reality, and eliminate errors in data transmission and interference with other devices. Consumers will be allowed to access the Net free of charge, in exchange for tolerating advertising like pop-ups. Look for Wi-Max hot spots and computing devices in 2007.
Existing cell phone carriers are against the Wi-Max movement because they have a money-making alternate. Nonetheless, the carriers are looking to turn the lemon of competition into lemonade by installing and operating city-wide networks of Wi-Max hot spots. The carriers would be paid to install and operate the networks, and the municipalities are considering charging businesses that use the networks to help pay for the investment and operation, along with advertisers.
Like much of the Internet, Wi-Fi evolved within a free-use culture; businesses use Wi-Fi access as a “draw.” The absence of user fees so far, coupled with the lack of standards and use of unlicensed frequencies explain why no major carrier has established its own Wi-Fi spots.
The involvement of major carriers will help advance Wi-Fi and Wi-Max more quickly than the free-use culture has. It will also lead to the establishment of standards, which will eventually mean that all networks of hot spots will be interconnected.
Cell networks to compete with Wi-Max
Nonetheless, cell carriers would like to ramp up a wireless money-making alternate to Wi-Max. Carriers are planning to upgrade their entire networks to reliably and securely work at real broadband speeds, and seamlessly “hand off” a data signal from one cell tower to another. Some carriers have already started to do so, but a complete upgrade is a big task in terms of technology, time and investment, so universal access to broadband cell networks is a few years away. When the first generation arrives, don't be surprised to encounter the computer equivalent of, “Can you hear me now?” as the carriers work out the bugs.
Although this will cost more than wireless phone calls, businesses will benefit from broadband cell networks because employees who work outside an office will be able to use lap tops and other devices to instantly access data, do calculations and print documents that now require a visit to the office. For example, an electrical wholesaler salesperson on a job site in some outlying suburb could use a wireless device to scroll through inventory-availability data for several items and immediately transmit an order for the customer.
Up in the air — literally
Voice/data communications carriers are working with U.S. airlines to provide broadband cell networks on domestic flights. Although targeted at business travelers, this arrangement would also allow phone calls and streaming video — just as land-line broadband does. Of course, it would cost, but at $10 to $20 per hour (author's guesstimate), it would be a cheap way to boost productivity. Look for this in about a year.
Wireless PDA-sized PCs
Although some PDAs can currently be used to wirelessly access the Internet, the traditional laptop is the device most frequently used today. Unfortunately, it cannot be stored in a coat pocket.
Truly mobile computing requires truly portable devices. No, not cell phones with TV-like screens and keyboards that can only be used with pinkies, but true wireless PCs with keyboards that can be used with all ten fingers. One current style looks like a sizeable clamshell cell phone. Open it up, and the bottom half of the clamshell contains half the keyboard, with the other half on the body of the device.
Another style looks like a small LCD screen (4.9-inches long by 3.4-inches wide), until the screen is slid open like a double patio door to reveal a 1-inch-thick base containing a keyboard, stick and mouse buttons, digital pen and thumbwheel. It contains a 1GHz processor, a 20GB hard drive, 256MB of RAM, and FireWire and USB ports; all weighing only 14 ounces. Both styles come equipped with Microsoft Office and are true business-oriented PCs.
For the nostalgic, there is a wrist-watch device reminiscent of Dick Tracy's two-way-radio, but so far it can only be used to receive downloaded information sent at prearranged times. Think of its successor as true mobile computing.
Richard “Dick” C. Friedman is a recognized authority on information technology (IT) for wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers. His firm specializes in objectively helping these businesses acquire and more profitably use IT, and has helped several electrical wholesalers. For more information or to send e-mail, visit www.GenBusCon.com.
Philly is Cutting its Computer Cords to become the Nation's Largest Wi-Fi Hot Spot
The City of Brotherly Love is cutting the cord when it comes to Internet access. Early in March, Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street announced agreements with EarthLink and Wireless Philadelphia to bring wireless Internet service to the city. When fully implemented, the initiative will turn Philadelphia into the nation's largest Wi-Fi hot spot and help to improve education, bridge the digital divide, enhance neighborhood development and reduce the costs of government.
“Just as roads and transportation were keys to our past, wireless technology and digital infrastructure are keys to our future,” said Mayor Street.
Under the agreements, EarthLink will build, manage and maintain a wireless network over the city's 135 square miles at no cost to taxpayers. EarthLink will pay the city to install its transmittal devices on approximately 4,000 of Philadelphia's street lamp poles. In addition, EarthLink will provide city residents and visitors with free hot spots in 22 locations around Philadelphia, and provide the city with 3,000 free or discounted Wi-Fi accounts and 700 discounted T-1 accounts to be used at the city's option.
Wireless Philadelphia, a nonprofit entity incorporated by Mayor Street in March 2005, will use the revenues it receives from EarthLink (5 percent of access revenue) and other monies raised to invest in educational and social programs to help Philadelphia citizens. Of the amount EarthLink pays to the city, $2 million will be used for programs to help bridge the digital divide. Initial plans include purchasing 10,000 discounted computers for children and low-income residents to use and for associated training programs. Wireless Philadelphia will also be responsible for building awareness of the program among audiences across the city.
The costs of the wireless service will be geared to users' different needs. Economically disadvantaged users will be charged $9.95 a month, while other Internet service providers (ISPs) will be charged a wholesale rate that allows them to sell access for $20 a month or less to retail customers.
D.C. Suburb is Nation's First Community to Deploy Wireless Internet through BPL
Last year, the 37,000-person Washington, D.C., suburb of Manassas, Va., became the United States' first major deployment in broadband-over-power line (BPL) technology, which uses the electricity grid in a city and the wiring in individual homes to provide direct “plug in” broadband Internet access through electricity sockets, rather than over phone or cable TV lines.
By bundling radio-frequency (RF) energy on the same line with the electric current that is already carried, data can be transmitted without the need for a separate line. Since the electric current, which is used to provide power to the end users, and RF energy signals carrying the data operate at different frequencies (with electric current traveling at lower frequencies and data at higher levels), the two don't interfere with each other.
Communication Technologies Inc. (COMTek), Chantilly, Va., owns and operates the BPL network in Manassas and also serves as the Internet service provider (ISP), providing e-mail and Web hosting services for customers. COMTek signs up and services the needs of Manassas customers. The city of Manassas provides utility staff to install BPL couplers and repeaters and to maintain the fiber connections that link COMTek servers and routers to the power lines. The city receives a portion of subscriber revenues to offset the manpower and equipment resources that they contribute to the BPL services.
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Rosetta awoken: why is unique space mission so significant?
Key milestone in mission to land on a comet and find out more about origin of the solar system
EUROPE'S Rosetta spacecraft is being "woken up" today in preparation for an unprecedented mission to land on the surface of a comet. It is a key milestone in the decade-long quest to learn more about the 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko comet and the origin of the solar system.
So what exactly is Rosetta?
The Rosetta spacecraft consists of two main parts: a space probe orbiter and a small three-legged robot lander called Philae. It has been chasing comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko since it was launched in 2004 but has taken quite a circuitous route. It has made three flybys of Earth and one of Mars, using the planets' gravitational pulls to build up enough speed and get on a trajectory towards the comet. It has also encountered the asteroids Steins in 2008 and Lutetia in 2010 along the way.
Where is Rosetta now?
The reactivation of Rosetta is happening some 800 million kilometres from Earth, out near the orbit of the planet Jupiter. It is believed to be nine million km away from 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Why was it 'sleeping'?
The spacecraft, which operates on solar energy, was placed into deep space hibernation on 8 June 2011 to save energy. After crossing the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter it cruised too far from the Sun to keep going. During its hibernation, its solar panels have been reoriented to face the Sun. Now, 31 months after it was shut down, Rosetta's orbit has brought it back to within 673 million kilometres of the Sun, and there is finally enough solar energy to power the spacecraft fully again.
What happens now?
Rosetta's on-board alarm clock – described by the European Space Agency as the "most important alarm clock in the solar system" – was due to go off at 10am GMT today. It will take the spacecraft about seven hours to warm up its star-tracking navigation gear, fire up rocket thrusters to slow its spin, turn on its transmitter and beam a message back to Earth. Controllers at the ESA are hoping to receive the message at between 5.30pm and 6.30pm today. Rosetta is then due to "rendezvous" with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August. Philae, the small robot piggybacking on the spacecraft, is due to land on the comet in November.
Why is Rosetta so significant?
If the spacecraft achieves its aims, it will become the first space mission to orbit a comet, land on a comet's surface and follow a comet as it moves around the Sun. By understanding the make-up of the comet, scientists hope to learn more about the solar system itself. Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA director general, tells the BBC: "Rosetta is a unique mission - unique technologically, unique scientifically, and unique philosophically because comets may be at the origin of who we are."
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In the paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise, Achilles is in a footrace with the tortoise. Achilles allows the tortoise a head start of 100 feet. If we suppose that each racer starts running at some constant speed (one very fast and one very slow), then after some finite time, Achilles will have run 100 feet, bringing him to the tortoise's starting point. During this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter distance, say, 10 feet. It will then take Achilles some further time to run that distance, by which time the tortoise will have advanced farther; and then more time still to reach this third point, while the tortoise moves ahead. Thus, whenever Achilles reaches somewhere the tortoise has been, he still has farther to go. Therefore, because there are an infinite number of points Achilles must reach where the tortoise has already been, he can never overtake the tortoise. Of course, simple experience tells us that Achilles will be able to overtake the tortoise, which is why this is a paradox.
There are scientific and mathematical objections to such reasoning, my favourite being that there's a finite limit to how low the sequence can go (can't get smaller than Plank time). But to me, the paradox serves as an apt analogy to the reasoning methods justifying intelligent design.
The analogy is as follows. The tortoise is God, it has the head start in the race. While science is Achilles, starting from scratch and rapidly progressing. While playing the role of Zeno is the intelligent design advocate, creating a "paradox" by which science will never overtake God as an explanation.
The pattern goes as follows. Define pattern X. Explain how X cannot come about by the current accepted processes. Point to instances in nature that fit pattern X. Therefore current accepted processes are bunk, conclude God did it. A proof by definitions, so who needs evidence?
A good example is irreducible complexity, it's a proof by definitions. Much like Achilles can't ever overtake the turtle because of the infinite series needed to overtake the turtle, natural selection can never explain how system which requires all components could be built gradually.
One can see that Achilles could overtake the turtle in a matter of seconds, but the paradox remains! Can irreducible complex systems evolve? Of course, and it has been known how for around 90 years now. In Behe's efforts to make a proof by definitions he neglected the scientific literature showing just how such systems could evolve.
Intelligent Design proponents are sitting on the sideline, yelling whatever they can to invalidate the obvious fact: Achilles overtook the tortoise long ago. So while mountains of papers are pouring into the scientific literature showing with more and more certainty that we evolved, the cdesign proponentsists are looking for a paradox of their own by which they can dismiss the volumes of evidence.
So much time is spent trying to talk about the inadequacies of natural selection, it's disbelief that Achilles could possibly overtake the turtle. That way, all they have to do is reject natural selection and design wins by default. No mechanism, no testing a hypothesis against evidence or making predictions, but that evolution can't explain it therefore God did it.
Every accumulated piece of scientific evidence in favour of evolution propels the theory further and further in the metaphorical race. Even when science starts from the null hypothesis and God from a presupposition, there hits a point where the accumulated evidence "outruns" the presuppositionist position. The evidence for evolution is overwhelming, so much so that all the cdesign proponentsistscan do is try to downplay it as "not enough evidence for me". Achilles has past the tortoise long ago...
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"Sensitive people faced with the prospect of a camera portrait put on a face they think is one they would like to show the world. ...Very often what lies behind the facade is rare and more wonderful than the subject knows or dares to believe." —Irving Penn, 1975.
Irving Penn was born in 1917 and graduated from the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art in 1938. His career began with the publication of his drawings in Harper's Bazaar, but he became truly famous for his fashion photography in Vogue from 1943 onwards. His style was very calm and simple: he was one of the first photographers to pose his models against a grey or white backdrop. His models seemed as if isolated from the real world. Subjects portrayed in this manner included Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Ingmar Bergman, Simone de Beauvoir and Marcel Duchamp. This clarity and economy of technique earned him the admiration of not only the fashion lovers, but also art collectors. He died at the age of 92, leaving behind the numerous books featuring his work and documents of his working methods.
What is your favorite photograph by Irving Penn?
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represents an inverse distribution with ν degrees of freedom.
represents a scaled inverse distribution with ν degrees of freedom and scale ξ.
- The inverse distribution InverseChiSquareDistribution[ν] is the distribution followed by the inverse of a -distributed random variable with ν degrees of freedom.
- The quantity follows a scaled inverse distribution InverseChiSquareDistribution[ν,ξ] where follows a distribution with ν degrees of freedom. »
- The inverse distribution is commonly used in normal models for Bayesian data analysis.
- InverseChiSquareDistribution allows ν and ξ to be any positive real numbers.
- InverseChiSquareDistribution allows ξ to be a quantity of any unit dimension and ν to be a dimensionless quantity. »
- InverseChiSquareDistribution can be used with such functions as Mean, CDF, and RandomVariate.
- InverseChiSquareDistribution[ν,ξ] represents a continuous statistical distribution defined over the interval , parametrized by positive values ν and ξ indicating the degrees of freedom and the scale, respectively, of the distribution, and known as a scaled inverse chi-squared (or inverse ) distribution. Overall, the probability density function (PDF) of a scaled inverse distribution is unimodal with a single "peak" (i.e. a global maximum), though its overall shape (its height, its spread, and its concentration near the axis) is determined by the values of ν and ξ. In addition, the PDF of a scaled inverse distribution has tails which are "fat" in the sense that the PDF decreases algebraically rather than decreasing exponentially for large values of . (This behavior can be made quantitatively precise by analyzing the SurvivalFunction of the distribution.) The one-parameter form InverseChiSquareDistribution[ν] (which is equivalent to InverseChiSquareDistribution[ν,1/ν]) is sometimes referred to as the unscaled inverse distribution but is most typically "the" inverse distribution.
