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Prenatal multivitamin supplements are associated with a significantly reduced risk of babies with a low birth weight compared with prenatal iron-folic acid supplementation, found a new study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) http://www.
The World Health Organization currently recommends iron-folic acid supplements for all pregnant women. Previous studies have not shown an advantage from prenatal multimicronutrient supplementation over iron-folic acid supplementation.
"Low birth weight and related complications are considered the most common cause of global infant mortality under the age of 5 years," write Dr. Prakash Shah and study coauthors from Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. "With the possibility of reducing low birth weight rates by 17%, micronutrients supplementation to pregnant women, we believe, offers the highest possible return for the investment. These results are synthesized findings from 15 studies published worldwide."
It is estimated that of the total 133 million births worldwide per year, 15.5% are low birth weight babies. The authors suggest that approximately 1.5 million babies born with a low birth weight could be avoided each year globally, if all mothers receive prenatal multimicronutrient supplementation.
The research is limited by variability among the included studies, including timing, duration, composition of micronutrients, and characteristics of the study populations.
In a related commentary http://www. | <urn:uuid:977d35c1-84c9-43c7-ae10-91434a16bae7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/cmaj-mip060209.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00186-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926581 | 280 | 2.984375 | 3 |
NASA just can’t quit Kepler.
On 15 August, the agency announced that it would stop trying to revive the failed reaction wheels that gave the planet-hunting telescope its precise pointing ability. That essentially brings an end to the main goal of the 4-year-old mission, which has found 3,548 candidate planets by looking for tiny dips in starlight that indicate a planet’s passage, or transit, across that star.
But the agency left room for hope: two weeks earlier, it had asked astronomers to submit ideas by 3 September on how the hobbled spacecraft might still perform good science. Nature has learned about some of the options in the running, out of the dozens of proposals expected.
Ideas range from a survey of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects to a study of Jupiter-sized exoplanets in large orbits. Kepler scientists will sort through the proposals and decide by 1 November which ones, if any, to recommend to NASA headquarters for further review.
To secure funding from the space agency, the Kepler team will have to show that the studies could not be done by other telescopes. This will be no easy task — especially given that engineers are not sure how well Kepler can perform with just two of its four spinning reaction wheels, which act as stabilizing gyroscopes.
“We’re in a real quandary,” says Kepler principal investigator Bill Borucki at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. “We just don’t know what Kepler can do.”
With three working wheels (a fourth was a spare), Kepler was able to exactly counterbalance the persistent push of sunlight, locking on to targets with such precision that light from a particular star always fell on the same tiny fraction of an individual pixel. But the wheels have a history of poor performance, and in July 2012 one failed — followed by another in May (see go.nature.com/4w1ufr). Although the craft’s thrusters can still act as a crude version of a third wheel, they cannot replicate the pointing accuracy that three wheels provided, and the telescope’s focus will drift. Over time, starlight will start to fall on different pixels with slightly different sensitivities. “Every single day, it’s as if you’re going to use a different detector, a different telescope,” says Kepler scientist William Welsh of San Diego State University in California.
Kepler’s drift could be minimized by keeping it pointed in the same plane in which the craft orbits the Sun. But that presents a complication. Some of the best science is expected to come from follow-up observations of the field of about 150,000 stars that Kepler has been focused on, and that star field does not lie in the plane.
In one proposal, offered up by Welsh and his colleagues, the craft would continue to stare at this original star field to search for Jupiter-sized planets. Such bodies are sufficiently large that when they pass in front of their parent star they produce a dip in light that can be detected by Kepler even in its compromised state.
Welsh’s group would target Jupiters for which Kepler has recorded only a few transits — those that take more than a year to orbit their star. It usually takes a minimum of three transits to confirm the existence of a planet. Catching the third transit could make the difference between a possible and a definitive discovery.
The craft is too shaky to discover an Earth analogue from scratch, but Welsh suggests that it might also be possible for Kepler to add statistical significance to Earth-sized candidates for which transits have already been captured. And David Hogg, an astronomer at New York University, believes that, over the course of many months, Kepler’s drift could be used to map out the different light responses of the pixels. That calibration, if detailed enough, could be enough for Kepler to resume its hunt for Earth analogues, says Hogg.
Daniel Fabrycky, an astronomer at the University of Chicago in Illinois, has an alternative follow-up study in mind. He and his colleagues have proposed looking at planetary systems in which densely packed planets are affected by one another’s gravitational pulls — creating periodic cycles in which the timing of transits are first advanced and then delayed. The light dip during a transit reveals only the size of the eclipsing planet, but knowledge of transit-time variation yields the planet’s mass, which is crucial for working out the density and composition of the bodies. Like Welsh, Fabrycky wants Kepler to zero in on planetary systems with long orbits, for which the full cycle of these transit-timing variations has not yet been seen.
But Andrew Gould, an astronomer at Ohio State University in Columbus, says that he is skeptical about using the craft to simply follow up on its original tasks when its pointing precision has been degraded by a factor of as much as 1,000. “People really have to break out and come up with new ideas,” he says.
Perhaps taking such advice to heart, Fabrycky’s team has a second proposal: putting Kepler to work not as a planet hunter, but as a sentinel for near-Earth objects, including asteroids several hundred meters in diameter that might be on a collision course with Earth. A survey of space rocks would take advantage of Kepler’s large field of view. And at least part of the study could be completed with Kepler looking for targets within its orbital plane, so as to optimize its pointing.
Gould has proposed another scheme, in which Kepler would survey stars towards the Milky Way’s central bulge for signs of planets, using a technique known as microlensing.
Microlensing relies on a prediction of Einstein’s theory of general relativity: the gravity of any massive object bends light. Like a magnifying lens, a foreground star bends and brightens light from stars behind it. A single foreground star, or microlens, produces a characteristic brightening curve, but if that lensing star has a planet, the curve will have an additional wiggle.
Researchers have already used microlensing to reveal some 40 planets towards the center of the Galaxy, but the observations typically do not reveal masses. By observing microlens planets using Kepler and ground-based telescopes at the same time, differences in transit duration and brightness emerge that can yield the planets’ mass. However, the survey could be performed for only about five weeks of the year because of limited chances to view the Galactic Centre without interference from the Sun.
If any of the proposals recommended by the Kepler team seems worthwhile to NASA, they will be examined early next year by a review panel of external scientists. At that stage, a repurposed Kepler would face its biggest hurdle — a competition for the limited pot of funds against nine other astrophysics missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. On receiving recommendations from the review panel, NASA will make its final funding decisions next June.
Not everyone is rooting for Kepler. Doug Finkbeiner, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, wants NASA to support missions that are still healthy. He has used Fermi to discover two galaxy-sized bubbles of ionized gas blowing from the center of the Milky Way, and is counting on continued funding for the γ-ray telescope. “My very biased and self-interested perspective is that I hope we let Kepler die,” he says. | <urn:uuid:d3212417-bed1-4efa-95fc-d5dcf3e3ac9d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-ponders-hobbled-kepler-spacecrafts-future/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397795.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00156-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958695 | 1,564 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Stephen Czerkas first spied the curious specimen for sale in Utah and arranged for his Dinosaur Museum to buy it. The 125-million-year-old creature seemed to have the body of a bird but also a long, bony tail. Czerkas wondered: Could it be the earliest flying dinosaur? The missing evolutionary link tying dinosaurs to birds?
Czerkas--along with Philip J. Currie of the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology and Xing Xu of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology--was convinced of it. And so on October 15, the trio unveiled the fossil (with two others) during a press conference at National Geographic headquarters--before they published the find in a peer-reviewed journal.
The turkey-size fossil had hollow bones, feathers, sharp claws and teeth. Its shoulders, wishbone and large sternum resembled those of modern birds. And its stiff, long tail was characteristic of meat-eating dromaeosaurid dinosaurs, which include velociraptors of Jurassic Park fame. Because it was excavated in Liaoning, China, the group named it Archaeoraptor liaoningensis, or the "ancient robber from Liaoning."
Now, three short months later, A. liaoningensis has robbed Czerkas and his team of their glory. Indeed, the fossil seems to contain the pieces from two different archaeological puzzles: the head, chest and feet appear to be from a bird, but the tail is an exact mirror image of one that Xu tracked down, with the help of Chinese fossil dealers, on a dromaeosaurid in December. Xu believes that the dromaeosaurid tail is in fact the other half of A. liaoningensis's tail, which was joined to the bird fossil to make it more valuable.
Computer-tomography scans of the fossil (see sidebar), funded by National Geographic, support Xu's suspicions. But some optimism remains. Czerkas for one is waiting to see the two tails side by side before he decides. And Christopher Sloan, a senior associate editor at National Geographic who wrote about the discovery in the magazine's November issue, notes that although "it was disappointing to learn that Archaeoraptor may be a combination of animals ... we're still convinced that [it] is an important specimen."
At the very least, Currie has stated that even though this particular fossil may not support the idea that birds are descended from dinosaurs, it does not discredit it either. In the future, fossil evidence may come forward with a little more caution, but the dino-bird debate will surely rage on. | <urn:uuid:beb32a4c-7996-46a5-b03a-a81b2a037bae> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-jigsaw-fossil/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00152-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955333 | 544 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Exposure to iron pipes and steel rebar, such as the materials found in most hatcheries, affects the navigation ability of young steelhead trout by altering the important magnetic "map sense" they need for migration, according to new research from Oregon State University.
The exposure to iron and steel distorts the magnetic field around the fish, affecting their ability to navigate, said Nathan Putman, who led the study while working as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, part of OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences.
Just last year Putman and other researchers presented evidence of a correlation between the oceanic migration patterns of salmon and drift of the Earth's magnetic field. Earlier this year they confirmed the ability of salmon to navigate using the magnetic field in experiments at the Oregon Hatchery Research Center. Scientists for decades have studied how salmon find their way across vast stretches of ocean.
"The better fish navigate, the higher their survival rate," said Putman, who conducted the research at the Oregon Hatchery Research Center in the Alsea River basin last year. "When their magnetic field is altered, the fish get confused."
Subtle differences in the magnetic environment within hatcheries could help explain why some hatchery fish do better than others when they are released into the wild, Putman said. Stabilizing the magnetic field by using alternative forms of hatchery construction may be one way to produce a better yield of fish, he said.
"It's not a hopeless problem," he said. "You can fix these kinds of things. Retrofitting hatcheries with non-magnetic materials might be worth doing if it leads to making better fish."
Putman's findings were published this week in the journal Biology Letters. The research was funded by Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, with support from Oregon State University. Co-authors of the study are OSU's David Noakes, senior scientist at the Oregon Hatchery Research Center, and Amanda Meinke of the Oregon Hatchery Research Center.
The new findings follow earlier research by Putman and others that confirmed the connection between salmon and the Earth's magnetic field. Researchers exposed hundreds of juvenile Chinook salmon to different magnetic fields that exist at the latitudinal extremes of their oceanic range.
Fish responded to these "simulated magnetic displacements" by swimming in the direction that would bring them toward the center of their marine feeding grounds. In essence, the research confirmed that fish possess a map sense, determining where they are and which way to swim based on the magnetic fields they encounter.
Putman repeated that experiment with the steelhead trout and achieved similar results. He then expanded the research to determine if changes to the magnetic field in which fish were reared would affect their map sense. One group of fish was maintained in a fiberglass tank, while the other group was raised in a similar tank but in the vicinity of iron pipes and a concrete floor with steel rebar, which produced a sharp gradient of magnetic field intensity within the tank. Iron pipes and steel reinforced concrete are common in fish hatcheries.
The scientists monitored and photographed the juvenile steelhead, called parr, and tracked the direction in which they were swimming during simulated magnetic displacement experiments. The steelhead reared in a natural magnetic field adjusted their map sense and tended to swim in the same direction. But fish that were exposed to the iron pipes and steel-reinforced concrete failed to show the appropriate orientation and swam in random directions.
More research is needed to determine exactly what that means for the fish. The loss of their map sense could be temporary and they could recalibrate their magnetic sense after a period of time, Putman said. Alternatively, if there is a critical window in which the steelhead's map sense is imprinted, and it is exposed to an altered magnetic field then, the fish could remain confused forever, he said.
"There is evidence in other animals, especially in birds, that either is possible," said Putman, who now works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "We don't know enough about fish yet to know which is which. We should be able to figure that out with some simple experiments."
Explore further: Evolution at warp speed: Hatcheries change salmon genetics after a single generation
Paper: Rearing in a distorted magnetic field disrupts the "map sense" of juvenile steelhead trout, rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/lookup/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2014.0169 | <urn:uuid:264b0fbb-59da-4d08-b538-27520d382087> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://phys.org/news/2014-06-iron-steel-hatcheries-distort-magnetic.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395613.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00184-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957462 | 931 | 3.375 | 3 |
Tiny tracking devices reveal surprising journey at sea.
For all of us who have wondered where puffins go in the winter, at last we have our first answer, and it is surprising. Results of the first ever winter tracking of individual puffins from North America are just in, thanks to researchers at Audubon’s Seabird Restoration Program, also known as Project Puffin.
Given their short wings and chunky bodies, one might guess that puffins wouldn’t travel far from their land-based nesting colonies. The surprising discovery that Maine puffins do travel far from those islands was revealed when National Audubon Society researchers attached tracking devices to the leg bands of eight puffins in 2009 at Seal Island National Wildlife Refuge, a 65-acre treeless island located 21 miles off the coast of Rockland, Maine. The lives of puffins are fairly well known when they are nesting on land, but surprisingly little is known about their whereabouts and habits after they leave their nesting islands. Puffins, who can live 30 or more years, return each year to the island where they previously nested. They usually appear in early spring and each pair lays their single egg in a deep rock crevice. After an incubation period of about six weeks, the egg hatches and parents tend the chick for the next six weeks. The chicks head off to sea in July, and their parents typically follow within the next few weeks, spending the next eight months of the year living an oceanic life. Although puffins are occasionally seen at sea in the winter, nothing was known about the specific movements of individual Maine birds, until now.
The first Maine puffin ever tracked spent October through December in the outer Gulf of Maine, moving northward along the continental shelf of Nova Scotia on his way to the Gulf of St. Lawrence where he spent most of January, before heading south to the far offshore waters of the Mid-Atlantic States, nearly to Bermuda. The tiny, capsule-shaped tracking devices measure light intensity and time of day to estimate day length and plot the puffins’ locations (+/- 115 miles). Unlike satellite transmitters that are attached to larger animals, these geolocators store information until the animal is re-captured and the device is removed to retrieve the data. Although several of the tagged puffins returned to Seal Island in 2010, and again in 2011, the wary birds eluded capture until June 23, 2011 when one of the puffins (named “Cabot” after a human seafaring explorer) landed on top of a puffin trap. Waiting in a nearby observation blind, 19-year old Ben Donnelly, an Ithaca College student, quickly responded, pulling a string release that dropped the puffin with its prize into a box where he and island supervisor Sarah Gutowsky removed the precious tracking tool. Days later, a second puffin carrying a geolocator was also captured.
Both birds were later found to have roughly similar haunts at sea, though Cabot’s travels were more extensive--especially his venture north into the Labrador Sea. As seabird habitats are increasingly threatened by climate change, fisheries, off-shore drilling and wind farms, it is becoming increasingly important to discover migratory patterns to better safeguard the birds at both their nesting and winter homes. Additional studies are necessary to confirm these results and to look for further patterns.
While soaring seabirds such as albatross and shearwaters are known to fly much further than puffins, Cabot’s flight is all the more amazing for the energy expended. Puffins typically fly by rapid flapping, in which they reach speeds of up to 50 mph, beating their wings 300-400 beats per minute.
Researchers Scott Hall and Steve Kress presented the long-awaited information to the seabird scientific community on February 8th, 2012 at the 39th annual meeting of the Pacific Seabird Group in Turtle Bay, Hawaii.
Year 1 (June 2009 to May 2010)
Puffin Cabot was tagged with a geolocator on August 2nd 2009. He departed Seal Island in mid-August, heading northeast. He spent October through December in the outer Gulf of Maine, moving northward along the continental shelf of Nova Scotia on his way to the Gulf of St. Lawrence where he spent most of January, before heading south to the far offshore waters of the Mid-Atlantic States, nearly to Bermuda. He stayed in this region from February to April, before returning to Seal Island in May, 2010.
Year 2 (May 2010 to July 2011)
After spending most of the summer at Seal Island, Cabot departed Seal Island in late July, repeating his travels northeast along the ocean coast of Nova Scotia, past Sable Island and on to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In this second year, he kept moving north, eventually to the deep waters of the northern Labrador Sea. As in year one, Cabot then moved south to the offshore Mid-Atlantic waters, a distance of 2,800 miles. By May, he had returned to Seal Island, where he was captured on June 23, 2011. His eight month journey covered a remarkable round trip distance of about 4,800 miles.
Puffins had been absent from Seal and other Maine islands due to excessive hunting for meat and feathers in the late 19th century. They were restored to the island over an eight year period by hand-rearing and releasing chicks brought from Newfoundland. Now, more than 500 pairs nest on Seal Island.
June 23, 2011, Seal Island – Ben Donnelly’s Journal Entry
"Woke up to the sound of rain on my tent. Spent most of the morning inside. Went out after lunch and read puffin band numbers with scope from my blind. Saw two GEO puffins (with geolocators), so called Sarah and set up the box trap. It was a good idea because soon after, I caught one of the GEO puffins! I had to do a double take and almost fell climbing down from my blind. I rushed over to cover the trap to make sure the puffin didn’t get out. Sarah took the ‘locater’ off while we weighed and measured the puffin in the blind. After which we took some pictures with the puffin. The puffin bite is pretty good—he got me with the tip of the bill." - Ben Donnelly | <urn:uuid:4c768af5-3e4e-4780-bda2-07d6b72cc77e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://projectpuffin.audubon.org/news/cabot-discovery | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96588 | 1,322 | 3.546875 | 4 |
Archive for the ‘guest post’ tag
This guest post by Sharman Apt Russel describes a citizen science experience with the children in her daughter’s third-grade classroom. the project, Celebrate Urban Birds was one of our Top 14 Projects of 2014. Check out the rest of the projects on that list here. Celebrate Urban Birds is also one of more than 800 citizen science projects on SciStarter. Use our project finder to find one that fits your interests!
Public school teachers have always been my heroes. When I first began to research and write about citizen science, I was particularly interested in easy-to-do, inexpensive, age-appropriate, classroom-friendly projects that I could take to teachers like my own daughter Maria—then in her second year in a third-grade classroom in the small border town of Deming, New Mexico. Unsurprisingly, one of the best programs I found—Celebrate Urban Birds–was also recently named by SciStarter as one of the best citizen science projects of 2014.
Designed and managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Celebrate Urban Birds asks children and adults to choose an urban, suburban, or even rural area half the size of a basketball court and watch bird activity for ten minutes. Any observations of sixteen designated species are recorded on a data form. For Maria’s class of twenty-four, Cornell Lab promptly sent twenty-four kits written in English and Spanish–instructions, forms, colored posters to help us identify the birds, packets of flower seeds to plant, and stickers that said “Zero Means a Lot!” The “Zero Means a Lot!” theme was repeated a number of times. “Send us your observations,” the Lab enthused, “EVEN IF YOU SEE NO BIRDS in your bird-watching area. Zero means a lot!”
On that warm spring morning, we headed out with a gaggle of children to the school playground where we faced a row of planted conifers and deciduous trees, the school fence just behind the trees, a street and residential houses just behind the fence. The mostly eight-year-olds divided into three groups of eight, each with a supervising adult, each with their own area to watch. This didn’t last long, of course, with a few small boys first running back and forth under the trees, and then entire groups dissolving and mixing.
Wonderfully iconic– a kind of miracle–an American robin posed on a branch and puffed out its red breast. That was one of the birds on our list of sixteen species! A rock pigeon swooped through the bare yard behind us. Rock pigeons were on our list, too! We could hear mourning doves call from a nearby telephone pole. A third bird on our list! Next, a child spotted a house sparrow lying dead on the other side of the fence, and this attracted far more attention than the live house sparrows in the nearby tree. Our fourth species.
For ten minutes, we exclaimed and watched and checked our list, looking for American crows, American robins, Baltimore orioles, barn swallows, black-crowned night herons, brown-headed cowbirds, Bullock’s orioles, cedar waxwings, European starlings, house finches, house sparrows, killdeer, mallards, mourning doves, peregrine falcons, and rock pigeons. One child believed emphatically that he saw a peregrine falcon swoop through the blue sky and another a Baltimore oriole colored red and yellow. Their teacher Maria said, “No, probably not,” but when the children insisted, she only smiled—“Okay, then, check the box that says ‘unsure.’” Some children remembered birds they had seen before, the mallard at the El Paso zoo with a broken leg and the mean parrot kept by their grandmother. Birds and memories of birds seemed to fill the air.
For ten minutes, we watched and then came inside and concentrated on filling out a form that included a description of the site and our observations, carefully copying what Maria wrote on the chalkboard. I realized that this last activity—learning how to record data–was as useful to these children as anything else we had done today.
My daughter and I were immeasurably pleased and planned how to do the next Celebrate Urban Birds even better. Perhaps we would do one of the associated art projects that the program suggests. We would have graphs and word problems. We would hand out more information about other common species in town–grackles and Western kingbirds. Eventually these children would say, “I learned how to bird-watch in the third grade.” Or, “I became passionate about birds in the third grade.” Or, “My teacher’s mother came into my third-grade class and revealed the world to be a web of miracles and connection, and I have never been the same since.”
At this point, I knew I was getting ahead of myself a little.
In today’s schools of scripted curriculums and constant test-taking, teachers like my daughter often have very little time in which to teach science. My daughter only had a half hour a week. A half hour. Celebrate Urban Birds was a creative, fun, educational use of that time. Moreover, like citizen scientists everywhere, these third graders had just become part of something larger than themselves. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology estimates that they work with some two hundred thousand volunteers, tracking and monitoring birds, with over a million observations reported each month on the Lab’s online checklist. These observations help produce real science, contributing to over sixty scientific papers as well as policy decisions designed to protect birds and their habitat.
The next year, my daughter and I did a repeat of Celebrate Urban Birds, and this time we had to use the stickers “Zero Means a Lot!” But that was a good learning experience, too. Surprisingly, the children did not seem particularly discouraged. They only asked if they could look for birds again tomorrow.
Sharman Apt Russell lives in rural southwestern New Mexico and teaches writing at Western New Mexico University in Silver City and at the low-residency MFA program in Antioch University in Los Angeles. She’s engaged in a number of citizen science projects, including monitoring archeology sites and inventorying possible new wilderness areas in the Gila National Forest. Her new book Diary of a Citizen Scientist: Chasing Tiger Beetles and Other New Ways of Engaging the World (Oregon State University Press, 2014) was selected by The Guardian (UK) as one of the top ten nature books in 2014.
SciStarter has a whole round-up of tree-related projects for you this season. Branch out into citizen science!
Walking around my neighborhood the other day, I was casually observing the local flora when I was struck by the redness of one particular set of leaves. While the tree pictured is not the exact one I spied upon, look at how vibrant these colors are! I began to wonder why this tree turned red while the others around it stayed orange and yellow. To begin, we must learn about why autumn leaves deviate from their greener shades in the first place.
As you probably already know, the color that most plants have is derived from chlorophyll, the yellow-green pigment found in chloroplasts responsible for allowing photosynthesis to take place. If you’ve forgotten how this process works, Crash Course Biology has a great video for this. While there are multiple forms of chlorophyll, it is generally true that most reflect green light, causing for plants to appear the way they do. (This raises the even better question of why aren’t plants black, but that deserves its own post.)
So, what happens to the chlorophyll as we approach the cooler months? When the temperature drops, deciduous plants slow the production of chlorophyll in preparation for the dormant period they will undergo during the winter. The plants will then be able to conserve energy by halting all photosynthetic processes during the lack of available sunlight. As this happens, orange and yellow carotenoids present in the leaves are exposed. These are pigments that are normally produced in leaves that help to absorb additional energy from the sun that is passed along to the chlorophyll and also to prevent auto-oxidation (basically the wear down of cells due to free radicals) from occurring. In addition to all of this, the plant begins to produce a cell wall between the stem and the leaf called an abscission layer. This will eventually cause for the leaf to be completely separated from the plant, allowing for it to fall to the ground.
Okay. We’ve covered green, orange, and yellow, but what produced the scarlet beauty found above and why doesn’t it occur in all trees? The answer is anthocyanins. If you’ve ever eaten a blueberry, raspberry, pomegranate, or any other fruit that can stain your hands and clothes, you’re probably already familiar with these little molecules. These pigments are similar to the carotenoids mentioned above but serve a different purpose. In cases during the late summer when plants are beginning to slow their photosynthetic processes but there is still plenty of sunlight abound, the leaves can actually be harmed by receiving too much high-intensity light in the region of Photosystem II (photoinhibition). In order to prevent this damage, the plant begins to synthesize anthocyanins to permeate through the leaves’ surfaces. Because of its red color, the pigment absorbs a large amount of the high energy visible and ultraviolet photons striking the plant, basically acting as a “plant sunscreen.” (Check out how you can even build your own anthocyanin-based solar cell!) Additionally, anthocyanins are good indicators of plant stressors including freezing temperatures and low nutrient levels.
Next time you see a particularly red tree, make sure to think about its environment! Does it receive an abundance of light? Has it been particularly cold? Feel free to comment with links to your own pictures of vibrant trees and plants!
Just like leaves, citizen science also happens to grow on trees! Don’t believe us? Check out our tree projects round-up!
Photo: Public Domain Pictures, Wikipedia
This was a guest post by Joe Diaz, a science educator and enthusiast. Follow @RealJoeDiaz. View the original post.
It’s not always easy for citizen scientists to see what happens with the data they collect. Not all projects are published, and those that are may not be open access and often only include a summary of the findings.
I work at F1000Research, and one of the key points of this open access journal is that all papers include all original data. It makes it easier for others to reproduce the work, and it makes science more transparent. In the context of citizen science projects, it lets all participants see their data in the context of the overall study.
No fee for ecology papers until 2014
At the moment, F1000Research is waiving the article processing charge on ecology papers, as long as that’s the first paper you’ve ever submitted to the journal, and you submit it before the end of the year, using code ECOL17. This would be a perfect opportunity for citizen science projects in ecology to try out the journal.
We’re also launching a new type of paper, which might also be useful for citizen science projects. Observation articles are papers that describe serendipitous observations that researchers have not been able to study systematically, but that offer a starting point for further exploration. With many people taking part in data collection for citizen science projects, you’re bound to come across something interesting! A famous example from astronomy is Hanny’s Voorwerp, but we suspect that a lot of ecology projects also bring up some interesting observations.
Ecology-themed observation articles are also free until the end of the year. Normally, publishing an observation article in publication in F1000Research costs $500, compared to $1000 for a full-length article).
Rapid publication and transparent peer review
Besides including all data, F1000Resesarch also includes all referee names and referee reports, and anyone who has an account can leave a comment on the article itself, or in response to a referee report. Like the articles themselves, the referee reports are all open access.
Articles on F1000Research are published online before peer review, after a quick in-house editorial check. That means that we can publish papers within a matter of days. F1000Research publishes all valid science.
This is a guest post from Eva Amsen of F1000 Research.
For any questions about our peer review model or the journal in general, please see our FAQ page.
For more info about this opportunity, see this blog post.
To submit a free ecology paper before the end of the year, use code ECOL17.
For any other questions, find us on Twitter at @F1000Research
Photo: F1000 Resaerch
When I first became involved in online professional development (PD) courses about 10 years ago, the casual approach to participation in terms of time and attire were often noted as desirable features. An often-touted advantage to online PD was that individuals could participate at 3 a.m. wearing pajamas and bunny slippers. Over the years, as the boon in online PD has expanded, I sometimes wonder if the sale of bunny slippers has kept pace with the expansion of online PD opportunities for educators.
Online education has gone mainstream, as evidenced by the large number of colleges and universities providing accredited online courses as part of their degree programs. Powerhouse universities like Stanford and Yale helped lead the way a few years back by offering their courses online and attracting hundreds of thousands of students. The widespread acceptance of top-notch universities provided an endorsement of sorts for the effectiveness of online education. The demand for online education continues to grow and this includes PD opportunities for educators.
Traditionally, PD for educators was synonymous with face-to-face classes, workshops, and seminars. Face-to-face PD, while valuable, is generally location- and time-limited which can exclude many educators who have other obligations or do not have flexible schedules outside of teaching due to family, extracurricular obligations, or other time constraints. Online PD courses that are self-paced are very appealing because individuals can chose when to participate based on their unique situation. One of the most appealing aspects of online PD is that it can be a great equalizer, providing PD for educators at all stages of their lives and careers.
As online PD has gained popularity, citizen science (CS) has also enjoyed a time of rapid growth. In recent years, CS programs and activities have proliferated, and many are Internet-based. Examples include Project BudBurst, Project Feederwatch , and The Great Sunflower Project It is widely known that effective PD results in better implementation of programs and activities. In the case of CS, effective PD may also help with data quality.
CS programs that are entirely online — such as the NEON’ s Project BudBurst – may not have the opportunity to offer face-to-face PD or employ the old tried and true “Train the Trainer” model. We decided to test online PD using Project BudBurst and created our first course Introduction to Plants and Climate Change for Educators. In January, 2012, we informally put out the word that we had a pilot online PD course for educators hoping to register about 15 people. Within a week, we had over 200 registrants and had to close registration as we could not meet demand. That is when it became clear that online PD was needed and that NEON could fill this important niche through the development of an online academy devoted to citizen science professional development – the NEON Citizen Science Academy (CSA).
NEON’s Citizen Science Academy Mission Statement: Provide online professional development resources for educators to support effective implementation of Citizen Science projects and activities that focus on ecology and environmental sciences.
The NEON CSA is intended to be a complete online PD resource for educators and will include online courses, modules, tutorials, and a virtual community of practice. Initially, I had been concerned that sharing and communication, a hallmark of face-to-face PD, would be sacrificed for the convenience of online courses. I have been pleasantly surprised to observe the exchange of ideas and thoughts in our virtual classrooms via discussion forums. Perhaps wearing bunny slippers encourages these informal exchanges.
As CSA develops, we intend to partner with other online CS programs and partner to offer a full suite of online courses and resources that support all aspects of CS for educators. Further, through a partnership with the National Geographic FieldScope program, CSA will also include innovative, free online mapping, analysis and data visualization tools that facilitate data analysis.
In the case of Project BudBurst, we now offer several courses for a wide variety of educators. One of our educators used her online PD participation to write a successful grant to engage her students in making observations of trees in their schoolyard. Another educator shared her efforts to have students in her art class take photos of plants as the seasons change. Several informal educators have designed exhibits and displays that feature Project BudBurst.
We hope you will join the growing CSA community by signing up for one of our online courses (citizenscienceacademy.org). Bunny slippers optional.
This is a guest post from Sandra Henderson, Director for Citizen Science at the National Ecological Observatory Network.
SciStarter asked Craig Newmark (of Craigslist fame) why he likes squirrels. He told us that it all started with a simple desire to feed birds. But the suet palaces he was using to dispense the raw, fat-based bird food were constantly getting hacked by squirrels. He tried everything; he even upgraded to “squirrel-resistant” models, to no avail.
It was then that Newmark really began to appreciate the rascally rodents. “Squirrels are smart, tough and athletic, real survivors, and that’s very impressive,” he says. “They’re a candidate to replace humanity if we don’t work things out.”
Newmark, who regularly tweets about squirrels and is a religious observer of National Squirrel Appreciation Day (Jan. 21), has his house wired with “squirrel cams” and was even able to capture — on video — a female entering his house to explore.
But most squirrel observation is low-tech, involving a pair of binoculars and a notebook. These observations eventually work their way into peer-reviewed science.
SciStarter.com, which I like to think of as the Craigslist of science, has a list of squirrel-related citizen science projects here. You can participate for free, and finding squirrels (especially the eastern grey) is about as easy as falling over. They dominate this area, and they’re not shy!
Our citizen science projects are not limited to the East Coast, or even the U.S. There’s the Black Squirrel Project in the UK and the Western Gray Squirrel Project out in the state of Washington.
If you think you’re sly enough to outsmart squirrels, we have a limited-time competition just for you! In partnership with instructables and Discover Magazine, SciStarter is looking for safe and effective ways to keep squirrels and other ravenous vegetarians and omnivores from eating sunflowers. Why? Because sunflowers play a crucial role in citizen science bee observation projects. No sunflowers, no bees. And that would… bee bad. But hurry! Not only is January 21 National Squirrel Day, it’s also the last day you can submit an entry to the Citizen Science Contest!
Some species of ground squirrels hibernate, but tree squirrels don’t. The eastern grey and other tree dwellers ride out the winter in tree hollows and holes, but you can still see them as fall turns to winter. So sign up for a squirrel project here at SciStarter, grab your coat and head out to the nearest deciduous forest, rooftop or really just about anywhere, and start observing!
Or just hang a birdfeeder outside your window.
This was originally published on Huffington Post. | <urn:uuid:4b37d447-eafe-474f-9f5b-c08883bcceec> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://scistarter.com/blog/tag/guest-post/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00089-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957473 | 4,298 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Sofonisba Anguissola is considered by many to be the first successful female
artist of the Renaissance and the first to attain international fame. Many
feel she opened up the door for future women artists to learn and explore the
art of painting. Herportrait of Queen Isabel with a "flea-fur"
(the pelt of a marten worn to attract the fleas that might in its absence have
attacked the person wearing it), was the most widely copied portrait in Spain.
It was copied by artists such as Pieter Paul Rubens.
Sofonisba was born in Cremona,
Italy in 1532. She had three sisters, all artists like herself. She was the most recognized
of the sisters.
Giorgio Vasari wrote this about the her family:
shown greater application and better grace than any other woman of our age in
her endeavors at drawing; she has thus succeeded not only in drawing, coloring
and painting from nature, and copying excellently from others, but by herself
has created rare and very beautiful paintings."
Sofonisba was unlike most female artists of the 16th century who were
daughters of painters. Artists such as:
She was not able to study anatomy due to her social class, it was deemed
unacceptable for a lady to view nudes. This made it challenging for her
to work on her oversized historical and religious paintings. So, she used
models that she had access to instead, looking for possibilities of a new style
of portraiture, with subjects set in informal everyday settings.
Her earlier works, appear to have been influenced by
the style of the Campi brothers (Vincenzo, Giulio, and Bernardino) , who painted
portraitures. Her work was influenced by paintings of the Italian cities
Parma and Mantua,
who's religious works were made with precision delicacy. Bernardino Gatti is said to have
influenced her to use elements such as those
from the artist Correggio, which started a trend that became
noticeable in the Cremonese style paintings from the early 16th century. These
paintings are very realistic and have an eye catching quality to them.
Her life changed dramatically, when she left her family to join the Spanish
court. Although this was a tremendous recognition for her, it is not
certain if it helped her artistically. She was mainly painting only official
portraits for the court. Her paintings of Isabel de Valois and Anne of
Austria, are vibrant and full of life. It took a tremendous amount of time and
energy to render the intricate designs of the gowns, and the elaborate jewelry
essential to the royal subjects. Her work was so beautiful that it moved
Pope Pius IV to have Sofonisba paint the portrait of the Queen of Spain.
One of her more important works was called a "double
portrait". It depicts Bernardino Campi, her art teacher in the act of
painting a portrait of her. Her image appears on a canvas placed on a
easel, it appears to be an unfinished painting. In this painting she is paying
homage to her teacher, for whom she held in high regard and respected very much.
The focus of the portrait is on Campi. He is portrayed as working
at his favorite pastime, painting. Although this work has gotten darker
with age and is difficult to see, Campi's arm and right hand, can be seen
holding a paint brush, that is held steady by the hand rest, a stick used so
as not to smudge the work in progress.
In 1554, at age twenty-two, Sofonisba traveled to Rome. In
Rome, she stayed with her family, as her father had planned. She spent time
touring Rome and sketching various scenes, and people. While she was there,
she met Michelangelo through the help of another painter who knew her work
well. I would assume that meeting Michelangelo was a great honor for Sofonisba. While all of her work and training was done
outside the master workshops, where male artists were trained, she had the
benefit of being informally trained by Michelangelo. He gave her
sketches of his own to draw in her own style, and she would send her sketches
to him, asking for his advice. For at least two years while in Rome, she
continued this informal study, receiving substantial guidance from
Michelangelo made a request for her to draw a weeping boy, which she did with enthusiasm. The sketch she made for this
assignment would continue to be discussed and copied for the next fifty years
among artists and the aristocracy. Giorgio Vasari wrote this about the weeping
"One could not see a more graceful or realistic drawing than this
one. Since she lives in Spain and Italy does not possess copies of her works, I
have placed it in our sketchbook in memory of Sofonisba's
While traveling home to Cremona, Sofonisba would meet Orazio Lomellino, the
captain of the ship she was traveling on. They both felt very strongly about
each other, and were married shortly afterwards, in January of 1580 in Pisa,
Italy. The marriage was a happy one; her husband recognized and supported her in
her artwork. They would settle in Genoa, where her husband's family lived in
their large home. She had time to paint, since she had her own quarters,
and an art studio. Many artists of that time came to visit, to learn, and to
discuss the arts with her. She had now developed her own style, which many
up and coming artists were eager to mimic. Her great success inspired other women of the
Renaissance to pursue the career of artist.
She had always been interested in religion, and in her later years she began
to paint religious themes, as she had done in the days of her youth. Through the
years, many of her religious paintings have been lost. In the early 1600's, when
she was roughly seventy-nine, she painted a self-portrait that showed her with a
book in her right hand, and a piece of parchment paper in her left. Her wrinkled
forehead and an almost playful expression in this setting is in direct contrast
to the self-portrait done ten years later where she appears more subdued looking,
with her raised right eye looking directly at the viewer, as if she was asking a
In 1623, Anguissola was visited by the Flemish painter Sir Anthony Van
who had painted several portraits of her in the early 1600's, and recorded
sketches from his visits to her in his sketchbook. Van Dyck drew her portrait
while visiting her, this was to be the last portrait made of Sofonisba. The very
next year, she returned to Sicily, where she died at the age of about
ninety-three in Palermo. She was buried there in Palermo in 1625.
Seven years later, on the anniversary of what would have been her 100th birthday had she lived, her husband placed an inscription on her tomb. That reads, in part:
Sofonisba, my wife...who is recorded among the illustrious women of the world,
outstanding in portraying the images of man... Orazio Lomellino, in sorrow for
the loss of his great love, in 1632, dedicated this little tribute to such a
Her work can be viewed at the following museums and art galleries:
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
- Accademia Carrara, Bergamo, Italy
- Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
- Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy
From the photographs I have viewed of her works, she was truly a talented
painter. Many other painters copied her style, but none will ever be as good as
More information on other lesser known female artists can be
Source: Women Artists. 1st ed. : Ruggio Publishing, 1977. | <urn:uuid:fe66ec4e-61ef-48bc-87a9-8f826d0a0bf9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://everything2.com/title/Sofonisba+Anguissola?showwidget=showCs1671661 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394414.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00082-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.98391 | 1,723 | 3.03125 | 3 |
LONDON – Margaret Thatcher was credited with restoring Britain’s reputation on the world stage and her close bond with U.S. President Ronald Reagan was seen as a key factor in ending the Cold War.
From “handbagging” European leaders in demanding the return of British money to sending a task force to retake the Falkland Islands from Argentina, she cultivated the “Iron Lady” image to cunning effect.
When she took power in 1979 as Britain’s first female prime minister, Thatcher had little experience and even less interest in foreign affairs, with her main priority being to shore up the crumbling economy.
But that same year she approved the deployment of U.S. cruise missiles in Britain, despite mass protests at home, as part of NATO’s efforts to counter what it saw as the growing threat from the Soviet Union.
When Reagan took office in 1981 she quickly formed a close bond with him. Despite their different upbringings, the former Hollywood star and the shopkeeper’s daughter shared a free-market economic philosophy and a deep mistrust of communism.
“I have lost a dear friend . . . such a cheerful and invigorating presence,” she said in a video eulogy after Reagan died in 2004. “Thank you for your presidency, thank you for your testament of belief.”
But despite their shared distrust for Moscow and its allies, Thatcher was also the first Western leader to reach out to reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1984, three months before he took power, Thatcher met him and declared “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together.”
Her Cold War judgment was not always so forward looking, though, as she told Gorbachev that “we do not want a united Germany,” just two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.
Yet it was a conflict over an archipelago in the South Atlantic that was in many ways the making of Thatcher as a foreign policy player on the global stage.
British forces drove out Argentine invaders from the Falkands in 1982 despite Washington’s refusal to offer any support — a sore point between Thatcher and Reagan — ending a long period of postimperial military decline. “We have ceased to be a nation in retreat,” she declared afterward.
Geopolitics professor Klaus Dodds of Royal Holloway University in London said that the effect of her stance on the Falklands was “to give successive prime ministers the confidence to project British forces into various other theaters.”
“When you think about where Britain’s gone after the Falklands — Bosnia, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya — a lot of that has come off the back of the Falklands,” Dodds said.
From that point on, she lived up to the nickname given to her by a Soviet newspaper after a tirade against the Soviet Union in 1976 — the Iron Lady — and deepened Britain’s strategic relationship with the United States.
That toughness manifested itself particularly in her increasing opposition to growing European unification. She had supported British membership of what was then the European Economic Community in 1975 but at a European summit months after she took office in 1979, she was taking on French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt over the amount Britain paid.
In a victory that has hung over her successors, Thatcher then won a budget rebate for Britain at a summit in 1984, when she said, “We are simply asking to have our own money back.”
Europe became an “obsession” for her, said William Wallace of the London School of Economics, adding that she became “less and less interested in compromise.”
But it also led to her downfall.
In 1990, soon after she delivered an incendiary House of Commons statement vowing “No! No! No!” to increased powers for Europe, one of her closest allies, Geoffrey Howe, quit with a devastating resignation speech that blamed her entrenched Euroskepticism. That triggered the chain of events that led to her quitting in November that year. | <urn:uuid:0c5c8455-b6ec-42c7-8e03-b5119254a312> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/04/10/world/leader-took-u-k-through-cold-war-and-beyond-2/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970188 | 865 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Birchbark Canoes – Hafeman Boat Works – Fur Trade Era Bark Canoes
In the tradition of the natives and fur trade companies, Bill Hafeman started building birchbark canoes in 1921. In 1981 he handed down the tradition to his granddaughter, Christie and her husband Ray Bossel, Jr.
They still make bark canoes along the Big Fork River, an old fur trade route, by the same methods used hundreds of years ago without nails or glue. The only concession to modern times is a permanent polyurethane pitch to replace the old troublesome pitch.
Makers of Authentic Birchbark Canoes
In the last ten years they have made more than 150 authentic bark canoes and hope to pass the tradition on to their two sons in the future.
These canoes had birchbark as the outer skin; lightweight, rot resistant cedar for the inner framework, roots from the spruce to sew the canoe together, and sap from spruce or pine mixed with charcoal and bear grease to seal the seams and holes.
When the fur trade started around 1650, the natives taught the Europeans to make bark canoes to carry their freight. Canoes such as the ones pictured were made as long as 37 feet for use on the Great Lakes, and around 26 feet in length for use of hauling the freight on the rivers. The 37 footers held close to 3 1/2 tons and twelve men. The 26 footers held close to 2 ton of freight, six men, and all their supplies for six weeks. The fur trade period existed for over 250 years and the use of bark canoes is well documented.
Visit Hafeman Boatworks
Come visit our shop for a free tour. To get there from Grand Rapids in Northern Minnesota: take Hwy. 2 west to Deer River. Continue north on Hwy. 6 from Deer River, 30 miles, The shop is located on the south edge of the Bigfork River on the east side of Hwy. 6, across from County Hwy. 14.
For More Information call (218) 743-3709. | <urn:uuid:f6ad8fe7-acbf-41e4-af5e-f440d681a804> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.forgedintime.com/bladesmithing-blog/birchbark-canoes-hafeman-boat-works-fur-trade-era-bark-canoes/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944403 | 434 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Current methods to prepare colloidal PbSe semiconductor nanocrystals involve acutely toxic trioctylphosphine as ligand and lead sources such as acetates and oxides. Furthermore, the resulting products have poorly controlled sizes and morphologies. Hao-Li Zhang and collaborators, Lanzhou University, China, have developed a preparation method that uses only oleylamine as both solvent and ligand and enables preparation of nanocrystals with controlled sizes and shapes.
When hot solutions of PbCl2 and Se in oleylamine are mixed, nanocrystals are quickly formed, as indicated by the black color of the mixture. Different reaction times and temperatures yield nanocrystals with different sizes. Short reactions at high temperature give small particles, e.g., 0.5 min at 220 °C for 7.5 nm particles, while larger particles can be prepared at lower temperature with longer reaction times, e.g., 190 °C for 120 min for 12.5 nm particles. The obtained nanocrystals show strong optical limiting effects, which makes them potential candidates for the development of nonlinear optical devices.
Article Views: 1652 | <urn:uuid:73396681-ba30-41fd-be7a-f03c25bee07c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.chemistryviews.org/details/ezine/4423131/Less_Toxic_Route_to_PbSe_Nanocrystals.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395548.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00024-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905082 | 234 | 2.75 | 3 |
Sepsis (Blood Infection) (cont.)
IN THIS ARTICLE
When Should Someone Seek Medical Care for Sepsis?
When to Call the Doctor
A person should call the doctor if anyone has signs and symptoms of sepsis. If any of the following are true about the patient's medical history, they need to be especially vigilant regarding possible sepsis symptoms if the person
When to Go to the Hospital
Medically Reviewed by a Doctor on 1/15/2016
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Patient Comments & Reviews
The eMedicineHealth doctors ask about Sepsis:
Sepsis (Blood Infection) - Treatments
How was your sepsis treated?
Sepsis (Blood Infection) - Causes
What was the cause of your sepsis (blood infection)?
Sepsis - Symptoms and Signs
What were your sepsis symptoms and signs?
- Questions for Your Pediatrician About Hemophilia
- Treatments for Multiple Myeloma
- New Treatments for Pulmonary Hypertension | <urn:uuid:f4a944e2-a7b5-4062-b9c6-34c5b2213c4f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.emedicinehealth.com/sepsis_blood_infection/page4_em.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00153-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.86761 | 224 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The primary design standard used for wind load calculations is ASCE 7-02. Exposure classifications are described as:
The magnitude and sense of internal pressure is dependent upon the magnitude and location of openings around the building envelope with respect to a given wind direction. Accordingly, the standard requires that a determination be made of the amount of openings in the envelope to assess enclosure classification (enclosed, partially enclosed, or open). “Openings” are specifically defined in this version of the standard as “apertures or holes in the building envelope and which are designed as “open” during design winds.” Examples include (unprotected and non impact resistant) doors, operable windows,…
• A building having each wall at least 80% open.