- InverseChiSquareDistribution[ν] is the distribution followed by the reciprocal of a chi-squared random variable, whereas InverseChiSquareDistribution[ν,ξ] is the distribution followed by the -scaled reciprocal of such a random variable. In other words, if is a random variable and (where denotes "is distributed as"), then and . In Bayesian probability, the inverse chi-squared distribution is used as both a prior and posterior distribution in inferencing of normally distributed data whose variance is unknown, and the distribution is also used as a statistical foundation for Fisher's method in classification theory. InverseChiSquareDistribution is also used as a tool in various areas including Monte Carlo theory, financial mathematics, quantitative psychology, and electrical engineering.
- RandomVariate can be used to give one or more machine- or arbitrary-precision (the latter via the WorkingPrecision option) pseudorandom variates from an inverse chi-square distribution. Distributed[x,InverseChiSquareDistribution[ν,ξ]], written more concisely as , can be used to assert that a random variable x is distributed according to an inverse chi-square distribution. Such an assertion can then be used in functions such as Probability, NProbability, Expectation, and NExpectation.
- The probability density and cumulative distribution functions for inverse chi-square distributions may be given using PDF[InverseChiSquareDistribution[ν,ξ],x] and CDF[InverseChiSquareDistribution[ν,ξ],x]. The mean, median, variance, raw moments, and central moments may be computed using Mean, Median, Variance, Moment, and CentralMoment, respectively.
- DistributionFitTest can be used to test if a given dataset is consistent with an inverse chi-square distribution, EstimatedDistribution to estimate an inverse chi-square parametric distribution from given data, and FindDistributionParameters to fit data to an inverse chi-square distribution. ProbabilityPlot can be used to generate a plot of the CDF of given data against the CDF of a symbolic inverse chi-square distribution, and QuantilePlot to generate a plot of the quantiles of given data against the quantiles of a symbolic inverse chi-square distribution.
- TransformedDistribution can be used to represent a transformed inverse chi-square distribution, CensoredDistribution to represent the distribution of values censored between upper and lower values, and TruncatedDistribution to represent the distribution of values truncated between upper and lower values. CopulaDistribution can be used to build higher-dimensional distributions that contain an inverse chi-square distribution, and ProductDistribution can be used to compute a joint distribution with independent component distributions involving inverse chi-square distributions.
- InverseChiSquareDistribution is closely related to a number of other distributions. For example, several distributions, including GammaDistribution, ExponentialDistribution, ChiSquareDistribution, UniformDistribution, and LaplaceDistribution, can be obtained by transformations of InverseChiSquareDistribution, while NormalDistribution and FRatioDistribution are limiting values for transformed versions of InverseChiSquareDistribution. Moreover, InverseChiSquareDistribution can be viewed as a special case of PearsonDistribution and InverseGammaDistribution, and as a transformed special case of distributions including RayleighDistribution, MaxwellDistribution, and ParetoDistribution. InverseChiSquareDistribution is also closely related to BetaDistribution, StudentTDistribution, UniformDistribution, and NoncentralChiSquareDistribution.
Introduced in 2008
(7.0)| Updated in 2016
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en
| 0.826577 | 1,207 | 3.015625 | 3 |
All that tract of Land on which Carolina & St Augustine lays was first call'd Florida from the abundance of Flowers the Country naturally producst, it was settled first by the French in the Reign of Charles 9th king of france and in honour to him call'd Carolina, they also named all the Rivers and satt down principally at Port Royall, this being a favorite Collony of Admiral De Colligny who in the begining of the reformation had views to establish it as a refuge for the persecuted protestants but being betraid by ville gagnon & then unfortifyed the Spaniards came from Cuba & the Havana & murther'd them all, of which the Admiral had resolved to take a signal revenge, and was preparing to this purpose a large Imbarcation att Dieppe but was prevented by the masacry of St Barthelemy, wherein he himself was so barbarously butcher'd. The Spaniards seeing the Consequence of that Coast between which and the Island of Cuba all the treasurs of the Indies must pass, resolved to secure some part of it to themselves, for the safety of the passage of their Gallions & flottas built for St Augustine, & kept there a Garrison ever since and nothing more.
Now the English comeing a 100 Years after the French had been routed out of the Country as it were to revenge the blood of so manyt Augustin is built within the Limitts of Carolina for there were never any boundarys or Frontiers settled with them to acertain what was theirs, or ours, but it appears that the Inhabitants always took the alatamaha River to be a naturall boundary between us, since Governour Nicholson built fort King George beyond it which put the Spaniards upon complaining of it as of an Infraction there being no Inhabitants near it for a great distance that fort being three hundred miles from Fort Royall as I was told.
Florida was first discover'd by about 1490 for King Henry the 7th
The french in 1560 odd went & settled upon it by direction of Admiral De Coligny, call'd it Carolina in honour to Charles the 9th King of France, named the Rivers, & places particularly Port Royall and Charles fort.
They were betrayed to the Spaniards by one Knight of Maltha called ville gagnon who the admirall had sent there on his pretending to be well affected to the Protestants they came from Cuba & murther'd & routed them not as french men as they pretended but because they were Lutherans afterwards the Spaniards knowing the Importance of that Coast along which the Gallions & Flotas must pass thought fitt to secure some part of it for themselves & so built fort St Augustin there &c:
The English came 100 Years after the french, in the Reign of King Charles ye 2d and settled ye Country as it is now. By the Treaty of Utrecht every potentate was to keep what he had in possession, either by conquest, conivance or acquisition
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http://docsouth.unc.edu/csr/index.html/document/csr02-0316
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en
| 0.984381 | 629 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Investigate the smallest number of moves it takes to turn these
mats upside-down if you can only turn exactly three at a time.
Arrange any number of counters from these 18 on the grid to make a rectangle. What numbers of counters make rectangles? How many different rectangles can you make with each number of counters?
Can you find just the right bubbles to hold your number?
How many trains can you make which are the same length as Matt's, using rods that are identical?
Starting with the number 180, take away 9 again and again, joining up the dots as you go. Watch out - don't join all the dots!
Can you work out how to balance this equaliser? You can put more
than one weight on a hook.
Imagine a wheel with different markings painted on it at regular
intervals. Can you predict the colour of the 18th mark? The 100th
Ben and his mum are planting garlic. Use the interactivity to help
you find out how many cloves of garlic they might have had.
If you count from 1 to 20 and clap more loudly on the numbers in the two times table, as well as saying those numbers loudly, which numbers will be loud?
If you have only four weights, where could you place them in order
to balance this equaliser?
Arrange the four number cards on the grid, according to the rules,
to make a diagonal, vertical or horizontal line.
In this activity, the computer chooses a times table and shifts it. Can you work out the table and the shift each time?
Can you complete this jigsaw of the multiplication square?
Kimie and Sebastian were making sticks from interlocking cubes and lining them up. Can they make their lines the same length? Can they make any other lines?
What do the numbers shaded in blue on this hundred square have in common? What do you notice about the pink numbers? How about the shaded numbers in the other squares?
Use the interactivity to sort these numbers into sets. Can you give
each set a name?
Can you predict when you'll be clapping and when you'll be clicking
if you start this rhythm? How about when a friend begins a new
rhythm at the same time?
Factors and Multiples game for an adult and child. How can you make sure you win this game?
Frances and Rishi were given a bag of lollies. They shared them out evenly and had one left over. How many lollies could there have been in the bag?
Can you fill in this table square? The numbers 2 -12 were used to generate it with just one number used twice.
The planet of Vuvv has seven moons. Can you work out how long it is
between each super-eclipse?
Can you find the chosen number from the grid using the clues?
Each light in this interactivity turns on according to a rule. What happens when you enter different numbers? Can you find the smallest number that lights up all four lights?
Got It game for an adult and child. How can you play so that you know you will always win?
Suppose we allow ourselves to use three numbers less than 10 and
multiply them together. How many different products can you find?
How do you know you've got them all?
A game for 2 or more people. Starting with 100, subratct a number from 1 to 9 from the total. You score for making an odd number, a number ending in 0 or a multiple of 6.
How many different shaped boxes can you design for 36 sweets in one
layer? Can you arrange the sweets so that no sweets of the same
colour are next to each other in any direction?
Yasmin and Zach have some bears to share. Which numbers of bears
can they share so that there are none left over?
In this maze of hexagons, you start in the centre at 0. The next
hexagon must be a multiple of 2 and the next a multiple of 5. What
are the possible paths you could take?
In a square in which the houses are evenly spaced, numbers 3 and 10
are opposite each other. What is the smallest and what is the
largest possible number of houses in the square?
Use the interactivity to create some steady rhythms. How could you
create a rhythm which sounds the same forwards as it does
Use the interactivities to complete these Venn diagrams.
Can you work out the arrangement of the digits in the square so
that the given products are correct? The numbers 1 - 9 may be used
once and once only.
Can you order the digits from 1-3 to make a number which is divisible by 3 so when the last digit is removed it becomes a 2-figure number divisible by 2, and so on?
Mr Gilderdale is playing a game with his class. What rule might he have chosen? How would you test your idea?
Investigate which numbers make these lights come on. What is the smallest number you can find that lights up all the lights?
When Charlie asked his grandmother how old she is, he didn't get a
straightforward reply! Can you work out how old she is?
Help share out the biscuits the children have made.
Have a go at balancing this equation. Can you find different ways of doing it?
A game for 2 people using a pack of cards Turn over 2 cards and try
to make an odd number or a multiple of 3.
This activity focuses on doubling multiples of five.
A game for two people, or play online. Given a target number, say 23, and a range of numbers to choose from, say 1-4, players take it in turns to add to the running total to hit their target.
Can you work out some different ways to balance this equation?
Can you place the numbers from 1 to 10 in the grid?
In this problem we are looking at sets of parallel sticks that
cross each other. What is the least number of crossings you can
make? And the greatest?
Look at three 'next door neighbours' amongst the counting numbers. Add them together. What do you notice?
Use cubes to continue making the numbers from 7 to 20. Are they sticks, rectangles or squares?
"Ip dip sky blue! Who's 'it'? It's you!" Where would you position yourself so that you are 'it' if there are two players? Three players ...?
Pat counts her sweets in different groups and both times she has
some left over. How many sweets could she have had?
Can you complete this calculation by filling in the missing numbers? In how many different ways can you do it?
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| 0.944416 | 1,411 | 3.890625 | 4 |
Retinoid and chemistry of vision
Retinoids and carotenoids are molecules whose chemistry and metabolism in conjunction with specific processing proteins, help explain the chemical basis of vision. Since both retinoids and carotenoids are classified as isoprenoids, they have limited chemical transformation possibilities. Interestingly, because these genes have found to be highly conserved in the formation of insect and vertebrate vision and are involved in chromophore production and recycling, the concept of a common ancestral origin for the chemistry of vision has been proposed and developed.
Cycles of cis to trans isomerization of the visual chromophore is an intrinsic mechanism for animal vision.
G protein signaling is a signal transduction pathway where heptahelical transmembrane receptors such as rhodopsin respond to a variety of chemical signals (hormones, neurotransmitters, etc.), activate the heterotrimeric G proteins, and help carry out a cascade of events that are responsible for many physiological processes throughout the body.
It has been discovered that visual pigments make up one class of G protein-coupled receptors and have components such as opsin (integral transmembrane protein) and a covalently attached retinylidene chromophore that is involved in the process of phototransduction.
Visual GPCR signaling requires a diet-derived chromophore that is generated naturally through an oxidative cleavage of carotenoids (C40) to retinoids (C20). The retinoid then is converted to 11-cis-retinal derivatives (2-dehydro-retinal for vertebrates, 3-hydroxy-retinal for insects). These retinal derivatives would then form a Schiff-base linkage with a Lys residue in opsin to create functional visual pigments. When light is absorbed, all the cis chromophores would isomerize to the trans isomers, which subsequently transforms rhodopsin into an activated state called Meta II. Meta II binds transducin (photoreceptor specific G protein), initiating a cascade that results in the hyperpolarization of the plasma membrane.
In order to regenerate the cis-chromophores, an enzymatic pathway called the retinoid cycle has been studied. This cycle involves the rod photoreceptors and cone photoreceptors. Rod photoreceptors consume the cis isomers despite being saturated by cone photoreceptors under bright light. Thus, a cone specific regeneration pathway has been proposed to avoid this competition between the two receptors. If mutations occur at the genes that code for important components such as proteins that facilitate the absorption, transportation, metabolism, and storage pathway of dietary precursors for chromophore (carotenoids and retinoids), blinding diseases and more fatal diseases such as Matthew-Wood syndrome may develop.
Recycling Visual Chromophore
The first step of the recycling process is carried out by retinol dehydrogenases (RDHs), where all the trans-retinal is reduced to trans-retinol. The main RDHs are the RDH8 in outer segments (OS) photoreceptor and RDH12 in photoreceptor inner segments (there are other RDHs). All the trans-retinol is transported from the OS to the RPE, where they are esterified. This process is facilitated by two retinoid-binding proteins called the interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) and cellular retinol-binding protein-1 (CRBP1). These trans-retinyl esters form a stable storage form for vitamin A and oil droplet structures called retinosomes. Then, the enzyme RPE65 catalyzes the endothermic reaction that converts all trans-retinoids to 11-cis-retinols. In the final step, enzymes such as RDH5, RDH10, and RDH11 catalytically oxidize the 11-cis-retinols to the original 11-cis-retinals that are needed to sustain vision. These 11-cis-retinals then bind to cellular retinaldehyde-binding protein (CRALBP), which mediates its transport back to the photoreceptor OS and opsin.
In the cone regeneration pathway, all the trans-retinol released from cone OS is transported to Muller cells rather than RPEs. There, they are isomerized to 11-cis isomeric form and esterify to 11-cis-retinyl esters by acyl-CoA: retinol acyltransferase (ARAT). These esters are converted to 11-cis-retinol with the aid of 11-cis-retinyl ester hydrolase (REH), then they bind to CRALBP and taken back to cone receptors. In the final step, NADP+/NADPH dependent 11-cis-RDH activity facilitates the regeneration of visual chromophore.
Structures of Visual Cycle Enzymes and Retinal/Retinol-binding Proteins
Visual cycle enzymes are the series of microsomal enzymes that facilitate the conversion of trans-retinol to cis-retinal. They are typically membrane-bound enzymes, which makes them harder to study because detergent is needed before X-ray crystallography could proceed. Apocarotenoid oxygenase (ACO), a water-soluble homolog of the RPE65 enzyme, belongs to the carotenoid cleavage oxygenase (CCO) family. The structure of ACO demonstrates that the CCOs contain a 7-bladed β-propeller general fold and that the ferrous ion cofactor is coordinated by four highly conserved His residues. Structure of native RPE65 from Bos Taurus shows that there is only one way of inserting the protein into the active site. This is identified by the discovery of a single tunnel in RPE65 that allows both the entry of substrates and the release of products. Deducing from this structure, scientists have proposed that retinoid substrates enter the active site from the membrane and the products leave the active site into another component in the membrane (RDH5) for further processing. These processes happen to take place in the endoplasmic reticulum membranes without involvement of retinoid-binding proteins.
There are four main retinol/retinal binding proteins; they are the RBP, CRBP, IRBP, and CRALBP. RBP and CRBP are cup shape proteins with a single domain. The active site where ligands are bound is comprised of hydrophobic anti-parallel β-barrel folds that have an affinity for only the trans-retinol molecules. The orientations of the bounded retinols are different in RBP and CRBP. When found in RBP, they tend to cluster around the cavity entrance. In contrast, they are found in the cavity base in CRBP.
IRBP is a soluble lipoglycoprotein made by photoreceptor neurons. Its major function is thought to be facilitating the transport of retinoids between the cell layers of photoreceptors and RPE. In contrast to the single domain observed in RBP and CRBP, the protein contains approximately three to four retinoid binding sites. The protein adopts a rod-shape structure and upon ligand binding, conformational changes to a bent molecular structure. Upon further structural analysis, two hydrophobic cavities are revealed to be potential ligand binding sites.
CRALBP belongs to a family of proteins that in their natural state, bind hydrophobic ligands and is consisted of a cluster of highly basic amino acid residues. High-resolution structural analysis has revealed that the 11-cis-Retinal binds deeply in the cavity of the protein, with the center of the ligand closest to the cavity entrance. In contrast to its cis double bond being twisted in rhodopsin (which converts to trans when triggered by light), the retinal molecule adopts a perfect cis configuration when bound to CRALBP. This makes cis-to-trans isomerization highly unfavorable. Thus, the retinal can preserve its cis configuration while being transported to opsin and photoreceptor OS.
Photochemical and chemical retinoid isomerization
The conjugated double bond in retinoids, when triggered by light, proceeds to isomerize. Under light perception, 11-cis-retinylidene is converted to all-trans-retinylidene. In this reaction mechanism, the double bond is transiently broken by the energy supplied by the photon. In order to regenerate the light-sensitive chromophore, a process called isomerohydrolase (so called retinoid isomerase) activity is required. The enzyme catalyzes the reaction of water with a carbocation. In the case of photochemical pathway, this enzyme catalyzes the process of regenerating the cis conformation retinylidene. However, from a theoretical chemical mechanism perspective, isomerization and hydrolysis of this molecule by water does not seem to be plausible. Although many reaction mechanisms have been proposed, Sn1 nucleophilic substitution seems to be the most plausible mechanism. In this reaction, a very stable double-bond-conjugated carbocation is generated after the alkyl-cleavage of the ester group by a ferric/ferrous ion cofactor and RPE65. The addition of a nucleophile completes the transformation of all-trans-retinyl esters to 11-cis-retinol.
1. Von Lintig J, Kiser PD, Golczak M, Palczewski K. "The biochemical and structural basis for trans-to-cis isomerization of retinoids in the chemistry of vision." Trends Biochem Sci. 2010 Jul;35(7):400-10. Epub 2010 Feb 24.
2. Wikipedia contributors. "Transducin." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 Nov. 2012. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.
3. Wikipedia contributors. "Chromophore." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 26 Aug. 2012. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.
4. Wikipedia contributors. "Retinol binding protein." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 7 Jul. 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2012.
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en
| 0.889277 | 2,177 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Students' Interest for and Work with Applet-Enhanced Word Problems
Library Home || Full Table of Contents || Suggest a Link || Library Help
|Renninger, Sinclair, Hand, Stohl, Alejandre, and Underwood|
|Article from the International Conference on Learning Sciences archive, Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Learning sciences. Abstract: Study of student interest for and work with interactive nonroutine mathematics problems (ESCOT Problems of the Week (EPoWs); mathforum.org/escotpow/) posted on The Math Forum site was undertaken to address two questions: (1) What is the contribution of applet-enhancements to students' interest for and work with nonroutine challenge problems? And, (2) what are the effects of story context and other person scaffolding on student interest for and work with interactive online problems?|
|Levels:||Elementary, Middle School (6-8), High School (9-12)|
|Resource Types:||Word Problems, Articles, Web Interactive/Java|
|Math Ed Topics:||Technology in Math Ed, Math Ed Research/Reform|
© 1994- The Math Forum at NCTM. All rights reserved.
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| 0.820314 | 254 | 2.546875 | 3 |
cientists in Iowa are moving ahead with a plan to pay several students $900 apiece — to eat three bananas.
The plan is causing quite a stir.
As the Des Moines Register reports, some of the bananas have been genetically modified to produce large amounts of beta carotene, a nutrient our bodies use to produce vitamin A. The hope is that, once approved, these bananas would be grown in Uganda, where vitamin A deficiency is a serious problem.
The trial is set to take place later this year at Iowa State University. The GM bananas were developed at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
$900 to eat 3 bananas?
While it might sound absurd, it's not entirely uncommon for subjects to be paid for participating in research, according to the Food and Drug Administration, so long as the risks are clearly stated. It's considered a recruitment incentive, not a benefit.
And as far as compensation for these kinds of studies goes, $900 is not unheard-of.
According to the site CenterWatch, a website that keeps track of clinical trials, a California trial of an eye ointment for treating bags under the eyes offered compensation of up to $1,840 per person, and a Florida trial of a tobacco product offered up to $1,980.
What about safety?
In the US, the safety of new GMO crops is typically determined by showing they have a similar nutrient and toxin content to that of the conventional crops we eat — a principle known as substantial equivalence.
Some countries (for example, in Europe) also require animal studies before GM crops can be approved, but the US doesn't regulate GM food differently than foods developed by other processes.
Uganda is one of several African countries that signed the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, part of an agreement that applies the precautionary principle, which includes "taking into account risks to human health."
The banana trial may be an attempt to help satisfy this principle.
A call for greater transparency
Some GMO opponents are not happy about the research. They claim the researchers have not been transparent about the trial or its possible risks. Earlier this week, a petition with more than 57,000 signatures that calls for the trial to be suspended was delivered to both ISU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Gates Foundation.
"We, the undersigned, ask that the Dean of Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Dr. Wendy Wintersteen, answer students' and Ames community members' questions about the current Gates Foundation-funded transgenic banana human trials underway at Iowa State University," the petition reads.
It includes questions such as, "How have safety concerns been addressed, and what risks were study participants informed of when they agreed to take part in the study?" and "Who owns or will own the transgenic banana technology?"
There's a lot at stake, as these bananas could potentially help solve a major nutrition problem.
Fighting vitamin A deficiency
The study is being led by ISU food science professor Wendy White. In April 2014, White and her colleagues sent out an email calling for a dozen female volunteers to take part in the trial. (It's not clear why they had to be female, but our guess is that pregnant or nursing women and their children are especially vulnerable vitamin A deficiency.)
They would be paid $900 to eat three bananas each — one of which was genetically modified — over the course of four days, and undergo blood tests. More than 500 women responded to the ad, and 12 were selected, White said, according to The Des Moines Register.
The goal of the research is to provide a staple source of vitamin A for communities in the developing world.
"In Uganda and other African countries, vitamin A deficiency is a major contributor to deaths in childhood from infectious diseases," White wrote in a statement her university released in 2014. "Wouldn't it be great if these bananas could prevent preschool kids from dying from diarrhea, malaria or measles?"
Critics have argued that there are other bananas that are a good source of vitamin A. But these bananas tend to be of a sweet variety that Ugandans and residents of other African countries don't consume as much. That's why the researchers decided to take a gene from these bananas and put it into a less-sweet variety that is commonly used by Ugandans for cooking.
But this isn't the first time GMO advocates and proponents have clashed over the development of a crop meant to prevent vitamin A deficiency.
The golden rice saga
In the early 2000s, scientists developed a variety of GM rice, called golden rice, which contained many times the level of beta carotene found in normal rice. Golden rice was made available for free to subsistence farmers in developing countries.
But activists shut it down by claiming the rice was unsafe or ineffective. Scientists conducted a trial where they fed golden rice to children in China, and it turned into a national scandal, as NPR reported previously.
Even if the GM bananas don't face the same backlash that golden rice did, there are a number of roadblocks before they can make it into the hands of farmers in Uganda.
As NPR reported, "For the banana to have any impact at all, governments would have to approve it, farmers would have to grow it, and ordinary people would have to be persuaded to eat orange-tinted bananas" (since beta carotene is an orange pigment).
Still, these bananas are just one of many approaches to get more vitamin A into the Ugandan diet.
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en
| 0.966134 | 1,140 | 2.75 | 3 |
Bushfires are lethal for both people and plants. However, some Australian plants have adapted to not only survive fire, but use it to help them grow. Fire causes balga trees to flower – a long, straight flower stalk sprouts from among the grass-like leaves at the top of the blackened, fire-resistant trunk. The stalk is covered with tiny flowers, which produce a sweet nectar – delicious when made into a drink. Indigenous Australians used dry flower stalks to rub together and make fire. In some areas, fire was used in a controlled way to promote new growth.
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http://www.britishmuseum.org/mobile/australia_trail/australia_stop_1.aspx
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en
| 0.966573 | 119 | 3.640625 | 4 |
What is Bomberbot?
Bomberbot is a digital learning tool that offers coding for kids aged 8 to 14. By solving logic-based puzzles with visual programming blocks, children develop basic programming knowledge and computational thinking skills.
Step by step, ready to use lesson materials
Easy to Use CurriculumDesigned for teachers with no prior programming experience.
Problem solving game helps children develop computational thinking skills.
Logic-based PuzzlesApply programming concepts learned in class to solve each level.
Manage all your classes and programming lessons in one place
Track Student ProgressLearning analytics to see how your students did after every lesson
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CC-MAIN-2016-26
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http://landing.bomberbot.com/
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Forest Guard: The Lego Guard's innovative solution for early wildfire detection
After research, our team learned that increased temperatures due to climate change has also increased the risk of wildfire for our community. We decided to chose wildfire as our problem, and early wildfire detection as the focus for our solution.
Our innovative solution would use computers and people all over the world to watch forests. The system would employ solar powered cameras mounted on poles situated throughout the forest. The video cameras would be continuously panning and would be linked by ethernet radios to a hub (one of the fire watchtowers).
The hub computer would then take the snapshots from the cameras ( a "live" feed) and store them in a web server on the internet. A free "Forest Guard" screen saver would be offered to anyone to put on their computer to show these forest photos.
As people enjoy the photos, they could also be the "eyes" to keep a look out for fires. Our research shows that nothing spots smoke better than a human. If you spot smoke, you press a key on your keyboard and Forest Guard would notify the right people (like the local fire fighters station).
We discussed our idea with Foresters at both Cal Fire and Tahoe National Forest. Gary Fildes, the Forest Fuels Manager for Tahoe National Forest, helped us determine where to put our camera towers to completely cover all of Tahoe National Forest for a pilot system. (red dots= camera towers, blue dots= watchtower hubs)
Global Connection: We shared this idea with fire specialists at GFMC - the Global Fire Monitoring Center. The GFMC is part of the United Nations. They thought our idea was very interesting!
We also shared this information with Collserola Park and the Barcelona Bombers- Fire Department in Spain.
We have created a relatively detailed outline of our project for the Children's Climate Call. You can get a copy of that document by clicking on the info link below.
Additionally, the multifold brochure (that the team created) is attached below as well. This brochure was handed out to the judges at the competitions.
If you would like to learn even more details, we invite you to watch our presentation on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isCJeSZQtkk or please contact the team and we'll get you whatever you would like!
|Forest Guard Info.pdf||2.35 MB|
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Ching-yuan Wei-hsin, a Chinese Ch'an master, once said this:
Thirty years ago, when having not studied Ch'an, this monk saw mountain was mountains and water was water.
Later, when following the good teacher's guide, this monk...
IS THERE SOMETHING CALLED MIND TO MIND TRANSMISSION?
Questioner: It is often heard that there is some legend called "mind to mind transmission" in Zen tradition. What does that mean?
CT: Supposedly, there are two persons and there would be the following cases might be taken into consideration: - Each of them has a mind; - One of them has mind and the other has no mind; - Both of them have no mind.
Also, the following situations would need to be considered: - If one has a mind and the mind is full of whatever can be imagined; - If one has a mind and the minds are totally empty.
* The first consideration: If both of them each has a mind and the two minds are full of whatever can be imagined, so how can "mind to mind transmission" happen; and if it happens, what is transmitted and which mind transmits and which mind receives and what does it receive? Remember both of them are equally full. This means there is no extra room for anything else comes in.
* The second consideration: If one of the two has a mind and the mind is full and the other has no mind, so which mind transmits and which mind receives what is transmitted and what is received and how? If no mind then no room to contain and no thing to transmit.
* The third consideration: If one of them has a mind which is full and the other a mind that is empty, so how to transmit and what is transmitted? Of course, the empty mind has nothing to transmit to the full one and the full one has no room for anything to come in. Could the full mind transmit something to the empty one, couldn't it? Of course not. Why? Because the empty one always empties itself, it never holds anything comes in from outside.
* The fourth consideration: If each of them has a mind and both minds are empty, so what is to transmit?
* The fifth consideration: Each of them has no mind. Evidently, it needs not to say anything about this case.
Therefore, it might come to a conclusion like this: "There is nothing called 'mind to mind transmission' at all in Zen Buddhism." It is just a legend or a myth.
So, please be advised: Do not come to Zen to find any kind of saviors such as miracle makers, love makers, compassion makers, bless makers, mind-peace makers, sacredness makers, saint makers, god makers, enlightenment makers... One must be a true savior for oneself by putting down whatsoever one has accumulated so far, at one time for all.