• Partially Enclosed
• A design that takes into account the fact or potential for wind to build up pressure on the inside of the building. A building is designed as partially enclosed and is designed for “Internal Pressure” that is created due to the “Partial Enclosure.” This was an option to be used in lieu of opening protection in the wind-bourne debris region in Florida prior to July 2007. The option has been eliminated from the 2006 IRC.
• A building that does not comply with the requirements for open or partially enclosed buildings.
There are four exposure categories defined in ASCE-7 and further defined by the surface roughness categories:
Exposure A, Exposure B, Exposure C , and Exposure D
Surface Roughness Categories. A ground surface roughness within each 45-degree sector shall be determined for a distance upwind of the site as defined in Section 220.127.116.11 from the categories defined below, for the purpose of assigning an exposure category as defined in Section 18.104.22.168
Surface Roughness B: Urban and suburban areas, wooded areas or other terrain with numerous closely spaced obstructions having the size of single-family dwellings or larger. Surface Roughness C: Open terrain with scattered obstructions having heights generally less than 30 ft (9.1 m). This category includes flat open country, grasslands, and all water surfaces in hurricane-prone regions. Surface Roughness D: Flat, unobstructed areas and water surfaces outside hurricane-prone regions. This category includes smooth mud flats, salt flats, and unbroken ice.
Exposure A: This exposure category does not exist in the hurricane prone region of the country.
Exposure B: Exposure B shall apply where the ground surface roughness condition, as defined by Surface Roughness B, prevails in the upwind direction for a distance of at least 2630 ft. (800 m) or 10 times the height of the building, whichever is greater. Exception: For buildings whose mean roof height is less than or equal to 30 ft (9.1m), the upwind distance may be reduced to 1500 ft (457 m)
Exposure C: Exposure C shall apply for all cases where exposures B or D do not apply
Exposure D: In ASCE-7, this exposure category does not exist in the hurricane prone region of the country. However, the removal was based on the roughness of the ocean surface, particularly near shore where breaking and shoaling waves occur. Data is not available to demonstrate this effect for winds over inland bodies of water or inland waterways. Consequently, exposure D has been re-introduced in the Florida Building Code for bodies of water away from the coast. See the note on post storm investigations below. | <urn:uuid:dd61cd98-bf28-4bf2-a7d5-5aa1e9b45d3a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blueprintforsafety.org/doc.php?d=Enclosure_Category | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398873.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00051-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929613 | 727 | 2.890625 | 3 |
| Aaagh! Interference- the scourge of amateur radio! Irate
neighbours banging on your door! It is said there are two types of hams; those who have no
interference problems and those who get on the air! The following is a guide to dealing
with interference problems.
interference is propagated
Interfering signals are propagated in one of three ways:
1/ Direct radiation the signal passes through space as an EM wave, directly into the affected equipment. This can be via an input port on the affected device (e.g. antenna socket) or directly into some circuitry not normally designed to pick up such signals (this can occur due to poor shielding within a device).
2/ Conduction the signal is picked up by cables and conducted into the affected equipment. Examples are mains cables, telephone wires, cable TV coaxial systems.
3/ Induction a nearby source induces a current into a susceptible device by magnetic induction.
You can see this effect by placing a live transformer (e.g. in a power supply) near a radio receiver. Not normally a problem for amateurs as the interfering source normally has to be in fairly close proximity to the affected device. However, compact magnetic loop antennas often used on HF are a potential source of interference by induction. Telephones are often quite prone to this route of interferenceCauses of Interference
There are four basic causes of interference, two of which are always related to the transmitter:
1/ Fundamental overload the desired signal radiated from the transmitter is responsible for overloading the affected device. In most cases the device has not been designed to reject a strong nearby transmission or is not functioning correctly. The vast majority of TVs for instance, do not have adequate filtering in their front end to reject strong unwanted signals.
2/ spurious emissions- undesired signals radiated by the transmitter such as harmonics or parasitic oscillations (both of these are often seen in poorly constructed or badly tuned transmitters). Spurious emissions may also be generated externally to the transmitter by non-linear rectification. Non-linear rectification is a curious effect that results in new spurious signals. For instance a corroded connection on a TV antenna can act as a semiconductor junction producing unwanted mixing products. This effect is also known as the rusty bolt effect, with rusty garden fences etc. sometimes generating TVI in the presence of a perfectly clean amateur radio signal!
3/ Noise both electrical and from RF sources, have the ability to cause interference. Not normally associated with a transmitter. Noise can also be generated within the affected equipment.
4/ Internally generated signals sometimes a malfunctioning device may generate unwanted signals internally that may on their own cause interference, or after mixing with the transmitter signal.
Are you the cause?
Before you begin to trace the source of the problem you need to be sure that your transmissions are responsible. This may sound obvious, but there may be many cases where a neighbour may attribute some kind of interference to your transmissions i.e. electrical noise, unusual atmospheric conditions.
In the first instance the person(s) experiencing interference should make a note of the time and date(s) that interference occurs. From your logbook you will be able to tell if the times the interference occurred coincide with you transmitting. This is of course the main reason why hams are legally required to keep logbooks. and it is in your own interest to ensure you fill in your station log every time you transmit.
If you have established that your station is the source of the interference the next thing to do is to make a note on which bands, modes and power levels interference is experienced. It is often useful to have a friend assist you (preferably a fellow ham) who can monitor the interference or operate your station. Of course such an approach will require your neighbours consent. You should also establish what equipment is being interfered with, or if more than one device is susceptible (i.e. TV, video, HI-FI etc.)
In the first instance you should examine the installation of the affected equipment. For instance if it is a TV or radio tuner, examine antenna leads and plugs to ensure they are in good condition and that there is no corrosion present. If possible, also check out any antennas attached to the equipment, looking for corrosion and bad connections. Check out mains leads (when not plugged in!), speaker leads etc. for bad connections, improperly installed plugs.If the interference is to a TV or radio, ensure that the device is receiving a strong enough signal; is the picture (or sound for a radio) of good quality (devices receiving weak signals are much more prone to overload from a nearby amateur transmitter)? Check to see if a TV preamp is installed, as these devices are notorious for poor immunity o breakthrough. For a Hi-Fi , check for hum on the speakers (which may indicate a ground loop due to improper installation)?
If your neighbours equipment does not appear to be installed correctly (e.g. he is using a TV antenna, which has been up for tens of years with coax that has perished) then it is possible that this is responsible for the interference. However, although incorrect installation may be the problem you should ensure that your own station is clean.
Does your neighbour get TV a picture like this? | <urn:uuid:ad059123-c05a-4c75-bfca-a898e55f39ba> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.qsl.net/g0fvi/intf1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00108-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949681 | 1,091 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Questions About This Book?
What version or edition is this?
What is included with this book?
- The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any CDs, lab manuals, study guides, etc.
Donna Rae Siegfried has written about pharmaceutical and medical topics for 15 years in publications including Prevention, Runner’s World, Men’s Health, and Organic Gardening. She has taught anatomy and physiology at the college level. She is also the coauthor of Biology For Dummies, 2nd Edition.
Table of Contents
Part I: Locating Physiology on the Web of Knowledge.
Chapter 1: Anatomy and Physiology: The Big Picture.
Chapter 2: What Your Body Does All Day.
Chapter 3: A Bit about Cell Biology.
Part II: Sizing Up the Structural Layers.
Chapter 4: Scrutinizing the Skeletal System.
Chapter 5: Muscles: Setting You in Motion.
Chapter 6: Getting the Skinny on Skin, Hair, and Nails.
Part III: Exploring the Inner Workings.
Chapter 7: The Nervous System: Your Body’s Circuit Board.
Chapter 8: The Endocrine System: Releasing Chemical Messages.
Chapter 9: The Circulatory System: Getting Your Blood Pumping.
Chapter 10: The Respiratory System: Breathing Life into Your Body.
Chapter 11: The Digestive System: Beginning the Breakdown.
Chapter 12: The Urinary System: Cleaning Up the Act.
Chapter 13: The Immune System: Living in a Microbe Jungle.
Part IV: Life’s Rich Pageant: Reproduction and Development.
Chapter 14: The Reproductive System.
Chapter 15: Change and Development over the Life Span.
Part V: The Part of Tens.
Chapter 16: Nearly Ten Chemistry Concepts Related to Anatomy and Physiology.
Chapter 17: Ten Phabulous Physiology Phacts. | <urn:uuid:aac570ab-c1fd-4597-9bc6-8fd297e3290c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ecampus.com/anatomy-physiology-dummiessup174sup-2nd/bk/9780470923269 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00166-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.770088 | 430 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Spring has sprung, and it carries different meanings for everyone. For baseball fans, it means regular trips to the stadium replete with hot dogs and Cracker Jack. For students and teachers, it means being that much closer to summer.
And for those who live in the Northeast, spring means the emergence of periodic cicadas for the first time in 17 years, an event affectionately dubbed Cicadapocalypse. Soon, parts of Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia will see hordes of these insects rise up from the ground, blanket the skies and descend upon the earth, issuing their loud, shrill mating calls all the while. As billions of cicadas emerge, they can reach an overwhelming density of 1.5 million insects an acre in places, reports the Washington Post.
If this sounds doomsday-esque, don't be alarmed — despite their ominous appearance, cicadas are harmless. These herbivores are concentrated solely on finding mates and laying eggs. They carry no diseases, and they neither bite nor sting. And contrary to popular belief, they are not locusts (or even closely related to them).
Cicadas are large insects of the family Cicadidae. The ones that will emerge this spring are of the genus Magicicada, which are limited to eastern North America. These cicadas are known as the periodical cicadas or the 17-year cicadas due to their abnormally long life cycles and the length of time in between appearances. The reason for their impeccably-timed life cycles is still not completely understood by scientists.
Periodic cicadas emerge to mate, lay eggs in tree twigs and beget the next generation. Cicadas spend the first 12 or 16 years of their lives (depending on the species) underground, sucking out nutrients from tree roots for survival and molting several times. Upon their final molt, they tunnel out into the world and males begin to attract females to mate. They do this by congregating and producing songs through membranes on their bodies. These songs — which are more akin to loud, whirring buzzes — can be as loud as 100 decibels and arouse female cicadas. The matured cicadas then mate, the females lay eggs, and the process begins anew.
Cicada waves are known as broods, and each brood covers a different swath of the country. This year, the Brood V cicadas will surface; next year, Brood VI will emerge in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to Cicada Mania. Cicadas emerge generally when the soil where they lay dormant reaches 64 degrees Fahrenheit. You can track the date that the insects will emerge in your area on Cicada Mania or ask longtime residents who no doubt remember the last time the swarms rose up. The season of the cicadas usually starts between April and June and should end by late July.
At their worst, periodic cicadas are irritating. Their mating calls are ear-splitting, and they can overwhelm outdoor areas — so it might not be the best idea to get married outdoors in the Northeast this summer. If you run a garden, nursery or orchard, be sure to protect your plants by bringing them indoors or covering them with screening material.
With such short life spans, the cicadas are usually all dead and grounded by late July, if not earlier. So as you're walking in Brood V-affected states, that might explain the crunchy sound you hear.
Editor's note: This file was originally published in April 2013, but has been updated with new information. | <urn:uuid:9e9ff1a3-6995-4345-9bf7-a3651d71eaad> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/cicadapocalypse-2013-what-you-need-to-know | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00175-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940078 | 747 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Pecans, named pakans by Algonquin
Indians because of their hard shell, are a native American nut. They are a
member of the hickory family and grow in temperate climates. The third ranking
crop in the United States, pecans are cultivated in the States of Georgia,
Oklahoma, and Texas. They are at their peak when harvested in the fall, but are
available year round.
A smooth, reddish-brown, one-inch (2.54 cm) long oval shell
encloses two golden-brown crinkled lobes with ivory-colored meat. Pecans have a
buttery, soft-textured, slightly bittersweet taste that is enhanced when
toasted. Place pecans on a baking sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes in a 350
degree F (180 degree C) oven until lightly browned. Cool before using.
Pecans are used in pastries and
desserts such as the famous Southern pecan pie, quick breads, cakes, cookies,
candies, pralines and ice creams.
Pecans are one of the more expensive
nuts and are sold shelled, either coarsely chopped or in halves, or unshelled.
When buying unshelled pecans, look for clean, unblemished, uncracked shells that
do not rattle when shaken.
Their high fat content (over 70%) causes them to
go rancid quickly so store in the refrigerator (3 months) or freezer (6 months)
in airtight containers or plastic bags. | <urn:uuid:4fcfd890-5979-4b0d-b740-f0d96504cf37> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.joyofbaking.com/printpages/pecansprint.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403826.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00067-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910944 | 339 | 2.578125 | 3 |
2000 Hurricane Track Summary
Did you know?
You can Animate, Pan & Zoom many of our weather maps with the Interactive Weather Map
View Radar, Satellite, Temperature, Snow Cover, Storms and more by zooming directly over your area.
Learn about 2000 Hurricane Summary
The 2000 Atlantic hurricane season was a fairly active season, with 19 named storms, 8 hurricanes, and a subtropical storm that never attained tropical characteristics. It officially began on June 1, 2000, and lasted until November 30, 2000. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the Atlantic basin.
The most notable storm of the season was Hurricane Keith, which caused numerous fatalities and large amounts of damage in Belize, Nicaragua and Honduras. The precursor disturbance to Tropical Storm Leslie produced severe flooding in south Florida, causing nearly $1 billion in damage (2005 USD). In addition, Hurricane Alberto was one of the longest-lived Atlantic tropical cyclones. | <urn:uuid:b5584d25-b845-4cec-aa4d-1a850beba036> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.intellicast.com/Storm/Summary/Hurricane2000.aspx | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783399385.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154959-00094-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935425 | 199 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Opening up Pandora's box...Discussing the above topic is essentially impossible without appreciating the origins and reasons for safeguarding clinical trials. As such, I will devote the following five short paragraphs to the poignant reasons for regulating clinical trials, in addition to proffering a concise definition of Good Clinical Practice (GCP), before discussing monitoring in general (in the context of adopting Risk Based Monitoring (RBM)) along with the positive effect RBM can have on clinical trial patient safety and data quality.
Why should clinical trials be regulated?To put it succinctly, adhering to GCP regulations provides a minimum level of ensurance that clinical research is conducted with integrity in a scientifically sound and ethical manner, and that the obtained results will be credible. Equally important; it also safeguards the rights and safety of the trial participants. In other words, clinical trial regulations aim to safeguard the rights and well being of trial participants as well as that of future patients, while simultaneously providing organisations with clear guidance on how to conduct clinical trials in a universally accepted format and on how to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements that are legally and ethically acceptable.
Despite the international community agreeing on this ethical and scientific framework of standards (GCP) for the design and conduct of clinical research, the inherent complexity of this framework leaves many aspects up to alternative interpretation, revision and debate, as is evidenced by relatively recent breaches in the consensus of how to apply such ethical standards to research in developing countries (e.g. placebo-controlled trials to reduce maternal to child transmission of HIV-1 in Africa and Asia in 1994 or the Trovan study in Nigeria in 1996).
Unfortunately, a large number of historical events (including very recent ones), teach us that the development of pharmaceutical products can neither be self-regulated, nor can it rely on a code of practice that does not address future developments. Simply put, without strictly enforced rules and up-to-date regulations, people (trial participants, and future patients / users of medicinal products) as well as organisations and company reputations will get damaged.
Events and tragedies that raised the initial questions of safety and efficacy, include a series of articles by Samuel Hopkins Adams (1906), the Nuremberg trials (1947), the Thalidomide incident (1956 – 1962), and the Tuskegee Syphillis Experiment which prompted the Belmont report (1932 – 1972). These early events led to the development of certain regulations and guidelines (e.g. the Pure Food and Drug Act by US congress in 1906 and The Declaration of Helsinki by the WMA in 1964), which ultimately evolved into the code of practice that most countries and organisations conducting clinical trials now subscribe to. This code of practice is known as the International Conference on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH) – Harmonised Tripartite Guideline: Guideline for Good Clinical Practice E6 (GCP) or, in short: ICH-GCP.
However, it is clear that continued vigilance and improvements to such guidelines are warranted given the recent examples of circumstances, different interpretations, or fraud that ultimately resulted in non-compliance with acceptable code of conduct and behaviour (e.g. East German clinical trial scandal (1970s – 1990), the aforementioned clinical studies in developing countries (during the mid-nineties), and the Ranbaxy scandal (2005 – 2013)). Nevertheless, implementing ill-considered and far reaching changes in safeguards (i.e. monitoring) without appreciating the origins and reasons for enforcing measures that protect the integrity of clinical trials may result in enormously destructive unintended consequences.
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Why should clinical trials be monitored?For those not familiar with monitoring and its purpose, it is perhaps useful to remind ourselves with a GCP definition of the importance of this aspect of running clinical trials. ICH-GCP E6 1.38 defines monitoring as: The act of overseeing the progress of a clinical trial, and of ensuring that it is conducted, recorded, and reported in accordance with the protocol, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), GCP, and the applicable regulatory requirement(s).
In addition, ICH-GCP (section 5.18.1) states that the purposes of trial monitoring are to verify that: (a) The rights and well-being of human subjects are protected. (b) The reported trial data are accurate, complete, and verifiable from source documents. (c) The conduct of the trial is in compliance with the currently approved protocol/amendment(s), with GCP, and with applicable regulatory requirement(s).
Needless to say that proper monitoring is absolutely crucial to the success of any clinical trial.
Who is monitoring clinical trials and is there more to monitoring than meets the eye?As established in the previous section, Clinical Trial Monitoring is one of the most important activities in clinical research. Which is why it is not surprising that many organisations seek to develop collaborative and synergistic processes within the GCP framework that will enhance the quality and predictive powers of monitoring.
In a classical arrangement, the clinical trial monitor or Clinical Research Associate (CRA) is assigned by the sponsor and is tasked with the responsibility to check for protocol compliance and patient safety. Invariably, this is accomplished through regular on-site monitoring visits combined with Source Document Verification (SDV) and monitoring reports. However, there are other layers of monitoring that are tasked with detecting non-compliance and safety issues. Given the move towards a more integrated approach spread over several layers of the organisation, it is perhaps useful to raise awareness of those departments and individuals that share some of this monitoring responsibility as well as the way they interact and how they evaluate and verify data.
The individuals involved in aspects of monitoring include the monitor / CRA, independent Data Safety Monitoring Committee (DMC), and the Independent Ethics Committee (IEC) – called Institutional Review Board (IRB) in the USA. Based on their responsibilities in clinical research as defined by Good Clinical Practices, they can be categorised as follows:
- GCP, protocol, SOP, and regulatory Compliance Monitoring including Source Data Verification (SDV): The Monitor / CRA
- Overall Safety Monitoring: The Independent Data Safety Monitoring Committee
- Safety and Ethical Monitoring: The Independent Ethics Committees
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GCP, protocol, SOP, and regulatory Compliance monitoring including Source Data Verification (SDV)One of the duties and responsibilities of the monitor / CRA (who is invariably assigned by the sponsor) is to determine that the source data is available and that the data submitted reflects the source data (e.g. medical files, lab reports, etc...). In addition, the monitor is obliged to verify that safety information such as Adverse Events (AE / SAE / SUSARs) have been accurately reported in a timely fashion, that the study is conducted according to protocol, and that local regulatory requirements have been adhered to. Monitors are in essence the eyes and ears for the sponsor at a clinical trial site. As such, the monitor must ensure that the study is fully compliant given that the monitor forms the main link between investigator and sponsor (often the manufacturer, but not always). Thus site interaction in the form of on-site visits are an accepted procedure which is currently essential.
Overall Safety MonitoringThe independent Data Safety Monitoring Committee (DMC) – otherwise known as Data Safety Monitoring Board, provides an additional layer of safety and data monitoring during the conduct of a clinical trial. Given the often highly complex and scientific nature of trial data in various formats from multiple sites and disparate sources, such as medical records, or lab reports containing erroneous or missing values, these departments are predominantly staffed with highly experienced medical staff or scientists to ensure that data is interpreted and analysed correctly. The effectiveness of DMCs are in part reliant upon clear standard operational procedures and trial rules for safety detection and reporting.
Safety and Ethical MonitoringThe Independent Ethics committees (IEC) or Institutional Review Board (IRB) has a responsibility to monitor the safety of subjects of a study at a site they approve for conducting a specific study. They exercise that responsibility by providing an opinion regarding the suitability of the investigator as well as the site for the conduct of a trial, and whether or not the study is ethically acceptable in its aims, its protocols and for the subject population of that site (i.e. they have to approve a study before it can be initiated at the site). The IEC / IRB then periodically review these ongoing clinical trials, in order to provide public assurance that the protection of the rights, safety, and well-being of human subjects involved in a trial are safeguarded and that the research conducted continues to be appropriate. These IEC / IRB committees have the responsibility to review proposed clinical trials in a timely manner. However, the effectiveness of their review depends significantly on the quality of safety reports, and other documentation that is submitted by the investigator.
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Can Risk Based Monitoring preserve Good Clinical Practice (GCP) principles and enhance compliance, safety and accuracy?In essence, monitoring is a quality control tool which allows sponsors and other stakeholders to determine whether study activities are being carried out as planned and that the research conducted continues to be safe and appropriate; all in an effort to identify deficiencies with the purpose to correct them.
However, the ICH GCP monitoring guidelines, that were finalised in 1996, were established on the assumption that clinical research would be predominantly paper-based. Two decades later, the increasing utilisation of Electronic Data Capture (EDC), rapid communications (i.e. e-mail and video conferencing, etc...), comprehensive lab reports, electronic source data, and improved data analytics, allow sponsors to have far greater visibility into study conduct and data in real-time than previously thought possible. In addition, it is clear that clinical research today has become a lot more complex given the sheer volume of data generated on a daily basis.
In summary, clinical research and available technologies have evolved tremendously. As such, it would seem logical (and necessary) that monitoring approaches follow suit, whilst obeying the spirit of the GCP guidelines, in order to keep up with technological advances and avoid becoming irrelevant.
This train of thought is echoed in a relatively recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance document on risk-based monitoring and the release of the final version of the European Medicines Agency (EMA)'s Reflection Paper on Risk-Based Quality Management in Clinical Trials. These two documents mark an important milestone in efforts to introduce and develop the risk-based monitoring concept. Given that data quality is absolutely paramount in determining study success and ensuring patient safety, it is not surprising that these newly suggested recommendations have brought about a transition period within the industry that will ultimately see the adoption of standardised risk-based techniques in monitoring trials.
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What is the difference between classical on-site monitoring and risk based monitoring?Risk will become a focal point...
In contrast to on-site monitoring, risk assessment and Central Statistical Monitoring (CSM), otherwise known as intelligent risk-based monitoring (RBM), makes use of a central intelligence operation that validates and analyses clinical trial data and site metrics in order to determine whether clinical sites should receive more extensive quality review through on-site monitoring visits (something I referred to as “Central Intelligence-led Adaptation (CIA) mode” in the title).
Several benefits can be derived from a dynamic CIA mode monitoring operation, given that statistical and graphical checks can determine the presence of outliers or unusual patterns in the data. Early on, and throughout the trial, comparisons can be made between sites to evaluate performance. In addition, CIA mode monitoring will be capable of highlighting possible fraudulent data, miscalibrated or faulty equipment. Ultimately, this approach to monitoring allows issues to be be identified and resolved while the trial is ongoing.
Some reports even suggest that many SDV related queries can be picked up by RBM with some additional centralised edit-checks put in place (though it is dependent on the data that is available in a database), while other publications state that a more varied approach to monitoring can identify failings that would likely be missed with either on-site or centralised review alone. As such, both on-site monitoring as well as RBM will be required to ensure the quality of trial conduct.
However, adopting such alternative monitoring practices industry-wide cannot be accomplished overnight given that procedures to remotely review clinical data, statistical sampling of data to verify source data (SDV), and targeted monitoring practices need to be implemented and integrated properly across many layers of an organisation (and include People, Ethos, Processes, and Technology). Nevertheless, the transition period for adoption of RBM practices is progressing rapidly as many companies see a cost benefit in addition to increased quality of data and patient safety.
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 | <urn:uuid:cfd83e24-34ee-4e29-bc92-3e87c07f46b0> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.pvanuden.com/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395679.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00011-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94177 | 2,655 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Chew it over
Gum can improve health in four essential ways
Updated 5:08 pm, Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Turns out, we haven't been doubling our pleasure. Or our fun.
Since peaking in 2009, U.S. gum sales have fallen 11 percent to $3.71 billion last year, according to market researcher Euromonitor International, displaced by sales of mints, chocolate and other candies. Over the next five years, Euromonitor projects gum sales will drop another 4 percent, to $3.56 billion.
Which hardly sounds like a national health crisis, and it will certainly make your mother, who was tired of all that cracking, popping and chomping, happy.
But here's something to chew on: Gum can be good for your health.
Here are four ways:
Chewing sugarless gum for 20 minutes following meals may be just what the dentist ordered to help prevent tooth decay. According to the American Dental Association, which places a seal on gum that meets its standards, chewing gum encourages saliva production, which washes away acids created by the bacteria in plaque. Those acids can break down tooth enamel, setting you up for decay. Saliva also delivers extra calcium and phosphate to strengthen the enamel of your teeth. Types of gums that carry the ADA seal use non-cavity-causing sweeteners, such as aspartame, sorbitol or mannitol.
They've got the seal
The American Dental Association puts a seal on sugar-free gum it recommends as a means of fighting cavities. Here are the recommended brands. Note that all are the sugar-free versions of the products:
Wrigley's Orbit for Kids
Ice Breakers Ice Cubes
Gum can also curb your appetite, according to a 2009 study by the University of Rhode Island. When healthy adult study subjects chewed gum for one hour in the morning (three 20-minute gum-chewing sessions), they consumed 67 fewer calories at lunch and did not make up for it by pigging out later in the day. Why? According to the University of Rhode Island study, "nerves in the muscles of the jaw are stimulated by the motion of chewing and send signals to the appetite section of the brain that is linked to satiety, which may explain why the act of chewing might help to reduce hunger."
It should be noted that the study was supported by a $25,000 research award from the Wrigley Science Institute (yes, that Wrigley) although people have long suspected that a busy jaw won't have time to crave crunching on that bag of Cheez-Its.
A recent study from Cardiff University and published in last month's British Journal of Psychology suggested chewing gum can help you focus longer on tasks that require constant attention.
"It's been well established by previous research that chewing gum can benefit some areas of cognition," Kate Morgan, author of the study explained in a news release. "In our study, we focused on an audio task that involved short-term memory recall to see if chewing gum would improve concentration; especially in the latter stages of the task."
Previous research has shown that chewing gum can improve concentration in visual memory tasks.
"Interestingly, participants who didn't chew gum performed slightly better at the beginning of the task but were overtaken by the end," Morgan said in the release. "This suggests that chewing gum helps us focus on tasks that require continuous monitoring over a longer amount of time."
According to discovery.com, the study "builds on evidence from previous research that shows benefits of chewing gum, such as increased blood flow to the frontal-temporal brain regions."
It may feel like you need a glass of wine when your 5-year-old's effort to pour his own milk leaves you wading into a lake of dairy on your kitchen floor, but you just need to find the nearest pack of Trident. According to a report from Wrigley (which houses information under the website gumisgood.com), "in June 2006, an online self-perception research study was conducted to determine whether chewing gum can make gum chewers feel less stressed. Overall, this study provides evidence that among heavy gum chewers (defined as those who chewed in the past week, chewed at least four days per week and chewed 11 pieces per week), chewing gum reduced stress while abstaining from chewing gum increased stress." Fifty-six percent of study participants agreed with the statement that "chewing gum helps me cope with everyday stress."
That didn't include the stress it put on the participants' mothers, who tend to tire of all that impolite chomping.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | <urn:uuid:267c5d3b-8815-4a50-82cc-e7de76b7552b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.greenwichtime.com/living/article/Chew-it-over-5368003.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00016-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955783 | 977 | 2.75 | 3 |
How to care for mums
Mums have long been appreciated for their array of fall colors. Whether it is for a homecoming game, the prom, or your own backyard, mums have a special beauty. Chrysanthemums were named from the Greek words chrysos (gold) and anthemon (flower). They were first raised in China about 2500BC. They valued the flower so much they named a city after them: Chu-Hsien means Chrysanthemum City.
Modern day mums are valued for their long-lasting blooms and variety of colors. Prized by florists and gardeners alike, mums are hardy plants. They can survive in a number of climates, and can be planted in pots or in the ground. Even nicer, they can be raised as annuals or perennials.
Learning how to care for mums can provide an unexpected bonus. In addition to enjoying them in the garden, you can also make your own corsages for those special occasions in life. With the colors ranging from white and cream to orange, rust, red, and gold, you can probably find one in your school colors.
Choose a spot with well-drained soil in a sunny location. Protection from afternoon sun is important in hot climates. Protect from winter winds and do not allow soil to dry out.
Spade a deep area in the earth. It should be about twice the size of the root ball. Add fertilizer if the soil is poor. Use a commercial fertilizer weekly until they bloom. Do not crowd the plants. Mums have a shallow root system, so do not plant near trees or other large plants.
Mums can be planted in the fall or spring. Spring planting will give them a longer time to establish before cold weather.
Types of mums
Types of mums – by flower shape:
- Single (daisy-like)
- Pompon (small, stiff)
- Spoon (petals spoon-shaped)
- Spider (long, tubular, hooked ends)
- Quill (petals straight, long and tubular)
- Decorative/football (flattened with petals curving towards center)
- Anemone (daisy-like, rounded crest in center)
Keep plants symmetrical by pinching off growth. Remove the top pair of leaves. This will keep the plants bushy. Removing half the buds will force larger blossoms. If you prefer, you can use clippers for the trimming job. You may need to stake taller plants.
Keeping your mums healthy
Spraying with an insecticide or fungicide can help prevent insect damage and disease. If the products are from the same company, they may contain similar ingredients. If so, you may combine them in one application to save time.
Watch for aphids, the main pest to attack mums. Remove any dead or dying leaves.
Cut plants back after they have finished blooming. Leave stalks about 6 to 8 inches tall. Level out ground around plants to avoid water accumulation. After the ground freezes, apply a mulch for protection. This is to keep them frozen, not to guard against excessive cold. Avoid leaves or grass clippings. These can decay and create an unhealthy growing medium. Remove mulch when ground softens in the spring.
Mums can also be treated as annuals and discarded at the end of the growing season. If so, you won’t have to worry about the previous paragraph.
Propagation of mums
Mums are easy to propagate. In the spring, divide the clumps and plant in a new area or in a pot. Be sure to leave 1-2 feet between plants. Larger plants will need at least two feet. | <urn:uuid:ecd7afd9-0a36-4a68-bbc0-d7b2a73a00d6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.howtocareforit.com/how-to-care-for-mums | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394605.61/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00155-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937778 | 783 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Description not set
Laker Women's Hockumentary, Part 8: Downtime
The Oswego women's hockey team off ice: Crazy costumed competitions, what not to wear, group dinner and too many Rice Krispies treats.
Whole Brain Teaching (Power Teaching) Lesson 6
Chris Biffle, continuing the examination of Whole Brain Teaching's five classroom rules, presents unique strategies for helping K-12 students develop their capacities for moral reasoning. Rule Four: Make smart choices has a host of applications from leading discussions about academic material to solving problems students have outside the classroom.
The Many Uses of Pi
This video talks about what pi is, how to calculate pi, where pi is found, and fun facts / activities with pi. March 14 is Pi Day. Manly graphics.
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Big game of the steam variety in Greater Manchester
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Health Education Course
The United Nations Cyber Schoolbus tells us about essential issues surrounding health.
Importance of statistics
Independence or Dependency 1 from the course World Regions, Peoples, and States
This course will provide a framework for recognizing and analyzing the major distinctive regions of the world in comparative context. The most important interrelations between environment, economy, ethnicity, and the national identity and viability of states will be explored.
Hyde County School Boycott
This slide show tells the story of a yearlong boycott to protest the closing of historically black schools in Hyde County, North Carolina.
No Way Out: Two New York City Firemen Testify about the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
One of the greatest industrial tragedies in U.S. history occurred on March 26, 1911, when 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, died in a fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist company in New York City. In this brief excerpt from their testimony before the Factory Investigation Commission, New York City Fire Chief Edward F. Croker and Fire Marshall William Beers commented on the safety lapses--the locking of an exit door, the inadequate fire escapes, and the overcrowded factory floor--that led to
"Genesee Had Railroads": Kenneth Platt Recalls the Importance of the Railroad to Late Nineteenth-Cen
The penetration of the railroads into the West in the late nineteenth century had a profound impact on local economies. For a period of ten years in the 1880s the Latah County, Idaho town of Genesee experienced this phenomenon. One town boomed while its neighbors languished in economic isolation, largely as a result of the rail station in Genesee. In this oral history interview, Kenneth Platt described the railroad's impact on Latah County.
Students estimate the number of civilizations in the galaxy by first estimating the number of craters on the Moon and then by performing estimates of multiple-variable systems culminating in the use of the Drake Equation. In this three-part activity, students use estimation techniques to describe complex situations.
US Environmental Protection Agency site that explains GC for those interested in environmental analysis. Assumes some user background in the field.
Rheodyne - Application Support
Application notes, technical information, and on-line trouble-shooting guide pertinent for Rheodyne products (high-pressure valves).
Conversations with Berkeley Faculty: Eva Harris (3/15/01)
Conversations with History Presents Faculty Research at the University of California, Berkeley A Conversation with Eva Harris Assistant Professor of Public Health "Making Science Accessible" This interview took place on March 15, 2001. Complete transcript is available. Eva Harris is an Assistant Professor in the Infectious Diseases Division of the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, where she does research and teaching on Molecular Biology, Parasitology, and Vir
Teaching about Thanksgiving
Resources and activities to help you bring historical accuracy, cultural sensitivity, and a broader context to discussions about the quintessentially American holiday.
Resources for looking at art
A guide to some of the best websites, activities, and print resources for building visual literacy through the study of art.
Cardiovascular Construction Kit
The Cardiovascular Construction Kit (CVCK) allows students to design and construct a wide range of cardiovascular systems, testing each one to see how it behaves and whether it could actually exist and survive in a real organism. CVCK provides a set of basic components, e.g., pumps, vessels, capillaries and so on, which may be pieced together to construct a cardiovascular system. Gauges and measurement techniques are provided so you can draw conclusions from your experiments. Note: CVCK is a MAC
NASA CONNECT Centennial of Flight: The Wright Math, Problem Solving
In NASA CONNECT The Wright Math, students will learn about the evolution of flight. They will learn how the Wright Brothers became the first human beings to successfully design, construct, and fly an airplane. Students will learn the method the Wright Brothers used in designing their airplane. They will also be introduced to NASA's Morphing Project, a radically new approach to designing aircraft of the future. They will observe NASA researchers using problem-solving techniques to design wings th | <urn:uuid:c58723cf-8f3a-415d-91aa-e2ed85f6e849> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xpert/scoreresults.php?keywords=Dog%20examination%20techniques&start=2600&end=2620 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00047-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.895264 | 1,060 | 2.796875 | 3 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Connie Barclay
News Releases 2006
NOAA Home Page
NOAA Public Affairs
NOAA Fisheries Service today published a proposed rule describing regulations to reduce the risk of collisions between North Atlantic right whales and ocean-going vessels. Right whales are among the most endangered species in the world, and are highly vulnerable to ship collisions. The rule proposes vessel speed restrictions along the U.S. east coast, a first in the agency’s long-standing efforts to recover right whales.
"Reducing serious injuries and deaths among right whales due to ship collisions will allow more of these rare animals to reach maturity and to reproduce. That's a key factor for recovery," said Bill Hogarth, NOAA Fisheries Service director. "We believe the measures proposed here will make U.S. east coast waters safer for right whales.”
The rule proposes a speed restriction of 10 knots or less during certain times in each of three major regions along the U.S. east coast (Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast). These proposed measures are adapted to right whale seasonal occurrence in each area, as well as commercial ship traffic patterns and navigational concerns. Speed restrictions would apply to vessels that are 65 feet in length or greater, except federal agency vessels. The rule also proposes a speed restriction to protect whales that appear in times and places when these seasonal measures are not in effect, through “dynamic management.”
These proposed regulations are part of the Agency’s larger Ship Strike Reduction Strategy, which recommends continuing existing protective actions, such as a system of aircraft surveys and mandatory ship reporting systems that provide advisories and information on right whale locations to mariners. The Strategy calls for developing a conservation agreement with Canada, consulting under the Endangered Species Act with federal agencies on operations of their ships, and an expanded outreach and education program.
In addition, NOAA Fisheries Service and National Ocean Service developed a proposal to modify key shipping routes into Boston. The proposal, submitted to the International Maritime Organization in April, by the U.S. Coast Guard on behalf of the United States, is expected to have a significant reduction of risks to right whales from ships.
The North Atlantic right whale primarily lives in coastal or shelf waters. Its known range includes winter calving and nursery areas in coastal waters off the southeastern United States, and summer feeding grounds in New England waters and north to the Bay of Fundy and Scotian Shelf.
Historically depleted by commercial whaling, the North Atlantic right whale suffers injury and death from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. These events may continue to contribute to the species decline and inability to recover. Biologists believe that there are approximately 300 right whales in the Northwest Atlantic population.
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 requires recovery plans to serve as guides to promote the conservation and recovery of listed species. In 2005, NOAA Fisheries Service released a revised North Atlantic Right Whale Recovery Plan that provides an overall framework for promoting recovery of the whale. Measures to reduce risks posed by entanglement in fishing gear are contained in the Agency’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan.
Written comments on the proposed regulations published today must be sent to NOAA Fisheries Service no later than August 25, 2006.
Send public comments to: Chief, Marine Mammal Conservation Division, Attn: Right Whale Ship Strike Reduction Strategy, Office of Protected Resources, NOAA Fisheries, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, Md. 20910. Comments may also be sent via email to: [email protected] or to the federal rulemaking portal: http://www.regulations.gov (follow instructions for submitting comments). A copy of the proposed rule can be found at: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/shipstrike/
NOAA Fisheries Service is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation’s living marine resources and their habitat through scientific research, management and enforcement. NOAA Fisheries Service provides effective stewardship of these resources for the benefit of the nation, supporting coastal communities that depend upon them, and helping to provide safe and healthy seafood to consumers and recreational opportunities for the American public. To learn more about NOAA Fisheries Service, please visit: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov.
NOAA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and providing environmental stewardship of the nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.
On the Web:
NOAA Fisheries: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov | <urn:uuid:6175da3b-7b27-406c-9d12-2e288baa0d03> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.publicaffairs.noaa.gov/releases2006/jun06/noaa06-r113.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396887.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00016-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926238 | 1,000 | 3.03125 | 3 |
The rules/vocabulary are introduced at gradual pace with lots of repetition.
Easy to use:
The contrasting fonts (type styles) make it easy to see who is responsible for reading what. In this manner, the “teacher” knows exactly what to say and when to introduce which rules, and the student never gets overwhelmed by trying to read text that is too advanced.
Uses "guided oral reading" (reading aloud):
Guided oral reading is the most effective method in teaching children to read fluently. As a comparison, studies show that silent, independent reading does little to advance fluency. (read more)
Coordinated teaching of reading and handwriting:
When children write what they learn, they learn it better.
Many phonics programs quit after teaching long vowels and maybe a few silent letters. We include ALL varieties of vowels, ALL common silent letters, consonant AND vowel digraphs, plus important grammatical basics without which independent reading of English is impossible (punctuation, contractions, syllables, question words, plurals and possessives).
We teach the rules AND the rule-breakers:
Many common English words violate phonics rules (e.g. was, are, one, come, any, never, both, and many, many more), so it's important to know the rules and the rule-breakers. (read more)
Permits teacher-parent collaboration:
Because our materials are on the Internet, teachers can send children home with reading and writing assignments to be done on their home computers. (In the U.S., nearly 75% of all households have Internet access at home. Similar trends are taking place in other developed countries.)
Many phonics programs cost tens or hundreds of dollars. Progressive Phonics is (once again) free. The only cost is ink/paper to print materials. (The books can all be read on the computer, so the only things that HAVE to be printed are the handwriting and activity worksheets, which can be printed in black and white if you don't have a color printer.)
Anyone can do it:
No prior training or certificate required. This means that teachers can recruit volunteers from anywhere, and parents have the tools to make sure their children learn how to read.
No baby talk:
Children/students hear full sentences right from the start. Language-immersion is essential for learning/reading language. Thus, "two birds are killed with one stone” – the EYE is taught to read and decode the written representation of the language, while the EAR is taught to hear the basic vocabulary, grammar and common vernacular of the English language.
Not only because of the repetition, but also because of the giggles. Humor causes more "connections" in the brain to come into play to "get" a joke or funny reference, so students score better test results. Funny stuff is seriously good for students. | <urn:uuid:3fb01fe2-9164-43f8-b0b7-d374d7315d66> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.progressivephonics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=82&Itemid=33 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397749.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00098-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955049 | 608 | 4.3125 | 4 |
Because where we live, work and play have a significant impact on health, a new guide released today offers practical strategies for making health a top priority in education, transportation, planning, nutrition and other policies.
“Health in All Policies: A Guide for State and Local Governments” is designed to help improve the public’s health and safety by incorporating health considerations into decision-making across all sectors and policy areas. Written by public health practitioners, the guide was developed in collaboration with the American Public Health Association, California Department of Public Health and Public Health Institute.
“Improving the public’s health through policy development often falls to non-traditional health partners and this guide emphasizes the importance of collaboration between these partners and public health agencies and organizations,” said Georges Benjamin, MD, executive director of APHA. “To ensure that health is a top priority in education, nutrition, transportation and other policies, this guide will be of great value as the implementation of ‘health in all policies’ expands to transform the practice of public health for the benefit of all.”
The guide was developed in response to growing interest in collaborative efforts to improve population health. It draws heavily on the experiences of the California Health in All Policies Task Force through their Healthy Community Framework and experiences as a case study.
The guide features strategies for achieving good health and sustainability across the community and tips for engaging stakeholders, building relationships and making joint decisions across sectors. The publication also includes guidance on developing messages around the health in all policies concept as well as examples of co-benefits that can be attained through strong public health policy.
The full guide is available for download on APHA’s website, along with a four-page brief. A webinar will take place on Oct. 2 at 2 p.m. EDT, to discuss why health in all policies is important and how organizations can incorporate its framework into their efforts. | <urn:uuid:3d7a2d79-fb3d-476b-a249-e76a7a71a779> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.publichealthnewswire.org/?p=8664 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398869.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951817 | 395 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is thought to affect over 11% of the cat population worldwide. It is closely related to the Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Whilst the virus is not typically lethal, it can result in a higher occurrence of infections and degenerative conditions that can be stressful and uncomfortable for the infected cat.
Many cats afflicted with FIV suffer from intestinal disorders such as colitis, chronic diarrhoea or inflammatory bowel disease. A recent study investigated the effects of probiotics on the feline intestinal tract and found that they have the potential to reduce the severity of intestinal problems by restoring normal conditions in the gut.
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus
FIV is a type of lentivirus that is believed to infect 11% of cats worldwide. 1 The infection is not curable, so infected cats will live with the virus for the rest of their life. How the virus affects an infected cat varies between individuals, some cats succumb to the direct effects of the virus, whilst other may suffer from secondary infections due to the virus’ effect on the immune system. Some cats may even go their whole life without ever displaying symptoms, but continue to spread the virus.
The transmission of FIV from one to cat to another requires saliva from an infected cat to enter the bloodstream. This means deep bites or scratches are required for the virus to spread. Infected females can spread the virus to their offspring during pregnancy as the virus can be transferred in the uterus.
FIV attacks the immune system of the infected cat, it targets the white blood cells responsible for dealing with infections. The weakened immune system increases the chance of infected cats developing secondary infections.
A vaccine is available, but it is difficult to test how effect the vaccine actually is. Due to the high number of possible variations of the virus, it is also difficult to protect against all strains with a single vaccine. One study did show the vaccine was able to protect an entire sample group from infection with one sub-type of the virus. 2 Vaccination is the choice of the owner.
A treatment for FIV is available in the USA. It is known as Lymphocyte T-Cell Immunomodulator (LTCI) and it works by increasing the production of certain white blood cells (CD-4+ T-cells). Increasing the production of these cells can help reduce the immunosuppressive effects of FIV.
Chronic Diarrhoea in FIV Positive Cats
FIV positive cats have been observed to suffer more frequently from chronic diarrhoea than FIV negative cats. Whilst there are a number of theories that could explain this increase, a definitive explanation is yet to be found.
FIV is associated with intestinal mucosal dysfunction. The intestinal mucosa is what lines the wall of the intestines. so if there are problems with the way that it functions, absorption of nutrients and water can be disrupted. It is this disruption that can lead to chronic diarrhoea.
It is also thought that intestinal mucosal dysfunction associated with FIV positive cats disposes them to bacterial or viral infection. If pathogenic bacteria establish themselves in the instestine this too can cause chronic diarrhoea. Some pathogenic bacteria release toxins that contribute to poor gastrointestinal health and diarrhoea.
When the cause of the gastrointestinal stress is unknown, the diagnosis is often inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD is a chonic inflammation of the intestinal lining that occurs as a result of the body’s own inflammatory cells reacting continually and excessively.
See this extensive guide on the relationship between FIV and chronic diarrhoea: FIVTherapy
Probiotic Treatment for FIV Positive Cats
The chronic diarrhoea associated with FIV can be stressful for both the owner and the cat, so any beneficial treatment is warmly welcomed. A recent study showed how administration of probiotics (‘good bacteria’) to FIV positive cats is a beneficial therapeutic treatment. 3
Treatment with probiotics (in the case of the study, Lactobacillus acidophilus) helped to restore intestinal homeostasis i.e. returning the intestine to a stable system.
Probiotic treatment altered the release of inflammatory mediators responsible for inflammation of the intestines (that can lead to chronic diarrhoea). Probiotics are also beneficial, as they can prevent ‘bad bacteria’ establishing themselves in the gut.
Image Credit: akk_rus
- Feline immunodeficiency virus vaccine: Implications for diagnostic testing and disease management ↩
- Dual-subtype vaccine (Fel-O-Vax FIV) protects cats against contact challenge with heterologous subtype B FIV infected cats. ↩
- Infection with feline immunodeficiency virus alters intestinal epithelial transport and mucosal immune responses to probiotics ↩ | <urn:uuid:ef545ad8-6940-4adc-bfef-fecfd8c7f18a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://petsci.co.uk/health-care/feline-immunodeficiency-virus-and-diarrhoea-probiotic-treatment/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396538.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.923529 | 1,001 | 3.6875 | 4 |
Meet your thyroid gland. It's a small, bow-tie shaped organ, located in the front of the neck above your collarbone. Its main job is to manufacture the thyroid hormones that regulate metabolism. These powerful hormones affect nearly every cell, tissue, and organ in the body. When this touchy gland becomes imbalanced, which it does in approximately one in eight women, the problem is classified in two ways, hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism.
Hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid) occurs when the thyroid no longer produces enough of the hormones to keep the body functioning properly. If untreated, it can lead to high cholesterol, osteoporosis, heart disease, and depression. Some symptoms of hypothyroidism are similar to symptoms reported during the menopause transition. These include fatigue, forgetfulness, mood swings, weight gain, irregular menstrual cycles, and cold intolerance.
Hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid) occurs when the thyroid produces too much of its hormones. Some symptoms of hyperthyroidism can also mimic those of the menopause transition, including hot flashes, heat intolerance, palpitations (short episodes of rapid heartbeat), tachycardia (persistent rapid heartbeat), and insomnia. The most common signs of hyperthyroidism are unplanned weight loss, goiter (an enlarged thyroid gland) and exophthalmos (bulging eyes).
Hypothyroidism is usually treated with prescription oral thyroid hormone medication to replenish the supply. Hyperthyroidism treatment options include antithyroid drugs, radioactive thyroid therapy, or thyroid surgery.
It's important to distinguish menopause symptoms from thyroid symptoms. Thyroid disorders are common in women and can be diagnosed with a simple blood test called thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). If you are having symptoms of hyper- or hypothyroidism, you should be screened with a TSH test. You can learn more from The North American Menopause Society.
Photo courtesy of Luba V Nel/Shutterstock.com | <urn:uuid:419c809f-51e8-4a4e-a855-4f7ac1f5572e> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.more.com/print/489117 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392099.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00139-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920754 | 419 | 2.9375 | 3 |
The significance of the safety-net role of NTFPs in rural livelihoods, South Africa
Abstract (Summary)This study was conducted in two rural villages in South Africa with the purpose of investigating the safety-net role of non-timber forest products (NTFPs). The use of NTFPs as a safety-net is reported as a common feature of rural livelihoods however empirical data supporting this function is limited. Therefore, policy makers and land-use planners underappreciate the probable role and consequent value of the safety-net function. The findings show that poor, rural households are vulnerable to a range of risks. Over a two year period 100 % of households reported experiencing crises including unexpected idiosyncratic risks(e.g. illness, retrenchment, crop failure and death) as well as expected expenses and periods of vulnerability (e.g. the payment of school fees and seasonal crop shortfalls). Households are prone to these risks irrespective of wealth or gender of the de jure household head. To secure their livelihoods households in both villages rely on a variety of livelihood strategies including waged labour (53 %), self-employment (30 %), government grants (60 %), arable agriculture (56 %), animal husbandry (64 %) and the use (100 %) and sale (22 %) of NTFPs. In terms of the proportion of households involved, the findings suggest land-based strategies make an important contribution. Formal employment and old-age pensions distinguish wealthy households from poor and allow for investments in assets and saving schemes (62 %). In response to the risks experienced households employed a variety of coping strategies. Generally the most commonly used strategies were kinship (85 %), reduced household spending (72 %), changes to food consumption and saving (72 %) and relying on NTFPs (70 %). Kinship and NTFPs show no differences for wealth or gender of the de jure household head. The remaining strategies are influenced by wealth. The use of NTFPs as a safety-net manifested predominantly through the increased use of products, then the substitution of commercial goods by NTFPs and lastly through the sale. Of those using NTFPs as a rural safety-net 41.4 % used of wild foods, 40 % used medicinal plants, 25.7 % substituted paraffin with fuelwood, 10 % sold fuelwood and 8.6 % sold other products.
School Location:South Africa
Source Type:Master's Thesis
Date of Publication:01/01/2007 | <urn:uuid:fa927255-0807-4125-90b7-546009901de4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.openthesis.org/documents/significance-safety-net-role-NTFPs-553709.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00124-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917506 | 521 | 2.75 | 3 |
- "Never ask when you can take."
- – An old Ferengi saying (DS9: Babel)
The Ferengi were a space-faring humanoid species native to the planet Ferenginar. Ferengi civilization was built on the ideals of free enterprise, where all other goals are subjugated to the pursuit of profit. Their governing body, known as the Ferengi Alliance, was formed over a period of ten thousand years, beginning with the establishment of a system of currency, to their purchase of warp technology, and finally to its state in the 24th century. (DS9: "Little Green Men")
The Borg designation for the Ferengi was Species 180. (VOY: "Infinite Regress")
This is a very low designation number and may indicate an early first contact date between the Borg and Ferengi.
The Ferengi generally referred to Humans as "Hew-mons" (pronounced "hyoo-mons"). There were exceptions to this, like Sovak who addressed Jean-Luc Picard several times as "Human" rather than "Hew-mon". (TNG: "Captain's Holiday")
On average, Ferengi were shorter than Humans. They had orange-colored skin, blue fingernails, enlarged skulls, wrinkled noses, and sharp teeth. Internally, they had ascending ribs and upper and lower lungs, as well as an unusual four-lobed brain that could not be read by telepathic species such as Betazoids. (DS9: "Bar Association"; TNG: "Lonely Among Us"; TNG: "The Price") Ferengi physiology was similar to that of the Dopterians, of which they were distant relatives.
Since Kobheerians look very similar to Dopterians, they too might be related to both species.
There are some episodes that contradict the inability of telepathic species to read Ferengi minds. For example in TNG, Deanna Troi does it on several occasions, though on others she and her mother, a more powerful telepath, claimed an inability to do so. (TNG: "The Price", "Ménage à Troi"). Receptivity to telepathy again featured in DS9: "Facets", when Quark volunteers to host the telepathic memories of one of Jadzia Dax's former hosts.
The Ferengi's most distinguishing feature was their large ears (called "lobes"), which gave them extremely acute hearing. The lobes of the Ferengi male were larger than those of females. The sensitivity of the ears also made them vulnerable to pain and other problems, including severe infections of the tympanic membrane which, if left untreated, can become fatal. (DS9: "Bar Association")
Nog once stated "On Ferenginar, we learn about the Continuum while we still have our first set of ears." (DS9: "Treachery, Faith and the Great River")
It should be noted that it is not known if this statement was to be taken literally or figuratively. It should also be noted that this was one of the rare moments that a Ferengi referred to his lobes as ears. The Ferengi heart rate was much faster than that of a Human. When Nog, Rom, and Quark were sent back to 1947 and analyzed by Human doctors, one of the medics commented on Quark's heart rate, "If you were Human, I'd say you just suffered from a heart attack." (DS9: "Little Green Men")
Otherwise, the Ferengi appeared to have a rather strong immune system. Quark was one of a very few members of the station's crew unaffected by the aphasia virus that struck Deep Space 9 in 2369. This may also have been due to the fact that Ferengi brains are very different than those of other humanoids. (DS9: "Babel")
Ferengi were known to have lifespans that could exceed one hundred years. Following a cosmetic procedure performed on Vulcan, Ishka commented that her lobes hadn't felt so firm in a century. (DS9: "The Magnificent Ferengi")
The rainy climate of the Ferengi homeworld and the low-order invertebrates constituting Ferengi cuisine would seem to suggest a species that evolved as foragers living close to the ground. When startled, frightened or in pain, Ferengi often emitted a high-pitched scream. (DS9: "Little Green Men", "The Siege of AR-558", "The Circle") Some Ferengi demonstrated a hissing reaction when threatened or in distress not unlike an Earth cat. (DS9: "Sanctuary")
- Additionally, in the script for "The Last Outpost", it was mentioned how Ferengi had weak eyesight, though this species-specific weakness was never mentioned or utilized again.
Society and culture
The Ferengi culture had roots similar to those of many other species, filled with wars, violence, and greed. However, the Ferengi managed to avoid many of the worst aspects of an evolving culture and their social history was notable for the absence of atrocities such as slavery or genocide, a distinction the Ferengi felt made them morally superior. Ferengi culture slowly grew out of its early stages by introducing a remarkable economic system that developed from early bartering systems to become one of the leading cultures in interstellar commerce. (DS9: "The Jem'Hadar", "Little Green Men")
Unlike most other cultures who frequently idolize warriors or politicians, businessmen were the pillars of Ferengi society for millennia. This tendency led to the slow merging of business and political fields in Ferengi culture and that influence was evident in the near universal application of the Rules of Acquisition as both a personal and financial code of ethics.
The Rules of Acquisition provided advice that all good Ferengi follow in order to lead a profitable life. For example, the first Rule of Acquisition was "Once you have their money, you never give it back".
In addition to the Rules, the Ferengi also recognized the Five Stages of Acquisition: infatuation, justification, appropriation, obsession, and resale. (VOY: "Alice") They also recognized these traits in other species; Earth's Wall Street was regarded with near-religious reverence by Ferengi. (VOY: "11:59")
The drive for individual gain in Ferengi society led to inventions that spread across many species of the galaxy. Examples included such diverse items as holosuites, synthehol, and the popular drink, Slug-o-Cola. (DS9: "Profit and Lace", "Body Parts")
Role of Women
The traditional laws of the Ferengi were highly sexist and patriarchal by the contemporary standards of many other civilizations. Unlike those of the Federation, Romulan, or even Klingon societies, Ferengi females were barred from most aspects of society, including politics and business. Laws and traditional social values relegated females to the level of property. Women had no valued role in society apart from the propagation of male heirs.
Marriage, like everything else in Ferengi culture, was a business contract, signed between the prospective groom and the bride's father, in which the father leased his daughter to the groom for a set period (usually five years) for an agreed fee, paid on the birth of a son. (DS9: "Doctor Bashir, I Presume")
As described by Quark, in a marriage "on the Ferengi home world, husbands and wives never argue. There's no divorce, no broken homes; nothing but peaceful conjugal bliss." (DS9: "Fascination")
In addition to being forbidden to earn profit and own property, Ferengi females were not allowed to wear clothes, leave their homes without male escort, or speak to strange males. Their role as caregiver to the male children of a family was strictly defined. Mothers were expected to teach their children the Rules of Acquisition, and to soften their male children's food by chewing it for them. (TNG: "The Last Outpost", "Ménage à Troi"; DS9: "Life Support", "Family Business")
However, by the late 24th century, females made up 53.5% of the Ferengi population and some Ferengi began to realize that exclusion of females from business represented a significant loss of profit opportunities. A movement, led by Ishka and, through her influence, Zek, developed with the goal of reforming cultural traditions that had excluded women. Initial progress toward this goal seemed less than promising, but by 2375 with the ascension of the progressive Rom to the position of Grand Nagus the likelihood of further reforms seemed inevitable.(DS9: "Profit and Lace", "The Dogs of War")
Because of the long-standing ban on acquisition of profit by females, any female wishing to engage in commerce had to either bury evidence of her involvement in a transaction or appear as a male. Notably, Pel not only altered the manner of her attire, but also disguised her breasts and the size of her lobes in order to be included in Quark's financial decision-making. Using this disguised appearance, she was involved in the first recorded business transaction between the Alpha and Gamma Quadrants. A contract would likely not have been concluded without her input, making it, at the time, the most significant financial achievement by Ferengi female. (DS9: "Rules of Acquisition") Her skill in successfully negotiating the contract between the Ferengi and the Karemma would later have a profound impact on the entire Alpha Quadrant. It proved the basis by which the Federation made first contact with the Founders, which would in turn lead to the Dominion War. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")
Quark himself would later be involved in an even more significant instance of cross-dressing, one which would fundamentally alter the nature of Ferengi society. Grand Nagus Zek – as influenced by Quark's mother, Ishka – attempted to give women the right to wear clothes. He was immediately displaced from power by Brunt, and forced to set up a government-in-exile on Deep Space 9. While there, Zek tried to convince top Ferengi businessmen to join him for a conference to demonstrate the intelligence of women, using Ishka as his exemplar. When she collapsed after suffering a heart attack, Quark had to fake being the female, "Lumba", so as to impress Nilva, the ultra-conservative manufacturer of Slug-o-Cola. Quark's "Lumba" sufficiently influenced Nilva to call for, and get, the immediate reinstatement of Zek as Nagus. Zek's women's rights agenda therefore continued. (DS9: "Profit and Lace")
Rituals and traditions
Male Ferengi were introduced to the world on their Naming Day, one of the few Ferengi ceremonies that included a tradition of bestowing (free) gifts on someone. (DS9: "Rivals")
The Ferengi Attainment Ceremony was the time in Ferengi tradition that an individual becomes old enough to make his own decisions. A young Ferengi that was about to embark on his first significant business opportunity might auction off personal items that have strong sentimental value in order to raise capital for his venture. (DS9: "Heart of Stone", "Little Green Men")
Quark in a traditional display of submissionFerengi greeted one another by putting their wrists together, hands apart, and fingers curled inward, equivalent to the old Human custom of shaking hands (the natives of Gamma Trianguli VI have an almost identical gesture); Jadzia Dax and Quark regularly greeted one another in this manner. On the other hand, when agreeing upon a deal, the two Ferengi placed the back of one hand against that of the other, and pulled it away to the side quickly, as if to signify mutual distrust and understanding. (DS9: "Business as Usual", "The Magnificent Ferengi")
A Ferengi acting in some form of service or submission was commonly known to bow very slightly, face up, and made the same hand gesture used in greetings. The cultural connotations of displaying open hands were echoed again in the "obscene" gesture of a person waving empty hands above his head.(TNG: "The Last Outpost"; DS9: "The Emperor's New Cloak")
A Ferengi entering another Ferengi's home was required to pay an admission fee of one slip of latinum per person. One was also required to sign a waiver acknowledging responsibility in the event that something went missing following one's visit. A traditional greeting in such situations had the resident Ferengi welcoming the visitor to his home and reminding him that "My house is my house", to which the visitor replied "As are its contents". (DS9: "Family Business")
The Ferengi had a legal tradition called plea bargaining. If a Ferengi required something, especially of importance, that had been taken by another individual, the Ferengi could give something that the individual requires in order to have their item returned. (DS9: "Emissary")
Traditional Ferengi cuisine consisted largely of slugs, insects, grubs, and other creatures humans would call "bugs". Many partook in the beetle snuff habit, snorting a fine powder of dried beetles. In one instance, Jake Sisko told Nog that he was helping his girlfriend who was studying to become an entomologist, to which Nog replied "Whats an entomologist?" Jake explained that it was "someone who studies bugs." Nog, misunderstanding the science, replied "Ohhh!, she wants to become a chef!" However, only native bugs were considered edible, and foreign (off-planet) bugs are treated with disdain. (DS9: "Sanctuary")
According to traditional Ferengi beliefs, the hammer represented sexual prowess. (TNG: "Birthright, Part I") Actual sexual practices of Ferengi were not well known but oo-mox, manual stimulation of the lobes, was widely practiced and could be performed by non-Ferengi. In accordance with their male-dominated society it was not unusual for a Ferengi to have female servants who would perform oo-mox for him in public as a means of pleasure and to communicate his status by overtly demonstrating that he can afford such luxuries. (TNG: "Ménage à Troi"; DS9: "The Nagus")
Appropriately for a materially obsessed species, the Ferengi demonstrated interest in cosmetic enhancements by way of tooth sharpeners and surgical procedures such as Lobe enlargements to accompany the usual conspicuous displays of wealth. (DS9: "Little Green Men", "Family Business")
- Interestingly, the Ferengi did not seem to make much use of modern technology to straighten their teeth
The Ferengi written language resembled a flow chart in appearance with 60 degree angles and text most commonly emanating outward from a central hexagon. The hexagon might remain fixed, possibly denoting subject or tense, as the text around it flowed, branched, expanded, and changed. (DS9: "Family Business")
Because of the extremely rainy climate of their homeworld the Ferengi had 178 different words for rain in all its various forms. Conversely there were no Ferengi words for crispy, as the condition is largely unknown to them. (DS9: "Let He Who Is Without Sin...")
There was also B'Zal, a Ferengi code which used patterns of light and darkness. (TNG: "Bloodlines")
Ferengi military personnel wore uniforms that underwent a major change in style between 2364 and 2365. Many Ferengi males wore a headdress which consisted of a cloth wrapped around the back of the head. The name and purpose of this item was unknown. It may be significant that after Nog and Rom joined Starfleet and the Bajoran Militia respectively, they wore headdresses in materials and colors that matched their uniforms.
The Ferengi of the mirror universe were, for the most part, seen as far more compassionate and less greedy than their counterparts in the "prime" universe, often paying for this compassion with their lives. They were oppressed by the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance during the 2370s and many Ferengi are aligned with the Terran Rebellion. (DS9: "Crossover")
In Ferengi philosophy, the pursuit of profit at any cost was the guiding principle for all traditional Ferengi. With the invention of currency and the concept of profit approximately 10,000 years ago Ferengi philosophy began to evolve toward the pursuit of material wealth. This guiding principle became so basic to Ferengi that it was eventually codified in the Rules of Acquisition.
Greed, deceit, distrust, and opportunism were highly prized values among Ferengi and all were represented within the Rules. The Ferengi belief in conducting all business dealings under the advisory caveat-emptor, or "buyer beware", further reflected the pursuit of profit at all costs. (TNG: "The Last Outpost")
Exploitation was a rule in Ferengi society. The formation of labor unions was forbidden, and indeed most Ferengi did not wish to eradicate exploitation but to become the exploiters. (DS9: "Bar Association")
If profit represented the ultimate goal to Ferengi, the loss of profit opportunity represented the ultimate punishment. Ferengi who broke the law could be punished with the loss of all property and assets. If the crime was deemed severe enough the offending Ferengi's family could also suffer loss of profit opportunity, and could even be sold into indentured servitude to repay their debts - both literal and philosophical. The binding nature of contracts was considered a supreme law in Ferengi society and breaking a contract with a fellow Ferengi was a severe crime. (DS9: "Family Business", "Body Parts")
Capital punishment was not unknown among Ferengi but perhaps even more feared was revocation of a Ferengi's business license. Such an action prohibited other Ferengi from conducting business with the offender and virtually ostracized a Ferengi from his own society, leaving him with so few opportunities for true profit that death might be preferable. (DS9: "Body Parts")
Regard for profit above all else, including life, was also evident in the Ferengi attitude toward dealing in weapons and other military technology. Though the galaxy abounded in weapons dealers, the Ferengi had an approving attitude toward the profession. (TNG: "The Perfect Mate"; DS9: "Business as Usual") Similarly, the Ferengi attitude toward personal liberty was superseded by desire for profit. Despite, or perhaps because of, never having endured slavery themselves Ferengi showed themselves willing to engage in slave-trading if profitable. (ENT: "Acquisition")
Though it seemed at odds with a culture focused so exclusively on material existence, the Ferengi had a fairly robust and detailed religious life, even if the central philosophy behind the religion was relatively simple. Like everything else in their society, Ferengi religion revolved around the central concepts of profit and the accumulation of wealth.
Ferengi spirituality flowed largely from their belief in the universe was bound together in the Great Material Continuum. A Ferengi who lived a good life (one who makes a profit and accumulates wealth) was said to navigate the Great River of the Continuum. Such Ferengi were rewarded for their success in interpreting the wants and needs of this life by positioning themselves for success in the next life. (DS9: "Treachery, Faith and the Great River")
The Ferengi seemed to draw a distinction between selfishness and greed, indicating that the accumulation of wealth serves a greater good and is therefore not selfish. This is likely the role of the Great Material Continuum and may explain why such accumulation is rewarded in the afterlife. However, it may also be the case that selfishness itself is considered a moral virtue and for that reason the accumulation of wealth is rewarded in the afterlife.
The Antechamber of the Divine TreasuryIn the case of Ferengi, the mercantile belief in the finite but eternal nature of material accumulation meant that you could take it with you. Upon death a Ferengi found himself before the Blessed Exchequer, whom Ferengi prayed to in life, and was evaluated on the basis of the profit earned while alive. A successful Ferengi was allowed to bribe their way into the Divine Treasury where the wealth he had accumulated could be used to bid on his next life under the supervision of the Celestial Auctioneers. An unsuccessful Ferengi might find himself cast into the Vault of Eternal Destitution, never to return. (DS9: "Little Green Men", "Body Parts", "The Emperor's New Cloak")
By the end of the Dominion War, in 2375, over 40% of the population on Ferenginar no longer believed they had to buy their way into the Divine Treasury. (DS9: "The Dogs of War")
The Ferengi death ritual prohibited an autopsy from being performed on a deceased Ferengi. However, it was accepted practice for a Ferengi to auction off his vacuum-desiccated remains after death, providing the opportunity for their loved ones or enemies to own a piece of the Ferengi after his passing and as a final opportunity to raise capital for the soon to be deceased. (TNG: "Suspicions"; DS9: "The Nagus", "Body Parts")
The Ferengi Alliance was the main political body of the Ferengi. It was dedicated to the promotion of profit and commerce and was overseen by a Grand Nagus, who acted as both head of state and principal business leader. The Nagus' power was supported by both the Ferengi Bill of Opportunities as well as the Rules of Acquisition. (DS9: "Profit and Lace")
The Ferengi Commerce Authority, or FCA, was an agency of the Alliance concerned with business practices and the enforcement of trade under the Ferengi Trade By-Laws and Ferengi Code. Agents of the FCA were known as Liquidators and were governed by the Board of Liquidators.
Additional government institutions included the Ferengi Gaming Commission, Ferengi Health Commission, and the Ferengi Trade Mission. (DS9: "Ferengi Love Songs"; VOY: "Infinite Regress"; TNG: "The Perfect Mate")
Generally, the Ferengi Alliance stayed neutral in the politics of the galaxy, since the Ferengi were solely interested in profit and making enemies would diminish business opportunities. In the spirit of free enterprise, most Ferengi business ventures were made without the knowledge of the government. As a result, while a number of hostile conflicts occurred between the Federation and the Ferengi in the 2360s, the Ferengi Alliance itself was not held responsible.
The importance of business was felt even in Ferengi government, as powerful businessmen could easily become powerful political figures representing their companies the way states or worlds are represented in most other cultures.
The neutral tendencies of the Ferengi and their government were evident in the 34th and 35th Rules of Acquisition: "War is good for business" and "Peace is good for business". Counter to intuition, this neutral status often enhanced the influence of the Ferengi Alliance in the galaxy. By positioning themselves as interested only in commerce, not only did Ferengi manage to avoid being embroiled in larger conflicts such as the Dominion War, they also made themselves available as intermediaries. Ferengi trade representatives often accompanied other governments on diplomatic missions where trade negotiations might serve to open the door to more extensive relations between trade partners who might otherwise have difficulty doing business because of the political climate. (DS9: "Starship Down")
In keeping with their neutral tradition, the Ferengi did not maintain a standing military force and were generally considered ineffectual in most military matters. However, the role of DaiMon in Ferengi commerce was a quasi-military rank and the Alliance did provide the use of starships, notably the D'Kora-class marauders, for the purpose of mercantile exploration and, in some cases, defense of business interests. (TNG: "Ménage à Troi")
- Ferengi Market Exchange - The Ferengi Market Exchange is a center of Ferengi commerce. The exact structure and rules of the Exchange is unknown but it does have some similarities to finanical market indecies such as Wall Street and may involve the trading of shares in Ferengi companies like Slug-o-Cola.
- The Exchange is viewed as a significant indicator of the overall financial health of the Ferengi Alliance. Consequently, a drastic change in the Exchange could have political repurcussions as well. Grand Nagus Smeet, the only Nagus ever assassinated, oversaw the greatest drop prior to 2373 when a single-day drop of 199 points nearly caused the overthrow of Grand Nagus Zek. (DS9: "Ferengi Love Songs")
- Ferengi Futures Exchange - The Ferengi Futures Exchange is a center of Ferengi commerce on Ferenginar. Unlike the Ferengi Market Exchange, the Futures Exchange does not deal in established companies but instead allows Ferengi or other investors to gamble on the future price of commodities such as latinum and duranium.
- Vacuum desiccated remains of famous Ferengi could be sold as collectibles on the exchange. In 2372 Quark, after being mis-diagnosed with Dorek Syndrome, auctioned his own remains on the Exchange where Brunt purchased the entire collection for 500 bars of latinum. (DS9: "Body Parts")
- One year later, Quark realized that the mental faculties of Grand Nagus Zek had begun to deteriorate when he failed to accurately calculate a 17 percent increase in the price of duranium on the Exchange. (DS9: "Ferengi Love Songs")
Gint, first Grand NagusFerengi history reached back approximately 10,000 years, but much of their early history was limited to legend. The most significant events of early Ferengi history were the creation of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition by Gint and the merging of business and political philosophies into the office of the Grand Nagus. (DS9: "Little Green Men", "Body Parts")
After the evolution of their commerce-intensive society, the Ferengi purchased warp drive technology and began to expand their commercial interests in the galaxy. Even at this point, however, the Ferengi were a mysterious race who were often only known through rumor. Due to their ambitious and covetous nature many Ferengi have shown a tendency not to identify themselves to species during a first encounter and to exploit of species' lack of knowledge about Ferengi philosophy and society. (ENT: "Acquisition"; VOY: "False Profits")
- Prior to 2151, the Ferengi came in contact with the Valakians. T'Pol was unfamiliar with the name "Ferengi." (ENT: "Dear Doctor")
In 2151, Starfleet had their first encounter with the Ferengi, although they would not realize it for two more centuries. This initial encounter took place when four Ferengi marauders boarded Enterprise (NX-01) after rendering its crew unconscious using a "Trojan Horse" device. The pirates attempted to plunder the starship of items they believed held value, but their plans were ultimately foiled by the Enterprise crew and the Ferengi's own greed. With Enterprise back under Starfleet control, the pirates were allowed to leave with a warning not to plunder any more ships in the area. (ENT: "Acquisition")
In 2355, while Captain Jean-Luc Picard was in command of the Constellation-class USS Stargazer, Starfleet had another encounter with the Ferengi, although again it wouldn't be realized until nine years later. While traveling through the Maxia Zeta system the USS Stargazer was attacked by an unidentified starship damaging shields. This forced Captain Picard to perform a maneuver in which the Stargazer jumped into high warp, making it appear to the attackers that the ship was in two places at once. During the ensuing confusion Picard issued the order to destroy the enemy vessel, but the damage to the Stargazer was substantial and the crew abandoned the ship. (TNG: "The Battle")
Official first contact between the United Federation of Planets and the Ferengi occurred in 2364 in the Delphi Ardu system, where a Ferengi vessel and the USS Enterprise-D were trapped in orbit by a derelict outpost of the ancient Tkon Empire. Prior to this contact there were multiple incidents of contact between Ferengi and Humans but, for various reasons, documentation of the Ferengi as an identified race was not recorded. (TNG: "The Last Outpost")
Upon first contact with the Ferengi, Starfleet personnel observed the species to speak with broken English, often gasping and hissing, and moving in a cat-like "slinking" manner. Within the space of two years, however, the Ferengi had adapted to Federation mannerisms and later encounters had the Ferengi speaking perfect English and moving as a normal human would. A carry-over which was (and still is) common among all Ferengi is to call Humans by the name "Hew-mons" instead of the correct pronunciation. (TNG: "The Price"; DS9: "Emissary")
- Clarus - The Clarus system, occasionally spelled as Clarius, is a star system in the Ferengi Alliance, neighboring Ferenginar. It is home to significant Arcybite mining operations and is one of the financial and political linchpins of the Alliance. (DS9: "The Nagus", "Profit and Lace")
The Clarus system appeared in the starchart Data and Picard were studying in Stellar Cartography in 2371. (Star Trek Generations)
- Ferenginar (homeworld)
- Irtok -Irtok was the primary planet in the Irtok system in the Ferengi Alliance . In 2374, Rom feared that Irtok had been invaded by the Dominion when all communication with Ferenginar was lost shortly after Zek was deposed as Grand Nagus. (DS9: "Profit and Lace") \
- Lappa IV -Lappa IV is the fourth planet in the Lappa system, inhabited by the Ferengi. It is the native world of the flower Zan Periculi. (TNG: "Ménage à Troi") | <urn:uuid:96809814-1f16-4273-b5f3-2c070d15bd89> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://startrekfreedom.com/wiki/index.php/Ferengi | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.972714 | 6,634 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Mental illness has wide-reaching effects on people’s education, employment, physical health, and relationships. Although many effective mental health interventions are available, people often do not seek out the care they need. In fact, in 2011, only 59.6% of individuals with a mental illness — including such conditions as anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder — reported receiving treatment.
In the second issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Volume 15, Number 2), Patrick W. Corrigan (Illinois Institute of Technology), Benjamin G. Druss (Emory University), and Deborah A. Perlick (Mount Sinai Hospital) discuss the role of stigma in limiting access to care and in discouraging people from pursuing mental health treatment.
From a public standpoint, stereotypes depicting people with mental illness as being dangerous, unpredictable, responsible for their illness, or generally incompetent can lead to active discrimination, such as excluding people with these conditions from employment and social or educational opportunities. In medical settings, negative stereotypes can make providers less likely to focus on the patient rather than the disease, endorse recovery as an outcome of care, or refer patients to needed consultations and follow-up services.
These displays of discrimination can become internalized, leading to the development of self-stigma: People with mental illness may begin to believe the negative thoughts expressed by others and, in turn, think of themselves as unable to recover, undeserving of care, dangerous, or responsible for their illnesses. This can lead them to feel shame, low self-esteem, and inability to accomplish their goals. Self-stigma can also lead to the development of the “why try” effect, whereby people believe that they are unable to recover and live normally so “why try?” To avoid being discriminated against, some people may also try to avoid being labeled as “mentally ill” by denying or hiding their problems and refusing to seek out care.
Structural stigma (i.e., stigma that is part of social and institutional policies and practices) presents additional large-scale barriers to mental care by undermining opportunities for people to seek help. A lack of parity between coverage for mental health and other health care, lack of funding for mental health research, and use of mental health history in legal proceedings, such as custody cases, all present structural reasons that people might not seek treatment.
Studies have shown that knowledge, culture, and social networks can influence the relationship between stigma and access to care. For example, myths about mental illness and its treatment can lead to the development of stigma and discriminatory practices. Cultural factors can influence the types of behaviors that are thought to violate social norms and the degree to which discrimination against people who display nonconformative behavior is accepted. Social networks, including family members, friends, and coworkers, can also have a big impact on people’s decisions to pursue treatment, serving either to enhance feelings of stigma or to encourage care seeking.
Because of the impact of knowledge, culture, and networks on people’s decisions to access care, many public-health and policy initiatives meant to encourage care usage have focused on educating people about mental health to combat harmful stereotypes related to illness and treatment. Addressing cultural barriers to care and including supportive networks in treatment plans can also encourage treatment.
At the structural level, legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, and, most recently, the Affordable Care Act of 2010, have served to protect people with mental illness from discriminatory practices.
In a commentary accompanying this report, former U. S. First Lady Rosalynn Carter, along with Rebecca Palpant Shimkets and Thomas H. Bornemann of the Carter Center Mental Health Program, describe the challenges faced in trying to reduce the stigma of mental illness and increase access to care. The many legislative efforts spearheaded by the Carter Center have helped create or change public law to protect the rights of people with mental illness and ensure parity for mental health services. Although these laws often serve to force structural changes, the hope is that legislative efforts will eventually lead to true changes in attitudes toward mental illness.
Despite the Carter Center’s many successes, more work needs to be done. Integrative research that connects the mental health, public health, education, and primary care fields is necessary. The authors of this report and commentary believe that such integrative efforts can help build a strong network of systems and services that encourage access to care without the fear of discrimination or prejudice.
Leave a comment below and continue the conversation. | <urn:uuid:7892c4d6-df3a-4f54-86ce-ed051cae384f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/mental-illness-stigma.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00150-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95424 | 961 | 3.6875 | 4 |
As winter approaches, there are steps you can take to preserve your health and well-being. Here's a list of things I find useful:
-Eat in season. Root vegetables like beets, turnips, rutabagas and potatoes are in season and make a satisfying dish. Try baked beets with raw garlic, sage and butter. Winter squash are tasty, nutritious and colorful. They make excellent soups and mashes, and can be baked or steamed. My favorite varieties are butternut, kabochas, delicata and gold nugget. They pair well with sage or nutmeg. In some places, hardy greens such as kale and collards are available in winter. Many fruits such as apples, pears and citrus are in season during the winter (or stored from fall).
-Prepare soup stocks. There's nothing like a long-simmered bone broth to drive away the winter chill. They are also rich in minerals and gelatin, which aids digestion and soothes the digestive tract.
-Make sauerkraut or other fermented vegetables. Fermentation was once used as a means to preserve flavor and nutrition for the winter. Fermented vegetables are a powerful digestive aid. After the first frost, cabbage is at its sweetest. Sweet cabbage makes the best kraut.
-Keep your vitamin D level high. This may protect against the typical winter ills, including flu and seasonal depression. Unless you live in a warm climate and spend time outside in the winter regularly, it's wise to seek out vitamin D. High-vitamin cod liver oil, pasture-raised animal fats, shellfish and fatty fish are good sources. Some people may wish to supplement with vitamin D3. | <urn:uuid:93dc238d-6da8-4bc7-b546-5914c9326e12> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/11/winterize-your-diet.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398873.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00104-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948832 | 357 | 2.78125 | 3 |
COUNTY FARM, POOR FARM, POOR HOUSE or ALMSHOUSE, is, in name, a public institution maintained as a shelter for the aged poor. As the terms "poor farm" and "poor house," are undesirable, and the term "county farm" inaccurate, the present tendency in the United States is to include all under the term "almshouse." In Ohio, however, the legal name is county infirmary; in Indiana, county asylum; in Maryland, county home; in California, county hospital.
Several of the early States, particularly in New England, in corporated the theory of institutional relief in their constitutions, and there are now almshouses in every State except New Mexico. Forty States maintain county institutions but Indiana is the only State in which every county must provide a home for its pau pers. In Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont, poor relief is a town function, while in Pennsylvania and New Jersey responsibility for the care of the indigent may devolve upon county, town or township. In most States the county commissioners, trustees or supervisors comprise the almshouse management. In New England control is vested in the town, with a special office of overseer of the poor; in California, Michigan and New York, the superintendent of the poor is an elected officer. The police jury is the controlling body in Louis iana, while in West Virginia, Missouri, Arkansas and Oregon, the county courts have jurisdiction. Some States maintain State departments of public welfare, public welfare commissions, State boards of charity, or similar bodies, but only in Michigan does the State body have actual authority over the local management, the others having merely right of inspection and recommenda tion. There is no central supervising agency in many of the States.
Though in name almshouse means a shelter for the aged poor, the inmates are usually a heterogeneous group of insane, feeble minded, epileptics, blind, deaf-mutes, orphans, deserted children and prostitutes, as well as the aged poor. Those of New England more nearly fulfil the real purpose of an almshouse than those in any other section. Two systems operate in practically every State: (I) direct management by county officers, or poor officers; (2) contract system. Under the first system, which controls 88% of the institutions, a superintendent is employed at a specified salary to manage the almshouse. The farm produce belongs to the institution, and the proceeds of any unused surplus reverts to the local treasury or to the almshouse. Under the contract system, the farm and almshouse are leased to an operator for the care of the poor, while the proceeds of any unused surplus produce revert to the lessee. The latter system is used extensively in the South, but it is specifically prohibited by law in Connecticut, In diana and Utah. Able-bodied inmates are supposed to make themselves useful, but State inspectors and superintendents report that their labour produces less each year.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-A. Johnson, The Almshouse, Construction and Bibliography.-A. Johnson, The Almshouse, Construction and Management (1911) ; Estelle M. Stewart, "The Cost of American Almshouses," U.S. Bur. Labor Statistics, Bid. No. 386 (Washington, 1925) ; Harry C. Evans, The American Poorfarm and Its Inmates (Mooseheart, 1926) . | <urn:uuid:4e4ad1b1-a85b-4423-a233-7b5b9001cea9> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://gluedideas.com/Encyclopedia-Britannica-Volume-6-Part-2-Colebrooke-Damascius/Poor-Farm-County-Farm.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397565.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934795 | 712 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Born in Nuremberg on September
1, 1653, Johann Pachelbel began his musical instruction under Schwemmer
and later the Universities of Altdorf and Ratisbon. In 1671, Pachelbel
moved to Vienna where he became a student and deputy organist to Kerll
at the Imperial Chapel. He studied in Nuremberg, Altdorf and Regensburg
before becoming the organist of St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna,
Austria in 1674. In 1677, he returned to Germany as the court organist
at Eisenach. The following year he moved to Erfurt where he was the
organist at the Predigerkiche, remaining there for twelve years. While
in Erfurt, he taught Johann Christoph Bach, Sebastian Bach’s older
brother. Pachelbel also served in the courts at Stuttgart (1690) and
Gothe (1692), and returned to his hometown in 1695 as organist of St.
Pachelbel wrote both free works (toccatas, fantasies and fugues) and
chorale settings. His development of the cantus firmus chorale
is perhaps his greatest contribution. It consists of the chorale in
long notes, one phrase at a time, each phrase preceded by fore-imitation
in the accompanying voices. This compositional pattern influenced many
other composers and eventually became a standard form. Pachelbel’s
repertory is the stylistic ancestor of J. S. Bach’s, particularly
his technique of chorale variation. Carl Philip Emanuel named Pachelbel
as a composer whose works his father had admired.
Pachelbel died in Nuremberg on March 3, 1706, aged 52. | <urn:uuid:d95529c7-47d8-4fb2-904f-22aa2f0b270f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.abt.org/education/archive/composers/pachelbel_j.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00174-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.9494 | 377 | 2.875 | 3 |
Events which led to the Battle of Ankara between Timur, the Emperor of the Mongols (Tamerlane) and the Ottoman Sultan Bayazed are well documented. Bayazed was protecting some emirs which revolted against Timur. The latter requested their return. After an exchange of insulting letters between Timur and Bayazed, Timur advanced into Asia Minor. He sacked town after town. The commander at the town of Ankara refused to surrender, and Timur set up camp to the northeast of Ankara on the Cubuk Plain. Bayazed had been racing to face Timur, and after a forced march his army neared Ankara. The area where these events took place is shown in Figure 1.
Contemporary chroniclers have described what ensued with some detail. Timur had fortified his position with dikes and ramparts. There is consensus among historians that Timur's forces diverted the water supply of Bayazed's army and that Bayazed lost the Battle of Ankara because of the thirst of his troops. It is worthwhile to mention that at large armies need reliable and abundant water supplies more than anything else. Foot soldiers were involved in hand to hand combat and cavalry needed water for the horsemen and the horses during the battle, which lasted a whole day in the hot days of July. Cental Anatolia is an arid country, and water was the lifeline of the old armies as the petrol is for modern armies.
Cubukcay is the main water course that flows on the Cubuk Plain. Hammer, who is one of the best sources about the Ottoman history, states that it was Cubukcay that Timur diverted. This assumes that Timur's army was upstream of the Ottoman Army. The question is how and where the water was diverted. Water will continue to flow unless it is stored somewhere. The base flow of Cubuk Creek is only a few hundreds liters per second. To store this flow for one day one needs a storage less than 50,000 cubic meters. If the depth of storage is one meter the area of such a reservoir would be 50,000 square meters, about one twentieth of a square kilometer. Thus the storage requirement for one day een for a couple of days is not very large.There are two basic methods of storing the water of a water course. Usually a dam is built in a narrow reach of the valley immediately downstream of a good reservoir site. Another method, less common, is to store water in a tributary with a good reservoir site and divert the flow of the main water course with a diversion dam and a canal. Such reservoirs are called off-stream reservoirs. It happens that there is a tributary on the Cubuk valley which is eminently suitable for such a scheme (It was considered as an alternative during the water supply investigations of the City of Ankara in early sixties). This tributary is immediately downstream of the Town of Cubuk on the west bank of the Cubuk Creek. The reservoir area is very flat and a low dike, a few hundred meters long, could easily store the daily flow volume of the Cubuk Creek. It is the only site in the Cubuk Valley where large amounts of water can be stored with minimum amount of earthwork. Timur and his engineers should have immediately seen this opportunity to divert the flow of Cubuk Creek the day of the battle (Figure 1). This map also shows the location of structures to carry out the plan of Timur.
The climate of Central Anatolia (Asia Minor) is
semi-arid. Annual precipitation in Ankara is about 350 mm (eight
inches). Daytime temperatures in Ankara during the month of July reach
35 centigrade (95 degrees Fahrenheit) In summer relative humidity is
very low, and this increases water loss by perspiration. Shallow wells
yield just enough water only for domestic use. Such conditions put a high
price on water for armies, especially when tens of thousands men
and horses need water. Armies have to move along the water courses to
satisfy the thirst of their soldiers and horses (and their elephants
in this case). No battle could take place without an abundant supply of water nearby.
Waiting for the impetuous Bayazed, Timur and
his engineers should have discovered the ideal off-stream reservoir site on the west
of the Cubuk Plain. A diversion dam was probably built on Cubuk Creek, upstream of the tributary
which flowed trough the reservoir. Another low dam was built to close
the off-stream reservoir site. A canal was dug from the diversion dam
upstream which would carry water to the off stream reservoir. Such
engineering works were made possibly by the availability of thousands of
men. In addition Timur had, according to the historians, 32 trained
elephants. Historians (see references) state that Timur fortified his
position with dikes and palisades before the battle. These were in
reality a canal and two low earth dams (one on the Cubuk creek and one
on a tributary water course).When Bayazed arrived, he and his commanders
probably saw the Cubuk Creek flowing. But as soon as the battle started
the gap in the diversion dam was closed. Water was diverted to the canal
and ultimately to the off-stream reservoir.
Timur is waiting for Bayazed. Timur has partially built a diversion dam
upstream with a breach to let the creek continue flowing downstream.
Another low dam is built on a western tributary downstream which has a
large storage capacity . A canal starting from the diversion dam toward
this low dam is constructed to divert water during the second phase.
When Bayazed arrives he sees the Cubuk Creek flowing.
The Cubuk creek downstream was now dry and there was no other
source of water for the Ottoman Army. The battle lasted one full day, in
the heat of July and the Ottoman Army was exhausted and thirsty. The
opening at the middle of the diversion dam is closed. Water starts to
flow into the canal filling slowly the the reservoir side downstream.
Cubuk Creek ceases to flow starting upstream. Ottoman and Mongol Armies
are engaged in combat.
Cubuk Creek is completely dry downstream. Through the day long battle in the heat, Bayazed's well trained army is without water, one of the reasons given by historians for Bayazed having lost the Battle of Ankara.
The remnants of the canal that Timur's army dug and the earth dike should be still there on the right bank of the Cubuk Creek flowing at the foot of Cataltepe in the Town of Cubuk. Because of the extensive urban development taking place in this area it is not easy to identify these features. Early satellite imagery can be useful to identify the remnants of the diversion canal and the earth dike constructed to store water. It is quite probable that the canal was later used to feed the watermills and to irrigate land downstream. Older people in the area probably have seen these before they were buried under the roads and the buildings.
Nowadays two dams built on the Cubuk Creek supply water which Timur wanted to deny to to the Ottoman army to the City of Ankara. The Ottomans never forgot their defeat. The word Mongol, associated with Timur and his army, was never uttered at the Ottoman court again. Did Atatürk, in 1919, have the defeat at Ankara in mind when he chose to make Ankara the capital of the young Turkish Republic to assert once more the resilience of the Turkish Nation?
Hammer, Joseph von: Geschickte des Osmanischen Reich (Pest, 1827-35, 10 vols. French translation by J.J. Hellert Tome I, Livre VI and Tome 2, Livre VII.)
Roloff, Gustav. Die Schlacht bei Angora (1402). Historische Zeitschrift 161, (1940) pages 244-262.
Gibbon, Edward: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 3 Chapter LXV. The Modern Library, New York.
Alexandrescu-Dersca, Marie Matilde: La Campagne de Timur en Anatolie, 1402. Publisher: London : Variorum Reprints, 1977.
Dincer, Turgut: Did the Diversion of a Small Water Course Change the Course of History? EOS,Vol.83, Number 31, 30 July 2002.
I sincerely express my thanks to Frank Smitha for his help to create this page
Top of the Page | <urn:uuid:23a52826-4957-49f1-a01e-4cdf97eac9c8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://my.core.com/~turgut/Ankara.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395560.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00091-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954457 | 1,772 | 3.671875 | 4 |
We love our digital gadgets -- "magic" devices that define cool and promise to remake our lives for the better. But there is growing evidence of a dark side to the techno-magic. Your cellphone, and any other wireless device that depends on electromagnetic (EM) microwave radiation to function, may be hazardous to your health.
Most of the bad news comes from major labs and research institutions in Europe. What they're reporting is that using cellphones and Wi-Fi transmitters -- which operate using similar frequencies -- can have biological effects on the brain and body.
The scientific debate remains heated and far from resolved, as the Health section in The Times reported last week. But the research to date suggests a number of chilling possibilities as to what EM radiation may be doing to us.
For example, in 2008, neuroscientists at Swinburne University of Technology in Australia strapped Nokia phones to subjects' heads, then turned the phones on and off. On -- the brain's alpha waves spiked. Off -- the brain settled. The researchers speculated that the effect was the result of the brain "concentrating to overcome the electrical interference in brain circuits caused by the pulsed microwave radiation."
Swedish neuro-oncologist Leif Salford, chairman of the department of neurosurgery at Lund University, has found that cellphone radiation kills brain cells in rats, especially those cells associated with memory and learning. The damage occurred after an exposure of just two hours. In duplicating earlier research, Salford also found that cellphone microwaves produce holes in the barrier between the circulatory system and the brain in rats. One potential outcome, according to Salford, is dementia.
Meanwhile, Austrian researchers reported in 2004 that cellphone radiation can induce double-strand breaks in DNA, one of the undisputed causes of cancer.
So why isn't this a bigger issue in the U.S.? Partly because there are countervailing studies and other scientists telling us not to be worried, that the risks are low or that we just don't know enough to say that the risks are real.
Consider the biggest study being done on the question of whether cellphones cause cancers of the brain, mouth and ear -- the 13-country Interphone study conducted under the auspices of the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France. The study's epidemiologists have looked at cancer patients and worked backward to establish cellphone habits.
The study, alas, has been fraught with controversy. The multinational researchers -- U.S. scientists conspicuously not among them -- have fallen into warring camps, and the full study has not been released.
However, pieces of the study have been made public. One Interphone study, for example, found that after a decade of cellphone use, the chance of getting a brain tumor goes up as much as 40% for adults. Another Interphone study reported a nearly 300% increased risk of acoustic neuroma, a tumor of the acoustic nerve. But still other Interphone researchers say their data show no increase in brain tumors -- or any tumor -- caused by cellphone use.
The cellphone industry lobby, CTIA -- the Wireless Assn., recently said in a statement that "peer-reviewed scientific evidence has overwhelmingly indicated that wireless devices do not pose a public health risk." Meanwhile, watchdog groups keep it vague. "The available science," says the Food and Drug Administration, "does not allow us to conclude that mobile phones are absolutely safe, or that they are unsafe."
So whom to believe, and what to do?