Purchase posters, art prints, media (music CD & DVD)
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August 7, 2012
New Genetic Study Defines The Genetic Map Of The Jewish Diasporas
A new genetic analysis focusing on Jews from North Africa has provided an overall genetic map of the Jewish Diasporas. The findings support the historical record of Middle Eastern Jews settling in North Africa during Classical Antiquity, proselytizing and marrying local populations, and, in the process, forming distinct populations that stayed largely intact for more than 2,000 years. The study, led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, was published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"Our new findings define North African Jews, complete the overall population structure for the various groups of the Jewish Diaspora, and enhance the case for a biological basis for Jewishness," said study leader Harry Ostrer, M.D. , professor of pathology, of genetics and of pediatrics at Einstein and director of genetic and genomic testing for the division of clinical pathology at Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Ostrer noted that obtaining a comprehensive genetic fingerprint of various Jewish subpopulations can help reveal genetic links to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other common diseases.In a previous genetic analysis, the researchers showed that modern-day Sephardic (Greek and Turkish), Ashkenazi (Eastern European) and Mizrahi (Iranian, Iraqi and Syrian) Jews that originated in Europe and the Middle East are more related to each other than to their contemporary non-Jewish neighbors, with each group forming its own cluster within the larger Jewish population. Further, each group demonstrated Middle-Eastern ancestry and varying degrees of mixing with surrounding populations. Two of the major Jewish populations–Middle Eastern and European Jews–were found to have diverged from each other approximately 2,500 years ago.
The current study extends that analysis to North African Jews–the second largest Jewish Diaspora group. Their relatedness to each other, to other Jewish Diaspora groups, and to their non-Jewish North African neighbors had not been well defined. The study also included members of Jewish communities in Ethiopia, Yemen and Georgia. In all, the researchers analyzed the genetic make-up of 509 Jews from 15 populations along with genetic data on 114 individuals from seven North African non-Jewish populations.
North African Jews exhibited a high degree of endogamy, or marriage within their own religious and cultural group in accordance with custom. Two major subgroups within this overall population were identified: Moroccan/Algerian Jews and Djerban (Tunisian)/Libyan Jews. The two subgroups varied in their degree of European mixture, with Moroccan/Algerian Jews tending to be more related to Europeans–most likely stemming from the expulsion of Sephardic Jews from Spain during the Inquisition, starting in 1492. Ethiopian and Yemenite Jewish populations also formed distinctive genetically linked clusters, as did Georgian Jews.
On the Net:
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The answer is…everything! Without love, and a few other characteristics, people just don’t treat each other as they should. If we actually went by the term “treat others like you want to be treated” based on how people actually treat each other, most would never get along. Maybe it is the love that one does feel for their spouse is what helps them and their partner navigate through the tough times.
But that sort of looks like the love of one partner is carrying the load. That does sort of shed some light on the importance of love. The sad thing is, love has not always been the motivating factor for marriage. Wikipedia reports this “A love marriage is a marriage of two individuals based upon mutual love, affection, commitment and attraction."
While nowadays, the term has little discrete meaning in the Western world, where most marriages are considered to be 'based in love,' the term has meaning elsewhere to indicate a concept of marriage which differs from the norms of arranged marriage and forced marriage. The term has found usage in South Asia and Middle-Eastern countries which have strong traditional arranged marriage systems, where the families of the woman, the man, or of both, arrange the marriage for the individuals. Depending on the culture, love marriages may be unpopular or frowned upon.”
What! How is that possible? A marriage without love these days never seems to go well. But consider this. A marriage that was arranged in which the two stay together for years and years without love, speaks volumes of their commitment. Sure, they may learn to love each other as the marriage goes on but imagine what that level of commitment accompanied by love would do for couples this day and age.
In today’s world love has everything to do with it, mostly because if one doesn’t “feel the love” there is usually no commitment at any level. Wikipedia also shared that “In the 20th century, the 1968 movement, the subsequent second women's movement in the 1970s, as well as the sexual revolution initiated a number of far-reaching changes in Western society: Equal rights for men and women, as well as the right of wives to work even if their husbands disagreed.
More and more women began to pursue careers. For the first time, they were free from the need to find a "provider", and "love marriage" became the social norm.” Thank God for that, who really wants to be with someone because you “have to” be or because your family planned it. Although we could learn a lot in the realm of commitment from those marriages, in today’s world that might be a disaster waiting to happen. On the flip side some may say that without love you wouldn’t have that commitment.
So do the two need to be present for a marriage to sustain the trials of this current world, absolutely? It takes a strong love for one another for the commitment to survive today’s stressors. Love is that important for without it a spouse may not be willing to stay committed. Sure, we could add that a couple needs patients, compromise and good communication, but wouldn’t those areas be difficult as well if someone wasn’t “feeling the love”. It is highly likely that most would agree and think, yes, that would be difficult.
Love is all about support, understanding, sharing, compromise and trust. If your marriage is fortunate to have love, then your marriage can give peace and happiness to you and your family. Life is all about sharing love and peace. Money, fame, status, luxury can all be meaningless. What we all want most is unconditional love, or Real Love. Real Love is caring about the happiness of another person without any thought for what we might get for ourselves. Sadly, few of us have sufficiently received or given that kind of love, not just during our marriages but for our entire lives. So, what does love got to do with it…everything.
More marriage articles: http://www.examiner.com/marriage-in-wichita-falls/jack-lopez
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Biggin Church Ruins – Moncks Corner, South Carolina
South Carolina | SC Picture Project | Berkeley County Photos | Biggin Church Ruins
Located in Moncks Corner, these ruins are all that remain of a church constructed in the early 1700s. Established by the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly when the colony was divided into 10 parishes, Biggin Church was the parish church of St. John’s Berkeley Parish. Unfortunately, the church fell victim to three devastating fires.
The first was a forest fire that destroyed the church in 1775. It was rebuilt, but soon afterwards, British soldiers who used the church to store ammunition during the Revolutionary War set it on fire when they left. It was rebuilt again, but after burning down a third time from a forest fire in 1886, its parishioners left it in ruins.
The area was used as a local brickyard for years until its surrounding cemetery began to be used again. Even though portions of walls are all that now stand, they give evidence that the original design was fairly sophisticated.
There is a Gibbs surround at what may have been the main entrance, quoins at the corners, voussoirs over the windows, and a rounded water table. All of these were expertly crafted out of brick, which is impressive for construction during this time period.
Biggin Church is listed in the National Register:
Biggin Church Ruins are the remains of the parish church of St. John’s Parish. The church was established by an act of the South Carolina Commons House of Assembly in 1706, which divided the colony into ten parishes. The original Biggin Church was probably completed ca. 1711. Biggin Church was used through the mid-nineteenth century and the surrounding cemetery is still being used. During the American Revolution, ammunitions were stored in the church by British troops who, upon leaving, set the church on fire. The church was burned several other times throughout its use, the last time in the late 1800s when it was not subsequently rebuilt. For many years the site served as a local brickyard. Although only portions of two walls remain, there is evidence that originally Biggin Church was designed with a degree of sophistication. Notable architectural details which remain include a Gibbs surround at the main portal, quoins at the corner, radiating voussoirs over the windows, and a rounded water table—all executed in brick.
More Pictures of the Biggin Church Ruins
Biggin Church Ruins Info
Address: South Carolina Highway 402 near Old Cherry Hill Road, Moncks Corner, SC 29461
GPS Coordinates: 33.212405,-79.966709
Biggin Church Ruins Map
Biggin Church Ruins Add Info and More Photos
The purpose of the South Carolina Picture Project is to celebrate the beauty of the Palmetto State and create a permanent digital repository for our cultural landmarks and natural landscapes. We invite you to add additional pictures (paintings, photos, etc) of Biggin Church Ruins, and we also invite you to add info, history, stories, and travel tips. Together, we hope to build one of the best and most loved SC resources in the world!
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The U.N.'s high projection, by contrast, shows the population passing 28 billion in 2150 and continuing to climb afterwards. As biologists, we find this projection utterly unrealistic. It makes no allowance for rising death rates due to problems connected with rapid population growth, including the need to supply food to ever-more people; the appearance of novel viruses and resistant strains of old microbial enemies; and general environmental deterioration. To our minds, a likelier outcome would be population limitation resulting from some combination of plague, famine, or war.
The U.N.'s low projection is considerably more interesting. It shows the world population peaking at about 8 billion around 2050 and thereafter slowly declining, dropping below 5 billion by 2150. This assumes that fertility can soon be reduced globally to below replacement level. (Replacement level is when couples just replace themselves in the next generation--at today's mortality rates that means an average of slightly more than two children per family--leading eventually to zero population growth.)
We believe the world can attain below replacement level fertility with a concerted international effort. After all, the industrialized world's average fertility is already well below replacement, and China's is not far behind. If average fertility elsewhere in the developing world could be reduced by half by about 2015, the population surely could be held well below the U.N.'s best-guess 11.2 billion peak.
WEALTH DOESN'T ALWAYS MEAN SMALLER FAMILIES
But how should a concerted international effort be framed? The answer isn't simple because the factors that determine fertility rates are extremely complex and sometimes contradictory, and they vary from culture to culture.
Several decades ago, experts had little understanding of what motivates people to have smaller families, although most agreed that a major prerequisite was ensuring that more infants survived to adulthood. They also thought that, once children were no longer income-producers, but instead cost money to feed, clothe, and educate, couples would find smaller families advantageous. But experts disagreed about the value of programs specifically oriented toward birth control. Some development specialists believed such programs were unnecessary because people would naturally desire smaller families in the wake of modernization and industrialization--in short, development itself would be the best contraceptive.
Nonetheless, family planning programs were established in many developing countries, and by the mid-1970s several showed striking success (among them: Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, Trinidad, Tobago, and Barbados). By 1980, the most remarkable turnaround was in China, where an indigenous program had cut the average family size by half in only 10 years, to 2.3 children per couple, just above replacement level fertility.
But these successes showed no clear correlation with development, as measured by the growth of a country's gross national product. Some countries, such as South Korea and Taiwan, showed the expected fertility declines associated with rising GNPs, but others, such as Mexico and Brazil, underwent considerable development with little or no reduction in birthrates. And in many developing nations, birthrates remained high despite substantial drops in infant and child mortality, the existence of family planning programs, and development assistance.
By 1980, it had become apparent that, although industrial development might raise the GNP, it had no consistent relationship to the number of children women bore. But certain kinds of development--improving basic health and nutritional conditions, providing for security in old age, and educating women and granting them a measure of independence and economic opportunity--did make a difference, sometimes a dramatic one. The more that improved living conditions and social security were widely distributed, the more effectively they seemed to influence the entire population to have smaller families.
It is essential to distinguish between the different kinds of development because one thing is certain: The world cannot afford the sort of industrial development that has occurred in rich nations since 1950. The planet's life-support systems can't maintain 5.7 billion people living the overconsumptive lifestyle of the average American--a lifestyle that already causes substantial and possibly irreversible damage to the environment.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR WOMEN HELP EVERYONE
Despite the complexity of the factors that affect reproductive choices, some common threads can guide our actions as understanding evolves. It now seems clear that the kinds of development efforts that do work have to do with people's--especially women's--basic living conditions: health, education, and equality of opportunity.
In nearly all developing regions, there is a strong connection between education of women and lower fertility. Even with a few years of schooling, a young woman may apply her education to better manage her family's health and well-being. She learns to obtain pure water, use sanitary practices, and choose more nutritious foods; as more children survive, the mother becomes more receptive to birth control. Education also often opens opportunities for activities besides motherhood.
In Kerala state in southern India, women traditionally have been treated relatively equitably, and education and health care have long been a priority. Because it is a highly literate society, once a few women began using contraception in the 1960s, knowledge and use soon spread. The average family size, already small by Indian standards, fell from 3.0 children in 1979 to 1.8 in 1991, even though the state remained very poor and there was little or no structural change in the society.
Sadly, prospects for similar declines elsewhere in India may not be as bright. India's average family size is still 3.4 children, one in every eight children dies before age 5, and barely a third of adult women are literate.
Several other Asian nations, however, have succeeded in reducing birthrates. In Thailand, the population has tripled from 20 million in 1950 to 59 million in 1995. To stop this expansion, the government began a family planning program in 1970, which has had dramatic results: In 1970 the average woman bore five children; by 1995 that number has fallen to 2.2. While much credit goes to a vigorous and imaginative public education program, it might not have been so successful without the high literacy rate among Thai women, which during that period rose from 72 to 90 percent.
The benefits of educating women extend far beyond fertility reduction. Closing the gender gap in education (two-thirds of the world's illiterate people are women) turns out to be an important factor in a nation's overall social and economic status. Countries in which women have greater access to education have higher GNPs per capita, and a high level of female literacy is also associated with improvements in health and nutrition, independent of income levels.
Societies in which women have substantial rights also have relatively low fertility rates, as illustrated by most developed nations. In particular, women who work outside the home and earn some income of their own, however small, consistently tend to have fewer children. By contrast, where women have low status, they usually have little or no choice about when or how many children they bear, even though they are responsible for the children's upbringing. If the women do work outside the home, they often do so in family-oriented "informal enterprises," and men retain power over them through culturally ingrained arrangements within families. Thus these women achieve no true economic independence. Since they do not directly reap the benefits, employment may not lower their fertility rates.
WE STILL NEED FAMILY PLANNING
Whatever the basic motivations for family-size decisions may be, there is little question that access to modern contraception and safe abortions can help families stay within their goals. Half of all pregnancies are unplanned and a quarter are "certainly unwanted," according to the World Health Organization; this means that even if other social conditions are not favorable for population reduction, a strong family planning program can reduce fertility.
The most effective programs are bolstered by comprehensive maternal and child health programs. And, increasingly, men are included in family planning services. Support is also offered through social policies that regulate the minimum age for marriage, offer education and work opportunities for women, and provide social security arrangements. Some countries have reinforced the family planning message through housing assignments and tax policies that penalize parents with too many children. India has had vasectomy carnivals, and Indonesian youths who promise not to marry before a certain age and to limit the size of their families are given special recognition.
In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, the array of tactics now being used is truly impressive, as are the results: Last year, an average family size was down to 2.2 children, close behind Kerala's rate. The backbone of the effort is a network of clinics--some private, some government supported--that provide comprehensive contraceptive and mother-child health services. Family planning counseling is offered--even to mothers-in-law, formidable powers in Indian families.
The ideal family size (illustrated by a logo showing a father, mother, and one child) is displayed on billboards, banners, leaflets, and television. Goals that support smaller families, such as recommended ages for marriage and first childbirth, a target average birth weight, and a minimum pregnancy weight gain are also widely promoted.
Nor are Indian men neglected. One ingenious device is to organize hairdressing salons (frequented more by men than women in Tamil Nadu) as centers of education and contraceptive delivery. Workshops train hairdressers to pass the message, and large jars of condoms are located in salons so men can pick them up free and without embarrassment.
But even without such education efforts, there already exists an enormous unmet need for contraceptives. Although more than half of the world's married women are using birth control, the number of women who wish to avoid pregnancy-, but lack access to contraception, was conservatively estimated to be 120 million in 1990. By the year 2000, the number of people in their reproductive years (ages 15-49) will have increased by 23 percent. So, to achieve even a moderate increase in the rate of contraceptive use, the number of people using modern contraceptives in developing nations will have to double.
To meet this rising need, delegates to the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo recommended increasing the annual funding for reproductive health services almost fourfold to $17 billion by 2000. About a third of the funds will go to improving reproductive health programs, and the rest to family planning. The developing countries themselves will supply two-thirds of the money. The balance amounts to only about 10 percent of the total official development aid provided by rich countries in 1991--and barely 0.029 percent of their combined 1993 GNPs. The world cannot afford to do less.
CHANGE BEGINS AT HOME
But runaway population growth is only one component pressuring our life-support systems. The other is overconsumption, which has scarcely been addressed. Those who promote population policies for poor nations should also press for them in rich nations, where each person accounts for so much more environmental damage and resource depletion. Further, rich countries should institute strong consumption reduction policies. This would balance poor nations' needed industrial growth while minimizing the environmental impact of additional development.
The United States should take the lead in both endeavors, although it currently shows little interest in either. American fertility is a shocking exception to the very low rates in most industrialized nations. Although American fertility was below replacement for 20 years, it returned to replacement by 1993 and is still rising. Americans are also the most excessive consumers in the world, and our energy profligacy is exceeded in the developed nations only by the former Soviet bloc. This is shameful in an era when global warming, mainly from burning fossil fuels, poses huge health threats for the next century.
The world is too diverse for any one measure to solve the human dilemma. But one generality is so obvious that failure to see it can only reflect willful blindness: Increasing socioeconomic equity at all levels--between the sexes and among families, social classes, regions, and nations--has great potential for improving the human condition. But rich nations perpetuate poverty in the developing world in a million subtle but powerful ways. Improving the behavior of the wealthy would ultimately be much more effective than simply telling the poor how to change theirs.
Paul R. Ehrlich, Bing professor of population biology, and Anne H. Ehrlich, a senior research associate, work in the department of biological sciences at Stanford University; Gretchen C. Daily is Bing interdisciplinary research scientist at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford. This article is adapted from a forthcoming book, The Stork and the Plow (Putnam, 1995).
See "Backlash in Beijing?" (in this issue) and Hot Media for resources.
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Posted: 06/06/2015 at 13:13
If you (temporarily!) stand a pot in a tray of water, the compost will soak up as much water as it needs. That should take about 30 minutes. Then remove the pot from the tray.
The advantage is that the compost will be thoroughly wetted all the way through which may not happen when you water from above as it can run straight down, particularly if the compost has been allowed to dry out too much.
Note that most plants will die if you permanently leave them in pots sitting in a tray of water.
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The Equine Hock: What Horse Owners Should Know
The “hock” is a horseman’s term for the tarsus, an anatomic region of the horse’s hind limb. Horses of all breeds, types, and disciplines can suffer from hock-related lameness problems, especially those that work heavily off of their hind limbs. This article discusses basic hock anatomy and function, describes desirable hock conformation, and discusses common lameness problems associated with this area.
WHAT IS THE HOCK?
A horse’s hock is the evolutionary equivalent to the human ankle. When looking at a horse from the side, the point of the hock is the backward-pointed part halfway down the rear limb. Over millions of years of evolution, the ankle and part of the foot of the early horse raised off the ground, leaving the horse walking on the tip of its third toe. This evolved into the hoof. The other toes and several of the metatarsals (foot bones) were lost in the process. This lower limb change was part of the adaptation that allowed the horse’s lower limb to become lighter and better adapted for explosive speed. Horses were heavily selected for great speed as they occupied the prehistoric plains. At that time, there was a great assortment of effective predators that culled any individuals that were slow.
The hock is complex, and consists of four basic joints and many bones, all joined by ligaments. The topmost joint is the high motion joint and accounts for about 90% of the range of motion in the area. The three lower joints together account for the remaining 10% of range of motion and consist of two rows of cube shaped bones lying on top of one another. Below the lower row of these small bones is the cannon bone, which drops down to the fetlock. The digital flexor tendons pass through and over the inside and back part of the hock, and are critical to supporting the horse’s weight. The Achilles (gastrocnemius) tendon runs down the back of the limb above the hock and attaches on the point of the hock. If this tendon is cut, the whole function of the hock is lost, the hocks folds, and a horse cannot support any weight.
Ideal hock conformation varies depending on the breed and intended use of a horse, but there are some basics that every horse owner should know about conformation in this area:
- A hock should appear stout and smooth, without obvious swellings. The left and right hocks should look symmetrical. The bones that make up the hock should generally be thick and heavy. This is simple mechanics; there are massive stresses placed on the lower limb of working horses. If this structure is too light, there is a greater chance for injury.
- When looking at the hock from behind, the limb should appear straight through the hock, without major angulation inward or outward.
- When looking from the side at a horse that is standing squarely, the cannon bone should be near perpendicular to the ground. The angle between the limb above the hock and below the hock should not be too straight (post legged) or too angled (sickle hocked).
- Deviation from good hock conformation just means that there will be more stresses placed on the joints, tendons, and ligaments. This may increase the chance for hock-related lameness.
- Major changes in hock conformation and rear limb conformation can limit performance in certain disciplines. An example is found in cutting and reining horses, which are expected to stop and turn hard on their hind limbs. Hocks that are placed too “high” (i.e. long cannon bones) create a mechanical disadvantage for this kind of work and are considered undesirable for this discipline.
COMMON HOCK-RELATED LAMENESS
Lameness problems that commonly arise in the hock area have, through hundreds of years of observation by horsemen, been coined with various names including “bog spavin,” “thoroughpin,” and “capped hock.” These terms refer to swellings in various structures of the hock.
The most common problem associated with the hock is arthritis and pain in the lower, low-motion joints of the hock. Swellings and obvious lameness related to these joints has historically been known by horsemen as “bone spavin.” Even though these lower joints account for little range of motion, they are commonly the cause of hock-related lameness, especially in horses competing in disciplines that require more use of the hindquarters. Deviations from normal hock conformation mean a higher likelihood of development of problems in this area.
Many performance horses are routinely treated for pain in these lower hock joints. Injection of the joints with a steroid with or without other anti-inflammatory medication is a very common procedure in the performance horse world. While joint supplements like glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and MSM may help overall joint health, they often do not drastically improve lameness from hock arthritis.
The good news is that this problem can usually be managed to allow horses to continue to work. For horses that do not respond to typical treatments and management, these low motion joints may be surgically fused, which, in many horses alleviates the lameness. Relatively new, and potentially very effective therapies that we now use to treat pain in these joints include shockwave treatment, and injection of the low motion joints with alcohol to chemically fuse them.
A common lameness in performance horses, which can be confused with bone spavin, is injury to the high suspensory ligament at the back of the hock. This important ligament can be a source of low-grade chronic pain and can be difficult to diagnose and treat. Another common lameness in this region is osteochondrosis (OCD), a problem of abnormal joint development. OCD can be found in any joint but the top (high motion) joint of the hock is a common site. The problem usually appears as lameness or swelling of this joint in young horses.
Back soreness is often secondary to hock and other hind limb lameness. Underlying lameness should always be considered and ruled out in a back sore horse. It is unfortunate when horses are treated for a sore back for long periods of time, often with alternative therapies, without considering that a lameness-related problem is the source of the back soreness. A more effective approach is to work with your veterinarian to diagnose specific lameness problems first, and then to treat and manage these problems appropriately. Back soreness often improves when the lameness is alleviated. That said, there are some back problems that are not related to underlying lameness.
THE LAMENESS EXAM
The lameness exam is a methodical process of elimination your equine veterinarian conducts to arrive at a diagnosis. This exam begins with a careful history and physical examination. In any lameness exam, it is important to know the type and amount of work the horse does. In the exam, there may be obvious swelling or symptoms of a problem in the painful area, but more often there is not.
A common procedure done in assessing hock lameness and hind limb lameness generally is the “Spavin” test (hock/stifle or upper limb flexion). In doing this, the examiner holds the hock and upper limb in flexion for a given period of time and then evaluates the change in degree of lameness when the horse is asked to trot off. While flexion of the upper limb often makes hock lameness worse, it also will accentuate lameness from other parts of the limb, and so must be thought of as just one piece of useful information and not a diagnosis in and of itself.
In all lameness exams, the lameness is first narrowed down to an area using examination, flexion, nerve and joint blocks. Once the lameness is narrowed down to a region, then x-ray, ultrasound and other imaging techniques are used to define the problem precisely. Proper treatment always depends on making a correct diagnosis. As I mentioned before, a very common treatment is hock injections performed on the lower hock joints. Treatment of OCD might involve surgery or joint injection. Treatment of suspensory ligament injuries usually requires ample healing time but can also being treated effectively with newer therapies like extra-corporeal shockwave application and injection of stem cells into the injured area.
PREVENTION OF HOCK PROBLEMS
The first step in preventing hock problems is to select horses that are the appropriate type and conformation for your intended use, and do not have preexisting lameness problems. The most reliable way to do this is to have a pre-purchase examination performed by a qualified veterinarian. Hock conformation is a very important part of a pre-purchase examination. Breeders should select for horses with good hock and rear limb conformation.
As a horse owner, you should be familiar with the basic anatomy of the hock and what your horse’s hocks look like normally. This enables you to recognize swellings and other abnormalities that might suggest a problem. Be aware of your horse’s normal behavior and movement. If you suspect that your horse is lame or back sore, consult your veterinarian early for a proper diagnosis and treatment. It is also very important to follow a program for conditioning performance horses to prevent overloading and injury of tendons and ligaments in this and other areas.By Douglas O. Thal DVM Dipl. ABVP Board Certified in Equine Practice Thal Equine LLC Last Updated August 2011
Observation – Swollen Hock, Generally Observation – Excessive Bend in Hocks, Sickle Hocks Diagnostic – Radiography, Hocks or Tarsus Diagnosis – Bed Sores, Fetlocks or Hocks Diagnosis – Bone Spavin, Distal Hock Arthrosis Diagnosis – Osteochondrosis, Osteochondritis Dissecans, OCD
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Not much is known about the manners and ways of the American Martens, because of their shyness and the fact that they are active during nighttime. Fact is, they are very good climbers, and they could chase a squirrel in a vertical race (up the tree). This marten is a solitary type, but they could exhibit some form of curiousity. The forest is a natural zone for them, as it gives protection and food (prey) at the same time.
They are mainly carnivorous, but there are periods in a year when they would subsist on fruits. They hunt mainly on ground level. Their metabolism is high, and because of that, they need much food, and this need to eat is one reason why many of them get trapped. Small rodents and mice are their principal food, but they could take in hares, squirrels, birds, amphibians, insects, reptiles, crayfish, fruits, nuts and still others.
They reach sexual maturity when they are 2 years old, and during the breeding period (July up to Aug), they can exhibit a great deal of aggressiveness, even against other male martens. Litter size is 2 to 4 offsprings. A male plays no part at all in the rearing of these newborns.
The American marten, american pine marten is listed as Least Concern (LR/lc), lowest risk. Does not qualify for a more at risk category. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category, on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Namings for the American martenA American marten group is called a 'richness'.
Some facts about the
Adult weight : 0.884 kg (1.9448 lbs)
Maximum longevity : 18 years
Female maturity :365 days
Male maturity : 365 days
Gestation : 28 days
Weaning : 46 days
Litter size : 3
Litters per year : 1
Interval between litters : 365 days
Weight at birth : 0.03 kg (0.066 lbs)
Weight at weaning : 0.392 kg (0.8624 lbs)
Basal metabolic rate : 4 W
Body mass : 0.967 kg (2.1274 lbs)
Temperature : 37.85 °C (100.13 °F)
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As a continiuation of the Angolan civil war that started prior to the planned independance day of 11 November 1975; the MPLA, strongest of the 3 liberation movements, through armed action, drove the opposition UNITA and FNLA forces out of Luanda the capital city, and continued with armed action against it rivals, till the end of hostillities in 1990. This armed conflict was not only an Angolan internal affair, but a manifestation of the East-West stand-off during the Cold War. The communist east Bloc supported the marxist MPLA movement, while the West and South-Africa supported UNITA logistically amd militarily. The FNLA was defeated by the MPLA north of Luanda on 10 November 1975 in the run-up to independance day, and only played a minor role there-after in the North Eastern Parts of Angola. UNITA based its stronghold in the South-Eastern part of Namibia amonsgt the tribes from which it natuarally drew its support. Mavinga in the Cuando Cubango Province was established as a regional stronghold, and the Headquarters was based further East at Jamba. South Africa and the West continue to provide material support and a limited number of instructors during the early 1980's, with frequest clandistine flights into Mavinga and Jamba for this support. The civil war escalated from the relative low key levels in 1975 when the firts Cuban military advisiors and soldiers arrived, and grew in intensity till the large conventional battles of 1987/88 between the FAPLA/CUBAN/SOVIET Forces and the SADF/UNITA. By 1988, there were an estimated 65000 Cuban military personell in Angola, and about 2500 Soviets and smaller numbers from other Eastern Bloc countries.