First, consider research done by Henry Lai, a biologist at the University of Washington: Only 25% of studies funded by the wireless industry show some type of biological effect from microwave radiation. Independently funded studies, however, are far more damning: 75% of those studies -- free of industry influence -- show a bioeffect. Some 30% of funding for the Interphone research was provided by industry, which critics say has resulted in a favorable skewing of some Interphone data.
Obviously, we need to demand more independent research into microwave radiation. In the meantime, we should also treat cellphones and other wireless gadgets with less adoration and more suspicion, and as individuals we may want to follow the lead of many nations and regulate the way we use them for ourselves.
For example, Belgium, France, Finland, Germany, Russia and Israel have publicly discouraged use of cellphones by children. (Independent research in Sweden last year concluded there was an astonishing 420% increased chance of getting brain cancer for cellphone users who were teenagers or younger when they first started using their phones.) France has gone so far as to issue a generalized national cellphone health warning, banned cellphones in elementary schools and considered outlawing marketing the phones to children.
The personal equivalent? For starters, don't get rid of your land line. Buy a hands-free device; keep your cellphone away from your head, face and neck. Don't carry it in your pocket for hours on end(there's some evidence cellphones aren't good for your sperm count).
Salford, the neuro-oncologist, has called the unregulated use of cellphones by 4.5 billion people worldwide "the largest human biological experiment ever." It's only common sense to do what you can to take yourself out of the guinea pig pool.
Christopher Ketcham is the author of "Warning: Your Cell Phone May Be Hazardous to Your Health" in February's GQ. | <urn:uuid:68a6f02c-c274-49ef-8cd6-76b2c7167249> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/23/opinion/la-oe-ketcham23-2010feb23 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393093.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00149-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950794 | 1,118 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The smallest container capable of protecting an egg from breaking is... an egg! So long as the drop isn’t vertical, is over 40 ft and is onto a reasonably forgiving surface, like grass, an egg will protect its own fall. At a lower height, 3-4 feet, it will almost always break.
This was the subject of much discussion in New Scientist letter pages some years ago (11 August 1960!), I think the best replies were re-published as an article because it was the most answered letter ever.
Fans of physics explained the phenomenon by studying the structural qualities of an egg.
The aerodynamics of an egg causes it to fall largest end first, in a similar way to early space re-entry capsules. If the egg isn’t dropped from high enough the egg is more likely to fall on a weaker side.
The largest end has an area of gas
trapped between the egg’s two membranes. This causes the hole in the white of your hard boiled egg; it also makes peeling one easier. Upon impact the heavier spherical yolk continues moving towards the ground. The compression of the airspace acts like an air bag for the eggs’ valuable contents. It also adds additional structural support
in the form of pressure to the already incredibly strong curved eggshell.
Eggs with no yolk invariably break. This is not only because the air compression wouldn’t happen properly but also because the elasticity of the chalazae
which hold the yoke in place probably has some form of dampening effect on the fall.
Evolutionary theorists couldn’t help adding an explanation as well. Apparently early birds didn’t make nests. They simply laid eggs mid-flight*. The eggs which survived the fall continued to add their genetic information to their species. This theory is supported by the relatively oval shape of land based dinosaurs. In this way the existence of sophisticated physical mechanisms within a common hen egg, which certainly don’t need drop protection, are explained.
So next time you are competing against some eager MIT professors to find the best way to protect an egg from a fall, trust evolution and physics to help you win the grand prize!
*It has been pointed out by rootbeer277
that this is very unlikely. Most birds can’t even excrete in flight.
rootbeer277 also challenged me to conduct the experiment myself. I took three eggs outside and confidently lobbed
them over a tree.
The first one hit the tree and didn’t fall out. Unperturbed
I lobbed the second egg. The street lights provided beautiful illumination
for the resulting spray of yolk off the damp lawn.
Remembering all my javelin
training from school I hurled the last egg with all my might.
now lies inedible
on the floor outside. I’m suing New Scientist for making me hungry.
About once every three months I get a whole lode of "Hey, sweet! Someone likes your write-up titled "Egg Drop!"" which is great because I have to assume that there is a class somewhere that has found these write-ups useful. However it would be great, particularly if you were brave enough to try my unprotected egg drop, if you would send me a private msg with your results. All you have to do is sign up to everything2 and use the box above my write-up to contact me. Thank you! | <urn:uuid:95a0dae9-cc8d-49ed-a30c-c0469c387577> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://everything2.com/title/Egg+Drop | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00080-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954561 | 714 | 3.359375 | 3 |
You don't have to be an adult to be an entrepreneur. In fact, you don't even have to be a high school graduate.
According to TeenBusiness.com, teenagers around the world are starting and running successful and inspiring businesses. The media has covered young people running high-tech and Web startups like Australian teen Nick D'Aloisio, who sold his news summary app, Summly, to Yahoo for $30 million last year. However, many young adults are changing what it means to be a teen entrepreneur by starting low-tech, green and science-based enterprises with goals that go beyond making money – they want to change lives, too.
"There are so many inspiring stories and teens exploring their hobbies and talents and turning them into businesses. It's exciting to discover and share their experiences and motivate others," said Nkem Modu, a curator for TeenBusiness.com.
In the United States, Carter Kostler, a 15-year-old from Virginia, started his business in an effort to fight the youth obesity epidemic. Kostler founded the Define Bottle, a sustainable and reusable fruit-infused water bottle, meant to help people cut down on consumption of sugary drinks. [5 Jobs for Health and Fitness Lovers ]
An Arizona teen, Bella Weems, started a jewelry business with only $350. Her business, Origami Owl, is now a multimillion-dollar company that, according to its website, employs more than 60,000 independent designers.
Many of these teens have gone above and beyond just creating successful businesses. They are helping the world at large, contributing to the health industry, saving the environment, and helping those who are less fortunate.
Nicole Ticea, a 15-year-old from Vancouver, Canada, devised an early-stage test that analyzes a pinprick of blood and can tell if a person has recently been infected with HIV.
In Uganda, 16-year-old Andrew Mupuy started Youth Entrepreneurial Link Investments, an eco-friendly paper bag manufacturing business, to help combat the environmental hazards of using plastic bags. Avani Singh, a 17-year-old from New Dehli, India, founded a program called Ummeed, which gives impoverished women a chance to support their families by training them to become drivers of electric-powered rickshaw taxis.
To read more inspiring stories about teen entrepreneurs, head to TeenBusiness.com. | <urn:uuid:10fa9197-8ca5-4dbb-a5c1-757e1885b2f1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6690-teen-business-entrepreneurs.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00059-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960827 | 505 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Researchers found that children with higher levels of two types of vitamin D do not appear to fare better in school.
Increased levels of vitamin D 25(OH)D3 were not associated with any academic outcomes at ages 13 to 14 or 15 to 16, according to Debbie Lawlor, MBChB, PhD, of the University of Bristol in England, and colleagues.
And higher levels of vitamin D 25(OH)D2 unexpectedly were associated with worse academic performance at both ages, although that could have been a chance finding, the researchers reported online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
"The increasing number of association studies suggesting that low levels of vitamin D are related to a wide range of health outcomes, including cognitive function, have resulted in calls for changes to public health guidance regarding extreme protection against UV exposure," they wrote.
"However," they continued, "our results suggest that protection of children from UVB exposure, which has been associated with low levels of vitamin D, but which protects against skin damage and skin cancer, is unlikely to have any detrimental effect on academic achievement."
Most studies in adults have identified a positive relationship between serum levels of vitamin D 25(OH)D and cognitive function, whereas two studies in children have not supported such an association.
There remains some question about whether the different forms of vitamin D 25(OH)D are interchangeable when doing studies such as these.
To explore the issue, Lawlor and colleagues turned to the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). The current analysis included 3,171 children who had measures of vitamin D 25(OH)D3and 25(OH)D2 taken at an average age of 9.8.
Academic performance at age 13 to 14 was based on total scores in English, math, and science. At age 15 to 16, the assessment was based on performance on General Certificates of Education exams in a range of subjects.
Consistent with the two previous studies in children, which used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), vitamin D serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations were not associated with any academic outcomes.
"It is possible that the positive association of 25(OH)D with cognitive function seen in adults does not emerge until later in life or that the results from previous cross-sectional adult studies are due to reverse causality," the authors wrote.
Higher serum 25(OH)D2 concentrations were associated with worse performance in English at age 13 to 14, as well as a lower likelihood of achieving at least 5 A to C grades at age 15 to 16 (OR 0.91, 95% CI 0.82 to 1.00).
Those findings were unexpected and should be validated in future studies, according to the researchers.
"This association was consistent with the associations of indicators of lower socioeconomic position (e.g., eligibility for free school meals, lower parental education, and socioeconomic position) with lower educational attainment and higher 25(OH)D2 concentrations," they wrote. "It is therefore possible that it represents residual confounding."
The authors acknowledged that the study was limited by the uncertain generalizability to populations with different dietary intakes or UVB exposures, the use of academic performance rather than standardized tests of cognitive function, and the use of single measurements of 25(OH)D levels.
Thank you to Todd Neale, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today for the information provided in this article. | <urn:uuid:a27678ec-f649-45ad-82dc-db0b366f166b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.howtolearn.com/2012/04/study-finds-no-academic-boost-from-higher-vitamin-d-levels | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396100.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00037-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960328 | 709 | 3.1875 | 3 |
|Differences in Concrete Systems|
Concrete that is cast in place, on site, is called in situ concrete.
|Advantages to in situ concrete:
1) Adapts to any building shape.
2) It can be assumed to be more or less monolithic, since joints only occur as a result of different pourings to the same structure.
3) It is easily used for two way structural systems.
4) It is adaptable to post tensioning.
5) No cranes are needed.
|Disadvantages of in situ concrete:
1) Erection of formwork is time consuming
2) Concrete must cure before it is loaded
3) Quality control of finish surfaces is not assured
4) Climate can create problems for curing, and for construction itself
5) Workmanship is variable
|Advantages of precast concrete:
1) Rapid construction on site
2) High quality because of the controlled conditions in the factory
3) Prestressing is easily done which can reduce the size and number of the structural members.
|Disadvantages of precast concrete:
1) Because panel size is limited, precast concrete can not be used for two-way structural systems.
2) Economics of scale demand regularly shaped buildings (an example of this is Burnside Hall).
3) Need for repetition of forms will affect building design.
4) Joints between panels are often expensive and complicated.
5) Skilled workmanship is required in the application of the panel on site.
6) Cranes are required to lift panels.
|Precast Concrete Construction|
|Popular uses of precast concrete;
1) Concrete curtain walls
2) As an exterior cladding (may include exposed aggregate)
3) For structural walls
4) Ability to precast in three dimensions allows precast panels to form parts of mechanical systems.
Structural elements made of precast concrete are generally prestressed slabs.
Cored slab (under 30 ft. span)1) 2’ to 4’ wide
|Structural use of precast concrete:
Tee slabs (over 30 ft. span): Tee slabs are named for their section, single and double tee slabs are common based on the load and span requirements.
1) Depth = span/24
Factors in using industrialized formwork:
a. Monolithic buildings
a. Curing time | <urn:uuid:2c5b2b67-ce79-44b8-9545-e4baad4cbe50> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/friedman/arch240/winter1998/lecture9/lecture9.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396959.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00190-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.873483 | 512 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Abstinence programs rather than safe-sex programs reduce teenage pregnancy.
Over the past several decades, rampant teenage sexual activity has caused a major national problem: an increasing incidence of sexually transmitted diseases, emotional and psychological injuries, and high rates of out-of-wedlock childbearing among America's youth. Abstinence education programs, endorsed by President Bush and many in Congress, have long been advocated as effective in reducing sexual activity and out-of-wedlock childbearing rates among teens, as well as providing an important foundation for personal responsibility and enduring marital commitment.
A new study analyzing the birth and pregnancy rates of single teens, released in April 2003 by the Adolescent and Family Health journal, bolsters support for the advocacy of abstinence for America's youth. According to this study, increased abstinence is the major cause of the declining birth and pregnancy rates among single teenage girls. Most striking among these findings is that among unmarried teenage girls ages 15 to 19 increased abstinence accounted for 67 percent of the decrease in the pregnancy rate. Similarly, a 51 percent drop in the birth rate for single teenage girls ages 15 to 19 is attributed to abstinence.
These findings are significant because they refute the previous--and widely accepted--claims that the decrease in birth and pregnancy rates is due primarily to the increased use and effectiveness of contraception, such as condoms. According to the Adolescent and Family Health study--the most extensive study done to date on the birth and pregnancy rates of single and married teens 15 to 19 years old--67 percent of the decline in pregnancy among single teenage girls is due to a reduction in the proportion of sexually active girls, not to the increased use of contraception.
Read the entire report on The Heritage Foundation website. | <urn:uuid:fba091db-5910-4b0e-8e54-0fbe346b3ffb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/ParduePregnancyDrop.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00141-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.944273 | 348 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Palgrave, Sir Francis (pălˈgrāv, pôlˈ–) [key], 1788–1861, English historian. His antiquarian interests led him to edit with scrupulous accuracy and to publish a number of historical records, such as the Rotuli Curiae Regis (1835), and to stress their importance as materials for historical writing. He was knighted in 1832, and he was from 1838 the official head of the Public Record Office. He wrote in the medieval field, emphasizing legal history and the continuity of the Roman tradition in English development. One of his best works was his History of Normandy and England (4 vol., 1851–64). R. H. I. Palgrave edited his father's Collected Historical Works (10 vol., 1919–22).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. | <urn:uuid:4923135a-139e-4d3e-8dc4-247ff06fb4ce> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/people/palgrave-sir-francis.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00094-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953863 | 189 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Most people don’t know, but there are many unhealthy cooking methods that you should avoid, in order to protect your health. In case you have no idea what are those methods, you should have a look at this article, in order to find the desired information.
Using frequently the microwave oven can be dangerous
There are some voices who say that a microwave oven is not dangerous due to the fact that the radiation that a device like that emits is the same that is produced by our computers and cellphones. On the other hand, other voices say that it can affect our health very much if we regularly cook and heat up the food using this type of appliance. They say that it can increase to develop at some point any type of cancer. Furthermore, it has been scientifically demonstrated that the food loses most of its nutrients. This is a serious problem, and if we can’t live without an appliance like that, at least, we should use it only when it is necessary.
Cooking using too much oil will affect our health
Some people use too much oil when they cook, which is very dangerous to their health. This is without a doubt a very unhealthy cooking method that you should certainly avoid. If you don’t do that, there are lots of chances that you develop at some point any type of heart disease, due to the increased level of cholesterol. Furthermore, it can make you insulin resistant, and raise the cancer risk as well. You can also put a lot of weight on, and this will certainly affect your life style in many ways. Therefore, in order to avoid this sort of situations, it is better that you stop using too much oil when cooking. It is highly-recommended that you stop using it, or at least, stop using it in a large amount.
Deep frying should be avoided as much as possible
It is true that with this cooking method, the food tastes absolutely delicious, but we should have in mind that it is not healthy at all. Therefore, deep frying should be avoided at all times, especially those who already have problems with their weight or any type of cardiovascular disease.
Unwashing the vegetables before cooking can lead to health problems
Vegetables usually have pesticides left on them, and this can affect our health. Unfortunately, many people forget this step, and they find out later that they suffer from indigestion or any other digestive problems. Unwashing the vegetables before cooking can definitely cause serious digestive problems. It is important that you wash them very good before using them for cooking. | <urn:uuid:672fc2a1-d5ba-4c8a-a139-2eb2f70ab02d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.healthyharlem.org/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00175-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969435 | 519 | 2.671875 | 3 |
St George's Cross, 4th Class, awarded to 2nd Lt. John Mitchell 1919Image["St George's Cross, 4th Class, 1919"]
Obverse, a monogram in the centre with inscriptions quartered on the arms of the crossImage["St George's Cross 4th Class, 1919"]
Reverse, St George on horseback trampling the dragon
St George's Cross, 4th Class, 1919
The Order of St George was founded by Catherine II (the Great), Empress of Russia, in 1769 for officers in the Army and Navy, and was restored by Alexander I in 1801. It was originally conferred to officers of the rank of Colonel or above for taking a fortress, capturing a vessel, a standard or an enemy officer of high rank.
During the collapse of Tsarist Russia in the Revolution of 1917, a Provisional Government was briefly formed to represent the interests of government against the Bolshevik factions of the new order, and then various regional governments were formed in their wake, but what came to be classed as White Russian (as opposed to Red) resistance was eventually (by the end of 1918) crystallised around the Siberian Regional Government led by the Vice-Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak.
Despite the death of not only Tsar Nicholas II in 1917 but Grand Duke Michael his notional successor in 1918, effectively ending the Romanov royal line in whose name they were given, Kolchak's government maintained the issue of royal decorations and orders until the final collapse of the White Russian resistance in 1921, by which time Kolchak, perhaps their most capable military leader, had been made to resign. These awards were made not just to Russian servicemen, but to the soldiers, sailors and airman of British and French forces sent to assist in the fight against Bolshevism.
This Cross is not named, but we know from its provenance and supporting documentation that it was such an award, to 2nd Lieutenant John Mitchell, of the Royal Air Force contingent that served in South Russia in support of British forces embroiled in the unsuccessful defence of White Russia, with whose other medals Lester Watson acquired it. A list of awards from the British Military Mission from 20th August 1919 explains the circumstances in which this cross was earned:
"During the fighting near Cherny Yar on the 33-24 July (5-6 August) flying low above despite heavy gun fire they [Mitchell and others to whom awards were made] performed reconnaissances and dropped bombs on enemy troops and vessels, thus assisting our troops to occupy new positions when their right wing was outflanked by cavalry."
Subsequent letters written in support of Mitchell's claim to the VC for
an earlier exploit (for which in the end he was awarded the
DFC instead) reveal that Mitchell was hospitalised with the wounds he received during this action; it was probably also for it that he was awarded his
Although the catalogue of the Watson Collection considers Mitchell's awards as its Group 7, the medals of that group are not physically attached and so have been treated separately here. Nonetheless it was as a group that Lester Watson purchased them, from the London dealers Baldwin in 1928. | <urn:uuid:f30e3ac1-30eb-49c7-9988-2e9436f6c21b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/dept/coins/collection/watson/page399.html?sf_function=textonly | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00192-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.984218 | 651 | 3.046875 | 3 |
10 Ways The Private Sector Owned The Government
It might not be entirely surprising that government can be incompetent at times, but at least they have rules set in place that force them to help people. Corporations, on the other hand, are only in it for themselves. They don’t have the time of day to stop and help anyone out. Except sometimes corporations completely beat out the government, and they do it in important areas, like:
Don’t get us wrong, the Mars rover was pretty cool, but interest just seemed to fizzle out. And there was nearly outrage at the project’s $800 million price tag. Then, in October of last year, Red Bull and Felix Baumgartner blew open the doors to scientific research for space pioneers–and then they jumped out of them.
Baumgartner’s life support suit had been used for reconnaissance pilots but never in a free fall, so there was plenty of danger. The goal was simple: show how astronauts could live during mechanical failures upon reentry. Baumgartner sat in a pressurized capsule on a balloon that carried him miles into the sky, and when he reached the edge of the atmosphere (120,000 feet), he jumped.
Baumgartner broke the speed of sound and traveled at a maximum velocity of 833 miles per hour and landed safely. Rumor has it that the jump cost about 50 million dollars, which is 770 million less than NASA’s project.
Back in the early 1800’s, Henry Ford revolutionized not only both the car industry and the working industry. Ford created the eight-hour work day and good wages. He created tens of thousands of jobs and opened the job lines to minorities and the disabled. By 1916, Ford’s was the largest company, government or private sector, that employed minorities. Over 62 nationalities and over 900 disabled found good working wages within the industrial walls of this powerhouse car manufacturer.
Private schools have a graduation rate of 90 percent, whereas public schools average about 62 percent. Public schools are under a great deal of regulation, which is the whole reason of having them run by the state. They must conform to a whole slew of regulations. What most people don’t realize is that private schools do too.
7Preventing Crop Damage
Physiologist Larry Schrader found a common theme amongst crop failures: sunburn. The creation of Raynox was born, a protectant that was safe and would protect farmers’ crops from the sun’s harmful rays. The protectant sold in the millions to farmers and companies who had demanded a solution from the government. What’s more, Schrader then sold his company he donated 29 percent of the stock to the Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program.
6Providing Shelter For The Homeless
Did you know that it’s illegal to be homeless in many states? The homeless can be ticketed or even placed in jail for not having a place to stay. Places like the Chapman Partnership are a rare gem. They are a private sector that has successfully placed 63 percent of homeless people in jobs, gave them homes, and delivered health care solutions.
5Helping Out Small Businesses
American Express boosted the appeal of shopping small businesses to the general public. In 2010, they invested in Facebook advertising to expand the campaign to start bringing attention into these businesses. Small business owners across cyberspace have used the branding of AMEX and small business Saturday to bring interest back in local shopping and away from retail giants like Wal-Mart.
4Saving Baseball and American Morale
While many claim WWII brought the people of America through the Great Depression, it was Babe Ruth who brought them happiness–something the government’s war could not do. In addition, the Babe’s talent saved the sport of baseball when everyone was predicting its doom. As everyone knows, that sport that now plays its players several million dollars a year. If Ruth had never played, baseball might not be this country’s favorite pastime.
3Providing Disaster Relief
Chip Brian of Design Development Corporation was distraught when he heard that a favorite childhood teacher of his was homeless. The teacher and his wife could not find housing and were left on the long list of FEMA’s trailers. Brian stepped in with the financial backing from his own company and rebuilt the teacher’s house. He then encouraged others to help victims of the disaster in any way they could.
2Investing in Green Technology
Private companies have donated over $257 billion towards the advancement of green technology, especially renewable energy. That’s is double what the government has decided to budget. Renewable energy has been pushed by scientists for decades. It allows for fewer warming emissions, improved air quality, stable energy prices, and less health issues from environmental hazards.
1Helping Veterans Get Jobs
It’s surprising how little interest the government displays in employing soldiers after leaving the military. Futures Incorporated and Cisco Systems traveled to a military base to hold interviews with soldiers and their relatives. Over 150 jobs were reviewed, and many soldiers walked away with not one job offer, but two.
Long time entrepreneur, business owner and writer. Creative words have a way of drawing the best responses from your audience. | <urn:uuid:c110f9ab-92b6-4d89-9372-8c4c98c85762> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://listverse.com/2013/06/20/10-ways-the-private-sector-owned-the-government/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00099-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966958 | 1,088 | 2.578125 | 3 |
"As a student teacher, I was fortunate to work with a cooperating teacher who said, “I want someone to love the kids as much as I do.” I was inspired by that and worked at lesson planning to show my “love.” In retrospect, it was a love for teaching writing and Shakespeare, and it was this kind of love that kept me going for a few years. However, what I loved changed when I began working with inspiring, bright, and often selfless teens; I loved the “good” kids. Now in my 16th year of teaching, I realize love isn’t a feeling; it’s an act of the will, a conscious choice I make no matter what students do. AP Amy may challenge my grading or Sophomore Sam may say, “This is stupid” every day, but I love them. In loving my challenging students, I have found the sweetest successes."
--Tracy Fisher Bouslog, Parkway South High School, Manchester, Missouri
10 years teaching
Related NCTE Resources...
Unlocking Shakespeare's Language: Help for the Teacher and Student With the activities in this book by Randal Robinson, your students can come to understand the language of Shakespeare by learning to recognize and translate troublesome words and syntactic patterns. The activities involve rearranging words in lines of Shakespeare to a more familiar subject-verb-object, or complement, sequence; rearranging lines to reproduce Shakespearean rhymes and iambic pentameter; imitating Shakespeare using modern sentences; and other detailed work with words.
Performance Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare How can high school and college teachers help their students get the most out of studying Shakespeare? In Performance Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare, Edward L. Rocklin offers teachers a wide array of concepts and practices to explore with their students specific performances as well as the performance potentials of a Shakespeare text. Examining drama as both text and performance opens up a range of actions that inexperienced readers can miss when they are limited to reading words on the page. The importance of analyzing and interpreting Shakespeare’s works becomes clear when students are encouraged to use their critical thinking skills to imagine and perform these texts.
"Selling Shakespeare" In this September 2002 English Journal article, Michael Milburn considers how the successful teaching of Shakespeare represents the ultimate challenge for many English teachers, one that measures their ability to enlighten and inspire.
"Why I Teach, Promote, and Love Adolescent Literature: Confessions of a College Professor." Jim Cope argues that the number one goal in teaching literature should be to create lifelong reflective readers, and that the job of a novel at its highest level is to illuminate the human condition. This article appeared in the April 1998 issue of Voices from the Middle.
"Teacher to Teacher" This September 2002 English Journal column shares six teachers' comments on how, why and which of Shakespeare's sonnets they teach.
ReadWriteThink Lesson Plans | <urn:uuid:84a87ec1-4e9c-4793-afa6-f4f8952a329b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.ncte.org/centennial/teacherstories/tracyfisherbouslog/contenthistory/2008727/678/14/57/873 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00033-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.954743 | 609 | 2.53125 | 3 |
|5327570||Multiprocessor system having local write cache within each data processor node||1994-07-05||Foster et al.||395/425|
|5299161||Method and device for improving performance of a parallel write test of a semiconductor memory device||1994-03-29||Choi||365/201|
|5297148||Flash eeprom system||1994-03-22||Harari et al.||371/10.1|
|5172338||Multi-state EEprom read and write circuits and techniques||1992-12-15||Mehrotra et al.||365/185|
|5134583||Nonvolatile semiconductor memory device having redundant data lines and page mode programming||1992-07-28||Matsuo et al.||365/238.5|
|4894770||Set associative memory||1990-01-16||Ward et al.||395/425|
|4642763||Batch file processing||1987-02-10||Cummins||395/700|
SRAM (static random access memory) write cache means for receiving a burst of data from the controller on the bus, and for storing the received burst of data sequentially and grouped in a plurality of pages,
the internal memory array having a plurality of rows of memory cells for storing data written therein from said SRAM write cache means,
whereby when the internal memory array is being written sequentially from the pages of the SRAM write cache means after all data in the burst of data has been loaded into the SRAM write cache means, the bus is available to carry other data and instructions to permit the controller to perform other processing tasks, and
means for writing the burst of data received by the SRAM write cache means to the memory array of the device in page by page sequence, each page having a size equal to that of the other pages of the SRAM write cache means which allows all of the data contained in a precise integral number of pages of the SRAM write cache means to be stored in a corresponding row of the internal memory array.
serial EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read only memory) having an internal memory array which may be programmed by writing data thereto,
a microcontroller for performing various tasks including sending a burst of data to be written to the internal memory array of the serial EEPROM upon gaining access to the serial EEPROM,
a bus for carrying the burst of data sent by the microcontroller, as well as other data and instructions when the bus is accessible,
an SRAM (static random access memory) write cache for receiving the burst of data carried by said bus and for storing the burst of data in a plurality of pages, so that when data in the burst of data has been loaded completely in the SRAM write cache and said internal memory array is being written with that data from the SRAM write cache, the bus is accessible and the microcontroller is free to perform other tasks, and
means for writing the burst of data received by the SRAM write cache to the internal memory array of the serial EEPROM in page by page sequence, with each page being of equal size to the others and sized so that an integral number of pages of data from the SRAM write cache corresponds to a row of the internal memory array.
the page size of pages in the SRAM write cache is equal to the size of each row of the internal memory array.
loading a burst of data from the microcontroller into an SRAM (static random access memory) write cache for storing bytes of the burst of data sequentially in a plurality of pages of the SRAM write cache,
writing the burst of data loaded into the SRAM write cache to the internal memory array of the EEPROM in page by page sequence, with each page being of equal size to the others and sized so that an integral number of pages of data from the SRAM write cache corresponds to a row of the internal memory array, and
releasing the microcontroller to perform other tasks after the SRAM write cache is loaded and while the burst of data loaded in the SRAM write cache is being written to the internal memory array of the EEPROM sequentially on a page by page basis until the SRAM write cache is depleted.
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) memory chips or other monolithic devices, and more particularly to serial erasable programmable memory devices such as electrically erasable (alterable) programmable read only memories (serial EEPROMs). EEPROM devices generally have the advantage that data may be written and rapidly erased electrically many times over, to permit a user to modify stored data at will while the device is in circuit.
ROM (Read Only Memory) devices are permanently mask-programmed at the factory so that no subsequent data modification is permitted. Originally, programmable ROMs (PROMs) employed fusible links in which data is stored according to the condition of the fuses at intersections of the memory array, i.e., the condition of whether or not a fuse is blown. Such PROM devices are programmable only once (that is, are non-erasable) since a blown metal or polysilicon link fuse is not reparable.
Erasable PROM (EPROM) devices require exposure of the unhoused structure to ultraviolet (UV) light to change the electrical characteristics of a charged element in order to obtain erasure. Typically, the EPROM is housed in a windowed package (e.g., a ceramic package having a quartz window to expose the silicon), although a more recent version dubbed as "one time programmable" (OTP) is packaged in plastic without a window. As the name indicates, the windowless variety can be programmed only once. The usual windowed EPROM is reprogrammable after removal from its in-system circuit, by exposing the device to UV light for a sufficient period of time (several hours) to assure complete erasure, then electrically reprogramming and reinstalling it in the circuit.
Since EEPROM devices are selectively erasable in circuit, they are the memory devices of choice in applications where in-system changes of stored data and/or relatively fast data changes may be required. Serial EEPROMs are nonvolatile memories that provide small footprint and board space as required in cellular phone applications; byte level erase, write and read of data as needed in television tuner applications; low voltage and current for hand held battery applications such as vehicle keyless entry transmitters; and multiple nonvolatile functions such as remote controls for video cassette recorders CVCR. Although the following list is not exhaustive, other applications of serial EEPROM devices include, in the consumer market, compact-disc (CD) players, cameras, radios and remote controls; in the automotive market, airbags, anti-lock brakes, odometers and radios; in the office automation market, printers, copiers and personal computers; in the telecommunications market, cordless and full feature phones, fax machines, modems, pagers and satellite receivers; and in the industrial market, bar code readers, Point of sale (POS) terminals, smart cards, lock boxes, garage door openers and test measurement equipment.
In the EEPROM structure, a pair of polysilicon gates are separated by a silicon dioxide layer. The oxide also extends below the lower gate to separate it from the underlying p-type silicon substrate in which a channel may be established between implanted heavily doped n-type source and drain regions. The oxide thickness between the lower gate and the silicon typically ranges up to about 100 angstroms, which is considerably less than the gate oxide thickness used for EPROM structures.
In operation of an EEPROM, a voltage of suitable magnitude applied across the very thin gate oxide layer induces tunneling of electrons from the substrate to the lower gate. A logical 1 is stored (written) when a write voltage is applied to the upper gate, thus inducing a charge on the lower gate that prevents a channel from forming during a read operation. A reversal of the write voltage causes erasure.
Despite their many advantages over other programmable semiconductor memory devices for certain applications, EEPROMs require programming or erase/write (E/W) times of sufficient length to constitute a serious drawback to their use. During programming, the associated microprocessor or microcontroller, for which the EEPROM is employed to provide additional memory in embedded control system applications, remains tied up and unable to perform other tasks until the programming is completed.
It is a principal object of the present invention to free up the microprocessor or microcontroller associated with an EEPROM device so that other tasks may be performed while the EEPROM is being written.
Briefly, according to the present invention, a serial EEPROM device is provided with an SRAM (static random access memory) page mode write cache which will allow the EEPROM to receive a serial data stream in a burst of byte length that depends on the capacity (size) of the cache, up to 64 bytes in the embodiment described herein, at SRAM speeds. This improvement eliminates an architectural concern with the EEPROM interface, providing the advantage of reducing the time required for the system controller to interface to the EEPROM.
The cache can be loaded with a 64 byte burst of data, as one example, and the associated data bus and microcontroller released while the data is written sequentially from the cache. The write cache holds the data grouped in a plurality of pages until written to the array. This differs from a conventional page mode write which is a common feature employed in EEPROMs to reduce programming time. In the standard page mode write, the EEPROM can receive several data bytes, store them in special latches, and then write all the stored data to the memory array in a single write cycle. Although that implementation serves to reduce total programming time, it has limited usefulness as a burst mode data buffer because a page is generally mapped to a physical row in the memory array (i.e., one page equals one row). Therefore, the maximum data buffer size is determined and limited by the number of bytes in one row of the memory array.
In contrast, use of SRAM write cache as a data buffer in combination with page mode write maintains the programming time advantage over byte writes, while the burst mode data buffer size becomes a function of the amount of SRAM added to the EEPROM, rather than the page (row) size. The increased data buffer size allows the microcontroller, for example, to send a large amount of data to the EEPROM in a burst mode and then to devote itself to performing other tasks or activities while the programming is underway.
As data is received by the EEPROM during the load cycle, it is stored in the SRAM write cache. At the end of the data burst, the EEPROM enters a programming cycle and writes the data contained in the SRAM write cache to the internal memory array using sequential page mode writes. The time required to execute a programming cycle is equal to the amount of data stored in the SRAM write cache divided by the page size multiplied by the time to complete a page write.
Therefore, a more specific object of the invention is to reduce the time a microcontroller must spend to load data into an EEPROM, by using an SRAM write cache as a data buffer in combination with page mode write, for receipt and storage of serial data in a burst by the SRAM cache until the burst ends, at which point the bus carrying the data burst from the microcontroller becomes accessible and the microcontroller is free to perform other tasks throughout the writing of the data from the cache to the memory array of the EEPROM.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become clear from the following detailed description of the best mode presently contemplated for practicing the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a serial EEPROM in which the preferred embodiment of the invention is implemented;
FIGS. 2A and 2B are timing diagrams for the data transmission bus of the device of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a data transfer sequence diagram for the EEPROM's serial bus;
FIG. 4 is a chart illustrating the control byte allocation used for device addressing and operation;
FIG. 5 is a bit stream diagram illustrating byte write operation;
FIG. 6 is a bit stream diagram illustrating page write operation;
FIG. 7 is a simplified block diagram of the page mode write cache of the EEPROM device of FIG. 1, according to the invention; and
FIG. 8 is a timing diagram of the operation of the page mode write cache of FIG. 7.
In an exemplary embodiment, the invention is implemented in a 64K (8K×8) low voltage serial EEPROM 10 (FIG. 1) which is particularly well suited for low power applications of the type mentioned above.
EEPROM 10 has pins A0, . . . , An, such as A0, A1 and A2 user configurable chip or address selects, and pins SDA (serial data/address) and SCL (serial clock). The A0, A1 and A2 chip address inputs are used for multiple device operation and may conform to the I2 C (Inter Integrated Circuit) bus standard. The level on these pins defines the address block occupied by the device in an address map, so that the address may be compared to the corresponding bits in a slave address to select a particular device from among several.
The bidirectional SDA pin transfers addresses and data into the device via signal SDA IN, and data out of the device via signal SDA OUT. For normal data transfer, SDA changes are allowed only during SCL low. Changes during SCL high are reserved for start and stop conditions described below. The SCL serial clock input synchronizes data transfer from and to the device.
Pins VSS and VCC provide electrical ground and power supply (e.g., +1.8 V to 5.5 V), respectively.
I/O interface 12 and I/O control logic 14 communicate with memory control logic 15 which supplies inputs to HV (high voltage) generator 18, XDEC (X-line decoder) 19 and YDEC (Y-line decoder) 20 and also communicates with sense AMP (amplifier) R/W (read/write) control 22. The XDEC controls EEPROM array 25 with page latches 26 controlled by cache 27 and YDEC 20 which also communicates with sense AMP R/W control 22.
Device 10 is preferably fabricated using CMOS process technology for low power nonvolatile code and data applications. It may be packaged, for example, in an 8 pin (A0, A1, A2, VSS, VCC, NU (not used), SCL and SDA) DIP (dual in-line package) or SOIC (small outline integrated circuit) package.
The EEPROM supports a bidirectional two wire bus and data transmission protocol. Bus timing start/stop and bus timing data are illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B, respectively. In the protocol, a transmitter sends data onto the bus, and a receiver receives the data. The bus is controlled by a master device that generates the serial clock SCL, controls the bus access, and generates start and stop conditions for data transfer. The EEPROM acts as a slave device, and, like the master, can operate as transmitter or receiver, but the master device determines which of those modes is activated.
FIGS. 2A and 2B assume an exemplary clock frequency of 400 KHz, with data transfer start and stop conditions generated during selected clock high times THIGH (e.g., minimum of 600 nanoseconds (ns)). The clock high time THIGH (e.g. 1300 ns) is the time between the approximate midpoints of the clock rise time TR (e.g., maximum of 300 ns) and fall time TF (e.g., max 300 ns). Similarly, the clock low time TLOW (e.g. 1300 ns) is the time between the approximate midpoints of the clock fall time and the clock rise time. The start condition hold time THD:STA (e.g., min 600 ns) is the period after which the first clock pulse is generated. A start condition setup time TSU:ST (e.g., min 600 ns) is only relevant for repeated start conditions. Analogous considerations exist for stop condition hold time THD:STO and setup time TSU:STO (e.g., min 600 ns).
Data input hold time and data input setup time are THD:DAT (e.g., min 0 ns) and TSU:DAT (e.g., min 100 ns) respectively. When EEPROM 10 is a transmitter, it provides an internal minimum delay time TAA (e.g., max 900 ns) to bridge an undefined region (e.g., min 300 ns) of the falling edge of SCL to avoid unintended generation of start and stop conditions. The bus must be free for a time interval designated TBUF (e.g., min 1300 ns) before a new transmission can start.
The bus protocol of this 64K serial EEPROM device requires that (i) data transfer may be initiated only when the bus is not busy, and (ii) during data transfer, the data line must remain stable whenever the clock line is high because changes are interpreted as a start or a stop condition. The following bus conditions are thereby defined. In an illustrative data transfer sequence on the serial bus (FIG. 3), the bus is not busy (condition A) when both the serial data/address (SDA) and clock (SCL) lines remain high. A start data transfer (start condition, B) is determined by a high to low transition of the SDA line while the SCL line is high. All commands are preceded by a start condition. A stop data transfer (stop condition, C) is determined by a low to high transition of the SDA line while the SCL line is high. All operations are ended with a stop condition.
The state of the data (SDA) line represents valid data (D) when, after a start condition, the data line is stable for the duration of the high period of the clock (SCL) signal. Data on the SDA line may be changed only during the low period of the SCL signal, with one clock pulse for each bit of data. The master device determines the number of data bytes transferred between start and stop conditions, and an acknowledge signal is normally generated by the addressed receiving device after receipt of each byte.
The first byte received from the master after a start condition (S), as represented by reference number 41, is a control byte (allocation illustrated in FIG. 4), which includes a four bit control code, set as 1010 binary for read and write operations. The next three bits of the control byte are device select bits used by the master to select which of the eight slave devices is to be accessed. The last bit (R/W) defines the operation to be performed, i.e., read or write. If set to 1, a read operation is selected; if set to 0, a write operation is selected. Bit A in FIG. 4 is the acknowledge bit, sent by the slave to indicate receipt of the previous eight bits. An acknowledge occurs after each byte transmitted in either direction.
The least significant thirteen bits of the next two bytes (WORD ADDRESS (1), WORD ADDRESS (0)) (FIG. 5) from the master device define the address of the byte on which the device will perform subsequent read or write operations. Following a start condition, as represented by reference number 42, the EEPROM monitors the SDA line for the device type identifier transmitted by the master. On receiving an appropriate code and device select bits, the selected slave outputs an acknowledge signal on the SDA line, and a read or write operation is selected depending on the state of the R/W bit.
In a byte write operation (FIG. 5), after the start condition, the device code, memory block address and R/W bit are transmitted by the master onto the bus. The addressed slave receiver is thereby informed that the word address will follow the control byte, after an acknowledge bit is generated. The word address transmitted by the master is written into an address pointer, and after acknowledgement is followed by transmission from the master of a data word (DATA) to be written into the addressed memory location. After the slave acknowledges, the master generates a stop condition (P), as represented by reference number 43.
In a page write operation (FIG. 6), the write control byte, word address and first data byte are transmitted to EEPROM 10 in the same manner as for a byte write. But after acknowledgement of the data byte, the master transmits up to eight data bytes (DATAn-DATAn+7). As in the byte write case, after receipt of the stop condition from the master, the device commences an internal write cycle. Once a stop is transmitted, the write cycle starts and no more data bytes are acknowledged.
When writing data, the internal write cycle is executed as an automatic erase-then-write cycle. The total write cycle time interval TWR (erase plus write) is 2 milliseconds (ms) in length, with a maximum length of 10 ms, for a single page of eight bytes. The total time required for loading a greater number of pages into write cache 27 is the single page TWR multiplied by the total number of pages being written.
A simplified block diagram of the page mode write cache of the serial EEPROM according to the invention is shown in FIG. 7. The cache 50 in this particular embodiment is composed of 64 bytes of SRAM organized in pages whose size is related to the row size of the EEPROM memory array 60. The maximum page size is limited to the size of one row of the memory array. By way of example, and not of limitation, the page size of the cache is equal to one-half the row size of the memory.
In practice, of course, the cache size is determined by the amount of SRAM used and the size of the internal memory array 60. The write cache 50 enables the EEPROM to receive a serial data stream as a burst of up to 64 bytes (in this example) at SRAM speeds.
During the loading cycle, the received data is stored by the SRAM write cache, one byte at a time and grouped into pages in the sequence of pages 1, 2, 3, . . . , n-1, n, where n is the number of bytes of data loaded into the cache divided by the number of bytes in a page, rounded to the next larger integer. In effect, the write cache 50 combines SRAM as a data buffer with page mode write. Conventional page mode write alone is unsuitable as a burst mode data buffer because of page mapping to memory array rows, which limits data buffer size to number of bytes in a single row of the memory array. 0n the other hand, the increased data buffer size of the SRAM, combined with page mode write in the write cache of the invention, enables the transmission of a large burst of data (up to the size of the SRAM) to the cache via a data bus, and, when that transmission is complete and the data stored in the cache, frees the bus for access by other data or instructions. This in turn, flees the CPU such as a microcontroller to perform other processing tasks, using the bus, until the next access to the EEPROM. Since the EEPROM device will not acknowledge if it is in a write cycle, during that cycle the microcontroller can do anything within its slate of tasks except access the EEPROM.
When the data burst ends, the programming cycle of the EEPROM commences, during which the data stored in page groupings in the SRAM write cache is written to the memory array 60 in sequential writes of one page at a time until the SRM write cache is depleted. The page size in the cache may have any value equal to 1/I times the size of each row in the memory array, where I is an integer greater than or equal to 1. For the sake of simplicity, the page size is shown as 1/2 the row size in FIG. 7, but that relative value might, for example, be 1/6. Each page of the cache is written to occupy its relative portion of a respective row of the memory, in sequence from the first page through the nth page. The total programming cycle can be executed in a time interval which is equivalent to the ratio of the amount of data stored in the write cache to the page size multiplied by the time required to complete one page write. Although this is not really an improvement over conventional EEPROM programming (E/W) time--for example, each page might require a write time of 2 ms, so that the total time taken to write the entire cache to the memory array would be (n×2 ms) in either case--the advantage of employing a page mode write cache according to the invention is that the controller can send a large amount of data in a burst and then proceed with other processing tasks while the EEPROM is writing.
The timing diagram of FIG. 8 illustrates the operation of the SRAM page mode write cache of FIG. 7, during the loading and programming cycles. Because this operation has just been described in connection with FIG. 7, there is no need for further explanation.
A preferred embodiment constituting the best mode presently contemplated for practicing the invention has been described. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications may be made without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is intended that the invention shall be limited only as required by the appended claims and the rules and principles of applicable law. | <urn:uuid:43de1b43-643a-48f9-a081-ec69b8ca877c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5488711.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00193-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911754 | 5,448 | 2.75 | 3 |
President Thomas S. Monson
When President Thomas S. Monson was 10 years old, his parents gave him an electric train set for Christmas. Tommy was happy until his mother showed him a less-expensive train she had bought for a neighbor boy. Tommy noticed a car that his train didn’t have. He was jealous, and he convinced his mother to let him keep the train car. When they went to surprise the neighbor boy with the gift, Tommy realized how selfish he had been. He ran back home and got the car, plus another car from his own set, to give to the boy. He felt joy when he focused on giving instead of getting.
President Gordon B. Hinckley
President Gordon B. Hinckley learned at a young age that good gifts don’t have to cost a lot of money. He watched his parents visit widows during the holidays and take them bread and treats. As he grew up, Gordon tried to make thoughtful gifts for others. He and his brother, Sherman, decided to work together to build Christmas presents for their sisters. Some of their gifts over the years included a small cupboard, a yellow treasure chest, and a fancy desk and chair.
President David O. McKay
The McKay family loved music. Each Christmas, President David O. McKay attached jingle bells to his horses and took his grandchildren on a sleigh ride around town. After sledding through the snow, they would sing carols around the family’s piano. Once, while President McKay was working at the Church Administration Building, he was surprised by a different group of carolers—165 Primary children who had come to sing Christmas songs for him! President McKay appreciated their musical gift, especially when he learned they had given up their annual Christmas party to make the trip.
President George Albert Smith
Christmastime at the Smith home was filled with fun and service. On Christmas Eve family members hung stockings in front of the fireplace to collect presents. As a joke, President George Albert Smith always hung a huge stocking instead of a regular sock. On Christmas day President Smith took his children to visit people who might be feeling lonely or forgotten. Once he and his daughter Emily visited an elderly woman who lived alone. The woman was so happy to have visitors that she cried. She said she was grateful that someone had thought of her on Christmas.
President Heber J. Grant
President Heber J. Grant taught his family to look for ways to be unselfish during Christmas. One year President Grant’s children decided to donate money to help build the Salt Lake Temple instead of getting Christmas presents. Another year President Grant noticed that a woman he worked with was very poor. His family decided to take the money they would have spent on gifts for each other and give it to her instead. The woman was overjoyed on Christmas morning when President Grant handed her a turkey and a check to help pay for her house! | <urn:uuid:33dc7811-46ab-4f9d-ade5-8abb7ab419a1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://www.lds.org/friend/2012/12/following-christ-at-christmas?lang=eng | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00078-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.989217 | 602 | 2.875 | 3 |
Global temperatures 2013
The latest State of the Climate report released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) indicates that the globally-averaged temperature for 2013 tied as the fourth warmest year since record-keeping began in 1880. The NOAA report also said 2013 ranks along with every previous year this century as among the 15 warmest years in the 134 year record. The top three hottest years on record are 2010, 2005 and, of course, 1998.
The average annual combined land and ocean surface temperature in 2013 was 0.62°C (1.12°F) above the 20th century average of 13.9°C (57.0°F). The average temperature globally for 2013 was 14.5°C (58.12°F) coming in as a tie with 2003 as the fourth warmest year on record.
2013 marked the 37th consecutive year with global average temperatures above the 20th century average. The last time any year recorded below average temperatures was in 1976. The rate of change for global average temperatures has increased 0.06°C (0.11°F per decade since 1880 with an average rate of 0.16°C (0.28°F per decade since 1970.
2013 saw its share of extreme weather events. While the U.S. as a whole saw a bit of a respite from extreme weather events, extreme flooding, tornadoes and wildfires continue to plague the west. Globally, 2013 saw $41 billion worth of weather disasters, according to a global insurance company.
Most parts of the globe experienced above average annual average temperatures, particularly western Ethiopia, eastern Tanzania and most of southern and western Australia, each documenting record-breaking heat. Record warmth was also recorded in sections of the Arctic Ocean, much of the southwestern Pacific Ocean, parts of the Central Pacific and an area in the central Indian Ocean.
The average global ocean temperature in 2013 was 0.48°C (0.86°F) above the 20th century average of 16.1°C (60.9°F), tied with 2006 as the eighth warmest year on record for ocean temperatures.
NASA begs to differ, goes for seventh place
Using different data reconstructions for global mean surface temperature than NOAA, NASA reports 2013 as the seventh warmest year on record with an average temperature of 14.6°C (58.3°F) – though the hard number for average temperature was .1°C warmer than the NOAA figure. The point is that global warming continues. Both organizations conclude that nine of the ten warmest years on record have happened in the 21st century, with the hottest year being 2010.
Image credit: Andrea Della Adriano, courtesy flickr | <urn:uuid:ef07e899-ae8d-44e3-9800-14c15471251d> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://globalwarmingisreal.com/2014/01/22/2013-fourth-hottest-year-on-record/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397744.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00018-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.931967 | 557 | 3.296875 | 3 |
a composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict or contrast of character.
a dramatic form that does not observe the laws of cause and effect and that exaggerates emotion .
melodramatic behavior or events.
By my handy definitions above, the term should be high school melodrama queen. But, A. It's high school. If you get everything right in high school, you get to skip ahead 5 spaces to middle age. B. Drama queen is catchier and easier to say, and it's been used by books and movies for the last few years.
Verdict- Melodrama Queen is never going to catch on.
But as a writer, the difference is very important. Drama= tension and stakes. Melodrama= stuff that makes a reader roll their eyes. It can be the same stuff, the same events, the same types of conflict. The difference lies in how the writer tackles it and how the reader responds.
I got a little sentimental this week and took out the ARC for my first book, Handcuffs, and read the editorial letter at the beginning. Even as an adult, I'm sure you remember the giant hole that was left in your life when a relationship ended. Walking down the halls, sharing a classroom with an ex...breaking up is an experience that is only more agonizing in the high school setting. I could argue that many (read--most) things are more agonizing in the high school setting, but yeah a high school break up can be very public and agonizing. It can also be dramatic or melodramatic depending on how it is presented.
I guess it's easy to say the difference comes back to the stakes and the tension. Right now I'm writing post-apocalyptic whole world depends on the outcome drama. So different sets of stakes, tension caused by danger and possible death! (sorry that required an exclamation point!) In an adventure story, the stakes are naturally higher. But as a former writer of the realistic and the contemporary, and as all our realistic contemporary friends can surely attest, making the everyday situation fraught with genuine drama is possible.
Possible but not required elements for creating Drama (as opposed to that other thing)
1. High Stakes- make the reader understand why it is important. Make them believe it.
2. Tension- get the reader on the edge of their seat. I always use the Truman show as a great movie that builds tension more effectively than many horror films I've seen.
3. Authenticity- make it seem real so that readers can relate.
Some adults look back on high school as a roller coaster of the melodramatic. But if you really let yourself feel the pain and the angst (admittedly, you have to be crazy to do this) you have to acknowledge that the emotion is real. The pain is hyper-real. The anxiety, the pressure, the passion... :)
In reality, your adolescent Psyche text will tell you that teens lack a sense of the big picture. They often feel that they are the only person on earth who has ever been so in love, so devastated, so elated, so sad. This lack of perspective makes all of us adults want to A. roll our all-seeing adult eyes and B. slap them.
As, neither eye rolling nor slapping are the desired emotional responses to our teen protagonists, in your quest for verisimilitude, you may want to leave that part out. Instead, go for depth, go for emotion, and go for the gut wrenching reality of teen emotion that your teen readers will recognize and your adult readers won't throw across the room. Drama, not melodrama.
Back to my original definition- conflict is the heart of your story, high school/the teen years are the epitome of conflict, so the YA author should be all set up for drama.
And, of course, that part is always subjective. I had a student who insisted, INSISTED, that the MC of The Hate List was whiny. I loved that book and was outraged. Whiny! She had tension, high stakes, and authenticity, and I believed every bit of her pain. And most of my students did, too. But to this student, it didn't ring true. By the same token, I got frustrated by Liar because the stakes kept changing with the story. My favorite realistic book of the year was Before I Fall, which I felt built high school tension beautifully. | <urn:uuid:fe1390ff-8082-49a0-b690-215184fb2afb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://yafusion.blogspot.com/2011/07/drama-vs-melodrama.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391634.7/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00023-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958168 | 933 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Taking Care of Yourself
All the things you’ve learned about staying healthy—good nutrition, exercise, adequate sleep and so on—may seem irrelevant once you find out that you have cancer. After all, you’ve already GOT cancer, so what’s the point of avoiding foods and behaviors that may increase your cancer risk?
That may be your first reaction, but hopefully you won’t feel that way for long. Eating well, getting exercise, taking care of your emotional health, and distracting yourself with fun activities and friends will all help you get through cancer treatment.
Nutrition is especially important right now, even though you may not feel like eating. Cancer treatment can kill your appetite. It can also make food taste funny. The best thing to do is eat foods that appeal to you. Also, eat small amounts throughout the day. Drink lots of fluids, even if you don’t feel like eating. Exercise and fresh air can help your appetite. So can eating with friends. Your nutritionist will have other suggestions to help keep you eating well.
Cancer treatment typically causes fatigue, and some days you may not feel like getting out of bed. But exercise can really help with fatigue caused by treatment. So get out of bed, take a shower and go for a walk with a friend.
In addition to helping you feel more energetic, exercise can help you sleep better at night, feel more like eating and deal with emotional ups and downs. Talk to your nurse to find out what kinds of exercise are OK for you.
There are times during cancer treatment when you are going to feel depressed, moody and just plain unhappy. Remember that you don’t need to hide all these feelings to make the people around you feel better.
Talk to your nurse and other members of your care team about how you feel. They will have suggestions for dealing with your feelings that will help you cope.
Sometimes, the best way to cope is to distract yourself with friends, school and other things you enjoy. Nobody wants to think about cancer 24/7—give yourself a break. | <urn:uuid:a518ada4-b94e-4790-87b0-f30a85250b53> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.seattlecca.org/teen-zone-take-care.cfm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395160.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00201-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963715 | 431 | 2.625 | 3 |
Men's hair during the 1850s was generally parted, slicked back, and combed up into a high wave at the center of the forehead. After the mid-50s, the height of the wave decreased, and eventually the hair was merely parted and gently waved back from the face. The back of the hair was usually collar length and the side hair covered the ears by 1857.
The image on the left displays the very high wave of the early 1850s. The image on the right demonstrates the softer wave of the later 50s. The hair falling over the ears of the man on the right was very fashionable for this time.
During the early 1850s, most men were clean shaven. By the mid-50s, fringe appeared around the cheeks and jaw. Many beards were seen by the end of the decade. Notice the soft facial hair around the cheeks and chin in the image on the left, and the full beard in the image on the right. | <urn:uuid:1fed9d50-d1e0-4526-87b9-828febff325a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.uvm.edu/landscape/dating/clothing_and_hair/1850s_hair_men.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397797.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00022-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.987601 | 199 | 3.15625 | 3 |
William was early alienated from his liberal-minded parents by his belief in the divine nature of kingship, his love of military display, and his impulsiveness. Much has been made of the fact that he had a withered left arm, in order to explain these traits as a compensation for his physical weakness. After studying at the Univ. of Bonn, he entered the army and in 1881 married Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein.
Sections in this article:
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: German History: Biographies | <urn:uuid:2234a2e9-4892-4250-b791-734e5ddefdde> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/william-ii-emperor-germany-king-prussia-early-life.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00090-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973832 | 134 | 2.703125 | 3 |
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, March 18, 2013 (ENS) – Argentina has established two large marine protected areas in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz that the government says will “maintain representative samples of the marine ecosystem,” and “protect the landscape heritage, natural and cultural.”
To establish the new parks, laws passed by the National Congress in November were enacted by President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in December 2012.
The new marine parks – Isla Pingüino Coastal Marine Park and Makenke Coastal Marine Park – were applauded this week by the Wildlife Conservation Society, based at New York’s Brox Zoo, which worked with Argentine officials to create the new parks.
“We commend the Government of Argentina for their conservation stewardship in creating this new network of marine protected areas,” said Dr. Cristián Samper, president and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. “Isla Pingüino and Makenke Coastal Marine Parks now protect vital wildlife populations for posterity and create new opportunities for Argentina’s ecotourism industry.”
Stretching 80 miles south of the town of Puerto Deseado and extending 12 miles out to sea, Isla Pingüino, or Penguin Island, covers nearly 1,800 square kilometers (720 square miles) of ocean and coastline bordered by cliffs.
Isla Pingüino is inhabited by one of the only colonies of rockhopper penguins on the Patagonian coast.
The newly protected area contains large populations of South American sea lions, red-legged cormorants, and one of the largest colonies of imperial cormorants found anywhere, with more than 8,000 breeding pairs.
Farther south, the Makenke Coastal Marine Park begins at the entrance of the Ria San Julian, covering almost 600 square kilometers (230 square miles) of shore and ocean.
This park contains the largest colony of rare red-legged cormorants in the country. It also protects breeding colonies of the dolphin gull, a rare scavenger, and pods of black and white Commerson’s dolphin.
Charles Darwin traveled to the region now contained in Isla Pingüino in 1833, describing the wildlife he observed there during his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.
Makenke Coastal Marine Park borders the inlet of San Julian, where in 1520 Ferdinand Magellan executed a group of mutineers who disrupted his voyage, the historic first circumnavigation of the globe.
Both the Isla Pingüino and Makenke Coastal Marine Parks resulted from work conducted by Dr. Patricia Gandini, president of Argentina’s National Parks Service, and Dr. Esteban Frere of the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia Austral.
Both biologists began studying the wildlife of coastal Santa Cruz in 1985 with support from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
These areas were identified as priority conservation sites by the Patagonia Coastal Zone Management Plan project, carried out by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Fundacion Patagonia Natural with support from the Global Environmental Facility and the United Nations Development Program. Support for the research was also provided by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas.
In creating these interjurisdictional marine parks the government stated its intention to “encourage and facilitate research and monitoring environmental, as primary activities associated management.”
The officials charged with managing the parks will seek to promote “sustainable activities compatible with conservation area” and “awareness of the importance of conservation area for users of the same and the inhabitants of the region, through the interpretation and environmental education,” states the decrees establishing the parks.
Each park will be overseen by an Executive Management Committee that includes both national and provincial officials, and in the case of Makenke, a local official as well.
For Makenke, the Management Executive Committee will select an advisory board of representatives of rural landowners adjacent to the park, as well as park inhabitants, nongovernmental environmental organizations, technical and scientific organizations and municipalities in the vicinity.
In its establishing decree, the government says it will seek to ensure public use of the Makenke and Penguin Island parks “to contribute to physical and spiritual welfare of visitors, preserving their natural and cultural attributes for current and future generations.” | <urn:uuid:470ab41e-0d23-46be-86be-cccad4187d06> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://ens-newswire.com/2013/03/18/argentina-creates-two-patagonian-marine-parks/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908411 | 915 | 2.75 | 3 |
Am Fam Physician. 2001 Jan 15;63(2):205-206.
From the “How Do I Get a Job Like That?” file: Folks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are watching daytime television. According to an article published recently in American Medical News, the CDC is giving daytime dramas (soap operas) credit for informing viewers about health issues, health risks and healthy lifestyles. According to a CDC analysis, about 48 percent of daytime viewers report they have learned about a disease or about how to prevent one by watching soap operas.
Did you know that only 35 percent of U.S. health workers get a flu shot every year? This, according to a recent article in Family Practice News, presents a potential health risk not only for the workers but also for their patients. For example, recent randomized controlled studies showed a reduction in nosocomial infections and mortality among elderly patients in chronic care facilities when health care workers at the facilities were vaccinated against influenza.
Speaking of people who don't get flu shots: According to researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, one group of people in the U.S. typically has fewer screenings for various cancers than other people, are notorious for not getting annual flu shots and are at increased risk of developing health problems over time. The reason for this laxity? They just don't have a regular doctor for preventive health care. Who are these people? Physicians.
Yo-yo dieting: Is it worse than not losing weight at all? According to an article published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, researchers from four institutions found that women who repeatedly gain and lose weight (especially if they are obese) have significantly lower levels of HDL than women who maintain their weight. Weight cycling leaves them at increased risk of cardiovascular disease. More research is needed to follow up with the subjects in this study to see if there is a lag time between the drop in HDL level and any direct effect on the development of heart disease.
Picture perfect! A recent issue of Gastroenterology reports on animal studies describing a swallowable capsule that can transmit video images as it travels through the small intestine. According to the study, the fingertip-size capsule moves painlessly through the digestive tract, nudged along by natural contractions, and transmits continuous video images to a recorder applied to the skin. Researchers found that the small video camera was more effective in detecting small bowel lesions than traditional enteroscopy.
People are twice as likely to consult their primary care physician about possible mental health problems than a psychiatrist. A survey by the National Mental Health Association also revealed that a majority of people believe their family physician plays a key role in helping them recover and maintain their mental health. Most patients are comfortable with their primary care physicians and trust them.
Going to Mardi Gras this year? Watch out for flying coconuts! According to an article in the Southern Medical Journal, Mardi Gras parades are unique in that float riders are encouraged to throw as many items from the floats as possible. Objects ranging from plastic beads to coconuts are thrown to eager parade viewers who try to catch them. It's great fun, but it can be hazardous when the item hits an eye. Local ERs report treating many ocular injuries during Mardi Gras, including corneal abrasions, conjunctival hyperemia, subconjunctival hemorrhage and lid lacerations. Coconuts are no longer approved for tossing into the crowd, but you might want to keep an eye out for them anyway!
Perhaps current cold remedies will be replaced by one containing a marijuana-like chemical. Nature reports that anandamide, a naturally occurring neurotransmitter, may control coughing and various respiratory functions. It binds to receptors on muscle cells in the lungs, controlling the lungs' reactions to chemical agents that trigger coughing. The study, involving rats and guinea pigs, will help answer why people respond differently to anti-coughing drugs.
Biologically, we are not all the same on the inside. A study published in Cancer shows that Asian-American cancer patients have stomach tumors with different biologic traits than the tumors found in non-Asians. The study examined 3,770 patients with stomach cancer and found that the survival rate in Asians was much higher than the rate in any other ethnic group. The tumors in Asians do not invade normal tissues as aggressively as tumors in other groups.
Not only do your children need to study before a math test, they also need to consume plenty of iron. Results from a study conducted at the University of Rochester–New York found that iron-deficient children score lower on math tests. Three percent of the children in the study had low iron levels. This percentage rose to 8.7 percent among girls aged 12 to 16.
Mental note: ask potential caregivers in which position they place a child to sleep. A study published in Pediatrics found that infants in child care settings are more likely to be incorrectly placed on their stomachs while sleeping. Infants being cared for by someone other than a parent account for 20 percent of cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). SIDS deaths are also more likely to occur during the work week between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Didn't your mother ever teach you not to assume? A study published in the Western Journal of Nursing Research shows that the assumption that a woman's mental health improves when she moves from welfare to employment is incorrect. It also found no significant differences on several mental health indicators in women remaining on welfare and those who have gained employment.
Perhaps your patients aren't too lazy to exercise—maybe they're just too bored. In a recent eight-week study conducted at the University of Florida, researchers found that participants who were asked to perform a wider variety of exercises than others in the study (e.g., cardiorespiratory exercises alternating with strength training and flexibility exercises) enjoyed their workouts, exercised longer and were more likely to maintain their exercise program on an ongoing basis than participants who did not perform a variety of exercises.
“On your mark, get set, go!” Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have uncovered the mechanism by which the brain prepares itself for a task. By conducting a series of functional magnetic resonance imaging studies, they showed that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activates when a person is preparing for a task. Thus, our level of performance might be determined by how activated our DLPFC becomes.
Here's the long and short of it. Family Practice News reports on a study showing that the risk for shoulder dystocia and cesarean section delivery is nearly twice as great in short women (less than 5 ft, 2 in) than in tall women (more than 5 ft, 5 in). This is especially true for short women carrying a large fetus. Tall stature reduced the risk in nulliparous women, but height had no impact on multiparous women, whose risk of C-section is about the same as that of average-height women (5 ft, 2 in to 5 ft, 4 in).
Copyright © 2001 by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
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Want to use this article elsewhere? Get Permissions | <urn:uuid:71b9a87c-48ed-49d3-b064-27cdae561827> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/0115/p205.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00063-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960992 | 1,586 | 2.6875 | 3 |
While your baby is in the delivery room the sac will be kept moist and covered with plastic to protect the bowel.
Your baby will need to be in a special unit called the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, which takes care of sick babies after birth.
You and your baby’s surgeon will discuss the best way to repair the omphalocele based on your baby’s health.
If your baby’s omphalocele is small, surgery may be done soon after birth. The surgeon will place the bowel and other organs in the sac into the belly and close the opening.
If the omphalocele is larger, your baby’s belly will need to grow or be stretched enough before the surgery can be done. The repair would then be done in stages. If the sac ruptures before it is repaired, the baby will need to have surgery right away.
Sometimes the omphalocele can be too large to repair right away. Skin will grow to cover the sac with the help of medication, good skin care and nutrition. If this happens, your baby will then have surgery to close the belly muscles in six to 12 months when the belly is larger.
Most babies with an omphalocele will be able to go home from the hospital once they are taking all their bottles and after the family has learned the how to change the dressing and to protect the sac. | <urn:uuid:8cf531b9-29ff-4838-9a5b-a036d93a8d56> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/health/o/omphalocele/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00112-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941471 | 288 | 2.640625 | 3 |
8 February 2014
The Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4 this week used a word for the sea-state it has never used before – PHENOMENAL. It’s been that bad, with storm after storm and the worst flooding on record (Records of flooding go back to the time when the Virginia was a colony!). The storms have given archeologists a priceless gift though, because they uncovered footprints in the sand that have been dated to 800,000 years old.
These are the oldest human footprints known outside of Africa. The BBC has a great story on it and you can read the published paper on PLOS ONE here. | <urn:uuid:210c5d1d-b3e9-479b-81f0-7f5feff0ad8f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2014/02/08/footsteps-of-the-oldest-britains-uncovered-by-phenomenal-seas/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402746.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00069-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955864 | 131 | 2.609375 | 3 |
- The definition of a breach is a break, or violation.
- An example of a breach is an agreement that has been broken.
- An example of a breach is a person violating their probation.
- Breach is defined as break or violate.
- An example of breach is breaking a hole in the sea wall.
- An example of breach is breaking a contract.
- Obs. a breaking or being broken
- a failure to observe the terms, as of a law or promise, the customary forms, etc.; violation; infraction
- an opening made by a breakthrough, as in a wall, line of defense, etc.
- a broken or torn place or part
- a breaking of waves over or upon a ship, sea wall, etc.
- a whale's leap clear of the water
- a break in friendly relations
Origin of breachMiddle English breche ; from Old English bryce ; from brecan (see break); influenced, influence by Old French breche ; from Old High German brecha, of same origin, originally
- to make a breach in; break open or through
- to break or violate (a contract, covenant, etc.)
- a. An opening, tear, or rupture.b. A gap or rift, especially in a solid structure such as a dike or fortification.
- A violation or infraction, as of a contract, law, legal obligation, or promise.
- A breaking up or disruption of friendly relations; an estrangement.
- A leap of a whale from the water.
- The breaking of waves or surf.
verbbreached, breach·ing, breach·es
- To make a hole or gap in; break through.
- To break or violate (an agreement, for example).
- To leap from the water: waiting for the whale to breach.
- To develop a hole or opening. Used especially of protective embankments: The rising river caused the levee to breach.
Origin of breachMiddle English breche, from Old English br&emacron;c; see bhreg- in Indo-European roots.
humpback whale breaching
- A gap or opening made by breaking or battering, as in a wall, fortification or levee; the space between the parts of a solid body rent by violence; a break; a rupture; a fissure.
- A breaking up of amicable relations, a falling-out.
- A breaking of waters, as over a vessel or a coastal defence; the waters themselves; surge; surf.
- A clear breach is when the waves roll over the vessel without breaking. A clean breach is when everything on deck is swept away.
- A breaking out upon; an assault.
- (archaic) A bruise; a wound.
- (archaic) A hernia; a rupture.
- (law) A breaking or infraction of a law, or of any obligation or tie; violation; non-fulfillment; as, a breach of contract; a breach of promise.
- (figuratively) A difference in opinions, social class etc.
- The act of breaking, in a figurative sense.
(third-person singular simple present breaches, present participle breaching, simple past and past participle breached)
From Middle English breche, from Old English briċe, bryċe (“breach, fracture, breaking, infringement; fragment”), from Proto-Germanic *brukiz (“breach, fissure”), from Proto-Germanic *brukōną, *brekaną (“to break”). Cognate with Scots breach, breiche, bretch, breack (“breach”), Saterland Frisian breeke (“breach, break”), Dutch breuk (“breach”), German Bruch (“breach”). More at break.
breach - Computer Definition
breach - Legal Definition
- The failure to perform a legal or moral obligation owed to a person or to the public.
- The failure to act as required by the law.
- The failure to exercise the care that a reasonable person would exercise in the same or similar situation. | <urn:uuid:a00ddf62-471c-4c19-a10b-3d430ef424de> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.yourdictionary.com/breach | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395992.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00110-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.845875 | 912 | 3.4375 | 3 |
Every so often, a computer virus becomes more than just a novelty for anti-virus researchers and moves into the consciousness of the mass media, even if it's not a grave threat.
The recent Conficker outbreak is a fantastic example of this. While only a small fraction of all PC users were infected with the worm, a great deal of media coverage was devoted to the outbreak. Any user affected by Conficker was likely already compromised by the time they heard about the threat, as users with infected systems were already not performing proper digital hygiene, such as keeping machines fully patched. The virus's payload was not initially destructive, rather it contained an auto-updating routine that became even more sophisticated after April 1st.
Nevertheless, the hype did help. Concerned users ended up cleaning up their systems from a multitude of other malware, even if they have never encountered the Conficker worm itself, leaving the overall population of systems cleaner than they were previously.
It would be easy to level charges of alarmism at the security vendor community for fueling the Conficker coverage. I believe, however, that the net outcome of raising the awareness of what is essentially the public health of the Internet by calling attention to a potentially frightening, but statistically uncommon threat, is worth the occasional media hyperbole. Sometimes, computer virus hysteria is good for us.
Once upon a time, home and business users were well aware of the impact of computer viruses. Many of them either directly experienced or knew someone who experienced the destructive power of computer viruses, and users who went through the pain of having a virus wipe our their system created backups and kept their anti-virus software up to date.
Yet, things have changed.
Save for spam, we rarely work with threats that are immediately evident to the end user. Modern viruses don't purposely destroy people's systems any longer. If anything, modern malware works as hard as possible to mask its presence from end users, and any indication of its impact is heavily decoupled from the original act that brought the infection.
For example, a desktop can become infected with a keylogger tuned to look for credit cards after its user attempts to install a bogus web video codec. When the bank calls several months later to report that the card has been used in several suspicious transactions, the card holder has no reason to suspect that the card's compromise was caused by the fake video codec software installed months before.
Modern malware is efficient, quiet, and lulls users of systems it compromises into a false sense of security. To counteract the lack of awareness of common but under-appreciated security issues, we must use every opportunity presented to us to educate consumers about computer security threats, even if it involves frightening the population about uncommon threats.
The media has frequently spurred public awareness of threats other than those in computer security. Take public health: In 2000, Katie Couric underwent a colonoscopy on television with the hopes of encouraging the viewing public to follow her lead. Doctors saw a statistically significant increase in the number of voluntary colonoscopies over the course of the next nine months, leading researchers to coin the term the "Couric Effect" to describe the improvement in preventive health compliance. Seeing someone famous get sick drives us to the doctor.
The net result of the localized increase awareness about a specific disease is that the public becomes marginally healthier by being persuaded into doing what they know they should have done in the first place: Performing regular maintenance on their body to screen for illnesses that may not cause problems for years to come. Most doctors would not screen for a specific illness without performing a general workup. Often other problems are uncovered during the course of the examination that would never have been spotted if the patient wasn't inspired to go to the doctor in the first place.
Similarly, even consumers worried about the wrong computer threats can still improve their security. Much as the average patient benefits by adhering more closely to medical checkup guidelines after hearing about a television personality's experiences, the average computer user benefits by stepping up their security measures to prevent a headline-making worm, even if they aren't affected by it. Like an individual with borderline obesity and high blood pressure going to the doctor to check for the West Nile virus, computer users' digital health improves as long as something drives them to perform regular maintenance.
Repeated media-driven scare events that drive point actions to address an issue doesn't fix anything in the long term, be it in public health or in computer security. Patching a desktop irregularly and visiting a doctor sporadically is not preventive maintenance. We need to capitalize on these opportunities to educate the populous into going beyond fixing what is the problem of the day and instead engage in what is recognized as proper hygiene. In the end, running backups, applying patches, and keeping anti-virus products up to date should be as routine as brushing your teeth. | <urn:uuid:298c1e9f-2172-4b37-befb-6d2f0917f211> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/499 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397748.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00062-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971283 | 992 | 2.640625 | 3 |
On a sunny afternoon in the spring of 1968, a group of nine radical activists struck a uniquely provocative blow against the dysfunctional political system that had enmeshed the United States in the war in Vietnam. They burst into a Selective Service office in Catonsville, Md., seized several hundred military draft records, and then burned what they had looted in a fire fueled by homemade napalm.
The Catonsville Nine, as they would be known, were not the only group of demonstrators to besiege a local draft board in the Vietnam era, but they certainly were the most celebrated. Their notoriety resulted at least in part from the religious dimension of their witness against the havoc wrought by war and imperialism. All of the Catonsville Nine were Roman Catholics, and two of their number -- brothers Daniel and Philip Berrigan -- were priests. The demonstrators explained that they attacked the draft records because they found it impossible to reconcile the central tenets of their religious faith with their country's conduct of the war in Southeast Asia.
Such a brazenly illegal -- and overtly political -- dissent by Catholics would have been unthinkable a generation earlier. But the reforms of Vatican II had prompted Catholics to become more directly engaged with the social, political and cultural tumult that was changing America society in the 1960s. Emboldened by a fresh spirit of openness, a new breed of activist priests and laypeople thrust themselves onto the front lines of myriad protest movements, including the drive to end the war in Vietnam.
None of the Catonsville Nine had any illusions about their protest (which involved the torching of fewer than 400 individual draft files) bringing about a speedy conclusion to the war. But they hoped that their witness would spark a sustained and meaningful dialogue about the connections between war, imperialism and poverty -- profoundly important issues that were affecting not only people in Vietnam but also millions of Americans.
In this, the Catonsville Nine scored a resounding victory. Their protest drew widespread attention, as did their subsequent trial in federal court in Baltimore. (So great was the publicity that officials in the Kremlin apparently followed the case with great interest.) Thanks to the wide latitude granted by the presiding judge, those proceedings provided a remarkable forum for the Nine to address the many ailments afflicting the American body politic. Their moving testimony touched on matters ranging from domestic race relations and economic inequality to the role of United States in supporting the Guatemalan oligarchy.
More than 40 years after they struck the draft board in suburban Baltimore, the Catonsville Nine still are revered by many as paragons of peace and social justice activism. The memory of their protest has been kept alive by a play ("The Trial of the Catonsville Nine") that is based on their trial. Every year, hundreds of theater-goers have the chance to hear actors repeat the protesters' stirring courtroom testimony. Such is their lasting notoriety that the Nine also are referenced from time to time in novels and songs. (Singer-songwriter Dar Williams recounts their witness her tune "I Had No Right.")
However, as time has passed, our memory of these radical Catholic activists has become increasingly murky. The Berrigan brothers became radical icons -- at age 91, Daniel Berrigan still is generating headlines for his protest activities -- but their confederates in Catonsville faded from view. Philip Berrigan was widely mourned when he died in 2002, but few people seemed to have noticed when Mary Moylan, another member of the Catonsville Nine, passed away a few years earlier.
Lost, too, is a sense of how controversial the actions of the Catonsville Nine were within their own church. Although many liberal Catholics cheered the antidraft protest as a justified blow against the war, many members of the faith were appalled by the demonstration, thinking it a glaring betrayal of both church and country. One notable Catholic -- the novelist Walker Percy -- publicly compared the Nine's fiery protest to the incendiary tactics of the Ku Klux Klan.
And even some allies of the Catonsville Nine questioned their provocative tactics. Many wondered how the actual details of the protest squared with the activists' professed allegiance to the norms of civil disobedience. The Nine didn't merely stage a sit-in at the Catonsville draft office; they charged in, restrained and grappled with the clerks (one of whom later was treated for minor injuries), and then demolished the federal property they had seized. Esteemed Catholic peace activists like Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton voiced their support for the Nine but refrained from fully endorsing their irregular methods, questioning if they really could be characterized as nonviolent.
Make no mistake: the Catonsville Nine still are worth remembering. Their protest and trial provided a singularly sweeping and sharp critique of the failings of American society in the 1960s. But it's probably a mistake to remember them merely as one-dimensional religious icons. They were complex and imperfect, and perhaps even a little confounding -- just like their times. | <urn:uuid:d560c9c2-49a1-4a00-8c42-6d8357b776ce> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shawn-francis-peters/radical-catholics-remembering-the-catonsville-nine_b_1799156.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398628.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00089-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.973698 | 1,001 | 2.53125 | 3 |
According to Joanna Michlic, who starting this September will serve as chair of Holocaust studies and ethical values at Lehigh University, the end of totalitarianism more than 15 years ago produced a great interest among many Poles in Jews and Jewish history.
At the same time, it produced a backlash within more nationalist circles, whose adherents consider Poland a monolithic Catholic nation that should not reserve a special place in its consciousness for Jews or any other minorities.
According to Michlic, currently an assistant professor at Richard Stockton College in New Jersey, the history of postwar memory in Poland is a movement from collective amnesia to a painful reawakening. She said this during a March 29 lecture at the University of Pennsylvania, which was titled "The Past and the Future of the Memory of the Holocaust in Poland." The talk was part of the Kutchin Seminar Series, sponsored by Penn's Jewish-studies program.
Michlic, who grew up in Lodz, is the author of Poland's Threatening Other: The Image of the Jew from 1880 to the Present. She's served as a postdoctoral fellow at both the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Yad Vashem's institute for Holocaust research.
During her 45-minute presentation, Michlic -- who tried to squeeze in as many facts and opinions as possible in such a short amount of time -- first sketched in Poland's rocky relationship with its Jewish community, and then its relationship to the memory of those Jews.
Referring constantly to the Holocaust as the "dark past," the scholar began by stating that Poland's debate over its national identity heated up in the period between the two world wars. She argued that by 1939, a consensus had been reached within the political class that the country's 3 million Jews had no place in Poland, and would have to immigrate.
Michlic explained that a certain amount of postwar debate existed about Polish complicity in the Shoah, but that, by the end of the 1940s, all intellectual dissent was silenced, and the Communist party view prevailed: All Poles suffered, and no special tragedy befell the Jews.
But now the debate over Holocaust memory -- one that ultimately revolves around whether Poland considers itself a multicultural or homogenous society -- dominates intellectual life.
Harsh ironies have never been absent from this "national discussion," Michlic noted, since many of those same people in the interwar period who wished to rid Poland of Jews also considered Germany's Final Solution to be barbaric and un-Christian. And unlike some neighboring countries -- for one, Hungary -- Poland never formed a political alliance with Nazi Germany.
Time and again, she touched on other ironies in present-day Poland, even quite sad ones. For example, she said that to this day -- and even following the philo-Semitism that swept through Poland in the late 1980s and '90s -- citizens who saved Jews during the Holocaust are still afraid to have their stories known out of fear of harassment or attack.
Yet, at the same time, she argued that Poland, far more than any other former Communist-bloc nation, has tried to come to terms with its past, and encourage a rapprochement with the Jewish people and the nation's current Jewish community.
'A Call for Awareness'
This national conversation hit a fever pitch in 2000 with the publication of historian Jan T. Gross' Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland, which recounts the 1941 murder of more than 1,600 Jews at the hands of Christian Poles. According to Gross, no Germans took part in those atrocities, although it has been said that the Nazis spurred Jedwabne's townspeople on.
"This dark past is a traumatic [period] that cannot be ignored or suppressed," she said. "The book was a call for revolution in historical awareness. It gave impetus to a desire to counter distorted repressions of the past."
Now, as intellectual life in Warsaw has undergone a tremendous resurgence, and interest in Jewish history among university students and schoolchildren increases, Michlic said that an ideological battle continues, as many Poles would like to forget that there ever was a sizable Jewish presence -- and for thousands of years -- in Poland.
During a lively question-and-answer session, a Penn faculty member asked what the reaction has been to plans for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which organizers hope will open its doors in Warsaw in 2010. That project is considered one of the largest manifestations of a resurgence of interest in things Jewish in Poland.
"It's very hard to say what the reception will be," she replied, adding that the Polish audience will be the most knowledgeable about the history of the period, and the most sensitive to its conclusions. "We don't know what the final product will be." | <urn:uuid:316b9122-bf41-49e8-adf1-4c007099c0a4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jewishexponent.com/print/16043 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783403825.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155003-00109-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971712 | 981 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Pioneers, Ploughs, and Politics: New Brunswick Planned Settlements
| New Denmark
Emigrants on the forecastle. – 1 lithograph ; published in Canadian Illustrated News
, 30 July 1870. Artist and lithographer unknown. Artist’s depiction of emigrants aboard a sailing vessel headed for North America. In the early part of the 19th century the trip from Liverpool to New Brunswick could take eight weeks or more. Canadian Illustrated News
, Vol. II, No. 5, Page 65. Reproduced from Library and Archives Canada’s website Images in the News: Canadian Illustrated News
Note: Certain restrictions apply to the use of these images. Please consult our usage policy. | <urn:uuid:874b6fe6-c88f-4fe2-af7a-85c7ee69392b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://archives.gnb.ca/Exhibits/PlannedSettlements/ImageList.aspx?culture=en-CA&Link=CIN-3&t=Introduction&title=The+Crossing&p=4&of=17 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00073-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.861408 | 144 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Many Boston-area military veterans diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experienced flashbacks, unwanted memories, and other psychological effects after the Boston Marathon bombing in April.
A new study raises awareness of the effects that tragic events such as terror attacks and mass shootings have not only those directly affected but also on those with PTSD and other preexisting psychological conditions.
The findings show that healthcare systems should be prepared to treat individuals who are either directly or indirectly affected by such tragedies, researchers say.
PTSD is a psychiatric disorder defined by serious changes in cognitive, emotional, behavioral and psychological functioning that can occur in response to a psychologically traumatic event.
Previous studies have estimated that approximately eight percent of the US population will develop PTSD in their lifetime. That number is significantly greater among combat veterans where as many as one in five suffer symptoms of the disorder.
For the new study published online in Journal of Traumatic Stress, researchers used data from an ongoing study of Boston area veterans diagnosed with PTSD, and conducted 71 telephone interviews within one week of the bombing.
Because they had symptom data from participants approximately two months before the bombing, they were able to compare those levels with results from the interview one-week after the bombing.
Of those interviewed, 38 percent reported that they were emotionally distressed by the bombing and the subsequent lockdown of Boston and other communities.
A majority of those participants said the bombing caused them to experience flashbacks and the re-emergence of unwanted memories relating to their own past traumas.
“The effects felt by the veterans were likely due to thematic similarities between the Marathon explosions and the veterans’ own traumatic combat experiences, especially for those deployed to recent conflicts characterized by attacks involving improvised explosive devices,” says Mark Miller, associate professor at Boston University School of Medicine and a clinical research psychologist in the National Center for PTSD at the VA Boston Healthcare System.
There was not a significant change of symptoms between the pre- and post-event data across the sample as a whole.
However, for those who reported being personally affected, there was a strong correlation between distress at the time of the bombing and change in the severity of PTSD symptoms. According to the researchers, this change was primarily attributable to increases in intrusion and avoidance symptoms.
“This study highlights the fact that tragic local and national events of this type can have a significant impact on the health and wellbeing of individuals already suffering with PTSD,” Miller says.
“It is crucial that relevant healthcare organizations understand this phenomenon and be prepared in the wake of tragedy to care not only for those who are directly impacted, but also for those with preexisting psychological conditions, including our nation’s veterans with PTSD.”
The US Department of Veterans Affairs funded the study.
Source: Boston University | <urn:uuid:60b9cbfe-333a-4e16-91a4-9277db28e3c4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.futurity.org/boston-marathon-bombing-took-toll-veterans-ptsd/?amp& | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408840.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00061-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.959163 | 572 | 2.875 | 3 |
The Physics Factbook
Edited by Glenn Elert -- Written by his students
An educational, Fair Use website
|Sullivan, James F. Technical Physics.USA: Wiley, 1988: 204.||
|Encarta Encyclopedia 2004. Microsoft Corporation.||
|CRC Handbook of Physical Quantities. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1997: 145-156.||
|Weber, Robert L.; Manning, Kenneth V.; White, Marsh W. College Physics-4th Edition. USA: McGraw-Hill, 1965: 66||
|Determining the Coefficient of Friction - Succeed in Physical Science. School for Champions.||
Friction is a resistive force that prevents two objects from sliding freely agaisnt each other. The coefficient of friction (µ) is a number that is the ratio of the resistive force of friction (Ff) divided by the normal or perpendicular force (Fn) pushing the objects together. The formula is shown …
µ = Ff/Fn
The two main frictions used are static friction and kinetic friction. The coefficient of static friction for steel is around 0.6–0.15 and the coefficient of kinetic friction is around 0.09–0.6.
The making of steel involves many processes and stages. The basic raw materials are coal, iron ore, limestone and various chemicals. Coal is transformed into coke. The coke is combined with limestone and ore to the blast furnace where it is transformed into steel. The steel is made slabs which are then processed into the end product ordered by the customer. Turning coal into coke is necessary in making steel because coal does not burn hot enough to melt iron ore. Coal in its original state is mostly carbon, however there are impurities in coal such as tar, ammonia etc. These impurities keep coal from burning hot enough to reduce and melt iron ore, therefore they must be removed through the coking process. Oxygen is used to remove some of the carbon and small amounts of other metals are added to make the right kind of steel. The molten is then poured into ingots and left to cool. The steel is now ready to be processed into new products such as car bodies and steel cans.
Eunice Chen -- 2004
Friction is defined as the force opposing motion. One type of friction is static friction. The lower the static friction, the easier it is to make an object start moving. Friction is given with the equation
f = µN
where µ is the coefficient of friction and N is the normal force. Normal force is the force exerted on an object by the surface and it is perpendicular to the surface.
The procedure is as follows:
In order to find the component of the acceleration due to gravity parallel to the surface (a) you must first examine the graph of acceleration vs. time for each of the objects. Find the point where the graph stops a continual, gradual increase, and spikes. This is the parallel component of gravity. The acceleration is then used in the formula
sin-1 θ = (a/g)
where g is the acceleration due to gravity. This formula will give you the angle at which the static friction is overcome by the component of weight parallel to the surface. Next, you must calculate the coefficient of friction. At this angle, the parallel component of weight
W// = mg sin θ
equals the static friction
fstatic = µmg cos θ
Solve this for µ, and you find that
µ = tan θ
|Material||a (m/s2)||θ (°)||µstatic|
Michael Robbins, Daniel Saronson, Gafei Szeto, David Rozenberg -- 2005
External links to this page:
Author, Illustrator, Webmaster
Chaos, E-World, Facts, Get Bent, Physics
No condition is permanent. | <urn:uuid:a3f44876-61b1-4aff-b547-18faf931088a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2005/steel.shtml | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.896452 | 813 | 4.0625 | 4 |
On July 8, about 40% of the ice sheet had undergone thawing at or near the surface. In just a few days, the melting had dramatically accelerated and some 97% of the ice sheet surface had thawed by July 12.
|In the image, the areas classified as “probable melt” (light pink) correspond to those sites where at least one satellite detected surface melting. The areas classified as “melt” (dark pink) correspond to sites where two or three satellites detected surface melting. The satellites are measuring different physical properties at different scales and are passing over Greenland at different times. Credit: Nicolo E. DiGirolamo, SSAI/NASA GSFC, and Jesse Allen, NASA Earth Observatory.|
For several days this month, Greenland's surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its two-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from three independent satellites analyzed by NASA and university scientists.
On average in the summer, about half of the surface of Greenland's ice sheet naturally melts. At high elevations, most of that melt water quickly refreezes in place. Near the coast, some of the melt water is retained by the ice sheet and the rest is lost to the ocean. But this year the extent of ice melting at or near the surface jumped dramatically. According to satellite data, an estimated 97% of the ice sheet surface thawed at some point in mid-July.
This extreme melt event coincided with an unusually strong ridge of warm air, or a heat dome, over Greenland. The ridge was one of a series that has dominated Greenland's weather since the end of May. "Each successive ridge has been stronger than the previous one," said Mote. This latest heat dome started to move over Greenland on July 8, and then parked itself over the ice sheet about three days later. By July 16, it had begun to dissipate.
As the ice warms, it loses albedo, i.e. less sunlight is reflected back into space. Darker surface absorbs more sunlight, accelerating the melting. The image below shows the Greenland ice sheet albedo from 2000 to 2011.
|Credit: NOAA Arctic Report Card 2011.|
The image below, from the meltfactor blog and by Jason Box and David Decker, shows the steep fall in reflectivity for altitudes up to 3200 meters in July 2012.
The image below, from the meltfactor blog, shows how the year 2012 compares with the situation at approximately the same time in previous years, 2011 and 2010, which are recognized as being record melt years.
|Photo shot by Jason Box on August 12, 2005|
Loss of albedo occurs as the darker bare ground becomes visible where the ice has melted away. Darkening of snow and ice can start even before melting takes place. Warming changes the shape and size of the ice crystals in the snowpack, as described at this NASA Earth Observatory page. As temperatures rise, snow grains clump together and reflect less light than the many-faceted, smaller crystals. Additional heat rounds the sharp edges of the crystals, and round particles absorb more sunlight than jagged ones.
|Dirty ice surrounds a meltwater stream near the margin of the ice sheet. Compared to fresh snow and clean ice, the dark surface absorbs more sunlight, accelerating melting. © Henrik Egede Lassen/Alpha Film, from the Snow, Water, Ice, and Permafrost in the Arctic report from the U.N. Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme. From NOAA Climatewatch.|
Another factor contributing to darkening is aerosols, in particular soot (i.e. black carbon) from fires and combustion of fuel, dust and organic compounds that enter the atmosphere and that can travel over long distances and settle on ice and snow in the Arctic.
The July data since 2000, from the meltfactor blog, suggest a exponential fall in reflectivity that, when projected into the future (red line, added by Sam Carana), looks set to go into freefall next year.
Is a similar thing happening all over the Arctic? Well, the map below, edited from a recent SSMIS Sea Ice Map, shows that sea ice concentration is highest around the North Pole.
So, can water be expected to show up at the North Pole? Well have a look at the photo from the North Pole webcam below.
|Photo from the North Pole webcam|
It's important to realize that surface albedo change is just one out of a number of feedbacks, each of which deserves a closer look.
As shown on the image below, the IPCC describes four types of feedbacks with a joint Radiative Forcing of about 2 W/sq m, i.e. water vapor, cloud, surface albedo and lapse rate.
The image below, from James Hansen et al., may at first glance give the impression that all aerosols have a cooling effect.
How much could Earth warm up due to decline of snow and ice? Professor Peter Wadhams estimates that the drop in albedo in case of total loss of Arctic sea ice would be a 1.3 W/sq m rise in radiative forcing globally, while additional decline of ice and snow on land could push the the combined impact well over 2 W/sq m.
Locally, the impact could be even more dramatic. The image below, from Flanner et al., shows how much the snow and ice is cooling the Arctic.
|Image, edited by Sam Carana, from Mark Flanner et al. (2011).|
The big danger is methane. Drew Shindell et al. show in Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions that inclusion of aerosol responses will give methane a much higher global warming potential (GWP) than the IPCC gave methane in AR4, adding that methane's GWP would likely be further increased by including ecosystem responses. Indeed, as pictured in the image below, accelerated warming in the Arctic could trigger methane releases which could cause further methane releases, escalating into runaway global warming. | <urn:uuid:a34366ad-b91c-45a1-8fab-9eb162ea5bef> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00040-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943957 | 1,297 | 4.25 | 4 |
Booting is what happens when a computer starts up. When you boot a computer, your processor looks in system ROM (the BIOS) for instructions and does them. They normally 'wake up' add-in cards and searches for the boot device. The boot device either loads the operating system or gets the operating system from someplace else.
People use the word "boot" to mean "to start a computer" or other device with electronics built in. For example, if a person wants to ask a friend to turn on a satellite phone, they would say "could you boot up the satellite phone?".
Most operating systems call the first data storage device it uses a boot device. This is because the computer is making itself go, as in the idiom. When we start a computer, we can often see the simple instructions the computer uses to start, then more complicated pictures or software.
The phrase "to boot" in this meaning is short for "to bootstrap". This use is part of net jargon along with similar multi-use words like Internet or web. Often the computer is just called a box, so a phrase like "to boot the box" means "to start the computer". | <urn:uuid:bde881e3-945a-42ba-9ba2-c91781c7158f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397567.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00095-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924071 | 243 | 4.0625 | 4 |
|The Mammals of Texas -
Mexican Ground Squirrel
Rodentia : Family Sciuridae : Spermophilus
Description. A rather small ground
squirrel with usually nine rows of squarish white spots
on back; tail about two-fifths of total length,
moderately bushy; ears short and rounded; upperparts wood
brown or buffy brown with rows of conspicuous white
spots; sides and underparts whitish or pinkish buff.
External measurements average: total length, 301 mm;
tail, 118 mm; hind foot, 41 mm. Weight, (males) 227-330
g; (females), 137-198 g.
Distribution in Texas. Occurs throughout
much of southern and western Texas (west to Culberson,
Jeff Davis, and Presidio counties in the Trans-Pecos),
north almost to the Red River just east of the Panhandle.
Habits. Mexican ground squirrels
inhabit brushy or grassy areas. In southern Texas, they
are frequently associated with mesquite and cactus flats.