By 1985, UNITA had about 30 000 trained fighters and controlled about 1/3rd of Angola. Having withstood a FAPLA offense of 1984, it was expecting a larger offense in 1985. During the 1985 dry season, FAPLA launched its large conventional campaign of some 20 Brigades towards the UNITA controlled South-Eastern Angola. Attrition of FAPLA forces required the drafting of SWAPO's semi-conventional Brigade, and 5 battalions of the ANC's MK undergoing training in the country. The campaign commenced in August and made good progress along 2 axis of advance. With the FAPLA forces only 40kms from Mavinga, UNITA urgently requested SADF help. Up to now the SADF have been giving UNITA some indirect logistical support, and some Special Forces members have been assisting UNITA developing its military capabilities. The SADF decided on limited support: Operation Magneto was supporting UNITA on the Cazzombo front, and consisted of artillery advisors and medics. Operation Wallpaper supported the 2nd front west of Mavinga, and consisted of a troop of 127mm Valkiri MLRS's deployed from 27 September till October 3 1985. The SAAF flew in supplies to Mavinga and airstrips near the front and assisted with trooping. Mirage and Impala planes attcked FAPLA forces along the Lomba river. The offensive was stopped only 23kms from Mavinga by December 1985 when the offensive was defeated, FAPLA losses ammounted to some 2500 killed and wounded, 8 fighter planes, 6 Mi-24's and Mi-25's, several other helicopters and 2 transports, 6 tanks, 26 armoured vehicles, about 100 trucks lost or captured. UNITA lost about 500 dead and 1500 wounded. The FAPLA forces (7, 8 and 13th Bde's) retreated to Cuito Cuanavale.
Taking 2 years to recover from the 1985 defeat, FAPLA planned an event larger assault for the 1987 dry season. Determined not to fail for a 2rd time, FAPLA mustered large conventional forces for the 1987 campaign, this time the command and control functions were largely in the hands of Soviet Advisors delegated to each FAPLA Brigade. In support was strong Cuban armoured and mechanised forces. The 1987 campaign was again a 2-pronged advance from Menongue and Lucusso. The Northern advance soon ran out of steam due to UNITA resistance and logistical problems. The advancing columns from Cuito Cuanavale however made good progress. UNITA intelligence expected and detected the large conventional forces, and requested SADF support through the secret existing communication channels with South Africa. (To the rest of the world, South Africa has denied any support to UNITA, it was all clandistine with silent blessing from the West). Understanding the danger of loosing its ally across the Namibian/Angolan border, South Africa responded by dispatching laison teams to the UNITA units, to make a strategic and tactical assessment of the situation. The FAPLA force consisting of the 16th, 21st, 47th, 59th, 66th Brigades, each consisting of about 2000 men, and Tactical Group 1 and 2, advanced along the Menongue-Longa-Cuito Cuanavale road, while being harrased by UNITA attacks. 13th Brigade was left to guard Cuito Cuanavale, while the 66th Bde protected the Chambinga bridge whle the rest of the Brigades split up in a 3-pronged advance on Mavinga. (See maps below) The 16th Bde and Tactical Group 2 advanced overland towards the east, The 21st Bde advanced east of the Cunzumbia river as the centre leg of the advance and clashed with the SADF/UNITA forces in trying to cross the Lomba river on 9-10 September 1987. The 47th Bde and Tactical Group 1 could not succeed in crossing the Lomba river as the western leg of the 3-prong advance. It eventually routed around the source of the Lomba river, where the SADF/UNITA forces practically wiped out the 47th Brigade and Tactical Group 2 as it attempted to flee the attack. Remnants of the force cross the river on foot and left virtually all hardware behind. The purpose of 47th Brigade was to cover the Southern Bank of the Lomba river, allowing the 16th and 59th Brigade to cross unhindered. This was a lesson learned from the 1985 campaign, when UNITA succeeded to prevent the FAPLA forces crossing the Lomba river. The SADF captured the first SA 8 AA missile system seen in the West, a P15 Flatface radar system, and various other advanced Soviet hardware. This was the end of the 1987 FAPLACUBAN/SOVIET advance, and for the next three and a half months the FAPLA forces were driven back over 100km to Cuito Cuanavale. During this retreat, the combined FAPLA/CUBAN forces with Soviet military advisors were continiuosly mauled by SADF/UNITA surprise attacks, suffering heavy casualties all the way. On the SADF/UNITA side, the SADF forces formed the mechanised component of the attacking force, while UNITA bore the brunt of the Infantry burden, suffering much more casualties than the SADF. While the FAPLA forces were beating a hastely retreat to Cuito Cuanavale being pursued by UNITA and the SADF, re-inforcements (25 Bde) and a re-supply column was sent from Menongue, again continiuosly being attacked by UNITA now with limited SADF support, along the road of death between Menongue and Cuito Cuanavale. 25Bde and the resupply column reached the retreating forces on 12 October near the source of the Cunzumbia river and managed to resupply some of the forces. This was a mistake from the SADF/UNITA side by not stopping the resupply column. In the meantime the UNITA/SADF forces swong west around the source of the Lomba river, persuing the enemy. An opportunity arose to cut off the fleeing 21st Bde between the Vimpulo and Hube rivers, but it managed to escape the SADF trap and rounded the Hube river source on 17 November 1987 after further casualties in clashes with the SADF/UNITA. All retreating FAPLA units had to cross the Chambinga bridge as the only route back to Cuito Cuanavale. With the G5 and G6 artillery pieces with its incredible range of 40kms, all FAPLA forces were under virtually daily artillery bombardment. The Chambinga Bridge was a registered artillery target, and with Forward Artillery Observers perched in trees and on high ground near potential targets, deadly artillery fire could be called almost at will. What remained of the 16th Bde was virtually wipedd out in crossing the Chambinga bridge, and a Soviet military advisor who was present, recall that 16 Bde only managed to bring about 100 men, 1 x BM 21 MRL, 7 x Grad-P's, 1 x 82mm mortar, 1 x RPG7 and 1 x AGS-17 automatic grenade launcher accross the Chambinga Bridge. Ops Modular started on 13 August 1987 and ended on 5 December 1987.
Throughout the campaign the SADF operated with some air support, as the SAAF had to revert to hit and run tacticts in the face of superior numbers of Angolan Sukkoi 22's MIG 21's and MIG 23's, mostly flown by Cuban pilots better trained than FAPLA aircrew. In addition, the most advanced air defence system outside the Soviet Union was deployed with the FAPLA forces consisting of an array of early warning and targer aquisition radars, missile systems and AA guns. Due to military sanctions against South Africa, the SAAF was under strict instructions not to risk the precious and irreplaceble Mirrage F1 fighters or the limited number of other aircraft. The SAAF was not in a position to contest air suuperiority, and focused on supporting the ground forces. 1 Sqn flew 683 sorties on 144 strikes (a strike can consist of more than 1 plane: 1 plane = 1 sortie), 24 Sqn flew 99 sorties on 32 strikes. A total of 176 strikes were flown over the 191 days of deployment. Due to clever tactics the SADF largely neutralised the enemy air superiority with camuflage and concealment of forces in the flat bushy terrain, surprise attacks, and using the superior range of its artillery to dominate the battlefields. The FAPLA airforce seldom located the SADF forces and did not manage to inflict any substantial damage on the SADF forces. Under these difficult conditions, the SAAF only lost 2 Mirage F1's (1 lost and 1 returning to Rundu AFB damaged), and 1 Bosbok light observation plane.
After Operation, Modular, Operation Hooper commenced on 2 January 1988. In the lul between Operations Modular and Hooper the SADF and the opposing forces re-equiped. FAPLA dug in behind deep defensive minefields in a bridgehead east of the Cuito Bridge. Ops Hooper began with an attack on 21st Bde. This was followed by the so-called Tumpo 1, 2 and 3 (Ops Packer) attacks on the FAPLA forces now dug in on the bridgehead east of the Cuito river. The rest of the FAPLA and CUBAN forces were west of the Cuito River in and around the town of Cuito Cuanavale. Due to the continious SADF artillery bombardments, the Soviet advisors left the Cuban/FAPLA forces behind and established a command post 13 kms out of Cuito Cuanavale along the road to Longa.
The bridge over the Cuito river east of the town, remained the only crossing point of the marshy 1km wide Cuito river flood plain. The SADF recognsided its importance, and launced several attacks on the bridge. Artillery bombardments failed to bring the structure down, and closed the bridge only for short periods. A Special Forces attack by Recce Commandos failed partly when the Opeators were spotted floating towards the bridge at night. To complicate matters, one member was also attacked by a crocodile. The bridge was only damaged partly. The team made it back safely after a long escape and evade episode. The SAAF was then tasked to bomb the bridge with a new still secret smart bomb still in prototype stage. 2 attacked failed with the prototype bomb, but a 3rd was successful, bringing a 20m section of the bridge down. Thereafter FAPLA continiuosly tried to make temporary repairs to the bridge but it could not take vehicles anymore due to damage. With pontoon tanks and bridges, FAPLA managed to intermittently ferry equipment to and fro accross the river. These pontoons and ferries were often shelled and damaged by the G5's.
The first attack of Operation Hooper on the Tumpo triangle (see maps), was launched on 25 February 1988, against 25 Bde tasked to defend the bridgehead. At this stage all the other FAPLA forces retreated over the Cuito bridge to the western bank and were deployed in and around Cuito Cuanavale. The FAPLA High command even contemplated in signal intercepts a withdrawal to Menongue and ordered defensive positions to be prepared there. 25Bde partly vacated its posttions during the attack and Forward Observers of the SADF counted 779 soldiers fleeing from east to west over the broken Cuito bridge. The SADF attack however ran into minefields and accurate artillery fire from over the horison positions west of the Cuito river. Fading light and low ammunition levels resulted in the SADF deciding on a tactical retreat to its previous positions without totally destoying the FAPLA forces in the bridgehead. The land west of the Cuito river was ideal defensive territory as it was higher than the East bank, and the direction of attack forced the SADF to attack into the setting sun towards the afternoon. The high ground enabled FAPLA to deploy artillery over the horison, out of sight of the SADF forward observers.
Disssapointed with the results of the Tumpo 1 attack, a 2nd attack was immediately planned. Tumpo 2 had the same objective to clear the FAPLA forces from the East bank. 4 SAI and 61 Mech attacked on 29 February 1988. The target was the northen defences of the bridgehead, defended by 25 Bde. Again the SADF advance was slowed by air attack warnings during which cover was taken by the advancing force. The writer is of the opinion that the SADF's pre-occupation with avoiding casualties, and going for cover due to air-raid warnings, while closing in on the enemy, was a mistake. Momentum and daylight hours were lost, neccesating a tactical retreat again. The FAPLA aerial attacked were often kilometers offf-target, and the SADF should have considered to press ahead with closing in on the enemy; as it is most likely that the air attacked would have been called off due to the risk of hitting own forces. In addition, the forces commited to the Tumpo 1, 2 and 3 attacked were to small, and where outnumbered about 1:3. The FAPLA/CUBAN forces also had much larger numbers of tanks, guns, and other heavy equipment. Ops Hooper ended after the Tumpo 2 attack.
Ops Packer began with what is called Tumpo 3; the 3rd SADF/UNITA attempt to drive FAPLA out of the Tumpo triangle and west over the Cuito river. On 23 March 1988, the bridgehead was attacked simultaniuosly from the north and south. 32Bn supported by UNITA forces lead the southern attack, while SADF citizen forces and UNITA attacked from the north. Suffering the same fate as the Tumpo 1 and 2 attacked, the SADF attack ran into deep anti-tank and anti-personell minefields, slowing progress. Minefield breaching equipment still in developmental phase (Plofadder), did not operate properly and had to be detonated manually, losing valuable time. The SADF armour consisted of 2 tank Squadrons of 11 tanks each. Amongst them they only had one mine-roller. The attacked pressed on but 3 tanks were hit by anti-tanks mines and had to be abandoned. These could not be recovered by the SADF, and became a major propoganda scoop for FAPLA. Under accurate artillery fire and minefields blocking the advanceand low on fuel, the SADF/UNITA had to tactilcally retreat for a 3rd time. The SADF/UNITA forces were not destroyed, UNITA had 13 casualties and some wounded while the SADF had no casualties, but had to leave behind 3 damaged tanks. The SADF/UNITA forces were stopped by the defensive power of the now concentrated FAPLA forces of which the morale has risen after Tumpo 1 and 2. The SADF's mandate to minimise losses for political reasons within SA, also played a role. For the first time FAPLA did not abandon its positions and equipment, and from Cuito Cuanavale CUBAN units played a direct role in the battle.
No SADF tank was shot out in the campaign, while the SADF/UNITA forces destroyed 94 FAPLA tanks. The captured SADF Olifant tanks, (2 damaged and 1 virtually intact, became the most photographed tanks of the campaign, and photos are plastered all over the web, in many instances incorrectly portrayed as the "defeat" of the SADF forces. The SADF did not exploit its battle victories and lost the propoganda war in so much that the belief is still widely held that it was defeated at Cuito Cuanavale. The battle ended in a stalemate by March 1988, with the SADF still on the attack, and the FAPLA forces holding on to defensive positions. At this time, international political events have overtaken the war, and a negotiated settlement was being agreed. The SADF kept a small holding force on the Chamginga Highgrounds to keep the FAPLA forces in their positions. Sporadic fighting occured till 30 August 1988 when all SADF troops withdrew from Angola (Operation Displace) and an agreement between the warring parties was signed on 22 December 1988. Cuba was given 27 months to withdraw from Angola, and Namibia achieved its independance on 21 March 1990. A new dispensation commenced in Southern Africa, and the world changes simultaniously with the end of the cold war.
Regarding Force strenghts and casualties, there are various acounts of false propoganda. On one of the sub-webpages you will find a summary of all the claims and counter claims. Hopefulle it will lead to better understanding and expose the lies!
BATTLE CASUALTIES AND LOSSES:
South Africa FAPLA, Cubans UNITA
Olifant tanks: 3 Tanks 94 Very little is known about the UNITA losses, maybe oneday SADF
Ratels: 5 Armoured troop carriers 100 archives or UNITA sources will reveil more
Casspirs: 3 BM21/BM14 MRLs 34
Rinkhals vehicles: 1 D30/m213 guns 9 Soldiers killed: est. 1500
Withings recovery vehicle: 1 Mobile bridges 7 Soldiers wounded: est. 1000
Kwêvoël truck: 1 Logistical vehicles 377
Bosbok light aircraft: 1 Helicopters 9
Mirage F-1 Fighter-bombers: 2 Missile launchers (SA-8; -9 & -13) 15
Radar sets 5
Soldiers killed: 40 Soldiers killed 4 392 (some sources as high as 7000)
Soldiers wounded: 114 Soldiers wounded - 2000 estimated
The FAPLA side argue that the campaign resulted in the defeat of the SADF, however, military experts agree that the SADF/UNITA forces were not destroyed on the battlefield. The SADF also claims victory, and although it push the FAPLA forces back to Cuito Cuanavale, the advance stalled at the concentrated and good defensive terrain outside Cuito Cuanavale. As said, international political developments overtook the war, and both parties wanted to negotiate from a position of strength. The SADF crushed the FAPLA offensive and saved UNITA to be part of a future democratic Angola. CUBA seekd a way to honourably withdraw, as it could no longer afford to be drawn deeper into the conflict to which it had commited 65000 men and women. As the campaign around Cuito Cuanavale was winding down, Cuba moved a 2nd column of its crack 50th Brigade, supported by FAPLA and SWAPO south towards the Angolan/Namibian border. This 2nd front was engaged by forward SADF units near Techipa in S. Angola. Thie fact that the SADF failed to clear the bridgehead on the east bank of the Cuito, and the advance to the Namibian border gave Castro the "victory" he needed to enter into negotiations. Exploiting the military stalemate and the co-inciding political developments, was used cleverly by Castro and sympathisers in a propoganda campaign to this date, depicting FAPLA and CUBA as the military victors. The real winners were the people of Angola and Namibia that were liberated from long civil war, and are now enjoying democracy.
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Climate Change Report: Global Warming “Very Likely” Man-Made
Global warming is “very likely” man-made, according to a report being released tomorrow from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The report unanimously portrays the science of global warming as an existing and worsening threat. The panel quickly agreed Thursday on two of the most contentious issues: attributing global warming to man-made burning of fossil fuels and connecting it to a recent increase in stronger hurricanes, Associated Press reports (via Forbes).
The phrase “Very Likely” is an escalation from the panel’s last report in 2001, which said warming was “likely” caused by human activity.
China, which has increasingly turned to fossil fuels for its growing energy needs, was resistant to strong wording on global warming and asked that a footnote be added to the “very likely” statement, according to the article. The footnote reads, “Consideration of remaining uncertainty is based on current methodology.”
The approved text of the Summary for Policymakers of the Report will be presented at a press conference that will take place at 9.30 AM Central European Time on February 2.
The press conference will be webcast live and access details will be made available from web sites: http://www.ipcc.ch and http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu beforehand. The Summary for Policymakers will also be made available in English here.
Energy Manager News
- Behind the Meter Podcast: Seeing U-Haul’s HQ Parking Structure in a New (LED) Light
- Uninterruptible Power Supplies: The Case for Moving Beyond Batteries
- Nuclear Giant Exelon Wants to Invest in Wind Energy in Ohio
- Arby’s Reports on Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives
- Navigant: Smart Meter Sector Has “Plateaued”
- Poll: 75% of Large U.S. Corporations Say They Will Buy Renewables Within 18 Months
- Duke Energy Progress Customers to See Fuel Cost-Recovery Savings
- Energy-as-a-Service: Charting a Path Through Complexity
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| 0.88829 | 451 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Revision as of 07:25, 31 May 2009 by Honee_v (updated page)
noun, plural: spindles
(4) An EEG waveform that occurs during sleep, as sleep spindle.
Word origin: Middle English spindel, alteration of Old English spinel.
Please contribute to this project, if you have more information about this term feel free to edit this page.
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| 0.848249 | 87 | 2.84375 | 3 |
The Kallar, Maravar and Agamudaiyar communities constitute the Kshatriya or warrior class of Tamil Nadu, South India. They are a prominent social group of India. They descent from the ancient royal dynasties of the southern region. They have proven Indian histories of more than 3000 years
Kallar(Tamil: கள்ளர்)is one of the three communities which constitute the Mukkalathor confederacy. European eyewitnesses of the 18th century have made mention of Kallars as "a fearless tribe show many signs of independence and non-submission to any form of subjugation". They were expert soldiers and constituted the bulk of Chola and Pandya armies.
One of the principal weapons of the Kallars is the boomerang. This has evoked comparisons with the Australian aborigines and vouch for the theory that Kallars were one of the earliest people to inhabit the Indian subcontinent. The principal occupation of Kallars is farming.
Kallars are found largely in Madurai, Sivagangai, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur, Trichy, Theni and Ramanathapuram districts of Tamil Nadu. One of their popular deities is Kallazhagar who is a warrior form of Lord Thirumala or Venkadavan.
There are various sub-castes of Kallars, amongst whom the Ambalakarar is the most important. They were a warlike people who strongly resisted every British attempt to subjugate them. They are found in Madurai and Sivaganga districts. In these districts, each village is headed by an Ambalakarar (president of an assembly) and the Ambalakarars took upon themselves the power to adjudicate disputes that arose among the inhabitants in the "nadu", belonging to different castes. They used to hear complaints, hold inquiries and punish the offenders. They wielded considerable powers to intervene in any kind of transaction or transfer of property among the people. No land could be alienated from one man to another without the permission of the Ambalakarars. Another important Kallar subcaste is the Piramalai Kallar. They are highly conservative and have preserved their customs and traditions to the present day. They are also believed to be the oldest inhabitants of the Tamil country with reports of their presence going back to Tamil literary works of the 4th century B.C. They are found mainly in the districts of Madurai and Theni. Their popular deity is Amman, the Mother Goddess.
There are kallar settlements in Aziz Nagar (near Ulundurpettai), Pammal (near Tambaram) and Prisly Nagar (Otteri,Chennai). Kallars (Thevar pattam) in these settlements are belived to be migrated from southern parts of Tamil Nadu to a place called Veppur (Cuddalore district). A temple ("Nallathangal kovil") established by them at Veppur on their migration and a Nallathangal temple found in a southern district is the only link to establish their migration.
Maravar (Tamil: மறவர்)(meaning "veerar",upper caste), are one of the oldest social groups to be mentioned by the Sangam Tamil literature. This indicates an association with the Tamil land which is at least 2,000 years old. The writers of the Sangam Age place them in rural settlements withdrawn from cities. Maravar, in Tamil, means a warrior. Maravars are the courageous breed and were involved in the major wars that Tamilnadu witnessed.The maravar are popularly given the title 'Thevar.Other historians postulate that Maravar is derived from Tamil language term Marutham (called as Thinnai). They originally lived in (See Ancient Tamil country). The name of the city Madurai is also postulated to be derived from Maruthai and honorific title of local Pandya kings..They were the rulers of ancient tamilnadu.They ruled the vast land mass of tamilnadu along with Paravar,the coastal rulers.Both these tribes have same origin and they are famous throughout south India for their valour.They were bloodly related akins.The Maravar and Paravar constitute the Kshatriya varna of Tamil caste system.The southern styles of Kalarippayattu,silambam,varma kalai have been practiced primarily by nairs ezhavas,Kallars and Thevars of erstwhile Travancore areas.The Maravar have close relation with kalabhras but they were non-aryan,non-kalabhar group.They were ancint rulers of Pandya kingdom from the first sangam age.Another predominant caste called the Paravars and Maravars were collectively called as Meenavar and Villavar of the past.They both have same origin and they had control over pandya kingdom.Their leaders were given the title"Meenavan" or "Pandyan".Later years the paravas diversified to various fields like pearl fishing,sea trading,also famous sailors came from that caste.But the maravas of meenavar still remained in their tradition.Veera Maravar are the fore fathers of varma kalai.The Maravas were unbeaten in the History of tamilnadu.They ruled Chera,Chola and Pandya kingdoms in later years and they were the Muvendar.Later Naga invasion,Nairis(the present day Nair caste)entered south India as allies to Maravar.But Later they changed their diplomatic stance to enemy and the cowardice attack of nairis made Maravar lose Chera kingdom.Edgar Thurston (1855-1935) a British museologist and ethnographer identified the use of the boomerang by kallar and marawar.
Agamudayar (Tamil: அகமுடையார்) also known as Agam Padaiyar is one of the three Mukkulathor communities. W. Francis writes about Agamudaiyans that they are "a cultivating caste found in all the tamil districts'. however, most agamudaiyars are found in Thanjavur, Madurai and Tirunelveli districts."
There are various derivations of the word "Agamudaiyan" or "Ahamudaiyan". " derived from the root aham, which, in Tamil, has many significations.In one of these, it means a house, in another earth, and hence it has two meanings, householder and landholder ; the suffix Udeiyar indicating ownership. The word is also used in another form, ahambadiyan, derived from another meaning of the same root, i.e., inside. And, in this derivation, it signifies a particular caste, whose office it was to attend to the business in the interior of the king's palace, or in the pagoda". " The name," Mr. J. H. Nelson writes, "is said by the Rev. G. U. Pope, in his edition of the Abbe Dubois' work to be derived from aham, a temple, and padi, a step, and to have been given to them in consequence of their serving about the steps of temples. But, independently of the fact that Madura pagodas are not approached by fiights of steps, this seems to be a very far-fetched and improbable derivation of the word. I am inclined to doubt v/hettbe not merely ii vulgar corruption of the wellknown word Ahamudeiyan, possessor of a house, the title which Tamil Brahmans often use in speaking of a married man to his wife, in order to avoid the unpolite term husband. Or, perhaps, the name comes from aham in the sense of earth, and pati, master or possessor."
Of the Mukkulathor, the Agamudaiyans are the community most influenced by Brahminism. The ordinary title of the Agamudaiyans is Servaikkaran, but many of them call themselves Pillai. In Thanjavur district, agamudaiyans are also called "Terkittiyar" or "southerners". The Agamudaiyans are divided into the following sub-sects: Aivali Nattan, Kottaipattu, Malainadu, Nattumangalam, Rajaboja, Rajakulam, Rajavasal, Kalian,Sani, Maravan, Tuluvan (cf. Tuluva Vellala) and Servaikkaran.
There are diverse theories with regard to the origin of Mukkulathors.
Dr Spencer Wells and Dr. Pitchappan have found an ancient DNA marker in the blood of Kallar that links them to the very first modern humans who migrated out of Africa about 60,000 years ago and travelling through the southern coastline of Asia had eventually reached Australia. Based on this theory, it is assumed that the Piramala Kallars are the oldest human inhabitants of the subcontinent. Yet, this is an isolated case found only among the individuals of the Kallar caste.[citation
The Nayak Period and the Polygars
The downfall of the Mukkulathors occurred in 1345 with the fall of Vira Pandyan IV and the subsequent conquest of Madurai by the Delhi Sultanate. However, the southern territories of the Sultanate soon asserted their independence and the Mukkulathors recovered under the Vijayanagar Empire and later under the Nayak dynasty during whose period they served as Polygars or chieftains. The Nayaks were actually governors appointed by Vijayanagar kings and were Naidus of Telugu origin. Later, after the fall of Vijayanagar, they established some measure of independence in the provinces which they governed and appointed individuals from the warrior Mukkulathor clans as their military chieftains and governors. After a century of peace and prosperity, the Nayak kingdom disintegrated and regional Polygar chieftains most of whom were from the Mukkulathor communities, making use of this opportunity, established their dominance and rule in the areas which they governed. However, just as their sun was in its ascendancy there arose a serious obstacle in the form of the British East India Company who desired to force the Polygars into submission and annex their territories to the Madras Presidency.
Freedom Fighters and the Polygar Wars
There was a clash of interests between Mukkulathor Polygar chieftains seeking to recover their lands after 400 years of foreign rule and the British East India Company, an emerging power seeking to expand its influence and power into new territories and to arrest the growth of French influence in India ahead of the Seven Years War.
The first direct challenge was thrown by Puli Thevan in 1755. This was precipitated by the support the British East India Company lent to Puli Thevar's enemy, the Nawab of Arcot. Puli Thevar is remembered as the first king to have fought and defeated the British in India. His exploits have since become legendary.
Resistance to British rule was also offered by Padal Vellaiya Devan who fought the British along with Kattabomman. His son Desakaval Senbaga Devar is also remembered for his exploits.
The surnames used by the Thevar people are Ambalakarar, Servai, Vandaiyar, Mannaiyar, Nattar (not Nadar), etc. It is a general practice in Tamil Nadu to address a Thevar woman as "Nachchiyaar". The Kallars of Dindigul, Trichy, Thanjavur, Theni, Madurai, Sivaganga, Pudukottai and Ramnad Districts have very distinct surnames. Some of the most common names are Anjathevar, Vanathirayar, Sendapiriyar, OOnayaar, Alathondamar, Ambalam, Aarsuthiyar,Kaadavaraayar, Kalingarayar, Vandaiyaar, Vallundar,Thanjaraayar, Chozhangaraayar, Kandiyar, Pursaar, Vaanavaraayar, Mazhavaraayar, Payer, Kommatti, Mootar, Patti, Kannakkarar, Irungular, Singilaar, Pallavaraayar,Ponnapoondar,Pullavaraayar, Servai, Karaimeendar,Vanavarayar,Vairayar,Ponpethiar,Gopalar, Thondaimaan, Thevar, Kandapillai, Vayaadiyar, Vanniar, Nattaar, Alankara Priyar, Munaiyatriyar,Keerudayar, Saaluvar, Manraayar,Kaadavaraayar, Madhavarayar, Onthiriyar, Servai, Serumadar, Vambaliar, Thenkondaar, Mankondaar, Kaaduvetiyaar, Sozhagar, Chozanga Nattar,olivarayar etc. There are over 700 surnames in use.
In 18 th century Vallambars (Nattars) helped the Maruthu brothers in War against Britishers. So they presents some areas to them, to manage the administration of places near to Karaikkudi. Then Vallambars are also called as Palaya Nattars
Although a great many of the members are still agriculturalists, many have also progressed up the social ladder as doctors, engineers, entrepreneurs, politicians and civil servants. Large number of people from the community are serving the nation as military men. Large number of people serving the tamilnadu police department
The code of suicide by warriors or maravars in ancient tamilnadu
Avippali, Thannai, Verttal, Vallan pakkam, Pun Kilithu Mudiyum Maram and Marakkanchi: the forms of martial suicide and suicidal battle of the warrior as the ultimate expression of his loyalty to his commander. These six forms of martial suicide are defined as described by the works referred to above.