In Kerr County, they are most common in pastures and
along the highways; in Trans-Pecos Texas, they are
frequently found in areas dominated by creosote-bush (Larrea).
They live in burrows, the openings to
which are usually unmarked by a mound of earth. Sandy or
gravelly soils are preferred, but the squirrels are by no
means restricted to them. One squirrel may utilize
several burrows, one of which is the homesite; the others
are temporary refuges. The burrows are typically from 6
to 8 cm in diameter, enter the ground at a 30 to 50
degree angle, and range from 30 to 125 cm below the
surface. The brood chamber is usually at the deepest part
in a side tunnel. There are often two openings to the
burrow system, possibly to facilitate escape. They also
utilize burrows of pocket gophers. Although somewhat
colonial, they are rather unsocial and drive away other
squirrels that intrude upon their privacy. Their home
range is about 45 m in radius.
Near Midland, most of the squirrels are
in hibernation by November 20, although there is some
activity throughout the winter. Likewise, in the
Trans-Pecos they are seldom seen in winter, but in South
Texas they remain active throughout the year.
Their food in early spring is chiefly
green vegetation. They are known to feed on mesquite
leaves and beans, agarita leaves and berries, Shasta
lily, Johnson grass, pin clover, and cultivated grains.
Insects also contribute importantly to their diet. In
early summer about half of their diet is insects. They
are fond of meat and frequently can be seen feeding upon
small animals killed on the highways. In captivity they
exhibit a cannibalistic tendency and kill and eat their
cage mates, particularly if a strange squirrel is placed
with them. Occasionally they climb into low bushes to
forage, but most of their food is gathered on the ground.
Breeding begins in late March or early
April and lasts for a week or two. The gestation period
is probably not more than 30 days. The young, about five
per litter, are born blind and almost naked and weigh
from 3 to 5 g.
Photo credit: John L. Tveten. | <urn:uuid:5c0ea0f6-ae4a-4b48-a529-a4dfe6a98a0c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/TMOT1/spermexi.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397873.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00161-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942599 | 743 | 3.578125 | 4 |
J.R.R. Tolkien and the definition of ‘hobbit’
In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. . . What’s a hobbit and how did J.R.R. Tolkien come by this word? Was it invented, adapted, or stolen? To celebrate the release of The Hobbit film and renewed interest in J.R.R Tolkien’s work, we’ve excerpted this passage from The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary by Peter Gilliver, Jeremy Marshall, and Edmund Weiner.
* * *
The OED entry for HOBBIT was published in 1976, in Volume II (H-N) of the Supplement to the OED. In December 1969, when this entry was in preparation, the Editor, R. W. Burchfield, sent a draft of the entry to Tolkien (who had been his teacher), asking for his comments. Tolkien did not reply until the following August: 1970 had turned out to be a year of ‘great pressures for me and domestic distresses’, as he explained in an apologetic letter to Burchfield. Fortunately there was still time to make use of his comments, which he included in a further letter (cf. Lett. 316) dated 11 September 1970:
Unfortunately, as all lexicographers know, ‘don’t look into things, unless you are looking for trouble: they nearly always turn out to [be] less simple than you thought’. You will shortly be receiving a long letter on hobbit and related matters, of which, even if it is in time, only a small part may be useful or interesting to you.
For the moment this is held up, because I am having the matter of the etymology: ‘invented by J.R.R. Tolkien’: investigated by experts. I knew that the claim was not clear, but I had not troubled to look into it, until faced by the inclusion of hobbit in the Supplement.
In the meanwhile I submit for your consideration the following definition:
One of an imaginary people, a small variety of the human race, that gave themselves this name (meaning ‘hole-dweller’) but were called by others halflings, since they were half the height of normal Men.
This assumes that the etymology can stand. If not it may be necessary to modify it: e.g. by substituting after ‘race’; in the tales of J.R.R. Tolkien said to have given themselves this name, though others called them. . .
If it stands, as I think it will even if an alleged older story called ‘The Hobbit’ can be traced, then the ‘(meaning ‘hole-dweller’)’ could be transferred to the etymology.
This definition, since it is more than twice as long as the one that you submitted and differs from it widely, will need some justification. I will supply it.
The ‘long letter on hobbit and related matters’, in which presumably the ‘justification’ was going to be supplied, was never received, and no more was heard of the ‘investigation by experts’.
The entry which was actually published and now appears (with the addition of Tolkien’s death date) in the OED (Second Edition) reads:
In the tales of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973): one of an imaginary people, a small variety of the human race, that gave themselves this name (meaning ‘hole-dweller’) but were called by others halflings, since they were half the height of normal men.
The origin of hobbit: invented
Are not these the Halflings, that some among us call the Holbytlan? (LR III. viii)
Having as far as he knew invented the word, Tolkien provided an imaginary etymology for hobbit, in order to fit the word into the linguistic landscape of Middle-earth. This was a remarkable feat of reverse engineering, not quite like any of his other etymological exploits amongst the tongues of Middle-earth.
On encountering the Rohirrim, the hobbits notice that their speech contains many words that sound like Shire words but have a more archaic form. The prime example is their word for the hobbits themselves: holbytla. This is a well-formed Old English compound (because Tolkien represents the language of the Rohirrim as Old English). It is made up of hol ‘hole’ and bytla ‘builder’; it just happens, as far as we know, never to have existed in Old English, and if hobbit turned out to be a genuine word from folklore it is most unlikely that this would be its actual etymology.
Tolkien is playfully suggesting that if there had been an Old English word holbytla (its accentuation would have been similar to that of hole-builder) it might well have come down into modern English as hobbit (though actually a more likely form would be hobittle, with a first syllable like that of hobo).
But just to complicate things further, in a note at the end of the Appendices to The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien is at pains to explain that ‘really’ the human languages of Middle-earth were quite different from the English and Old English, which he has ‘translated’ them into. Hobbit was ‘really’ kuduk, and holbytla was ‘really’ kûd-dûkan; but he claims to have devised the English equivalents in order the better to convey the flavour of the world he is writing about.
The origin of hobbit: actual
The first quotation in the OED entry is the famous first line of The Hobbit: ‘In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.’ It is well known that Tolkien scribbled this sentence on an examination paper he was marking in a moment of boredom (Lett. 163). The word is Tolkien’s most famous coinage–if it is indeed a coinage. His letter of September 1970 to the Dictionary department (quoted above) makes it clear that Tolkien was not entirely certain that he had invented the word, but neither he nor anyone else had at this time uncovered any earlier instance.
A correspondent to The Observer on 16 January 1938 had claimed to recall the word from an earlier story, but this could not be traced; Tolkien’s response (Lett. 25) shows that he at least acknowledged the possibility, though he commented: ‘I suspect that the two hobbits are accidental homophones.’ In another letter written in 1971 on the same subject (Lett. 319), he wrote of his ‘unsupported assertion that I remember the occasion of its invention. . . However, one cannot exclude the possibility that buried childhood memories might suddenly rise to the surface long after.’
Then, after Tolkien’s death, an example of the word did turn up, in a long list of ‘supernatural beings’ appearing in the so-called Denham Tracts, compiled by the Yorkshire merchant M. A. Denham (1800 or 1801-1859). Denham was an amateur folklorist who published many books and pamphlets, including twenty Minor Tracts on Folklore (1849-c.1854). The majority of these Tracts were collected in an edition prepared for the Folklore Society in the 1890s, and the word hobbit appears in the second volume (1895) of this edition.
The discovery of the word in the Denham Tracts was reported in The Times on 31 May 1977. The article records that Tolkien, when asked whence he had got the name, ‘replied that he could not remember: perhaps he invented it; or “I may have picked it up from a nineteenth century source”.’ (Perhaps Tolkien still recalled that exchange of letters in 1938.) The Times writer rather boldly asserted that this ‘nineteenth century source’ had now been identified as Tolkien’s inspiration. But could Tolkien have read the relevant Denham Tract? It certainly seems an unlikely origin for ‘buried childhood memories’.
The Denham Tracts are a bibliographically untidy collection of texts. It seems that Denham would write a short piece and have it printed in a relatively small number of copies, which were then distributed, probably mostly to his own circle. There is no single complete collection in existence, and in any case this would be hard to achieve since it also seems that Denham used to publish rewritten versions of his Tracts.
We know of four versions of the Tract in question. The original version (to which the others refer back) is in fact an article entitled ‘Seasonable Information’ published in the Literary Gazette of 23 December 1848 (p. 849, column 2). It is really no more than a light-hearted joke for the Christmas season, along the following lines:
the glossarist and folklorist Francis Grose observes (says Denham) that those born on Christmas Day cannot see spirits; what a happiness this must have been seventy or eighty years ago for those who had the luck to be born on this day, when the whole earth was overrun with them
–and there then follows a list of 131 ‘supernatural beings’ of various kinds, beginning with ‘ghosts, boggles, bloody-bones, spirits, demons’, and ending with ‘silkies, cauld-lads, death-hearses, and goblins, and apparitions of every shape and make, kind and description’. The list contains beings drawn from both classical tradition and British folklore. Some are very familiar, some are evidently drawn from Denham’s own research, and some appear to be unique to the list. His sources for the lesser-known words are uncertain, but he does share material with such sources as Reginald Scot’s Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584). It is not a scholarly piece but just an opportunity to exhibit the vastness of the vocabulary of supernatural beings.
The second version (1851) is a separate Tract with a title page inscribed:
To all and singular the Ghosts, Hobgoblins, and Phantasms, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, These brief Pages are Fearlessly Inscribed, In utter defiance of their Power and Influence, By their verie hvmble Seruaunte, To Com’aund, M:A:D.
The list is essentially the same but now contains 165 items. The new names have been added en bloc at the end of the list, with a few rearrangements and changes in spelling, and seven quasi-scholarly footnotes.
The third version (1853) is similar, with almost the same title page. It contains 198 items and 31 footnotes. The additional new names have been inserted almost, but not quite, at the end of the list, i.e. within the section that was inserted in 1851. The word hobbits is the first word of the new section, which continues with ‘hobgoblins [a repetition: the word is already in the original list], brown-men, cowies, dunnies, wirrikows. . .’. Unfortunately, ‘hobbits’ is not footnoted.
The fourth version is the reprint in the Publications of the Folk-lore Society mentioned above, where the word hobbits was first detected. This is in all-important respects identical to the 1853 version. A very small number of changes appear to have been made, perhaps by the editor responsible for the republication.
The 1895 version would have been readily available in university libraries accessible to Tolkien (there is a copy in Oxford), and he was interested in folklore. Alternatively, he could have seen a list copied out by one of his friends or colleagues — someone like C. S. Lewis who read all kinds of abstruse writings. If there were any other unusual items in the list which also occurred in Tolkien’s writings, we might suspect that the Tract was the source for all of them; but even though such curious words might have been quite handy for some of his more light-hearted poems, there is no trace of them. There seems to be nothing that tips the scales in favour of the theory that he had somehow come across the word from the Tract.
Even if Tolkien had in fact picked the word up from the Tract, this would only replace one mystery with another, for we do not know where Denham found the word, or what its meaning and etymology are. The other words newly added to Denham’s list do not seem to be traceable to particular sources that might contain hobbit, unnoticed.
It is possible that the first syllable hob– is the same as that of the next word in the list, hobgoblin. This element hob (OED: HOB n. 1, sense 2a) has the same meaning as the full word hobgoblin (but is about a century or so older). It originated as a familiar form of Rob, short for Robert (of which Robin, used in the sprite name Robin Goodfellow, is a diminutive). It could be hypothesized that hobbit is a derivative of this word hob; the ending –it could be explained as the diminutive suffix more usually spelt –et, found in midget, moppet, and snippet, and the word would mean ‘a small goblin or sprite’.
Another idea is that it might be a shortening of hobbity-hoy, a variant (quoted by the OED from a glossary of Yorkshire dialect) of hobbledehoy, meaning ‘a clumsy or awkward youth’: of course this is not a supernatural being, but not all Denham’s words actually are. Either of these suggestions requires the assumption that it was a genuine word used by country people and recorded by Denham or an informant of his, but by no one else.
Alternatively, could the word have been suggested to Tolkien by something other than the Tract? There is the distinct possibility that a similar word (not necessarily with the meaning he gave to it) listed in the OED might have lodged, submerged, in his memory. One candidate is the word hobbity-hoy already mentioned. Another is the entry howitz, haubitz, meaning ‘howitzer’, which has the variant spellings (unchanged in the plural) hobbits or hobits, illustrated by the following quotations:
Hobits are a sort of small Mortars from 6 to 8 Inches Diameter. Their Carriages are like those of Guns, only much shorter.
(J. Harris Lexicon Technicum II (1710))
Little Hobbits charged with the various kinds of Fire-Balls.
(G. Shelvocke Artillery (1729) V. 377)
When one recalls that Bilbo meant a kind of sword, and was often used in the 17th and 18th centuries as the name of a sword personified, the idea seems quite attractive. However, this is just one more unproven speculation; the real origin of Tolkien’s word remains obscure.
This article originally appeared on the OUPBlog.
Photo credit: Dori OConnell / iStock.com.
The opinions and other information contained in OxfordWords blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press. | <urn:uuid:f6af01a3-83af-4436-985b-033780873659> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2013/01/a-definition-of-hobbit-for-the-oed/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396949.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00032-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96787 | 3,292 | 3.46875 | 3 |
Agriculture Trade Agreements:
Selected Implementation Issues
T-NSIAD-98-106: Published: Feb 26, 1998. Publicly Released: Feb 26, 1998.
- Full Report:
GAO discussed the implementation of certain agricultural provisions of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), focusing on: (1) the impact of measures to protect human, animal or plant life or health--referred to as sanitary and phytosantiary (SPS) measures; and (2) state trading enterprises (STEs).
GAO noted that: (1) the Uruguay Round and NAFTA included significant provisions to liberalize agricultural trade; (2) while forecasters have estimated that increases in agricultural trade would account for a sizeable portion of the Uruguay Round and NAFTA agreements' projected benefits to the United States, challenges exist for ensuring their full implementation; (3) the World Trade Organization's (WTO) agreement on the application of sanitary and phytosanitiary measures, and chapter 7 of NAFTA, established guidelines regarding the appropriate use of SPS measures in relation to trade; (4) although the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has identified some foreign SPS measures as key barriers to U.S. agricultural exports, GAO's recent report to Congress found several weaknesses in the federal government's approach to identifying and addressing such measures; (5) because of these weaknesses, the federal government cannot be assured that it is adequately monitoring other countries' compliance with the WTO or NAFTA SPS provisions and effectively protecting the interests of U.S. agricultural exporters; (6) USTR and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) have primary responsibility for addressing agricultural trade issues, and they receive technical support from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of State; (7) absent a coordinated approach for addressing foreign SPS measures, the specific role of USDA regulatory and research agencies in resolving SPS has not been clearly defined; (8) WTO and USTR officials suggest that member countries appear to have focused on implementing provisions of the SPS agreement that enable them to resolve SPS disputes as they arise; (9) the agricultural and SPS agreements of the Uruguay Round were intended to move member nations toward establishing a market-oriented agricultural trading system by minimizing government involvement in regulating agricultural markets; (10) as a result of the Uruguay Round, the WTO officially defined STEs and addressed procedural weaknesses of article XVII by improving the process for obtaining and reviewing information; (11) in the absence of complete and transparent information on the activities of STEs, member countries are hindered in determining whether STEs operate in accordance with GATT disciplines and whether they have a trade-distorting effect on the global market; and (12) U.S. agriculture interests have expressed concern regarding the potential of STEs to distort trade, and USDA officials have said that a focused U.S. effort to address STEs is vitally important. | <urn:uuid:0cac7b41-ac4f-4bb2-8e0f-1b0367c8fcfd> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.gao.gov/products/T-NSIAD-98-106 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783392069.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154952-00113-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93835 | 628 | 2.71875 | 3 |
At the recent Middle East spectrum management conference there was lengthy discussion about how much spectrum would be needed and when. One parallel issue which was raised though time precluded complete discussion was the subject of harmonisation, or rather the definition and possible re-definition of harmonisation to speed up that spectrum release.
Harmonisation is not well defined and spectrum managers have found various interpretations. Harmonisation is defined in ECC Report 80 as the “designation of a band for a specified application”. In Europe, the permitted applications are registered in EFIS, the European Frequency Information System. In EFIS, allocations, applications, band plans and technologies can be compared country by country – effectively viewing the degree to which harmonisation has been achieved. This leads us to conclude that harmonisation is the agreement between countries to use a common set of allocations, applications, band plans and technologies band by band.
Customers Drive Spectrum Policy
But the customer should be driving spectrum policy through industry and the NRAs. Let’s look from the customer’s view. In this case the mobile communications customer. At that same conference any mobile user would benefit from 2G 900MHz and 3G 2100MHz services. In the hotel he or she could connect over WiFi. And if they had a WiMAX account, there was 2.3GHz WiMAX fixed access too. So does the customer care about harmonisation? Does he care that the 2100MHz channels are offset in frequency from the band plan used in the countries adjacent? This offset means that the band plan is different. The band is, by the above definition, not harmonised.
The customer is roaming. Do they care that in their home country the 2100MHz band is still in the hands of the military and that the 1800MHz band is not used yet in the host country in which they are now operating? In all cases the answer has to be no. They only care about accessing the services and applications that they need. Harmonisation in the Middle East is still fragmented and this makes the region a good testing ground for new theories. The mobile network deployments there are a real-life example of why we need not demand strict harmonisation in the future. Customers can still derive the required benefit without strict historically defined harmonisation.
Benefits of Harmonisation
On many mobile devices in that conference hall, connection was available via a connection mix of about twenty allocations, applications, band plans and technologies. Today’s devices have multi-band, multi-application and multi-technology capability. Roaming is a network-level facility, requiring only operability on the roamed network independent of harmonisation. And we see the result of economies of scale in the high street in every town: low handset prices. By all of this evidence, roaming and economies are not now issues. That leaves border coordination.
Network design in the borderlands is a complex engineering problem that we have learned to cope with. We’ve developed the methods and have reduced interference to manageable levels, even when very dissimilar allocations, applications, band plans and technologies are used on either side. So whilst there’s complexity, the problems are not insurmountable. Strict harmonisation across borders is not essential though a degree of coordination is desirable (for example, at least agreeing a common service such as ‘mobile’).
Dis-benefits of Harmonisation
The most significant downside of harmonisation is that it slows decision making and hence slows industry’s access to spectrum. It takes huge time to perfectly harmonise with neighbours let alone on a World basis. Whilst desirable, the dis-benefits far outweigh the benefits. It’s perhaps time we re-defined the word. Taking the customer’s perspective, harmonisation requires that NRAs achieve compatible allocations, applications, band plans and technologies across borders and throughout regions: compatible, not necessarily exactly the same. Compatible also means that there is scope for the markets to decide. Compatible is in line with the idea of service and technology neutrality.
Planning the Future
So how does an NRA proceed to plan for compatible service harmonisation? First the pre-requisite: the NRA must have significant competence in spectrum modelling since compatibility needs to be tested in the local context. Then the ITU conference structure can be used to give a high level framework for band use. Thereafter the NRA needs to negotiate through a system of bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements, the basket of allocation, application, band-plan and technologies that yield the flexibility that the NRA desires on behalf of its industry. That done, it then needs to enshrine these agreements in policy and in licence constraints when releasing spectrum to market. | <urn:uuid:afdb2e0b-9c49-4a0c-9ae7-70ff328a19c7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.icc-uk.com/blog/2011/05/redefining-harmonisation-essential-for-future-progress/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397696.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00018-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933624 | 962 | 2.546875 | 3 |
The Selters water was the high-quality carbonated water from the Taunus Mountains area in Germany."
London, Aug 16 - A 200-year-old bottle carrying either vodka or gin has been recovered from a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, media reports said.
The alcohol is drinkable. This means it would not cause poisoning. Apparently, however, it does not smell particularly good, Tomasz Bednarz, an underwater archaeologist at the National Maritime Museum in Poland, was quoted as saying.
The well-preserved and sealed bottle was found in F53.31 shipwreck in Gdansk Bay, close to the Polish coast.
The bottle dates back to the period of 1806-30.
Preliminary tests revealed the bottle contains a 14 percent alcohol distillate, which may be vodka or a type of gin called jenever - most likely diluted with water.
The chemical composition of the alcohol corresponds to that of the original brand of 'Selters' water that is engraved on the bottle, archaeologists said.
The Selters water was the high-quality carbonated water from the Taunus Mountains area in Germany.
The bottle was manufactured in Ranschbach, Germany, a town located about 40 km away from the springs of Selters water, reports added. | <urn:uuid:6deadad8-f411-4e93-bf5b-8fdf93386a6f> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nerve.in/news:2535002396510 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396106.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00170-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.97265 | 273 | 2.765625 | 3 |
This is part of a Live Science series of articles on the weekly changes that a pregnant woman's body goes through as it adapts to the growing needs of the fetus inside her.
In the third week of pregnancy, it's possible that a woman won't yet know that she is pregnant. There won't be any major outward changes in her body, although some pregnancy symptoms may have started.
A pregnancy's timeline begins the first day of a woman's last menstrual period. Home pregnancy tests are designed to be used a week after a woman's missed period, so she should wait until then to avoid anxiety over a false negative test and to keep from wasting money.
At this stage in the pregnancy, the basal body temperature — your body temperature when you are completely at rest — will be high. You may notice some mild cramping, usually from one side. This pain is called mittelschmerz — German for "middle pain" — is associated with ovulation, when the ovary is releasing an egg. Some women will experience an increase in vaginal discharge or spotting, caused by the egg burrowing into the uterine lining. An absence of spotting is not a cause for concern, as the majority of women do not spot during the first few weeks of pregnancy.
Other symptoms of the pregnancy at this point include fatigue and exhaustion. Also, higher hormone levels direct more blood flow to the breasts, causing them to be tender and sore. The rapidly rising levels of estrogen may even cause a heightened sense of smell. Though morning sickness doesn't usually begin for a few weeks, some women may experience nausea or vomiting at this stage. You may start craving certain foods, while foods that you previously enjoyed will start to taste differently.
In weeks 1 and 2 of pregnancy, the fertilized egg moves into the uterus and becomes a blastocyte, or blastocyst — a very tiny group of cells, the size of the head of a pin. The part that develops into the placenta begins to produce human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), a pregnancy hormone. The hCG alerts your ovaries to stop releasing eggs and increases production of estrogen and progesterone. As a result, your uterus will stop shedding its lining, and placental growth will begin. This is the hormone that pregnancy tests look for, so you may be able to take such a test at this time and get proof that you are pregnant. Because this stage is different for each woman, however, you may need to wait a few more days before the test detects hCG.
The area that will become the amniotic sac begins to fill with amniotic fluid, which keeps the fetus cushioned and safe. The blastocyst receives all vital nutrients through blood vessels, though the placenta will eventually take over this task. Basic development continues at this point, with the brain, spinal code, heart and gastrointestinal tract beginning to form.
Diet and exercise
At this point and throughout the pregnancy, you should avoid alcohol, caffeine, recreational drugs and smoking. The fetus will take in everything that you do, and you don't want to inhibit any fetal development. You should also avoid certain medications and foods; consult with your health care provider to make sure none of your medications are harmful to the fetus.
This is when you should start developing good eating habits. To help the fetus grow, What to Expect, a pregnancy advice website, suggests eating three servings of lean protein on a daily basis. This will help with tissue development. One serving is roughly three ounces (85 grams), or the size of a deck of playing cards. This could be lean beef, chicken, legumes or tofu. Lean red meat will also help with your iron intake, which you need to support the increased blood volume. Add some foods rich in vitamin C, like oranges and berries, to help with iron absorption.
Folic acid is also very important at this stage, as is calcium. Leafy greens like spinach deliver both of these nutrients, which help with bone development and avoiding birth defects. Citrus foods are also naturally high in folate, so a calcium-enriched orange juice is a great addition to any breakfast. Talk to your health care provider about adding a prenatal vitamin to your diet.
The American Pregnancy Association recommends talking to your health care provider before beginning or continuing an exercise routine, but exercise is very important at this stage. Focus on cardiovascular health to keep your heart healthy and strength training to help lessen the potential for lower back pain throughout the pregnancy. | <urn:uuid:39c4b03b-3a62-491e-8cea-a5ac95424e3c> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.livescience.com/47143-3-weeks-pregnant.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395039.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00028-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950277 | 923 | 3.671875 | 4 |
YBOCS, the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale, has become the preferred measurement tool for OCD. It is important to remember that the YBOCS is not a diagnostic tool. Rather, it is a scale used to gague the severity and nature of OCD symptoms.
The scale can be measured periodically over the course of OCD treatment to gague improvement.
The YBOCS: A Two-Part Interview
The YBOCS is intended to be conducted as a one-on-one interview between the patient and a medical health professional or clinician. The interviewer begins with a checklist of symptoms. Then the patient chooses three most prominent or disturbing symptoms and the scale is used to rate the severity the these three most-distressing symptoms.
The YBOCS Checklist
The Checklist asks the patient to simply state whether or not s/he has or has had in the past certain types of obsessions or compulsions. Both obsessions and compulsions are grouped into broad categories of symptoms:
- Aggressive Obsessions
- Contamination Obsessions
- Sexual Obsessions
- Need for Symmetry or Exactness
- Somatic Obsessions (hypochondria or body appearance)
- Repeating Rituals
- Mental Rituals other than checking/counting
The YBOCS Scale
Once three target symptoms have been identified by the patient, the patient is asked to grade them in severity relative to:
- Time Occupied by Obsessive Thoughts
- Interference Due to Obsessive Thoughts
- Distress Associated With Obsessive Thoughts
- Resistance Against Obsessions
- Degree of Control Over Obsessive Thoughts
- Time Spent Performing Compulsive Behaviors
- Interference Due to Compulsive Behaviors
- Distress Associated with Compulsive Behaviors
- Resistance Against Compulsions
- Degree of Control Over Compulsive Behavior
After the checklist and scale have been completed, a score is tallied and the severity of OCD is graded as either Subclinical, Mild, Moderate, Severe, or Extreme.
The YBOCS Scale was developed by:
- Dr. Wayne K. Goodman, MD, Professor and Chair of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine
- Lawrence H. Price, MD, Professor, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University
- Steven A. Rasmussen, MD, MMS, Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Brown University
- WK Goodman et al, "The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale," Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1989; 46:1006-1011.
- Goodman WK, Price LH, Rasmussen SA, ct al.: The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-
BOCS): Part II. Validity. Arch Gen Psvchiatry (46:1012-1016, 1989).
- Stanford School of Medicine
- CNS Forum
- Additional information regarding the development, use, and psychometric properties of the YBOCS can be found in Goodman WK, Price LH, Rasmussen SA, et al.: The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS): Part I. Development, use, and reliability. Arch Gen Psychiatry (46:1006~1011, 1989). | <urn:uuid:ed954925-8af7-4991-999e-12e0de966f04> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.brainphysics.com/ybocs.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398216.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00055-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.857913 | 684 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Typhoid fever, also known as enteric fever, bilious fever or Yellow Jack, is an illness caused by the bacterium Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi. Common worldwide, it is transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with feces from an infected person. The bacteria then perforate through the intestinal wall and are phagocytosed by macrophages. Salmonella Typhi then alters its structure to resist destruction and allow them to exist within the macrophage. This renders them resistant to damage by PMN’s, complement and the immune response. The organism is then spread via the lymphatics while inside the macrophages. This gives them access to the Reticulo-Endothelial System and then to the different organs throughout the body. The organism is a Gram-negative short bacillus that is motile due to its peritrichous flagella. The bacteria grows best at 37°C (human body temperature).
Symptoms of Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever is characterized by a sustained fever as high as 40°C (104°F), profuse sweating, gastroenteritis, and nonbloody diarrhea. Less commonly a rash of flat, rose-colored spots may appear.
Classically, the course of untreated typhoid fever is divided into four individual stages, each lasting approximately one week. In the first week, there is a slowly rising temperature with relative bradycardia, malaise, headache and cough. Epistaxis is seen in a quarter of cases and abdominal pain is also possible. There is leukopenia with eosinopenia and relative lymphocytosis, a positive diazo reaction and blood cultures are positive for Salmonella Typhi or Paratyphi. The classic Widal test is negative in the first week.
In the second week of the infection, the patient lies prostrated with high fever in plateau around 104°F (40°C) and bradycardia (Sphygmo-thermic dissociation), classically with a dicrotic pulse wave. Delirium is frequent, frequently calm, but sometimes agitated. This delirium gives to typhoid the nickname of “nervous fever”. Rose spots appear on the lower chest and abdomen in around 1/3 patients. There are rhonchi in lung bases. The abdomen is distended and painful in the right lower quadrant where borborygmi can be heard. Diarrhea can occur in this stage: six to eight stools in a day, green with a characteristic smell, comparable to pea-soup. However, constipation is also frequent. The spleen and liver are enlarged (hepatosplenomegaly) and tender and there is elevation of liver transaminases. The Widal reaction is strongly positive with antiO and antiH antibodies. Blood cultures are sometimes still positive at this stage.
In the third week of typhoid fever a number of complications can occur:
- Intestinal hemorrhage due to bleeding in congested Peyer’s patches; this can be very serious but is usually non-fatal.
- Intestinal perforation in distal ileum: this is a very serious complication and is frequently fatal. It may occur without alarming symptoms until septicaemia or diffuse peritonitis sets in.
- Metastatic abscesses, cholecystitis, endocarditis and osteitis
The fever is still very high and oscillates very little over 24 hours. Dehydration ensues and the patient is delirious (typhoid state). By the end of third week defervescence commences that prolongs itself in the fourth week.
Diagnosis for Typhoid fever
Diagnosis is made by blood, bone marrow or stool cultures and with the Widal test (demonstration of salmonella antibodies against antigens O-somatic and H-flagellar). In epidemics and less wealthy countries, after excluding malaria, dysentery or pneumonia, a therapeutic trial time with chloramphenicol is generally undertaken while awaiting the results of Widal test and blood cultures.
Treatment of Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever in most cases is not fatal. Antibiotics, such as ampicillin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and ciprofloxacin, have been commonly used to treat typhoid fever in developed countries. Prompt treatment of the disease with antibiotics reduces the case-fatality rate to approximately 1%.
When untreated, typhoid fever persists for three weeks to a month. Death occurs in between 10% and 30% of untreated cases.
Resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole and streptomycin is now common, and these agents have not been used as first line treatment now for almost 20 years. Typhoid that is resistant to these agents is known as multidrug-resistant typhoid (MDR typhoid).
Ciprofloxacin resistance is an increasing problem, especially in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Many centres are therefore moving away from using ciprofloxacin as first line for treating suspected typhoid originating in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand or Vietnam. For these patients, the recommended first line treatment is ceftriaxone.
There is a separate problem with laboratory testing for reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin: current recommendations are that isolates should be tested simultaneously against ciprofloxacin (CIP) and against nalidixic acid (NAL), and that isolates that are sensitive to both CIP and NAL should be reported as “sensitive to ciprofloxacin”, but that isolates testing sensitive to CIP but not to NAL should be reported as “reduced sensitivity to ciprofloxacin”. However, an analysis of 271 isolates showed that around 18% of isolates with a reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin (MIC 0.125–1.0 mg/l) would not be picked up by this method. It not certain how this problem can be solved, because most laboratories around the world (including the West) are dependent disc testing and cannot test for MICs.
Prevention for Typhoid fever
Sanitation and hygiene are the critical measures that can be taken to prevent typhoid. Typhoid does not affect animals and therefore transmission is only from human to human. Typhoid can only spread in environments where human faeces or urine are able to come into contact with food or drinking water. Careful food preparation and washing of hands are therefore crucial to preventing typhoid.
There are two vaccines currently recommended by the World Health Organisation for the prevention of typhoid: these are the live, oral Ty21a vaccine (sold as Vivotif Berna) and the injectable Vi capsular polysaccharide vaccine (sold as Typhim Vi). Both are between 50 to 80% protective and are recommended for travellers to areas where typhoid is endemic. There exists an older killed whole-cell vaccine that is still used in countries where the newer preparations are not available, but this vaccine is no longer recommended for use, because it has a higher rate of side effects (mainly pain and inflammation at the site of the injection).
Homeopathy Treatment for Typhoid fever
Keywords: homeopathy, homeopathic, treatment, cure, remedy, remedies, medicine
Homeopathy treats the person as a whole. It means that homeopathic treatment focuses on the patient as a person, as well as his pathological condition. The homeopathic medicines are selected after a full individualizing examination and case-analysis, which includes the medical history of the patient, physical and mental constitution, family history, presenting symptoms, underlying pathology, possible causative factors etc. A miasmatic tendency (predisposition/susceptibility) is also often taken into account for the treatment of chronic conditions. A homeopathy doctor tries to treat more than just the presenting symptoms. The focus is usually on what caused the disease condition? Why ‘this patient’ is sick ‘this way’. The disease diagnosis is important but in homeopathy, the cause of disease is not just probed to the level of bacteria and viruses. Other factors like mental, emotional and physical stress that could predispose a person to illness are also looked for. No a days, even modern medicine also considers a large number of diseases as psychosomatic. The correct homeopathy remedy tries to correct this disease predisposition. The focus is not on curing the disease but to cure the person who is sick, to restore the health. If a disease pathology is not very advanced, homeopathy remedies do give a hope for cure but even in incurable cases, the quality of life can be greatly improved with homeopathic medicines.
The homeopathic remedies (medicines) given below indicate the therapeutic affinity but this is not a complete and definite guide to the homeopathy treatment of this condition. The symptoms listed against each homeopathic remedy may not be directly related to this disease because in homeopathy general symptoms and constitutional indications are also taken into account for selecting a remedy. To study any of the following remedies in more detail, please visit the Materia Medica section at www.Hpathy.com.
None of these medicines should be taken without professional advice and guidance.
Homeopathy Remedies for Typhoid fever :
Absin.,. acet-ac., aesc-g., agar., ail., alum., alumin., ant-t., am-c., anac., anthr., apis., apoc., arg-n., arn., ars., arum-t., asar., astac., atro., aur., bapt., bar-c., bell., berb., bor., bry., calad., calc., camph., canth., caps., carb-an., carb-v., carb-ac., cast., cham., chel., chim., chin-a., chin-s., chlor., chlf., cic., chin., cimic., cinnam., cit-l., coca., cocc., coff., colch., con., croc., crot-h., cupr., dig., dor., dulc., echi., erig., eucal.., ,eup-per., ferr., ferr-m.,. fl-ac., gels., glon., gymn.., ham., hep., hell., hippoz., hydr., hydr-ac., hyos., iod., ign., ip., iris., kali-c., kali-m., kali-p., kreos.,lach., lachn., laur., lept., lyc., mag-p., manc., meli., merc., merc-c., merc-d., merc-cy., mosch., mur-ac., nat-m., ,nit-ac., nit-s-d., nux-m., nux-v., op., ox-ac., petr., phos., ph-ac., pic-ac., psor., puls., pyrog., ran-s., ,rhus-t., rhus-v., samb., sec., sel., sep., sil., sin-n., spong., staph., stram., sulph., sul-ac., tarax., ter., urt-u., valer., verat., verat-v., zinc., zing.
Flying insects feeding on feces may occasionally transfer the bacteria through poor hygiene habits and public sanitation conditions. Public education campaigns encouraging people to wash their hands after toileting and before handling food are an important component in controlling spread of the disease. According to statistics from the United States Center for Disease Control, the chlorination of drinking water has led to dramatic decreases in the transmission of typhoid fever in the U.S.
A person may become an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever, suffering no symptoms, but capable of infecting others. According to the Centers for Disease Control approximately 5% of people who contract typhoid continue to carry the disease after they recover. The most famous asymptomatic carrier was Typhoid Mary. She was a young cook that was responsible for infecting about 47 people during her lifetime, killing three of the infected. This was the first time a perfectly healthy person was known to be responsible for an “epidemic”.
Many carriers of typhoid were locked into an isolation ward never to be released in order to prevent further typhoid cases. These people often deteriorated mentally, driven mad by the conditions they lived in.
With an estimated 16-33 million cases of annually resulting in 500,000 to 600,000 deaths in endemic areas, the World Health Organisation identifies typhoid as a serious public health problem. Its incidence is highest in children between 5 and 19 years old.
It is thought that cystic fibrosis may have risen to its present levels (1 in 1600 in UK) due to the heterozygous advantage that it confers against typhoid fever. The CFTR protein is present in both the lungs and the intestinal epithelium, and the mutant cystic fibrosis form of the CFTR protein prevents entry of the typhoid bacterium into the body through the intestinal epithelium.
Around 430–426 B.C., a devastating plague, which some believe to have been typhoid fever, killed one third of the population of Athens, including their leader Pericles. The balance of power shifted from Athens to Sparta, ending the Golden Age of Pericles that had marked Athenian dominance in the ancient world. Ancient historian Thucydides also contracted the disease, but he survived to write about the plague. His writings are the primary source on this outbreak. The cause of the plague has long been disputed, with modern academics and medical scientists considering epidemic typhus the most likely cause. However, a 2006 study detected DNA sequences similar to those of the bacterium responsible for typhoid fever. Other scientists have disputed the findings, citing serious methodologic flaws in the dental pulp-derived DNA study. The disease is most commonly transmitted through poor hygiene habits and public sanitation conditions; during the period in question, the whole population of Attica was besieged within the Long Walls and lived in tents.
In the late 19th century, typhoid fever mortality rate in Chicago averaged 65 per 100,000 people a year. The worst year was 1891, when the typhoid death rate was 174 per 100,000 persons. The most notorious carrier of typhoid fever—but by no means the most destructive—was Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary. In 1907, she became the first American carrier to be identified and traced. She was a cook in New York; some believe she was the source of infection for several hundred people. She is closely associated with forty-seven cases and three deaths. Public health authorities told Mary to give up working as a cook or have her gall bladder removed. Mary quit her job but returned later under a false name. She was detained and quarantined after another typhoid outbreak. She died of pneumonia after 26 years in quarantine.
In 1897, Almroth Edward Wright developed an effective vaccine.
Most developed countries saw declining rates of typhoid fever throughout first half of 20th century due to vaccinations and advances in public sanitation and hygiene. Antibiotics were introduced in clinical practice in 1942, greatly reducing mortality. At the present time, incidence of typhoid fever in developed countries is around 5 cases per 1,000,000 people per year.
An outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2004-05 recorded more than 42,000 cases and 214 deaths.
Famous typhoid victims
Famous people who have had the disease include:
- Abigail Adams, wife of former United States President John Adams
- Jean Baudrillard, cultural theorist, sociologist and philosopher
- Arnold Bennett, novelist
- Belle Boyd, female confederate spy
- Gonville Bromhead, Victoria Cross recipient for actions during Battle of Rorke’s Drift
- John Buford
- Martha Bulloch, mother of Theodore Roosevelt
- Stephen A. Douglas, US politician
- Anne Frank, Holocaust victim
- Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman
- Mark Hanna, US politician
- Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet
- Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria
- Mary Henrietta Kingsley
- William Wallace Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln
- Joseph Lucas
- James Martin (Australian soldier), Youngest known ANZAC
- Frank McCourt, contracted typhoid fever during his childhood, but survived
- Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, British prince consort, Queen Victoria‘s husband
- Franz Schubert, composer
- Joseph Smith Jr., first Prophet of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (also known as Mormons), contracted typhoid fever during childhood (7 years old), but survived
- Akif Ali Janjua
- Leland Stanford, Jr.
- Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales, original heir to the throne of James I of England
- George Warrington Steevens, journalist and writer
- Evangelista Torricelli
- Godfrey Weitzel, major general in the Union army during the American Civil War
- Wilbur Wright, brother of Orville Wright and inventor of the airplane
- Ignacio Zaragoza
- Ellen O’Hara, (Scarlett’s mother from “Gone With the Wind“), Suellen O’Hara and Carreen O’Hara (Scarlett’s sisters) suffer from Typhoid fever.
- Gilbert Blythe (of the Anne of Green Gables Series) almost dies of Typhoid fever in “Anne of the Island,” by L.M. Montgomery.
- Walter Blythe (son of Anne and Gilbert Blythe in the latter Anne of Green Gables books)was in recovery of Typhoid in “Rilla of Ingleside” and is seen as the reason why he doesn’t enlist at the onset of WWI.
- Johann “Hanno” Buddenbrook, in Thomas Mann’s novel, Buddenbrooks, dies of typhoid fever, and the book includes a long medical description of the disease and its effects.
- ^ Kotton C. Typhoid fever. MedlinePlus. URL: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001332.htm. Accessed on: May 4, 2007.
- ^ Giannella RA (1996). “Salmonella”, Baron’s Medical Microbiology (Baron S et al, eds.), 4th ed., Univ of Texas Medical Branch. ISBN 0-9631172-1-1.
- ^ “CDC Typhoid Fever“. Center for Disease Control (2005-10-25). Retrieved on 2007-10-02.
- ^ Ryan KJ, Ray CG (editors) (2004). Sherris Medical Microbiology, 4th ed., McGraw Hill. ISBN 0838585299.
- ^ Cooke FJ, Wain J, Threlfall EJ (2006). “Fluoroquinolone resistance in Salmonella Typhi (letter)”. Brit Med J 333 (7563): 353–4. doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7563.353-b.
- ^ World Health Organization (2008). “Typhoid vaccines: WHO position paper“. Weekly Epidemiological Record 83 (6): 49–60.
- ^ World Health Organisation (2008). “Typhoid vaccines: WHO position paper”. Weekly epidemiological record 83 (6): 49–60.
- ^ BBC on Long Grove Hospital Surrey GB url: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7523000/7523680.stm
- ^ a b “Typhoid Fever“. World Health Organisation. Retrieved on 2007-08-28.
- ^ Papagrigorakis MJ, Yapijakis C, Synodinos PN, Baziotopoulou-Valavani E (2006). “DNA examination of ancient dental pulp incriminates typhoid fever as a probable cause of the Plague of Athens”. Int J Infect Dis 10 (3): 206–14. PMID 16412683}.
- ^ Shapiro B, Rambaut A, Gilbert M (2006). “No proof that typhoid caused the Plague of Athens (a reply to Papagrigorakis et al.)”. Int J Infect Dis 10 (4): 334–5; author reply 335–6. doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2006.02.006. PMID 16730469.
- ^ “1900 Flow of Chicago River Reversed“. Chicago Timeline. Chicago Public Library. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ “Nova: The Most Dangerous Woman in America“. | <urn:uuid:f72da50b-47d2-4efe-b354-0c896dc185a6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.doctorbhatia.com/diseases-and-treatment/infectious-diseases/typhoid-fever-homeopathy-treatment-and-homeopathic-remedies/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396945.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00157-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905004 | 4,464 | 3.515625 | 4 |
The prostate gland is about the size of a walnut and surrounds the neck of a man’s bladder and urethra--the tube that carries urine from the bladder. It is partly muscular and partly glandular, with ducts opening into the prostatic portion of the urethra. It is made up of three lobes: a center lobe with one lobe on each side.
As part of the male reproductive system, the prostate gland’s primary function is to secrete a slightly alkaline fluid that forms part of the seminal fluid, a fluid that carries sperm. During male climax (orgasm), the muscular glands of the prostate help to propel the prostate fluid, in addition to sperm that was produced in the testicles, into the urethra. The semen then leaves the body out through the tip of the penis during ejaculation.
Click here to view the
Online Resources of Prostate Health | <urn:uuid:f74c736b-d6de-45c1-85c2-a8a0f3584b09> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.nyhq.org/diw/content.asp?pageid=P01257&language=Chinese | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395346.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00182-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945581 | 187 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Male-Based Taxonomy of Ants in Madagascar
My research focuses on taxonomy of male ants. Male-based taxonomy of ants offers to provide new insights into their taxonomy, phylogeny, ecology and conservation biology. Specialized characters often found only in male ants make them a substantive source of many new morphological information. For groups of ants difficult to distinguish via female characters, males often provide critical diagnostic characters. In practical terms, observing and analyzing male ants can yield information about colony dispersal strategies and the special role of males in reproduction.
Despite the promise offered by male-based ant taxonomy, a number of obstacles have hampered its widespread adoption. Existing information about male taxonomy is scattered among many sources, making taxonomic systematization difficult. Keys and diagnoses of male ants remain scarce and locally limited to just a few geographic regions. And current taxonomic diagnoses for ants are typically based onworker morphologies alone.
To establish male-based keys and their diagnoses for a particular region, comprehensive collections of both males and their conspecific workers is required. Most ideally, specimen collections should include the entire ant fauna of a region, but such comprehensive collections are quite rare.
The Malagasy ant collection at the California Academy of Sciences is an example of one such almost complete collection. Its comprehensive regional coverage offers the opportunity to address the problems of male-based taxonomy. The collection includes numerous males, most of which are associated with their workers, in a well-organized, databased, and imaged collection that is suitable for analysis using molecular tools.
Establishing an identification system for the male ants of the Malagasy region will be an important step toward systematizing taxonomic information of all males. The system will also contribute to conservation biology research in the highly diverse and endemic Malagasy region. | <urn:uuid:f559a183-480c-491a-bdbb-47f00548eb70> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/personnel/myoshimura/YOSHIMURACV/index.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00049-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93675 | 374 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Humanity’s technological and industrial development has brought an increasing accumulation of waste. Now, companies, governments and citizens look for ways to break that paradigm and reuse those materials, generating wealth from what was once viewed only as garbage.
There are countless factors which humanity can use to measure its own technological and economical development throughout the last centuries. The Industrial Revolution, the evolution in transportation, increased urbanization, the advancement of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, the power-generation plants – all these factors heightened the well-being of population, helping us to have a more pleasant and prolonged life. Since the increasing mechanization of manufacturing activity, which began in the second half of the 18th century (with the introduction of the steam engine and other innovations) to the present day, the production of wealth in the world has multiplied itself more than 10 times, consistently for the first time in the history of humanity.
However, the realization that all this progress implies in an ever growing production and accumulation of waste is as unwanted as it is unavoidable. All industrial processes leave debris and unused remains and contribute, even indirectly, to pollution. And people generate an increasing amount of discarded materials which, if not handled correctly, will turn into trash - and in dirt and waste. But “waste” and “trash” are not necessarily synonymous. Behind the generation of all kinds of unwanted matter, there’s another industry, made up of innovative initiatives, processes and ideas, facing the challenge of dealing with waste as a source of opportunities and generation of wealth. In this context, the so-called “3Rs” – reduce, reuse and recycle, in addition to other forms of reutilization – stand out not only as ways to give new applications to whatever remains, but also to save money and natural resources. “We will continue to see an increasing need to capture sources of waste and reuse them to help meet the global demand for materials, reducing the impact of getting these materials in their raw state,” said Steve Eminton, an English journalist and editor of LetsRecycle.com site, a reference in Europe about studies on waste management and initiatives linked to the 3Rs.
Author of the book Os Bilhões Jogados no Lixo (“The billions thrown in the trash”), the Brazilian economist Sabetai Calderoni debates the growing output of waste by society in Brazil and around the world (and the wasted wealth in incorrect disposal of these remains). “What society sees as ‘trash’ is actually the product of a mistaken approach to the materials” (read the interview). As a result, in addition to preventing waste generation, it is necessary for companies, governments and citizens to rethink the way they view these materials and the treatment given to them, seeking to preserve the environment and also getting the most out of these important resources.
The Korean company LG created the program ecoMobilization, to promote the collection of used electronics (of any brand). This avoids the increased accumulation of so-called e-waste, that contains toxic materials and heavy metals, besides reusing old appliances – recycling plastic and using metals such as gold and cobalt for other purposes.
Water: reuse’s prime target
There’s practically no industrial activities that can dispense water – and its importance for sustaining life on Earth needs no comments. Disposing of wastewater (industrial term for all water whose natural characteristics are changed after domestic or industrial consumption) in nature is not only an environmental hazard, but also represents the loss of a key raw material. Smart solutions to minimize water usage and make its treatment (and its subsequent reuse) more efficient are worldwide priorities. An example of high technology applied to water reuse is the Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS) developed by the public authorities at Orange County, California (USA). A three-step process – microfiltration, reverse osmosis and application of ultraviolet radiation and hydrogen peroxide – purifies wastewater that would be discharged into the Pacific Ocean. The result is a water whose quality and purity even surpass the standards required by federal and state laws for drinking water. The system can meet the needs of about 600,000 people – the world’s largest water purification system for potable use.
Rational use of water and the saving of this valuable resource is a priority for Petrobras. The Hydric Resources and Effluents Coordination at the company’s Safety, Environment, Energy Efficiency and Health (SMES) area is responsible for providing guidelines and tools that contribute to the rational use of water in all operations. Some of the company’s initiatives for the efficient management of the resource include projects such as the Guide for Assessment of Water Availability (that gives directions to operational units in the evaluation of water availability for its activities in the hydric basins where they are located); the Inventory of Water and Effluents (consolidating data about the volume and quality of collected water and the wastewater discarded by the installations); and the development at the Petrobras Research Center (Cenpes) of advanced technologies for treatment and reuse of water. “By 2015 we will double the volume of water reused by the company, which in 2010 was 17 billion liters. Besides reducing the demand for fresh water for its operations, the savings from rationalization and reuse activities ensure a safe source of water supply for Petrobras”, says Carlos Gonzalez, Petrobras’ coordinator of Hydrous Resources. Among the units that have reuse projects in course, Gonzales highlights the experiences at Cenpes and at the Vale do Paraíba Refinery (Revap, in the state of São Paulo); those initiatives will allow the reuse of hundreds of millions of liters of water per year.
Comperj: one of the biggest water reuse projects in the world
The Rio de Janeiro Petrochemical Complex (Comperj) is one of the major ventures in Petrobras’ history. It is scheduled to be fully operational by 2014 and will have the biggest project for water reuse in Brazil (and one of the biggest in the whole world): all the water used in its industrial processes will be supplied through reuse. Wastewater collected and treated at Rio de Janeiro will be transported to a storage station at the city of São Gonçalo through 17 km of submarine pipelines. From there, the water will be pumped to the Complex through more 32 km. At Comperj, the water will pass through new treatments and, after that, will be used in industrial processes. Next, most of the used water will receive another treatment to be reused again. The remainder will be treated and discarded according to environmental standards. The flow rate predicted for the project can reach 1,500 liters per second, the equivalent to the consumption of a city with 750,000 inhabitants.
After the recent extension of its facilities, Cenpes revised the projections about its water consumption, now reaching 800 million liters per year. To meet this demand, a station specialized in wastewater treatment and water reuse was built there. It should be fully operational in the second half of 2012, allowing for the reuse of approximately 600 million liters of water every year. This volume is enough to supply a town with 15,000 inhabitants for one year. Thus, about 75% of the volume of water required to the unit´s activities will come from captured rainwater and reused water.
Revap received in 2011 a new station for the treatment on industrial waste, with a capacity to treat up to 300,000 liters of effluents per hour. The project pioneered the use of membrane bioreactor technology (MBR) for biological treatment of oily effluents from refineries and included the modernization and extension of the refinery´s wastewater treatment station. It will allow the reuse of water for industrial purposes, saving up to 2.6 billion of liters every year.
From aluminum to gravel
“Recycling” is a watchword when it comes to sustainable economy. It is now a global industry that joins individual initiatives, government programs and private companies investments. Reusing discarded materials and products in order to transform them into new products is a business strategy that generates economy, protects nature, saves natural resources, diminishes energy expense and reduces the accumulation of waste. “The production, processing and disposal of materials in our modern economy of disposal not only wastes resources, but also energy”, argues Lester Brown, founder of Earth Policy Institute and author of Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble.
Aluminum cans, an universal symbol of recycling potential, are a fundamental part of Coca-Cola’s business. Not coincidentally, the beverage market giant is at the forefront of reutilization of materials in industrial processes. The British subsidiary of the company is a world example in waste management and recycling. In 2001, Coca-Cola has committed to reduce the amount of waste in its factories in the UK. By investing in recycling equipment and the sorting and separation of waste, besides keeping a continuous monitoring of its performance, the company managed to recycle 99.5% of its materials in 2010. Four of its plants (out of six) have already reduced to zero the sending of waste to landfills.
“Investing in the preservation of nature also saves money,” confirms Lucia Toledo Camara Neder, an Environment consultant at Petrobras’ Exploration and Production (E&P) area. Among the company’s efforts regarding the control and disposal of waste is the careful separation of all materials to be discarded by the production units. The offshore platforms, for example, generate scrap metal, old paint, chemicals, oily sludge (resulting from the separation process of oil) and plastic containers, among other types of waste. E&P’s Solid Waste Management Plan monitors and counts the amount of waste generated in each platform, and also determines the final destination of those residues.The sludge produced in the Campos Basin platforms, for example, goes to treatment units for waste oil and is used on cement furnaces. The scrap is auctioned and reused by the steel industry. “We are always investing in research on recycling alternatives for other types of waste. Currently we invest in research to reuse gravel, a waste generated at the drilling of wells, in order for it to be used in the ceramic industry (on porcelain-like floor tiles), and we are also researching the use of oily sludge as an asphalt component. And almost 100% of the residues of used lubricating oil can be used again, after being re-refined”, says Lucia.
Petrobras’ Waste and Impacted Areas Coordination, under the SMES area, was established in 2001 and sets the guidelines for improving waste management, as well as encouraging the use of new and cleaner treatment technologies. It also brings together the efforts of monitoring and reuse of materials that are discarded by the company as a whole. The Waste Minimization Project, initiated in 2009, identifies the potential for reduction at the generation sources, evaluates actions regarding energy and environmental efficiency and tests new technologies for recovery and reuse. The methodology focuses primarily on identifying measures to prevent the generation of waste and, only after that, acting to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. “We view minimization as an end in itself, looking at the generation of waste, analyzing its potential and evaluating what types of residues are best suited to be used as raw materials,” explains Claudio Henrique Guimarães Dias, Petrobras’ coordinator of Waste and Impacted Areas. “Additionally, we take care of the materials generated from the company’s products, as well as observing our partners and suppliers’ waste management practices.”
Reinjecting CO 2
The search for ways to manage and reuse the waste is not restricted to solids and liquids. Petrobras commited not to release to the atmosphere any of the carbon dioxide produced in the operation of the pre-salt reserves. To do that, the company created a program to develop and implement technologies to enable the capture, transport, storage and use of CO 2. One solution still under development is the reinjection of CO 2 back in the oil wells. In the pre-salt, the testing began in 2011 on a pilot well at the area of Lula, in the Santos Basin. Besides ensuring that the produced CO2 will not be vented to the atmosphere, the alternate injection of gas and water may increase the pressure inside the well, enhancing the oil’s fluidity and therefore its recovery potential (by increasing the amount of oil that can be extracted from the well).
Interface - one of the largest carpet manufacturers in the world - sets a good example for the recycling segment in the U.S.. The company collects used carpets from their customers and turns them into raw material for new ones. Since 1994, this has prevented the disposal of more than 70,000 tons of carpet.
Using plastic waste, Brazilian company wisewood Brazilian makes benches, poles, railroad ties, boards and planks out of "wood" plastic. Besides avoiding deforestation, the products can be recycled again at the end of its lifecycle (an average of 50 years).
Disposable stuff becomes energy
All over the world, transforming waste into sources of energy is an integral part of the 3Rs policy. A survey of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), the agency that monitors the use and disposal of residues and wastes in the whole planet, points out that, in Europe alone, about 70 million tons of garbage are used each year for energy production, generating electricity and heating for 25 million people. “It is a procedure that prevents the production of greenhouse effect gases such as givemethane, emiting less carbon dioxide than fossil fuels”, explains Greek analyst Efstratios Kalogirou, researcher and member of ISWA. “Along with recycling, the transformation of waste into energy is the most efficient and integrated way to solve the problem of garbage accumulation in the big cities”, he maintains.
Petrobras develops various activities for conversion of waste into new sources of energy. The so-called residual oils and fats – especially used cooking oil that would have been discarded – are already successfully transformed on a raw material for the biodiesel produced at the company’s biofuel plants, an ongoing project in Bahia and Ceará. About 600 collectors, affiliated to cooperatives or associations at these regions, collect the oil (that is donated by the population in cities around the biofuel plants) and sell it to Petrobras, an activity that also generates income and new jobs. Another way to extract energy from waste is to use the shells of the castor oil plant seeds (one of the oil seeds used for the production of biodiesel) as a fuel. “The companies contracted to peel the castor oil plant seeds use their shells to supply the boilers of the peeling machines. It’s a virtuous cycle, in which something that would be a residue becomes an energy source”, explains Ricardo Prado Millen, coordinator of Agricultural Development at Petrobras Biofuel, one of Petrobras’ subsidiaries.
This symbiosis between agribusiness and energy production, through the reuse of waste, reaches a culmination at the German city of Könnern, where is located the second largest biomethane plant in the world. From the remains (skins, straw and other debris)of the corn crop collected on 30 farms in the vicinity of the plant, eight giant tanks produce, by fermentation, 30 million cubic meters of biogas, which yields 15 million cubic meters of biomethane. The gas is injected directly into the domestic supply network in Northern Germany. In addition to generating energy, this form of waste reuse produces fertilizers as a byproduct, just like in the biodiesel case. When the plant opened in 2009, a representative of the German Biogas Association, Andrea Horbelt, said that by 2020 one fifth of the German natural gas demand can be met by biogas produced from agricultural waste.
Energetic ice cream
Unilever, the world’s largest ice cream manufacturer, announced the construction of a biodigester that can transform waste into energy. The apparatus will generate biogas from waste milk, cream, proteins, syrups and fruit pieces, supplying 40% of the energy demand at the factory where it will be installed, in the U.S.
Cities, people, governments
However, companies’ commitment to the reduction of the accumulation of waste and to give new uses for discarded materials is only part of the effort. Public authorities at national and city levels, along with society, need also to organize themselves and find ways to put into practice the ideals of the 3Rs. “There is no more time for us to wait for some big project that revolutionize São Paulo or any other major city. Local, informal initiatives need to be reinforced, in order to become models that can be replicated in various places. This is one possible way to solve the complex problems of urban centers”, said Natalia Garcia, creator of the project Cidades Para Pessoas (Cities for People), which researches urban planning ideas that can inspire Brazilian cities.
Some “pilot cities” are ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to integrating reduction, recycling and reuse to their urban design projects. They are urban centers that were planned with an infrastructure that minimizes energy consumption and interference with the environment in which they are inserted. One of the most interesting cases is the International Business District (IBD) of Songdo, South Korea, which will be complete in 2015. Songdo will have charging stations for electric cars, buildings that employ a large percentage of recycled building material and the use of desalinated sea water for irrigation. Also in the East and looking toward the future of urbanism is the Tianjin Eco-City, a collaborative project between China and Singapore that will create a city that, in the mid-2020s, will house 350,000 people. The Eco-Town should obtain a minimum of 50% of drinking water through reuse. A waste management system will maximize the potential for recycling; in addition, 90% of traffic in urban areas should be “green” (public transport, cycling, walking), reducing pollution and fuel consumption.
Other cities, already inhabited, overcome the everyday challenges related to waste. Calgary (Canada) was considered in 2010 the “greenest” city in the world by a global survey conducted by Mercer, an English research institute – especially for its waste removal services and its wastewater treatment. Arcosanti, an experimental city in the United States, presents the idea of “arcology” – a blend of architecture and ecology. The buildings are made from minerals found in the region, in integration with the geological panorama. The buildings are made to make the most of the sun as a light source; greenhouses in which plants are raised may also be used to retain warmth for heating during the winter. All of this guarantees a minimum level of interference in the natural landscape.
In Brazil, among the examples of sustainable cities stand out Curitiba, at the state of Paraná (the city was awarded in 2010 by Globe Sustainable City Award for its concern with environmental education) and Porto Alegre, at state of Rio Grande do Sul (which shows a high efficiency in waste collection and recycling and at the water treatment). However, there is still a lot to be done. Each year, the country produces 61 million tons of garbage, and, according to a recent research by Brazilian Association of Public Cleansing, only 1.4% of that total is recycled. This situation should change with the recent establishment of the National Solid Waste Policy, regulated by the law number 12,305 in 2010. The law stipulates that the federal government must develop a National Plan for Solid Waste and requires the extinction, by 2014, of all of the garbage dumps (to be replaced by controlled landfills) and the obligatory separation of organic waste (sent for composting) and recyclable material. It also defines the responsibility for the lifecycle of products – from production at the factory until the disposal by the final consumer – shall be shared amongst manufacturers, importers, traders, consumers and public services in urban sanitation. “The Plan will establish the concept of reverse logistics, requiring that manufacturers create a system to recycle the packaging of their products”, explains sociologist Elisabeth Greenberg, executive coordinator of the Polis Institute, who participated in the hearings that resulted in the document’s final draft.
To give new destinations to what is discarded, viewing opportunities to extract value from these materials: that is the challenge. The collaboration between companies, governments and citizens and the increasing awareness about the need for efficient management of waste is creating a scenario in which progress is not necessarily synonymous with more trash – but of a virtuous cycle of raw materials reuse and generation of wealth.
With the program "Clean Running", BS Colway, a company in the state of Paraná, collects used tires and turns them into raw material for road pavimentation, fuel in power plants or simply base materials for new tires. A tire discarded in nature can take up to 600 years to decmopose.
3R in the forest
At the Urucu Operations Base, at the Amazon, Petrobras maintains strict control of waste production and disposal. All organic waste (2.5 tons per day) passes through a composting process to be used as a fertilizer for reforestation and gardening. The recyclable materials (plastic, scrap metal, paper) go through screening and separation and are sent to specialized recycling industries. Hazardous waste such as sludge and oil are segregated from other materials, sent to Manaus and used in ovens for the cement industry.
The glycerin resulting from the production of biodiesel was initially sold to small customers, such as soap and cleaning products factories. Now it is exported mainly to China, where it is used in cosmetics, paints and coatings. The product is also used in an ecological way in the industry as a dust suppressant, and Petrobras is studying its use in oil exploration and production. “Today there is already a big market for glycerin and we are studying ways to reuse it as a fuel and animal feed,” explains Aline Costa de Andrade, coordinator of Product Quality at Petrobras Biofuel. Sludge and fatty acid, products of the biodiesel industry, are also sold to soap factories. And the residues from the processing of castor oil seeds (the so-called “pie”, a grainy paste with a small amount of oil) are used as fertilizers.
By: Marco Antonio Barbosa
Photos: Edu Monteiro / Fotonauta | <urn:uuid:cc79480a-932d-47d0-bc84-5ecfd0e29317> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.petrobras.com/en/magazine/post/rethinking-progress.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402479.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00004-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.937291 | 4,736 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Results through August 2010
The vertical bar on the left side of the graph above represents the initial reference measurement that we collected on the old asphalt before it was ground and repaved with new asphalt. The horizontal lines represent measurements on the four pavement types:
- older asphalt (aged)
- new hot mix asphalt, or control, pavement
- new polymer-modified quieter asphalt
- new rubberized quieter asphalt
As with any scientific test, we used a control pavement against which we can compare the new pavement types and their acoustical performance.
What are decibels and Hertz?
We measure the intensity of sound in decibels, which indicate a sound’s relative loudness, and Hertz, which is the tone or pitch of sound that people hear.
Decibels (dBA) from roadway noise are measured in A-weighting, which allows our noise meters to imitate the same frequencies that can be heard by the human ear. The decibel scale (pdf 334 kb) ranges from 0 decibels, the threshold of human hearing, to 140 decibels, where serious hearing damage can occur. The average human ear can only distinguish between two sound levels that are at least three dBA different in loudness.
Traffic noise typically ranges between 55 and 80 dBA along a highway right of way line. According to the Federal Highway Administration, roadway noise impacts start at the 67 dBA level. This is when people standing a few feet apart have trouble hearing each other in normal communication. It should be noted everyone has a different reaction and tolerance to various noise levels.
Most people only discern a difference in noise level when there is a three or more decibel change. This is equivalent to doubling traffic volumes, such as an increase of 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles on the road.
A Hertz (Hz) is the measurement we use when studying the tone or pitch of sound that people hear. The higher a noise's Hz level, the higher it sounds. People generally hear the range between 20 and 10,000 Hz. Around the 1,000 Hz frequency are sounds that many people cannot ignore: crying babies, rushing streams and traffic noise. | <urn:uuid:c1762741-d8be-497a-846e-0feef8b00805> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/QuieterPavement/520quieterpavementresults.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395621.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00054-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929217 | 448 | 3.84375 | 4 |
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The victory has dealt a severe blow to Japan's ambitions to advance right across the Pacific towards the US coast.
The tiny island, 1,000 miles north-west of Hawaii, was targeted as a potential launching pad for the Japanese advance.
The Japanese attacked in the early hours of 4 June with heavy air raids on the military base.
The US responded with a decisive counter-attack, using the US Pacific Fleet, army bombers and the marines. The Japanese were clearly taken by surprise by the scale of the American defence.
The battle was fought almost exclusively from aircraft carriers - only the second time this kind of fighting has been attempted.
The first was just a month ago, in the Battle of the Coral Sea, when the United States thwarted Japanese plans to invade Australia.
In that battle, the victory was not so decisive, and the United States lost one of its aircraft carriers, the USS Lexington.
Reporting on the end of the battle for Midway Island, the Commander-in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester Nimitz, said at least two enemy aircraft carriers had been completely destroyed, with all their aircraft, and at least two more seriously damaged.
Ten Japanese warships were also sunk or damaged.
By contrast, on the American side losses were relatively small. One American carrier was hit and some aeroplanes were lost.
Fighting is still continuing in the area, but although Admiral Nimitz stopped short of claiming the Japanese were defeated, he said, "a momentous victory is in the making."
He went on, "Pearl Harbor has now been partially avenged. Vengeance will not be complete until Japanese sea-power has been reduced to impotence. We have made substantial progress in that direction."
Meanwhile, fighting is continuing around the US naval base of Dutch Harbor, in Alaska. The Japanese are known to have landed on some of the westernmost Aleutian Islands, and bombed the harbour on 3 June.
No news has been received from the area since then.
The Japanese had invaded two Aleutian islands, Attu and Kiska, and attacked Dutch Harbor as a diversionary ploy to draw US forces away from the key battle at Midway.
But the US had broken Japanese military codes, and knew about the secret strategy - thus denying Japan an easy victory at Midway.
The loss of four aircraft carriers was more than the Japanese Navy could endure, and the battle proved a turning point in the Pacific War.
Six months to the day since the Japanese bombed the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor, they were placed on the defensive for the first time.
Slowly, the Americans drove them back, and eventually US forces occupied the major Japanese-held islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
The Japanese were finally forced to surrender on 15 August 1945 after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Japan remained under US occupation for seven years, and there is a large and controversial US military base on Okinawa to this day.
|Search ON THIS DAY by date| | <urn:uuid:69a6df76-f812-4fdf-95b8-370902666aa7> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/low/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3499000/3499378.stm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396222.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00054-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.981 | 633 | 3.015625 | 3 |
The easiest way to talk to someone else is face-to-face. If you can see the movements of a person’s lips and facial muscles, you can more easily work out what they’re saying, a fact made obvious if you’re trying to have a conversation in a noisy environment. These visual cues clue our brains in on how best to interpret the signals coming from our ears.
But what happens when that’s not possible, like when you’re chatting on the phone or listening to a recorded message? New research suggests that if you’ve spoken to someone before, your brain uses memories of their face to help decode what they’re saying when they’re not in front of you. Based on previous experience, It runs a simulation of the speaker’s face to fill in any information missing from the sound stream alone.
These results contradict a classical theory about hearing – the “auditory-only model” – which suggest that the brain deciphers the spoken word using only the signals it receives from the ears. The model has been opposed before, by earlier studies which found that people are better at identifying a speaker by voice if they have briefly seen that person speaking before. Katherina von Kriegstein from University College London extended these discoveries by showing that previous experience also helps us to work out what’s being said, as well as who said it.
She trained 34 volunteers to identify six male speakers by voice and name. The volunteers saw videos of three of the speakers as they talked, but the other three remained faceless, represented only by a drawing of their occupation. As a further catch, half of the volunteers had a condition called prosopagnosia or face blindness, that prevents them from recognising faces, but has no effect on their ability to recognise objects in general.
After the training, the Kriegstein tested the volunteers while they lay inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. They listened to short recordings of one of the six speakers and had to either work out who was speaking (“speaker recognition”) or what they were saying (“speech recognition”).
Kriegstein found that both prosopagnosics and controls were slightly better at recognising speech when they had seen the speaker’s face before. The improvement was small – between 1-2% – but that is still significant given that typical success rate for this task is greater than 90%. But of the two groups, only the controls were better at recognising speakers after seeing videos of them beforehand. They were 5% more accurate, while the prosopagnosics didn’t benefit at all.
Using the fMRI scanner, Kriegstein found that these ‘face benefits’ were reflected by the strength of neural activity in two parts of the brain. The first, the superior temporal sulcus (STS) detects facial movements (among other biological motion), of the kind that we use to help us make out the words of a person speaking in front of us. The stronger their activity in the STS, the more benefit the volunteers gained from having seeing videos of the speakers in the speech recognition task.
The second area, the fusiform face area (FFA), specialises in recognising faces and is often damaged in prosopagnosics. Unlike the STS, it played more of a role in the speaker recognition task but only the controls were more accurate at identifying speakers if they had strong activity in the FFA. So two separate networks that are involved in facial processing are active even when there are no faces to process.
Kriegstein concluded that the people pick up key visual elements of a stranger’s speech after less than two minutes of watching them talk, and we use these to store ‘facial signatures’ of new speakers. The brain effectively uses these to run ‘talking face’ simulations, to better decipher any voice it hears. It’s one of the reasons why phone conversations are easier if you’ve previously met the person at the other end of the line in the flesh.
Image: by Xenia | <urn:uuid:f8257b94-bf67-4a6f-ad43-bf3ca9a11535> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2008/04/21/talking-face-simulations-in-the-brain-help-us-work-out-whats-being-said/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00066-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965733 | 858 | 4.0625 | 4 |
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Reproductive Biology and Distribution of the Terciopelo, Bothrops asper Garman (Serpentes: Viperidae), in Costa Rica
Alejandro Solórzano and Luis Cerdas
Vol. 45, No. 4 (Dec., 1989), pp. 444-450
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3892835
Page Count: 7
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In Costa Rica, Bothrops asper is widely distributed in rainforests below 1500 m and exhibits different reproductive cycles according to location. On the Pacific versant, mating took place between September and November, and the females gave birth between April and June. The mean number of neonates was 18.6 (5-40) in this population. Neonates ranged in total length from 28.0-34.6 cm and in mass from 6.7-13.1 g. In the population of the Atlantic versant, mating was observed in March, and births occurred between September and November. The mean number of offspring was 41.1 (14-86) whereas the total length of neonates ranged from 27.0-36.5 cm, and mass from 6.1-20.2 g. In both populations, gestation time ranged from 6-8 mo, and the size of a litter correlated significantly with the size of the female. In newborn specimens, females were longer than males, especially in the Atlantic population, and females attained a larger adult length. Sexual dichromatism was evidenced by the presence of a yellow color in the tail of male neonates. Females reached sexual maturity when they had total body lengths of 110-120 cm, and males of 99.5 cm.
Herpetologica © 1989 Herpetologists' League | <urn:uuid:1ee2c075-7649-49a2-97d7-988116de2d72> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.jstor.org/stable/3892835 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397428.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920147 | 481 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Exhibitions in the Lincoln County Museum of History showcase historically significant artifacts and objects from the museum’s collections and loaned objects that fit into the themes of our long-term and temporary exhibitions. The exhibitions serve to educate our audiences about the history of Lincolnton and Lincoln County. In addition, staff organizations exhibitions for the purpose of evoking discussions about local history, material culture, and historic preservation. Artifacts and objects on display in our exhibitions help bridge the gap between the past and present, providing a tangible link to people, places, and events.
Currently, the museum has installations on Catawba Valley pottery, the iron industry in Lincoln County, and cabinetmakers Augustus P. James and Edgar James. | <urn:uuid:b0d0126d-13c8-49d7-8df4-1de5539c2590> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.lincolncountyhistory.com/exhibits/exhibits.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404405.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00013-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932251 | 148 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Tracing Math's Evolution
Print this page, and use it to help you complete the lesson.
Your group will choose one of the mathematicians you researched and develop a presentation about him/her. You will share your presentation with the rest of the class.
Decide on jobs for each member of your group. All of you should be involved in both preparation and presentation.
In your presentation, try to answer following questions:
- Where was this mathematician born?
- What was his/her date of birth?
- Where was he/she educated?
- What was his/her contribution to mathematics?
- Why is this an important contribution?
- Do you know why he/she chose his/her career?
- Do you know if he/she made his/her living from mathematics?
- Was he/she famous during his/her lifetime?
- Where and when did he/she die?
- What impresses you most about this mathematician?
Did your mathematician invent anything that is used today?
Was his/her work used in other inventions?
If you can find any objects or pictures of objects that are related to your mathematician's work or life, use them as part of your presentation. | <urn:uuid:a6ba420b-9793-48fb-b28c-b4d563d0990a> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/lessons/mathevolution/orgb.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783408828.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155008-00128-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953789 | 255 | 4 | 4 |
When sea ice forms, it releases salt into surface
waters. These waters become denser and sink to form the Arctic
haloclinea layer of cold water that acts as barrier between sea ice
and deeper warmer water that could melt the ice. WHOI researchers and their colleagues from around the world have been deploying ships and instruments to measure how the waters beneath the Arctic ice are changing.
(Illustration by Jayne Doucette, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) | <urn:uuid:b1fd5f8f-fcbe-4af1-a87a-3761d2b02374> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=80696&i=3305 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396459.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00053-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.933827 | 96 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Two Columbia University marine geologists, inviting incredulity, came
forward in 1996 with astonishing evidence suggesting that a catastrophic
flood of the Black Sea 7,600 years ago could have played a pivotal role in
the spread of early farming into Europe and much of Asia. The deluge also
may have cast such a long shadow over succeeding cultures that it inspired
the flood account in the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh and, in turn, the
story of Noah in the Book of Genesis. | <urn:uuid:e5216378-c5c3-4228-84f2-bd2ae524d2d8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www2.asa3.org/archive/asa/199901/0041.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397213.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00090-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935507 | 103 | 2.671875 | 3 |
And the biggest sector contributing to BC's ocean economy is... recreation! According to the Government of British Columbia, marine recreation and tourism contributes 3.8 billion dollars to the province's economy, about a third of the overall ocean economy.
It's not just recreation that depends on healthy, productive oceans. Tourism and seafood are also major contributors to the provincial economy.
If the Government of Canada wants the economy to be the Number One priority on the west coast, it's time to improve oceans management to protect the underwater riches that attract kayakers, divers, surfers, sport fishers, whale watchers and boaters. | <urn:uuid:50cd9cb5-5865-45db-b880-b2c4b7fb4956> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.davidsuzuki.org/issues/oceans/projects/healthy-oceans/pacific-ocean-stories/bcs-ocean-economy/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391766.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00120-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.914438 | 126 | 2.609375 | 3 |
A long-term follow-up study (HPV-023; NCT00518336) shows the sustained efficacy, immunogenicity and safety of GlaxoSmithKline's human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine Cervarix. Women vaccinated with the HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine were followed for more than nine years, and vaccine efficacy (VE) against incident infection was 100%. This is the longest follow-up report for a licensed HPV vaccine. Visit https://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/vaccines/article/29532/ for the full paper.
HPV and vaccination
Persistent infection with HPV has been clearly established as the necessary cause of the overwhelming majority of cervical cancer cases. At least 40 different HPV types are known to infect the genital mucosa, of which approximately 15 are associated with cervical cancer. Among these types, HPV-16 and HPV-18 are the most common and responsible for approximately 70% of cervical cancers. Both HPV-16 and HPV-18 are included in the two licensed HPV vaccines (GSK's Cervarix and Merck's Gardasil), which are now widely available and used. Evidence of long-term efficacy against vaccine HPV-types is very important, particularly with respect to maintaining public confidence in mass vaccination programs. HPV vaccines initially were recommended for young girls and women 9-25 years of age who have not been exposed to HPV. Since HPV causes not only cervical cancer but also genital warts and anal cancer, HPV vaccines are also recommended for boys in many countries.
Previous clinical studies
An initial double-blind, randomized, multi-center vaccination study (HPV-001; NCT00689741) was started in 2001, followed for up to 27 months, and then followed by a long-term study of the entire cohort for up to 77 months (6,4 years) post initial vaccination (HPV-007; NCT00120848). HPV-007 was followed by an additional extensive study, HPV-023, results of which were recently published in the journal Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics.
For this study (HPV-023), participants from Brazil were invited to continue follow-up. 437 women from five centers participated in this 36-month long-term follow-up for 113 months (9.4 years). The aim of the study was to evaluate efficacy against HPV-16/18 infection and associated cyto-histopathological abnormalities, persistence of immunogenicity, and safety of the vaccine. During HPV-023, anti-HPV-16/18 antibodies were measured annually by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and pseudovirion-based neutralisation assay (PBNA). Cervical samples were tested for HPV DNA every 6 months, and cyto-pathological examinations were performed annually.
Efficacy against HPV-16/18 infections
During HPV-023, no new HPV-16/18-associated infections or cyto-histopathological abnormalities occurred in the vaccine group. In particular, VE against HPV-16/18 incident infection was 100%. VE was 95.6% against incident infection over 9.4 years. Looking at secondary endpoints, the data showed no cases of either 6- or 12-month HPV-16/18 persistent infection in the vaccine group, versus four cases and one case, respectively, in the placebo group during the 26-months follow-up.
Efficacy against cyto-histopathological abnormalities
VE against cyto-histopathological abnormalities was another secondary endpoint of the study. VE was 97.1% against atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US), 95% against low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LISL), and 100% against cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 1 (CIN1+) and grade 2 (CIN2+) associated with HPV-16/18.
All vaccines remained seropositive to HPV-16/18, with antibody titers remaining several folds above natural infection levels, as measured by ELISA and PBNA. High and sustained levels of IgG antibodies were observed, reaching a plateau approximately 18 months after the first vaccine dose and remaining stable thereafter. Compared with levels following natural infection, IgG levels in the vaccine group were 10.8-fold and 10.0-fold higher for HPV-16 and HPV-18, respectively.
Confidence in mass vaccination programs
To date, these data represent the longest follow-up reported for a licensed HPV vaccine. There were no safety concerns. The study authors led by Dr Paulo S Naud from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) conclude that these results should provide confidence in the duration of protection offered by HPV mass vaccination programs existing in a number of countries around the world.
Dr Ronald Ellis, Editor-in-Chief of HV&I, comments: "HPV vaccine has been distinctive in having achieved 100% protective efficacy in licensure trials and showing excellent persistence of protective immunity. The data in this article show persistence of protection for about one decade, which should give adolescents and young adults an increased level of confidence in taking this vaccine and being protected against the development of cervical and other cancers."
|Contact: Andrew Thompson| | <urn:uuid:2ce421a1-281e-42e3-8091-0a05075a0c87> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.bio-medicine.org/biology-news-1/Sustained-efficacy--immunogenicity--and-safety-for-GlaxoSmithKlines-HPV-vaccine-37226-1/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397865.91/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00154-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951085 | 1,116 | 2.796875 | 3 |
PHARMACEUTICAL ENGINEERING Reactors and Fundamentals of Reactors Design for Chemical Reaction Dr. Sanju Nanda M.Pharm, Ph.D. (IIT Delhi) Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences M.D. University Rohtak – 124001 Haryana (24-01-2008)CONTENTSIntroductionBatch ProcessContinuous ProcessSemi Batch ProcessCatalytic ProcessesHomogeneous ReactionsHeterogeneous ReactionsReactor GeometryFundamentals of Reactor DesignDesign Procedure and Reactor DesigningReactor Designing- Mathematical ModelsBasic Elements of Reactor DesigningType of Reactor ModelsKeywordsChemical Reactions, Chemical Reactors, Batch, CSTR, Plug Flow, Reactor Designing.
2IntroductionA Chemical reaction is a process that results in the conversion of chemical substances. Thesubstance or substances initially involved in a chemical reaction are called reactants. Thesereactants are characterized by a chemical change and they yield one or more products. Theseproducts are generally different from the original reactants. Chemical reactions may be ofdifferent nature depending on the type of reactants, type of product desired, conditions andtime of the reaction, for example, synthesis, decomposition, displacement, percipitation,isomerization, acid-base, redox or organic reactions. These reactions are being given inTable 1, stating their area of utility, advantages, limitations and examples. Table 1 : Types Of Chemical Reactions Type of Reaction Area of Utility Advantages Limitations Examples Combinatio To synthesize new Two or more Some N2 + 3H2 n compounds reactants make on undesirable 2NH3 industrially useful byproducts may Nitrogen Hydrogen compound be produced Ammonia Decompositi Breakdown of More number of High energy Fractional distillation on larger, unuseful useful products involved of petroleum and compounds/ generated cokeA. complexes intoInor smaller usefulgani compoundsc Substitution Salt formation Obtaining Sometimes lead 2KI + Pb New compounds compounds of choice to (No3)2 formation which are otherwise unwanted/undesi Pot. Iodide Lead available with red substitution Nitrate difficulty 2KNO3 + PbI Pot. Nitrate Lead Iodide Isomerizatio A chemical Physico-chemical Sometimes give Thalidomide n compound properties may be undesirable undergoes a modified. compounds structural New compounds may rearrangement be obtained without any change in the atomic composition Esterificatio A reaction between Important Limited to CH3CH2OH + n an organic acid and pharmaceutical reaction between CH3COOH an alcohol forming compounds including an organic acid Methanol an ester and water. prodrugs can be or acid chloride Acetic AcidB. prepared CH3CH2OOCH3 +Orga H2Onic Methyl Acetate Hydrolysis A large molecule is New compounds may Just having water CH3COOCCH2CH3 + split into two be formed present as the H2O smaller molecules solvent does not Methyl propionate in the presence of make a reaction CH3OH + water a hydrolysis CH3CH2COOH reaction Methanol Propionic acid Hydrogenati Hydrogen is added New saturated Needs the CH2=CH2+H2 on across a double compounds may be presence of a CH3CH3 bond or a triple synthesized catalyst Ethene bond Ethane
3 Substitution One small group in New compounds may Being an organic CH3CH2OH+HCl C a molecule is be synthesized compound, H3CH2Cl+ replaced by another substitution Ethyl alcohol small group reactions are not Ethyl chloride so easy H2OChemical reactors are vessels designed to contain chemical reactions2. It is the site ofconversion of raw materials into products and is also called the heart of a chemical process.The design of a chemical reactor where bulk drugs would be synthesized on a commercialscale would depend on multiple aspects of chemical engineering. Since it is a very vital stepin the overall design of a process, designers ensure that the reaction proceeds with the highestefficiency towards the desired output, producing the highest yield of product in the most costeffective way.Reactors are designed based on features like mode of operation or types of phases present orthe geometry of reactors. They are thus called: • Batch or Continuous depending on the mode of operation. • Homogeneous or Heterogeneous depending upon the phases present.They may also be classified as : • Stirred Tank Reactor, or • Tubular Reactor, or • Packed Bed Reactor, or • Fluidized Bed Reactor,depending upon the flow pattern and manner in which the phases make contact with eachother. A detailed comparison of various chemical reactors is tabulated in Table-2. Table 2 : Comparison Of Chemical ReactorsS. Type of Principle of Advantages Limitations Area ofNo. Reactor Working Application1. Batch Reactor All reactants are • Suitable for small • Not Batch processes added at the scale production suitable for are used in commencement and • Suitable for large batch chemical (inks, the product processes where a sizes dyes, polymers) withdrawn at the range of different • It is a and food completion of the products or grades closed industry reaction. They are is to be produced system in conducted in tanks in the same which once attached with equipment the impellers, gas • Suitable for reactants bubbles or pumps. reactions are added requiring long in the reaction times reactor, • Suitable for they will reactions with come out as superior products selectivity only after the completion of the reaction 2. Continuous One or more fluid • Highly flexible • More Chemical
4 Stirred Tank reagents are device complex industry Reactor introduced into a • By products may and especially (CSTR) tank reactor be removed in expensive involving equipped with an between the than liquid/gas impeller while the reaction tubular reactions reactor effluent is • It is economically units recovered. A stepped beneficial to • All up concentration operate several calculations gradient exists CSTRs in series or performed in parallel. with • Reaction can be CSTRs carried out in assume horizontal as well perfect as vertical mixing reactors • At steady state, the flow rate in must equal the flow rate out, otherwise the tank will overflow or go empty 3 Plug Flow One or more fluid • Higher efficiency • Not The tubular Reactor (PFR) reagents are pumped than a CSTR of economical reactor is through a pipe or the same volume for small specially suited tube. These are • PFRs may have batches to cases needing characterized by several pipes or considerable continuous gradients tubes in parallel heat transfer, of concentration in • Both horizontal where high the direction of flow and vertical pressures and operations are very high or common very low • They can be temperatures jacketed occur • Reagents may be introduced at locations even other then inletBatch ProcessA process in which all the reactants are added together at the beginning of the process andproducts removed at the termination of the reaction is called a batch process. In this process,all the reagents are added at the commencement and no addition or withdrawal is made whilethe reaction is progressing (Fig. 1). Batch processes are suitable for small production and forprocesses where a range of different products or grades is to be produced in the sameequipment for example, pigments, dye stuff and polymers. Figure 1: Batch Process Figure 2: Continuous Process
5Continuous Process A process in which the reactants are fed to the reactor and the products or byproducts arewithdrawn in between while the reaction is still progressing (Fig. 2). For example, HaberProcess for the manufacture of Ammonia. Continuous production will normally give lowerproduction costs as compared to batch production, but it faces the limitation of lacking theflexibility of batch production. Continuous reactors are usually preferred for large scaleproduction.Semi Batch Process Process that do not fit in the definition of batch or a semibatch reactor is operated with bothcontinuous and batch inputs and outputs and are often referred to as semi continuous or semi-batch. In such semi-batch reactors, some of the reactants may be added or some of theproducts withdrawn as the reaction proceeds. A semi-continuous process can also be onewhich is interrupted periodically for some specific purpose, for example, for the regenerationof catalyst, or for removal of gas for example, a fermentor is loaded with a batch, whichconstantly produces carbon dioxide, which has to be removed continuously. Another exampleis chlorination of a liquid.Catalytic Processes Most of the chemical reactions either proceed in the presence of catalysts or increases theiryield in the presence of catalysts. A catalyst is a substance that, without itself undergoing anypermanent chemical change, increases the rate of a reaction. The rate of a catalytic reaction isproportional to the amount of catalyst the contact with a fluid phase reagents. This isproportional to the exposed area, efficiency of diffusion of reagents in and products out, typeof mixing (turbulent, etc). The assumption of perfect mixing cannot be assumed. A catalyticreaction pathway is often multistep with intermediates that are chemically bound to thecatalyst. Since the chemical binding is also a chemical reaction, it may affect the reactionkinetics. The behaviour of the catalyst is also a consideration. Particularly in hightemperature petrochemical processes, catalysts are deactivated by sintering, coking andsimilar processes.Homogeneous ReactionsHomogeneous reactions are those in which the reactants, products and any catalyst used formone continuous phase; for example, gaseous or liquid. Homogeneous gas phase reactors willalways be operated continuously. Tubular (Pipe line) reactors are normally used forhomogeneous gas phase reactions; for example, in the thermal cracking of petroleum, crudeoil fractions to ethylene, and the thermal decomposition of dichloroethane to vinyl chloride.Homogeneous liquid phase reactors may be batch or continuous. Batch reactions of single ormiscible liquids are almost invariably done in stirred or pump around tanks. The agitation isneeded to mix multiple feeds at the start and to enhance heat exchange with cooling orheating media during the process.Heterogeneous ReactionsIn a heterogeneous reaction two or more phases exist and the overriding problems in thereactor design is to promote mass transfer between the phases.The possible combination of phases are :1) Liquid-Liquid :- Liquid reactions of industrial importance are fairly numerous. For example, reactions such as the nitration of toluene or benzene with mixed acids, emulsion polymerizations, saponification, etc. Such reactions can be carried out in any kind of equipment that is suitable for physical extraction, including mixer-settlers
6 and towers of various kinds, for example empty or packed, still or agitated, etc. Mechanically agitated tanks are favoured because the interfacial area can be made large as much as 100 times that of spray towers. When agitation is sufficient to produce a homogeneous dispersion and the rate varies with further increase of agitation, mass-transfer rates are likely to be significant.2) Liquid-Solid :- The solid may be a reactant or catalyst. For example, platinum acts as a catalyst in the hydrogenation of oils. In the design of reactors for liquids in the presence of granular catalysts, account must be taken of heat transfer, pressure drop and contacting of the phases and sometimes provision for periodic or continuous regeneration of deteriorated catalyst. Several different kinds of vessel configurations for continuous processing are in commercial use. Most solid catalytic processes employ fixed beds. Although fluidized beds have the merit of nearly uniform temperature and can be designed for continuous regeneration, they cost more and more, difficult to operate, require extensive provisions for dust recovery, and suffer from back mixing.3) Liquid-Solid Gas :- In reactions involving gas, liquid and solid phases, the solid phase is generally a porous catalyst. For example, gasoline cracking using zeolite catalysts. It may be in a fixed bed or it may be suspended in fluid mixture. In general, the reaction occurs either in the liquid phase or at the liquid / solid interface. In trickle bed reactors both phases usually flow down, the liquid as a film over the packing. In flooded reactors, the gas and liquid flow upward through a fixed bed, the slurry reactors keep the solids in suspension mechanically; the overflow may be a clear liquid or a slurry, and the gas disengages from the vessel. In fluidized bed reactors a stable bed of solids is maintained in the vessel and only the fluid phases flow through, except for entrained very fine particles.4) Solid-Solid :-Many reactions of solids are industrially feasible only at elevated temperatures which are often obtained by contact with combustion gases, particularly when the reaction is done on a large scale. For example, decomposition of azides, diazo compounds and nitramines. A product of reaction also is often a gas that must diffuse away from a remaining solid, sometimes through a solid product. Thus thermal and mass-transfer resistances are major factors in the performance of solid reactions.5) Gas-Solid :- In some reactions, the solid either takes part in the reaction or act as a catalyst. For example, finely divided nickel is used in the preparation of nickel carbonyl (b.p. 420C). Other examples of solid /gas reactions include combustion of solid fuels, atmospheric corrosion, manufacture of hydrogen by action of steam on iron, chlorination of ores of uranium, titanium, zirconium and aluminum, conversion of ferrous oxide to magnetic ferric oxide in contact with reducing atmosphere of CO in combustion gases.6) Gas-Liquid :- In certain processes, liquid may either take part in the reaction or act as catalyst. Gas/liquid reaction processes are generally employed by the industry either for the purpose of gas purification or the removal of relatively small amounts of impurities such as CO2, CO, SO2, H2S, NO and others from air, natural gas, hydrogen for ammonia, synthesis, etc. This type of reaction is also utilized in the manufacture of pure products such as sulphuric acid, nitric acid, nitrates, phosphates, adipic acid,
7 etc. or processes like hydrogenation, halogenation oxidation, nitration, alkylation, etc. Bio-chemical processes such as fermentation oxidation of studies sludges, production of proteins etc. are also examples of gas/liquid reactions. There could be at least three ways in which the reaction between a gas and a liquid may be made to react, that is, the gas may be either dispersed as bubbles in the liquid (Fig. 3), the liquid may be dispersed as droplets in the gas (Fig. 4) or the liquid and gas are brought together as their films over a packing or wall (Fig. 5). The choice between these models is critical and is dependent on factors. Such as magnitude and distribution of the residence times of the phases, the power requirements, the scale of the operation, etc. Figure 3: Bubble Tower Figure 4: Spray TowerFigure 5: Falling Liquid Film Figure 6: CSTR JacketedFigure 7: CSTR with Internal coils Figure 8: CSTR with Internal TubesReactor GeometryThe reactors used for established processes are usually complex designs which have beendeveloped and evolved over a period of years to suit the requirements of the process, and are
8unique designs. However, it is convenient to classify reactor designs into the following broadcategories.A. Stirred Tank Reactors :- Stirred tank agitated reactors consist of a tank fitted with a mechanical agitator and a cooling jacket or coils (Fig. 6, Fig. 7, Fig. 8, Fig. 9, Fig. 10). They are operated as batch reactors or continuous reactors. Several reactors may be used in series.Figure 9: CSTR with External Heat Exchanger Figure 10: CSTR with Air HeaterThe stirred tank reactor can be considered the basic chemical reactor; modeling on a largescale the conventional laboratory flask. Tank sizes range from a few litres to several thousandlitres. They are used for homogeneous and heterogeneous liquid-liquid and liquid-gasreactions and for reactions that involve freely suspended solids, which are held in suspensionby the agitation. As the degree of agitation is under the designers control, stirred tank reactorsare particularly suitable for reactions where good mass transfer or heat transfer is required.When operated as a continuous process the composition in the reactor is constant and thesame as the product stream and except for very rapid reactions, this will limit the conversionthat can be obtained in one stage.The power requirements for agitation will depend on the degree of agitation required and willrange from about 0.2kW/m3 for moderate mixing to 2kW/m3 for intense mixing.B. Tubular Reactors : Tubular reactors are generally used for gaseous reactions, but are also suitable for some liquid phase reactions. If high heat transfer rates are required small diameter tubes are used to increase the surface area to volume ratio. Several tubes may be arranged in parallel, connected to a manifold or fitted into a tube sheet in a similar arrangement to a shell and tube heat exchangers. For high temperature reactions the tubes may be arranged in a furnace.C. Packed Bed Reactors :- There are two basic types of packed bed reactor; those in which the solid is a reactant and those in which the solid is a catalyst (Fig.11 and Fig. 12). In chemical process industries, the emphasize is mainly on the designing of catalytic reactors. Industrial packed bed catalytic reactors range in size from small tubes, a few centimeters diameter to large diameter packed beds. Packed-bed reactors are used for gas and gas-liquid reactions. Heat-transfer rates in large diameter packed beds are
9 poor therefore, where high heat-transfer rates are required, fluidised beds should be considered. Fig: 11: Packed Bed Reactor Fig. 12: Multibed Reactors with Interstage HeatersD. Fluidised Bed Reactors :- A fluidized-bed reactor (Fig. 13) is a combination of the two most common, packed-bed and stirred tank, continuous flow reactors. It is very important to chemical engineering because of its excellent heat and mass transfer characteristics. The essential features of a fluidised bed reactor is that the solids are held in suspension by the upward flow of the reacting fluid. This promotes high mass and heat transfer rates and good mixing. Heat-transfer coefficients in the order of 200 W/m2 0C to jackets and internal coils are typically obtained. The solids may be a catalyst, a reactant in fluidized combustion processes or an inert powder, added to promote heat transfer.Though the principal advantage of a fluidised bed over a fixed bed is the higher heat transfer rate, fluidised beds are also useful where it is necessary to transport large quantities of solids as part of the reaction processes, such as where catalysts are transferred to another vessel for regeneration.Fluidisation can only be used with relatively small sized particles, that is less than 300µm. This is the limitation of the process.Figure 13: Flow Distribution in a Fluidized bed Figure 14: Aerosol Nanoparticle ReactorFundamentals of Reactor Design The design of a chemical reactor deals with multiple aspects of chemical engineering.Chemical reactions, chemical energetics and equations/laws of thermodynamics play animportant role in the selection and design of chemical reactors.Chemical Reactions: Brief representation of the chemical change in terms of symbols andformulae of the reactants and products is called a chemical equation. For example, when zincreacts with hydrochloric acid, zinc chloride and hydrogen are produced.