Pulla Vazhkai Vallan Pakkam – the martial attitude of the warrior who goes forth into suicidal battle is mentioned by Tholkappiyam. The other works refer to it as Thannai Verttal. Duarte Barbosa describes the practice among the Nayar(of the Chera kingdom). It was later noticed by British officials as well. It was also prevalent among the Maravar (of the Pandya kingdom) from whom the suicidal Aapathhuthavi bodyguard was selected. Thannai Verttal also refers to the suicide of a warrior on hearing that his king or commander has died (Purapporul Venpa Malai). Punkilithu Mudiyum Maram is the martial act of a warrior who commits suicide by tearing apart his battle wound.
Another form of martial suicide mentioned by all the works except Veera soliyam, is Avippali. Tamil inscriptions speak of it as Navakandam. Inscriptions found in many parts of Tamilnadu provide greater information on the practice. Navakandam is the act of a warrior who slices his own neck to fulfil the vow made to korravai – the Tamil goddess of war – for his commanders’ victory in battle. The Kalingathu Parani(10) – a work which celebrates the victory of the Chola king Kulotunga and his general Thondaman in the battle for Kalinga, describes the practice in detail. “The temple of korravai is decorated with lotus flowers which bloomed when the warriors sliced their own necks”(106); “they slice the base of their necks; the severed heads are given to the goddess”(111); “when the neck is sliced and the head is severed, the headless body jumps with joy for having fulfilled the vow”(113).
The epics of Chilapadikaram (5: 79-86) and Manimekalai (6: 50-51) mention the practice. To ensure the complete severing of the head, the warrior tied his hair to a bamboo bent taut before he cut his neck. Hero stones depicting this practice are found all over Tamil Nadu, and are called Saavan Kallu by locals. The warriors who thus committed suicide were not only deified in hero stones (saavan kallu) and worshipped but their relatives were given lands which were exempted from tax(11).
An area handbook (Tharamangalam) of the Tamilnadu archeology department notes that “the Nava Kandam sculpture which is found widely all over Kongu Nadu (Coimbatore, Salem) is to be seen at the Tharamangalam Kailasanathar kovil also. The people call it Saavan Kallu. “The practice of Nava Kandam existed in Kongu Nadu till the early part of this [i.e., 20th] century.”(12)
A Saavan Kallu at Thenkarai Moolanatha sami Kovil in Madurai, depicting the act of a warrior holding his hair with his left hand and slicing his neck with his right – 14th century – is said to be annually worshipped by the Conjeevaram Mudaliyars.(13) The Conjeevaram Mudaliyars are Kaikolar, a presentday weaving caste which was militarized under the Chola empire and was made into a special military body; there are indications that Kaikolar warriors practiced Nava Kandam(14).
Apart from these codified forms of martial suicide, a method called Vadakkiruththal is mentioned in Tamil heroic poetry. It is the act of a warrior king fasting to death, if some dire dishonour were to come upon him(15). The Tamil teacher, and the Dravidian propagandist, turned the song of the legendary Chera king Irumborai who committed suicide when he was taken captive by his enemies into a compelling theme in Tamil renaissance.
The Avippali form of martial suicide as the ultimate expression of loyalty to one’s commander, is deeply embedded in the Tamil psyche. Senchorru-kadan (the debt of red rice) is a phrase that is widely used today by Tamils as an expression of loyalty. One frequently hears of it in a popular Tamil song. The phrase sands for the ritual of partaking of rice by which Maravar and other Tamil military caste warriors bound themselves to their king or commander to die in suicidal battle for him, or to commit suicide on the day he was slain. Of Avippali, the Puraporul Venba Malai ([verse] 92) says, “thinking of nothing but the red (blood) rice the Maravar give their life as offering in battle.”
The ritual of red or blood rice was described by two Muslim travellers who had visited the Tamil country in the 9th century. “A quantity of cooked rice was spread before the king, and some three or four hundred persons came of their own accord and received each a small quantity of rice from the king’s own hands, after he himself had eaten some. By eating of this rice, they all engage themselvesto burn themselves on the day the king dies or is slain; and they punctually fulfill their promise.”(16) In modern times it has been observed that “when a Maravar takes food in the house of a stranger, he will take a pinch of earth and put it on the food before he commences his meal.”(17) This act freed him from the debt of blood rice.Some also committed suicide by eating bricks.
Kallar mainly lived and are still populas on the northern pandian territory or Thanjavur, Thiruchirappalli, Dindugal, Madurai districts.
Agamudaiyar formed the police force and did security jobs. They bascially stood guard for Temple, Farm lands, Nadan hamlets. They are called servai in Thirunalveli, Thoothukudi districts. Maruthu Sagothararkal are marked for their guard of Kalayar koil against the war with British. They are scaterd all thro Pandiyan Territory mainly to all temple cities.
"In Madurai - West Masi Street,their community people formed a AGAMUDAIYAR ARAN(Maruthu pandiyar mandram)"
Maravar are brave warriors who met head-on. They lived and are still populas on the northern Pandian Territory next to Kallar belt in the districts of Ramnad, Madurai, Raja Palayam, Thirunelveli. They shared the ruling titles of Pandiyans for their bravery. Raja of Ramnad is the fact for this.
When the pandian suffered defeat at the hands of Nayaks and Muslims of Vijayanagar Empire, These 3 castes stood guard and gave their life in protecting the assets of Madurai Meenakshi temple and its chain of temples down south. They retained the pandian control and still are dominant in the southern pandiyan districts of Tamilnadu
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Turns out that Madison, Wisconsin’s Benedictine sisters aren’t the only ones greening their house of worship: churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples around the US are implementing a range of green building and energy saving features. In most cases, they’re driven by religious imperatives; cost-savings likely play a role, too. The federal government’s even trying to encourage this behavior: Environmental Leader noted today that congregation buildings are now eligible for ENERGY STAR status.
Solar power is one of the first things most of us consider when trying to cut our energy costs and lighten our carbon footprints. Religious congregations are no different… here are a handful that have added solar features to their houses of worship.
The First Presbyterian Church of Washingtonville, NY, has been heating the building with DIY solar systems for over 30 years!
Bridgeview, Illinois’ Mosque Foundation added solar water heating in 2008, making it the first mosque in the US to adopt solar technology.
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Mechanical Design Technology graduates pursue careers in industry in the areas of industrial machinery, consumer products, construction, automotive, power transmission, automation, and other mechanical machinery related fields. Related areas of employment include sales, manufacturing and testing mechanical products. Graduates create designs as well as analyze and specify the components and systems of machinery and products.
Provide local and regional industry with skilled workers in the field of Mechanical Design.
The curriculum is based on integrated technical and core competencies (machine technology, engineering design, engineering sciences), and it emphasizes a project-based learning format. Students work in teams to learn concepts, solve problems and make discoveries in a workplace-related environment. Students use traditional, internet and industry supplied data as sources of information.
Mechanical Designer, CAD Designer, Machinery Field Technician, Tool and Die Designer
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People undergo surgery for various reasons. Some wanted to trim down their extra fat reserves, while others have it as part of treatment from a certain medical condition. From minor wound stitching to major abdominal openings, surely one might need it to sustain health and life.
When someone undergoes a surgery, usually a surgical wound or incision (cut) in the skin is done by a surgeon (physical specialized in surgery) during surgery that to remove a body part, repair injured internal tissues or as a portal for an internal exploration of the body to diagnose and/or treat a certain disease.
Moreover, a cut or incision means there is a wound or a break down in skin integrity. The primary purpose is diagnosis and treatment; however, sometimes things get loose out of control. The incision may become infected due to some factors and this makes the surgical patient suffer more than the pain from the surgical cut.
One of the most common causative agents of surgical wound infection is the yeast Candida albicans. This is an opportunistic fungus that naturally exists in the skin but does not cause immediate infection as long as their population is in balance with the probiotics (good bacteria). However, even if the number of C. albicans in the skin is at its healthy level, presence of any form of skin break down like abrasions, wounds or even clean incisions provide an opportunity for the aforementioned fungus to invade the deep tissues underneath the skin and cause yeast infection.
Signs and Symptoms of Surgical Wound Yeast Infection
Often times, the presenting symptoms of yeast infection in surgical wounds include reddish to purple rashes around the wound with white raised, itchy patches caused by the colonization of Candida in the wound. Other manifestations of the infection are as follows:
- Intense pain in surgical site
- Malodorous wound discharge (pus)
- Increased swelling of the site
- Wound site that is warm to touch
Most of these symptoms are localized but yeast infection can become extensive as becoming systemic when the fungus descends to the deeper tissues from the surgical wound. It may reach the blood stream and cause systemic yeast infection called Candidaemia, which are often fatal.
The cause of this wound fungal infection is often improper wound care. However, one must also consider that yeasts are part of the microflora in the skin and they are opportunistic by nature. When a point of entry is present through the skin like surgical cut, the yeasts would definitely migrate into the wound and cause yeast infection. But the possibility of acquiring surgical wound Candida infection is also dependent on the condition of the body of the person, particularly on one’s immune system and those people with vulnerable resistance are at higher risk of becoming infected. In fact, elderly and individuals with Cancer, HIV and other conditions that causes immunosuppression are not advisable to undergo surgery due to the risk of having surgical complications including yeast infection that are most likely to occur when a person is immunocompromised.
However, surgical procedures are done with proper assessment from health care experts, particularly surgeons. Surgeries are meant to prolong an individual’s life by alleviating the progress of specific diseases. Contracting a wound infection is not a result of these procedures but is a complication that might arise in the presence of some factors such as mishandling of surgical site, weak immune system and other conditions that persuades proliferation and colonization of yeasts in the surgical site. Besides, as much as possible health care professionals implement medical interventions that aim to eliminate factors that would risk a surgical patient to acquire complications like yeast infection.
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Practice test C
Click on the circle in front of the appropriate response. There is only
correct response for each question. Make sure you answer each question.
The distance of the Sun from the center of the Galaxy is nearest to __________ parsec(s) or __________ light years.
a. 1; 3.26
b. 100; 326
c. 1,000; 3,260
d. 8,000; 26,000
e. 80,000; 260,000
The position of the Sun in the Galaxy was determined by Shapley by measuring the positions of
b. galactic (open) clusters.
c. stellar associations.
d. globular clusters.
e. T Tauri stars.
21-cm radiation is produced by
The nucleus of the Galaxy is composed primarily of
a. hot stars.
b. cool stars.
c. hydrogen gas.
d. planetary nebulae.
e. solar-type stars.
Stars which contribute most to the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium are stars which are
a. less massive than the Sun.
b. solar mass stars.
c. more massive than the Sun.
d. none of the above; stars do not enrich the interstellar medium, galaxies do.
We know the stars observed in globular clusters all have relatively low masses because
a. the more massive ones have all evolved and are "dead'' stars.
b. the high mass stars were ejected from the clusters by tidal interactions with the Milky Way.
c. the high mass stars were ejected from the cluster in collisions with the Magellanic Clouds.
d. the high mass stars are too faint to observe.
e. only low mass stars formed in globular clusters.
Hubble's resolution of the question of the nature of the "nebulae'' hinged on our understanding of the
a. H-R diagram.
b. period-luminosity law.
c. mass-luminosity law.
d. mass-radius relation.
e. temperature-luminosity relation.
Stars in the Instability Strip are unstable because they are no longer in
a. thermal equilibrium.
b. hydrostatic equilibrium.
c. convective equilibrium.
d. luminosity equilibrium.
A galaxy whose overall color is bluish includes
a. Population I objects.
b. Population II objects.
c. Population III objects.
The largest galaxy near our own (also called M31) is known as the
a. Milky Way.
b. Andromeda Galaxy.
c. Large Magellanic Cloud.
d. Small Magellanic Cloud.
e. Local Group.
Which type of galaxy has the largest percentage of gas and dust in it?
c. Barred Spirals
The Hubble law may be expressed mathematically as
a. v = Hd.
b. v = H/d.
c. v = Hd
d. v = H/d
e. a very complicated formula.
The microwave background radiation has a spectrum similar to that of
a. synchrotron radiation from a hot body.
b. a cool black body.
c. an emission nebula.
d. the Sun.
The Hubble constant is currently thought to have a value of
a. 10 km/sec/kpc
b. 70 km/sec/Mpc
c. 100 km/sec/Mpc
d. 150 km/sec/Mpc
e. greater than 200 km/sec/Mpc
Radio _________ are seen in many radio galaxies, often associated with jets that originate in the galaxy's core.
The redshifts of emission lines in quasar spectra are best explained as caused by
a. a large velocity for the quasar.
b. a strong gravitational field.
c. a black hole in the quasar.
d. rapid rotation.
e. turbulence in the nucleus.
Broad emission lines in quasars are caused by
a. internal motions of thousands of km/sec.
b. rapid rotation.
c. recession velocities near the speed of light.
d. nuclei composed of degenerate matter.
e. strong magnetic fields.
If the density of the universe is equal to the critical density then the universe has a curvature that is
d. there is no term to describe that condition.
The assumption that the general structure of the universe is the same everywhere is the assumption of
Which force is NOT included in the Grand Unification Theory?
b. Strong nuclear
c. Weak nuclear
Place the most appropriate word or words in the blank. You may have to click on the blank to activate it before you start typing in your answer.
The extended spherical volume of a galaxy is called the galactic
The Sun is located approximately
kpc from the Galactic center.
Open clusters are members of Population
The primary spokesman for the view that the "nebulae" were inside our galaxy was
The size of the galaxy cluster of which we are a member is approximately
Cluster of clusters of galaxies are known as
The accepted value of the Hubble constant is about
Strange objects that are thought to be the nuclei of young galaxies with very high red shifts are called
An active galaxy with no features in its spectra is known as a(n)
The word for the idea that the universe appears the same in all directions is
If you have answered all of the questions, you can check your answers by clicking on this button:
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