10 Zinc + Hydrochloric acid Zinc chloride + HydrogenIf symbols and formulae of various reactants and products are used, the above reaction maybe represented as : Zn + HCl ZnCl2 + H2 ……….…(1)As per Dalton’s atomic theory that atoms are neither created nor destroyed during chemicalchanges, therefore the number of atoms of various elements should be equal on the reactantside as well as on the product side. Equations such as above, in which no attempt has beenmade to equalize the number of atoms of various elements on both the sides are calledSkeleton equations. Therefore, in order to equitize the number of atoms of various elements,various species are multiplied with appropriate numbers. This process is called balancing ofa chemical equation. The above equation (1) can be balanced by multiplying HCl with 2 Zn + 2 HCl ZnCl2 + H2 …………….(2)A chemical equation in which the number of atoms to each element is equal on the reactantside and product side is called a balanced equation.A chemical equation, therefore must fulfill the following conditions:a) It should represent, a true chemical change, and if a reaction is not possible between certain substances, it cannot be represented by a chemical equation.b) It should be balancedc) It should be molecular, i.e. all the species should be represented in their molecular form. For example, elementary gases like hydrogen, oxygen, etc., should be represented as H2 and O2.A chemical equation has both qualitative as well as quantitative significance. Qualitatively, achemical equation tells us the names of the various reactants and products. Quantitatively, itexpressesa) The relative number of molecules of the reactants and products taking part in the reaction.b) The relative number of moles of reactants and products.c) The relative volumes of gaseous reactants and products.For example : 2H2 + O2 2H2O ………………..(3)Qualitatively, it tells us that hydrogen and oxygen reacts to form water. Quantitatively, itconveys the following information.a) Two molecules of hydrogen react with one molecule of oxygen to form two molecules of water.b) Two moles of hydrogen react with one mole of oxygen to form two moles of water.c) 4 g of hydrogen react with 32 g of oxygen to form 36 g of water.
11d) Two volumes of hydrogen react with one volume of oxygen to form two volumes of water vapour.The chemical equation can be made more informative by incorporating the followingchanges: a) The physical states of reactants and products can be indicated by using the abbreviations, for example, (s) for solids, (l) for liquid, (g) for gas and (aq) for aqueous solution. For example, Zn(s) + 2HCl(aq) ZnCl2(aq) + H2(g) ……………..(4)b) In order to indicate the strength of acid or base, dil for dilute or conc for concentration is written before the formula of acid or base. Zn(s) + 2 dil HCl(aq) ZnCl2(aq) + H2(g) …………….(5)c) The reaction conditions such as presence of catalyst, temperature, pressure, etc., may be written above the arrow between the reactants and products. V2O5, 7750K 2SO2 (g) + O2(g) 2SO3(g) …………..(6)d) Heat change taking place during the reaction may be expressed in any one of the following two ways. N2(g) + 3H2(g) 2NH3(g) + 93.6 KJ…………………….(7) Or N2(g) + 3H2(g) 2NH3(g); ∆ H* = -9.36KJ *∆H = change in enthalpy, that is heat evolved or absorbed in a reaction at constant temperature and pressure. Enthalpy is the total energy associated with any system which includes its internal energy and also energy due to environmental factors such as pressure-volume conditions. It is denoted by H.Chemical equations give the quantitative relationship between the reactants and the products.This quantitative information can be utilized to carry out variety of calculations which arerequired many a times, to assess the economic viability of the chemical process.Calculations based on the quantitative relationship between the reactants and the products arealso referred to as Stoichiometry. The word stoichiometry is derived from the Greek wordsStoicheron meaning element and metron meaning measure. Stoichiometry is therefore, thatarea of chemistry and chemical technology on which determination of quantities of reactantsand products of chemical reaction is based.Chemical Energetics: Chemical reactions are always associated with energy changes. Quiteoften, the energy change accompanying a chemical reaction is more significant than thereaction itself. The branch of science which deals with the energy changes associated withchemical reactions is called chemical energetics. The energy changes occurring during thechemical reactions may not always appear as heat energy, but also as electrical energy, workenergy and radiant energy as well. Thus, it is evident that chemical reactions are
12accompanied by energy changes appearing in different forms. These energy changes takeplace because during chemical reactions certain bonds are cleaved and certain new bonds areformed. Energy is consumed during cleavage of bonds while energy is released during theformation of bonds.Thermodynamics: Since the bond energy varies from one bond to another, the chemicalreactions are always accompanied by absorption or release of energy. Most of the time theenergy is in the form of heat. Therefore, it becomes imperative that some concepts ofthermodynamics may be understood. Thermodynamcis literally means conversion of heat intowork and vice-versa because therm refers to heat and dynamics refers to movement.Thermodynamics may, therefore, be defined as the branch of science which deals with thequantitative relationship between heat and other forms of energies. When thermodynamics ofchemical processes is studied, it is often referred to as chemical thermodynamics.Thermodynamics is primarily based upon three fundamental generalisations, popular asLaws of Thermodynamics. They are :1) First Law of Thermodynamics, which deals with the equivalence of different forms of energies.2) Second Law of thermodynamics, which deals with the direction of chemical change.3) Third Law of thermodynamics, which helps to evaluate the thermodynamic parameter like entropy.Therefore, the design of an industrial chemical reactor must satisfy the followingrequirements:1. The chemical factors : The kinetics of the reaction. The design must provide sufficient residence time for the desired reaction to proceed to the required degree of conversion.2. The mass transfer factors : With hetereogeneous reactions, the reaction rate may be controlled by the rates of diffusion of the reacting species, rather than the chemical kinetics.3. The heat transfer factors : The removal or addition of the heat of reaction.4. The safety factors :- The confinement of hazardous reactants and products and the control of the reaction and the process conditions.5. Economic factors : Minimum amount of money should be required to purchase and operate. Normal operating expenses include energy input, energy removal, raw material costs, labour, etc. Energy changes can come in the form of heating or cooling, pumping, agitation, etc. The need to satisfy these are interrelated and often contradictory factors makes reactor design a complex and difficult task. However, in many instances one of the factors will predominate and will determine the choice of reactor type and the design method.Design Procedure and Reactor Designing An industrial chemical reactor is a complex device in which heat transfer, mass transfer,diffusion and friction must be considered and it must be safe and controllable. In largevessels, problem of mixing of reactants, flow distribution, residence time distribution and
13efficient utilization of the surface of porous catalysts also arise. A successful commercial unitis an economic balance of all these factors.A general procedure for reactor design is outlined below:1. The kinetic and thermodynamic data on the desired reaction is initially collected. Values will be needed for the rate of reaction over a range of operating conditions, for example, pressure, temperature, flow rate and catalyst concentration. This data may be normally obtained from either laboratory or pilot plant studies.2. Data on physical properties is required for the design of the reactor. This may be either estimated, or collected from the literature or obtained by taking laboratory measurements.3. The rate controlling mechanism which has a predominant role is then identified, for example, kinetic, mass or heat transfer.4. A suitable reactor type is then chosen, based on experience with similar studies or from the laboratory and pilot plant work.5. Selection of optimal reaction conditions is initially made in order to obtain the desired yield6. The size of the reactor is decided and its performance estimated. Since exact analytical solutions of the design relationship are rarely possible, semiemperical methods based on the analysis of idealized reactors are used.7. Materials for the construction of the reactor is/are selected.8. A preliminary mechanical design for the reactor including the vessel design, heat transfer surfaces etc., is made.9. The design is optimized and validated10. An approximate cost of the proposed and validated design is then calculated.In choosing the reactor conditions, and optimizing the design, the interaction of the reactordesign with the other process operations must not be overlooked. The degree of conversionof raw materials in the reactor will determine the size and the cost of any equipment neededto separate and recycle unreacted materials. In these circumstances the reactor and associatedequipment must be optimized as a unit.Reactor Designing – Mathematical Models Chemical reactors are vessels designed to contain chemical reactions. The design of achemical reactor deals with multiple aspects of chemical engineering including mathematicalmodeling. A model of a reaction process is a set of data and equation that is believed torepresent the performance of a specific vessel configuration (mixed, plug flow, laminar,dispersed, etc.). Chemical engineers, design reactors to maximize net present value for thegiven reaction. Designers ensure that the reaction proceeds with the highest efficiencytowards the desired output product, producing the highest yield of product. The equationsused in mathematical modeling include the stoichiometric relations, rate equations, heat andmaterial balances and auxiliary relations such as those of mass transfer, pressure variation,residence time distribution, etc.
14The data not only describe physical and thermodynamic properties but also the economicfactors. Correlations of heat and mass – transfer rates are fairly well developed and can beincorporated in models of a reaction process, but the chemical rate data must be determinedindividually. Since equipments are now widely available to obtain such data, hence an initialexploratory work can be carried out.Once fundamental data is obtained, the goal is to develop a mathematical model of theprocess, which may be further utilized to explore possibilities such as product selectivity,start-up and shut down behaviour, vessel configuration, temperature, pressure andconversion profiles, etc.Any mathematical model has two components, the symbols in which it is expressed and theirrelationship to the quantities in the real world and the equations that link the symbols andthrough which the values of certain variables are computed. These two elements normally co-evolve, but they are often separated for the sake of presentation into the parameter andvariable definitions and their equations.Principle: First a mechanism is assumed and then a model is designed accordingly, forexample, whether the reaction is steady or unsteady, completely mixed, or plug flow orlaminar or with dispersion or with bypass or recycle or dead space, etc.Then, for a differential element of space and/or time, the elements of conservation areformulated and put together. Inputs + Sources = Outputs + Sinks + AccumulationsAny transport properties are introduced through known correlations together with theparameters of specified rate equations. The model can be used to find the performance undervarious conditions, or its parameters can be evaluated from experimental data.Basic Elements of Reactor Designing Reactions are carried out as batches or with continuous streams through a vessel. There aretwo main basic vessel types, viz.; • Tank Reactor – a tank• Tubular Reactor – a pipe or tube Most commonly, reactors are run at a steady-state, but can also be operated in a transientstate. Transient state is a state in which the key process variables like residence time, volume,temperature, pressure or concentration of chemical species, etc., change with time. Such asituation generally arises when either the reactor is purchased new or is brought back inoperation after maintenance or inoperation. Chemical reactors may be designed keeping inview the various process variables. Key process variables include: • Residence Time Distribution (τ) • Volume (v) • Temperature (T) • Pressure (P) • Concentrations of chemical species (C1, C2, C3------C4) • Heat transfer coefficients (h, U)
15Residence Time Distribution (RTD) (τ): The residence time distribution (RTD) of achemical reactor or vessel is a description of the time that different fluid elements spendinside the reactor. The concept was first proposed by MacMullin and Weber in 1935, but wasnot used extensively until P.V. Danckwerts analyzed a number of important RTDs in 19533.RTD will vary from one reactor type to another. For example, an ideal plug flow reactor has afixed residence time. Any fluid that enters the reactor at time ‘t’ will exit the reactor at time t+ τ, where τ is the residence time of the reactor.Flow reactors are distinguished by the degree of mixing of successive inputs. The idealsituations are 1) Complete mixing :- For example Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) (Fig. 6), and 2) No axial mixing – For example, Plug Flow Reactor (PFR)Real reactors deviate more or less from these ideal behaviours. Deviations may be detectedwith RTDs obtained with the aid of tracer tests. The commonest models are combinations ofCSTRs and PFRs in series and/or parallel. Thus, a stirred tank may be assumed completelymixed in the vicinity of the impeller or a plug flow near outlet.Heat TransferTemperature affects rates of reaction, degradation of catalysts and equilibrium conversion.Many reactors with fixed beds of catalysts pellets have divided beds, with heat transferbetween the individual sections. Such units can take advantage of initial high rates at hightemperatures and higher equilibrium conversions at lower temperatures.Since reactors come in a variety of configurations with a variety of operating modes and mayhandle mixed phases, the design of provisions for temperature control draws on a large bodyof heat transfer theory and data.Mass BalanceA mass balance (also called a material balance) is an accounting of material entering andleaving a system7. Fundamental to the balance is the conservation of mass principle, i.e., thatmatter can not disappear or be created. Mass balances are used, for example, to designchemical reactors, analyse alternative processes to produce chemicals, in pollution dispersionmodels, etc. In environmental monitoring the term budget calculations is used to describemass balance equations where they are used to evaluate the monitoring data (comparing inputand output, etc.). The dynamic energy budget theory for metabolic organisation makesexplicit use of time, mass, and energy balances.The mass that enters a system must (conservation of mass principle) either leave the systemor accumulate within the system, i.e. IN = OUT + ACC ……………………………..(8)where IN denotes what enters the system, OUT denotes what leaves the system and ACCdenotes accumulation within the system (which may be negative or positive). Mass balancesare often developed for total mass crossing the boundaries of a system, but they can alsofocus on one element (e.g. carbon) or chemical compound (e.g. water). When mass balances
16are written for specific compounds, number of individuals in a population, etc. rather than forthe total mass of the system, a production term (PROD) is introduced such that IN + PROD = OUT + ACC ……………………………(9)The PROD describes the chemical reaction rates, the difference between births and deaths,etc. PROD might be positive or negative, just as for ACC.Mass balances are either Integral Mass Balances or Differential Mass Balances. An integralmass balance is a black box approach and focus on the overall behaviour of a system whereasa differential mass balances focuses on mechanisms within the system (which in turn affectthe overall behavior).Integral Mass Balance is made by initially identifying the system boundaries, that is, how thesystem is connected to the rest of the world and how the rest of the world influences thesystem. For example, for a tank reactor the walls of the tank are the system boundaries andthe outer world influences the system through the inlet and outleet. Differential mass balanceis described by assuming the interior of the systems, for example, a perfectly mixed(homogeneous) system. Based on these basic descriptions of the system and its boundaries,reactor models are described. They are either 1. Ideal (continuously stirred) Batch reactor 2. Ideal tank reactor, also named Continuously Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) 3. Ideal Plug Flow Reactor (PFR)Ideal Batch Reactor: It is a closed system. The mass balance for a substance ‘A’ becomesIN + PROD = OUT + ACC ……………………………………(10)where rA denote the rate at which substance A is produced, V is the volume (which may beconstant or not), nA the number of moles (n) of substance A.In a fed-batch reactor some reactants/ingredients are added continuously or in pulses.Ideal tank reactor/Continuously Stirred Tank Reactor: It is an open system. A lake canbe regarded as a tank reactor and lakes with long turnover times (e.g. with a low flux tovolume ratio) can for many purposes be regarded as continuously stirred (e.g. homogeneousin all respects). The mass balance becomesIN + PROD = OUT + ACC ………………………………….(11)where Q0 and Q denote the volumetric flow in and out of the system respectively and CA,Oand CA the concentration of A in the inflow and outflow respective.
17Ideal Plug Flow Reactor (PFR): It is an open system with no mixing along the reactorbut perfect mixing across the reactor. It is often used for systems like water pipes, if the flowis turbulent. When a mass balance is made for a tube, an infinitesimal part of the tube is firstconsidered and a mass balance is made using the ideal tank reactor model. That mass balanceis then integrated over the entire reactor volume to obtain: …………………………………….(12)More complex problems: In reality, reactors are often non-ideal, in which combinations ofthe reactor models above are used to describe the system. Not only chemical reaction rates,but also mass transfer rates may be important in the mathematical description of a system,especially in heterogeneous systems. As the chemical reaction rate depends on temperature itis often necessary to make both an energy balance (often a heat balance rather than a fullfledged energy balance) as well as mass balances to fully describe the system. A differentreactor models might be needed for the energy balance: A system that is closed with respectto mass might be open with respect to energy because since heat may enter the systemthrough conduction.Types of Reactor ModelsThere are three main basic models used to estimate the most important process variables ofdifferent chemical reactors. • Batch Reactor Model (Batch)• Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor Model (CSTR) and• Plug Flow Reactor Model (PFR)These basic models may be modified as per requirement of a chemical process.Batch Reactor Models: Batch reactors are used in batch processes. Batch processes aresuited to small production rates, to long reaction times, or to reactions, where they may havesuperior selectivity, as in some polymerizations.They are conducted in tanks with stirring of the contents by internal impellers, gas bubblesor pump around. Control of temperature is done with the help of jackets, reflux condensers orpump around through an exchanger. Batch processes are currently used in the chemical and food process industries. Theirautomation and optimization pose difficult issues mainly because it is necessary to operateconcurrently with countinous (algebric or differential equations) and discrete (state machines)models. Andreu et al14, have tried to analyse how techniques developed in the field ofdiscrete manufacturing systems (DMS) can be extended to batch systems.A semi-batch reactor is operated with both continuous and batch inputs and outputs. Afermentor, for example, is loaded with a batch which constantly produces carbon dioxide,which has to be removed continuously. Similarly, in a reaction like chlorination, where oneof the reactant is gas (chlorine), if it is introduced continuously, most of it bubbles off,therefore a continuous feed of gas is injected into the batch of a liquid.Large daily production rates are mostly conducted in continuous equipment, either in a seriesof stirred tanks or in units in which some degree of plug flow is attained.
18Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) Model : In a CSTR, one or more fluid reagentsare introduced into a tank reactor equipped with an impeller while the reactor effluent isrecovered. The impeller stirs the reagents to ensure proper mixing. Therefore, it can be seenthat in these reactors, reactants are continuously fed to the first vessel, they overflow throughthe others in succession, while being thoroughly mixed in each vessel. Though thecomposition is uniform in individual vessels, but a stepped concentration gradient exists inthe system as a whole.The average amount of time spent by a discrete quantity of reagent inside the tank or theresidence time can be obtained by simply dividing the volume of the tank by the averagevolumetric flow rate through the tank. The expected completion rate of the reaction, inpercent can be calculated using chemical kinetics.Some important aspects of the CSTR are :• All calculations performed with CSTRs assume perfect mixing.• The reaction proceeds at the reaction rate associated with the final (output) concentration.• At steady state, the flow rate in must equal the mass flow rate out, otherwise the tank will overflow or go empty (transient state).• It is often economically beneficial to operate several CSTRs in series or in parallel. A series of five or six vessels may behave like a plug flow reactor. This allows the first CSTR to operate at a higher reagent concentration and therefore a higher reaction rate. It is also possible that instead of being in distinct vessels, the several stages of a CSTR battery can be put in a single shell.• If horizontal, the multistage reactor is compartmented by vertical wires of different heights, over which the reacting mixture cascades.• When the reactants are of limited miscibilities and have a sufficient density difference, the vertical staged reactor lends itself to counter current operation. This can be advantageous for reversible reactions.• A small fluidized bed is essentially completely mixed. A large commercial fluidized bed reactor is a nearly uniform temperature, but the flow patterns consist of mixed and plug flow and in-between zones.The CSTR model is used to estimate the key unit operation variables when using a continuousagitated tank reactor to reach a specified output. The mathematical model works for all fluids: liquids, gases and slurries.Perfect Mixing: This is a fair assumption due to the fact that it merely requires the region ofvariable composition at the inlet area is very small when compared to the entire reactorcontents and the time required to mix tank contents is very small when compared to theresidence time of the reactor. This is required due to the strong dependence of the reactionrate on the concentration of the reagent species. [accumulation] = [in] – [out] + [generation] …………………………(13)d Ni = Fio – Fi + Vvir - - - - - - - (i) …………………………(14) dt
19Where Fio is the molar flow rat of species ‘i’Ni no. of species ‘i’vi is the stoichiometric coefficientr is the reaction rateAs the temperature increases, the rate of reaction also changes.Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) Model: In a PFR, one or more fluid reagents are pumpedthrough a pipe or tube. It is also referred to as Tubular Flow Reactors (TFRs).• PTRs may have several pipes or tubes in parallel,. The reactants are charged continuously at one end and products are removed at the other end.• The chemical reaction proceeds as the reagents travel through the PFR.• In this type of reactor, the reaction rate is gradient, that is, at the inlet to the PFR the rate is very high, but as the concentrations of the reagents decrease and the concentration of the product(s) increases the reaction rate slows. Normally a steady state is attained.• Both horizontal and vertical operations are common.• When heat transfer is needed, individual tubes are jacketed or shell and tube construction is used. In the latter case, the reactants may be on either the shell or the tube side.• The reactant side may be filled with solid particles, either catalytic (if required) or inert, to improve interphase contact in heterogeneous reactions.• Large diameter vessels with packing or trays may approach plug flow behaviour and are widely employed.• Some of the configurations in use are axial flow, radial flow, multiple shell with built in heat exchangers, horizontal, vertical and so on.Some important aspects of the PFR are :• All calculations performed with PFRs assume no upstream or downstream mixing, as implied by the term “plug flow”.• Reagents may be introduced into the PFR at locations in the reactor other than the inlet. In this way a higher efficiency may be obtained, or the size and cost of the PFR may be reduced.• A PFR typically has a higher efficiency than a CSTR of the same volume. That is, given the same space-time, a reaction will proceed to a higher percentage completion in a PFR than in a CSTR.For most chemical reactions, it is impossible for the reaction to proceed to 100% completion.The rate of reaction decreases as the percent completion increases until the point where thesystem reaches dynamic equilibrium (no net reaction, or change in chemical species occur).The equilibrium point for most systems is less than 100% complete. For this reason aseparation process such as distillation often follows a chemical reactor in order to separateany remaining reagents or by products from the desired product. These reagents maysometimes be reused at the beginning of the process, such as in the Haber process.The PFR model is used to estimate the key unit operation variables when using a continuoustubular reactor to reach a specified output. The mathematical model works for all fluids :
20liquids, gases and slurries. In a PFR the fluid passes through a coherent manner, so that theresidence time ‘τ’, is the same for all fluid elements. The coherent fluid passing through theideal reactor is known as a plug. As a plug flows through a PFR, the fluid is perfectly mixedin the radial direction but not in the axial direction (forwards or backwards). Each plug ofdifferential volume is considered as a separate entity (practically a batch reactor) As it flowsdown the tubular PFR.Application of PFRs (Also see Table 2): PFRs are used to model the chemicaltransformation of compounds as they are transported in systems resembling pipes. Plug flowreactors are used for some of the following applications: • Large scale reactions • Fast reactions • Homogeneous or Heterogeneous Reaction • Continuous Production • High Temperature ReactionsAn ideal pug flow reactor has a fixed residence time, that is, any fluid (plug) that enters thereactor at time ‘t’ will exist the reactor at time ‘t+τ’, where ‘τ’ is the residence time of thereactor. A real plug flow reactor has a residence time distribution that is a narrow pulsearound the mean residence time distribution.Plug flow reactors have a high volumetric unit conversion run for long periods of timewithout labour, and have excellent heat transfer. The limitations encountered with plug flowreactors are that temperatures are difficult to control and can result in undesirable temperaturegradients. It is more expensive.Catalytic Reactors Although catalytic reactors are often implemented as plug flow reactors, their analysisrequires more complicated treatment. The rate of a catalytic reaction is proportional to theamount of catalyst the reagents contact. In case of solid phase catalyst and fluid phasereagents, the rate of reaction is proportional to the exposed area, efficiency of diffusion ofreagents in and products out, and turbulent mixing or lack thereof.A catalytic reaction pathway, in fact, is often multi step reaction because not only the initialreactants will bound to the catalyst but even some intermediates may bind to the catalyst andpose as a chemical reaction.The behaviour of the catalyst is also important in the kinetics of this reaction particularly inhigh temperature petrochemical processes, catalysts are deactivated by sintering, coking andsimilar processes.Application of plug flow reactors in allied fields based on new technologies:• Plug- flow reactors for biomass conversion: The experiments are conducted in a continuous high pressure plant made from stainless steel. The pressure can be set to a maximum of 35 MPa. There are several reactor sizes available so that residence times from 0.5 to 600 seconds can be covered. In order to reach temperatures above 300 °C two electrically heated reactors can be used. They cover residence times up to 250 resp. 180 seconds. The feed solutions are delievered via HPLC-pumps.
21• Aerosol nanoparticle plug flow reactors (APFR): There is considerable interest in the synthesis and use of nanosized particles for a variety of applications including superalloys and thick film conductors for the electronics industry. Furthermore, other areas of interest include measurements of magnetic susceptibility, far-infrared transmission and nuclear magnetic resonance. For these systems, it is necessary to produce fine particles of controlled size. Particle sizes can typically be in the range from 10 to 500 nm. Owing to their size, shape, and high specific surface area, these particles can also be used inpigments in cosmetics, membranes, photo catalytic reactors, catalysts and ceramic andcatalytic reactors. Examples of uses of nanoparticles include SnO2 for carbon monoxide gassensors, TiO2 for fiber optics, SiO2 for fumed silica and optical fibers, carbon for carbonblack fillers in tyres, iron for recording materials, nickel for batteries and to a lesser extentpalladium, magnesium, bismuth and others; all these materials have been synthesized inaerosol reactors. In the bioarea, nanoparticles are used to prevent and treat wound infectionsin artificial bone implants, and for use in imaging the brain.Example of APFR : production of aluminum particles (Fig. 14). A stream of argon gassaturated with aluminum vapor is cooled in a APFR, with a diameter of 18 mm and a lengthof 0.5 m, from 1600°C at a rate of 1000°C/sec. As the gas stream flows through the reactor,the nucleation and growth of aluminum particles take place. Flow rate of the carrier gas is 2dm3/min and the pressure inside the PFR is 1 atm (1.013 Pa). Moving with the gas velocity U,the cooling rate inside the reactor is 1000 K/s and hence the temperature profile down thereactor is given by: …………………..(15)As it moves down the reactor the gas gets cooled and becomes supersaturated. Thus supersaturation leads to the nucleation of particles. This nucleation is a result of moleculescolliding, escaping (evaporating) and agglomerating until a critical nucleus size is reachedand a particle is formed. As these particles move down the supersaturated gas moleculescondense on the particles causing them to grow in size.Conclusion Pharmaceutical substances are basically chemicals showing therapeutic effects. After theirsafety, efficacy and bioavailability is established, these substances are given the status ofdrugs by the drug regulatory bodies and allowed to be produced on industrial scale forcommercial purposes. These drugs which are required to be synthesized in bulk are producedin special vessels called reactors. An industrial chemical reactor is a complex device in whichheat transfer, mass transfer, diffusion and friction may occur along with chemical reactionand it must be safe and controllable. The design of these chemical reactors require a goodunderstanding of multiple aspects of pharmaceutical engineering because in large vessels,question of mixing of reactants, flow distribution, residence time distribution and efficientutilization of the surface of porous catalysts also arise. The selection of the type of reactorwill be dictated by the type of reaction type, type of reactants, time of reaction and conditionsof reaction. A knowledge of various aspects of pharmaceutical (chemical) engineering wouldhelp the engineers to design, and select such reactors in which the resources are optimallyutilized and the reaction proceeds with highest efficiency giving the best possible yields.
22References1. Verma, N.K., Khanna, S.K. and Kapila, B, ‘Comprehensive Chemistry,’ Laxmi Publications (P) Ltd., New Delhi, 2003-04.2. Coulson, J.M., Richardson, J.P. Sinnott, R.K., ‘Chemical Engineering : An introduction to Chemical Engineering Design, Vol 6, Pergamon Press, London, 3rd Ed., 2000.3. Chemical Reactors, Section 23, Walas, Stanely M. In Perrys Chemical Engineering Handbook, Seventh Edition, Editors, Green D.W. and Maloney, James, O, The McGraws Hill Companies Inc, 1999.4. ‘Fluidized Bed Reactor’, www.rpi.edu/Dept/Chem-eng/Biotech-Environ/IMMOB/Fluidized/bed.htm accessed in may 2007.5. ‘Semibatch Reactors’ www.engin.umich.edu/~CRE/asyLEARN/bits/semibatch/index.htm accessed in May 20076. Tyner D, Soroush, M, Grady MC, Richards, J and Congalidis, J.P., ‘Mathematical Modelling and Optimization of a Semibatch Polymerization Reactor’, www.physics.udel.edu/~richards/ADCHEM_ 2000 Paper.pdf, accessed in May 2007.7. ‘Mass Balance’ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass-balance, accessed in May 2007.8. ‘Stirred Chemical Laboratory, Pilot – Plant Reactors’, CSTRs, Autoclaves and fixed bed reactors’, www.pdc machines.com/Benefit_SR.htm, accessed in May 2007.9. ‘Chemical Reactors’ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/chemical-reactors, accessed in May 2007.10. ‘Types of Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor’, coweb.cc.gatech.edu/process.accessed in May 2007.11. ‘Continuous stirred-tank reactor model’; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/continuous_stirred_tank_reactor, accessed in May 2007.12. ‘Plug-flow reactors for biomass conversion’, www.ct.chemie.tudarmstadt.de/ak_vogel/lott/lott_ analge_en.html, accessed in May 2007.13. ‘Plug flow reactor model’, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/plug-flow-reactor-model, accessed in May 2007.14. Andreu, D, Pascal, JC Pingaud, H and Valette, R, ‘Batch Process modeling using Petrinets’, www./aas.fr/~robert/hybrid.d/ieeesmc94-b.html, accessed in May 2007.15. ‘Plug Flow Reactor Example’, www.owl.net.rice.edu/~ceng4003/hysys/pfex.htm, accessed in May 2007.16. ‘Aerosol nanoparticle Plug Flow Reactors’, www.eengine.umich.edu/~CER/web_mod/aerosol/ frame01_introd/introduction.html, accessed in May 200717. ‘Residence Time Destribution’, Wikipedia the free encyclopedia, http:/lenwikipedia.orgwiki/ residence_time_distribution, accessed in May 2007 | <urn:uuid:18c7c494-e003-4d3e-aa1c-46ef01049037> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.slideshare.net/byBis/revisedrereactorsandfundamentalsof | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783394937.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154954-00142-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.916011 | 11,914 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Using Wireless Devices to Keep Students Engaged
Schools and municipalities across the country are implementing wireless devices that keep students and participants engaged and facilitate feedback.
Some students across the country are being encouraged to fiddle with their wireless devices during class. But they aren’t texting or checking e-mails, they’re participating in the lecture. The New York Times reports that professors in a number of colleges and universities, including the University of Arizona, are giving their students small wireless clickers to track their attendance, participate in discussion feedback and even answer questions to multiple-choice quizzes. The students’ responses are wirelessly gathered by a computer at the front of the room and can be instantly converted into informational graphics. Some universities require students to buy the clickers on their own – which can cost anywhere from $30 to $70 – while others lend them out to students. Similar programs have been used in smaller classroom settings within K-12 schools like Kentucky’s Campbell County Middle School and in various municipalities’ community meetings from Hampton, Va., to Hidalgo County, Texas.
Join the Discussion
After you comment, click Post. You can enter an anonymous Display Name or connect to a social profile. | <urn:uuid:a895a1bd-099b-4107-8865-e3749860ced8> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.governing.com/idea-center/Using-Wireless-Devices-to-Keep-Students-Engaged.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783402699.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155002-00054-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943663 | 249 | 2.84375 | 3 |
% @LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252" %>
To view the .wmv movies below you will need Microsoft Media Player
The Lonely Ghost
The Lonely Ghost
Merlin 4Mb .mov file
Merlin 19Kb Word Doc
Black and Orange
Birth of the Blob
Clay animation is an exciting technology that captures the imagination of students of all ages. Story telling can literally be brought to life and students will have a new zest for creating inventive stories. The tools to achieve high quality clay animation were once beyond the reach of schools but now the tools are either free or very inexpensive. Learning Technologies has developed a training program with ICT coaches who can train teachers in the use of clay animation across the curriculum.
These pages are intended to show how students and teachers in schools can use clay animation as a creative tool that incorporates a wide variety of learning areas. For example students can create and record music and sound tracks, use a variety of visual arts techniques for creating sets and backdrops and use clay figures to tell digital stories.
The process for developing animations involves the following:
The steps outlined above are explained on the Animation Links Page
You will require a stage with stage floor and backdrop. We have designed a stage set up with A4 size paper for the main dimensions. This means that the movie will be roughly a 4 by 3 aspect ratio required for movie making and a cheap source of paper for artwork creation.
Clay is available from a variety of stores.
All course notes can be printed using this pdf document.
There are several hardware and software requirements for getting animation happening in the classroom.
Click here for Audacity -freeware Audio Editing software
For Windows Operating Systems
For Macintosh Operating Systems | <urn:uuid:f9bda1e2-2e1a-4fc9-9dfd-0e28fa1fb5a1> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://jimmyedson.com/clay/Clay/index.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395166.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00101-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.905752 | 366 | 3.390625 | 3 |
MetroLaser Custom Product
A recently developed optical technique, called Planar Doppler Velocimtery (PDV), is capable of determining instantaneous, three-dimensional velocity vectors of moving particles or solid material in a laser light sheet everywhere in the field of view. The PDV technique is applicable to facilities of any size in which adequate optical access is available and light-scattering aerosols can be added to the flow. Single-particle discrimination is not necessary so that measurements can be made at any range where smoke or aerosol scattering from laser light can be photographically recorded. These features make PDV uniquely attractive for applications in very large scale flows.
The PDV concept is based on the sensitive frequency discrimination that can be obtained by viewing scattered laser light from aerosols in the flow through an optical cell containing iodine vapor. If the laser frequency is tuned so that its transmission is midway on the edge of an iodine absorption feature, and the bandwidth of the laser light is narrow compared to the spectral range of the absorption edge, then light that is Doppler-shifted in frequency is transmitted by the filter with more or less intensity than unshifted light. In its full implementation, pairs of filtered and unfiltered images are obtained from each laser pulse, for each of three directions. The filtered images from each direction are normalized by the unfiltered images to eliminate the variations in intensity not related to Doppler effects. The normalized intensity levels in the three final images become images of three separate and instantaneous velocity field components everywhere in the field of view. Their combination provides a complete 3-D velocity vector field.
NASA Ames Research Center, the PDV technique has been developed and shown
to be capable of resolving velocities as low as 2 m/s from a single laser
pulse and to be applicable at ranges exceeding 40 meters. These capabilities,
in addition to the minimal requirements of PDV on the optical features
of the aerosols in the flow, make it particularly attractive as a means
of measuring 3‑D velocity vector fields in time dependent flows
in large scale wind tunnel facilities. In the past year, a high-quality,
3-camera, PDV system has been assembled and
installed in the Ames 80x120 ft. wind tunnel to allow flow field measurements
between the moving rotor blades of a full-scale rotor. Successful measurements
of 3-D velocity vector fields have been obtained for the first time at
optical ranges exceeding 20 meters. The results show the instantaneous
location and strength of blade tip vortices and the 3-D
velocity vectors in the wake of each passing blade.
Foreseeable applications of PDV other than large scale wind tunnel measurements might include velocity field measurements in the open air of (a) shipboard air currents affecting aircraft landings, (b) air current disturbances from smoke stack emissions, (c) flow shedding around buildings, bridges, and large structures, (d) flow entrained behind ground-based vehicles either passing through a stationary smoke cloud or from smoke released from the vehicle, and (e) flight line and landing zone disturbances caused by jet exhaust and helicopter downwash - to name a few. In some of these examples, the use of three camera views may not always be practical but unprecedented flow field information can be obtained from the measurement of a single velocity component, using just one remote camera system.
PDV can also be applied to measurements of the motion of solid objects whenever there are unique advantages to the use of localized laser targeting and the spatial discrimination that is provided by velocity field images. Examples might include the individual flight paths and spin or tumbling velocities of multiple targets, the local velocities of moving machinery parts, and the motion of biological targets, to name a few. In the case of measurements on solid objects where the path of the motion is known, only a single camera system is necessary to obtain the complete velocity along the trajectory and the laser illumination can be volumetric, rather that a light sheet.
.McKenzie, R.L., "Measurement Capabilities of Planar Doppler Velocimetry
Using Pulsed Lasers," Applied Optics, Vol. 35, No. 6, 20 February, 1996,
pp. 948-964. (Also AIAA Paper 95-0297, Jan., 1995.
McKenzie, R.L., "Planar Doppler Velocimetry Performance in Low-Speed
Flows," AIAA Paper 97-0498, Jan., 1997.
McKenzie, R.L. , "Planar Doppler Velocimetry for Large Scale Wind Tunnel
Application," Paper no. 9, AGARD Fluid Dynamics Panel 81st Meting and
Symposium on Advanced Aerodynamic Measurement Technology, Seattle, WA,
Sept., 1997. AGARD Conference Proceedings CP-601.
Dr. Tom Jenkins
Where to Buy
is built from scratch to meet your unique requirements. Because each product
is unique, we are unable to provide you with a demonstration unit. For
more information, a quote, and delivery schedule, please contact MetroLaser
Sales at: Tel:
(949) 553-0688 - Fax: (949) 553-0495 | <urn:uuid:427181ab-02bb-4c5d-beb5-27d438fd8216> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.metrolaserinc.com/pdvtempl2.htm | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783404382.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624155004-00145-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.898175 | 1,092 | 2.53125 | 3 |
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Nasal congestion is one of the most common ailments that cause people to seek medical attention. The nose functions in respiration, the sense of smell, and the production of speech. It warms, filters and humidifies the air we breathe, and serves as a first-line of defense against infection. Nasal congestion interferes with all of these functions, and can detract from the quality of life. Nasal obstruction can be divided into four basic categories that can overlap. Last week, we discussed infection and structural causes. Today, we will discuss allergies and the non-allergic vasomotor rhinitis.
Allergic rhinitis is an exaggerated inflammatory response in the nose to a foreign substance, usually pollen, mold, animal dander, or some element of household dust. Foods can also play a role.
In the allergic patient, the release of histamine and similar substances results in congestion, sneezing and excess production of watery nasal discharge. Seasonal allergies, particularly common on Staten Island, cause problems in the spring (trees), summer (grass) and fall (weeds). Household allergies are more evident in the winter. Mold and animal allergies may cause symptoms year round.
The best treatment for allergies is avoidance of the allergen — but this is not always possible. Other options include antihistamines, decongestants and intranasal steroids.
Antihistamines help relieve the sneezing and runny nose of allergic rhinitis. Many antihistamines are now available without prescription, including Diphenhydramine, Chlortrimeton, and the non-sedating Loratidine. Newer and reportedly less sedating antihistamines, which require a prescription include Cetirizine, Fexofenadine, Desloratadine and Azelastine. Decongestants like Pseudoephedrine shrink congested nasal tissues, and are widely available without prescription.
Combinations of antihistamines and decongestants are also useful. Cortisone-like drugs are extremely potent, and are often administered as nasal sprays rather than pills to minimize the risks of side-effects associated with the systemic use of these drugs. Topical nasal decongestants may give immediate relief, but after using them for several days, severe rebound congestion will develop, making the congestion worse.
All of these preparations have potential side-effects and are contraindicated in some patients. Decongestants stimulate the heart and raise blood pressure and should not be used in patients with high blood pressure or heart disease. Antihistamines, whatever they may claim, can be sedating, and should also be avoided in patients with any difficulty in urination. Pregnant patients should always consult their obstetricians before taking medications.
Immunotheraphy (allergy shots) is the most effective treatment available for allergic rhinitis and is highly successful in treating patients with severe allergies. Skin or blood testing is done first to determine a patient’s specific allergies. Weak serums of these allergens, specifically tailored to a patient’s allergies, are then given by injection, progressively increasing the dose over a period of time from months to years. These injections work by stimulating the formation of blocking antibodies which interfere with the allergic reaction, decreasing its severity.
Patients with vasomotor rhinitis have symptoms similar to allergic patients but with no obvious cause. The nasal membranes have an abundant supply of blood vessels with a great capacity for both expansion and constriction.
When a person exercises, adrenaline is released, which results in vasoconstriction, or squeezing of the blood vessels. This vasoconstriction shrinks the nasal membranes, the air passages open up and the patient breathes more easily. The opposite takes place when an allergic reaction or cold develop. The blood vessels expand, the nasal membranes become engorged, and the nose becomes congested.
In addition to allergies and infections, other events can cause the nasal blood vessels to expand, leading to vasomotor rhinitis. These include psychological stress, an underactive thyroid, pregnancy, abuse of decongesting nasal sprays, some medications, alcohol, and irritants such as perfumes and cigarette smoke. In the early stages of these disorders, nasal stuffiness is temporary and reversible if the primary cause is corrected. However if the condition persists for long enough, the blood vessels stiffen and lose their ability to constrict. They fill up when the patient lies down and the resultant congestion can interfere with sleep.
Nasal congestion is a common problem caused by a remarkable array of disorders. The physician with expertise in nasal disorders will offer treatments based on the specific causes identified.
This column is provided by the Richmond County Medical Society. Drs. Sinnreich and Carney are members of the Society. Dr. Carney is the vice-president of RCMS. Both maintain a practice, ENT & Allergy Associates, LLP, Bulls Head. | <urn:uuid:7b3780fc-f886-4011-a27d-c77508420ffb> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.silive.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2011/01/there_are_4_basic_causes_of_nasal_congestion_1.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00087-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910971 | 1,033 | 3.25 | 3 |
Teaching English: Articles
What is the meaning of TEFL, TESL & TESOL?
By International Teacher Training Organization
- TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language – a term that refers to teacher training programs in EFL.
- TESL: Teaching English as a Second Language, Canada - national federation of teachers and providers in Canada. A term that refers to teacher training programs in ESL.
- TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages – a term that is used to distinguish English language teaching as a professional activity that requires specialized training. Also refers to the teacher examinations developed by Trinity College London (Cert.TESOL and LTCL.Dip.TESOL). Also, a US-based international association of teachers of English as a second or foreign language. There are regional affiliates and many countries have their own affiliated associations.
- What is a TEFL / TESL / TESOL certificate?: A Teaching English as a Foreign / Second / to Speakers of Other Language Certificate is an internationally recognized qualification that enables people/english teachers to Teach English as a Foreign or Second Language.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR CERTIFICATE COURSES TO TEACH ENGLISH.
*Feel free to share our articles, we only ask for credit! Be sure to mention International Teacher Training Organization as the author and a link back to our website: www.teflcertificatecourses.com. | <urn:uuid:4737a615-1d33-4561-bfca-d1c51eca5b52> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.teflcertificatecourses.com/tefl-articles/tefltesltesol.php | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393146.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00020-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.935248 | 303 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Most of us think of poisonous spiders, snakes, and jellyfish as creatures to avoid. Their highly evolved venoms can target specific cells and stop hearts or paralyse limbs.
But scientists are now beginning to understand how useful these abilities could be for medicine – if they are understood and properly deployed.
Dr Pierre Escoubas is one of the experts leading a project called VENOMICS, which aims to build a database of all the venoms in the world, in the hope of developing new, targetted treatments for illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
By capturing animals and ‘milking’ them for their poison, he and his team are slowly building a map of this untapped resource.
While scientists have identified around 4,000 different venom molecules so far, Dr Escoubas estimates there could be as many as 40 million, all with potentially unique properties.
Reporter Dr Joff Lacey joins the VENOMICS team in the south of France, where he hunts for deadly scorpions and makes a hair-raising visit to the project’s tarantula farm.
Watch The Cure on Tuesday: 2230; Wednesday: 0930; Thursday: 0330; Friday: 1630; Saturday: 2230; Sunday: 0930; Monday: 0330; Tuesday: 1630 GMT.
Join the conversation on Facebook and on Twitter.
Source: Al Jazeera | <urn:uuid:56538c01-0fae-494a-a8e3-f284273b8fd4> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/thecure/2013/08/201381965219323389.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398516.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00078-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917856 | 290 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Georges-Pierre Seurat (December 2, 1859 – March 29, 1891) was a French painter and the founder of Neo-impressionism. His large work Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, his most famous painting, altered the direction of modern art by initiating Neo-impressionism, and is one of the icons of 19th century painting. Seurat was born to a well-off family in Paris. His father was a legal official and a native of Champagne; his mother was Parisian. Seurat first studied art with Justin Lequien, a sculptor. Seurat attended the École des Beaux-Arts in 1878 and 1879. After a year of service at Brest military academy, he returned to Paris in 1880. He shared a small studio on the Left Bank with two student friends before moving to a studio of his own.
For the next two years he devoted himself to mastering the art of black and white drawing. He spent 1883 on his first major painting — a huge canvas titled Bathing at Asnières (see Asnières-sur-Seine). After his painting was rejected by the Paris Salon, Seurat turned away from such establishments, instead allying himself with the independent artists of Paris. In 1884 he and other artists (including Maximilien Luce) formed the Société des Artistes Indépendants. There he met and befriended fellow artist Paul Signac. Seurat shared his new ideas about pointillism with Signac, who subsequently painted in the same idiom. In the summer of 1884 Seurat began work on his masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which took him two years to complete. Later he moved from the Boulevard de Clichy to a quieter studio nearby, where he lived secretly with a young model, Madeleine Knobloch. In February 1890 she gave birth to his son. Shortly after his death, Madeleine gave birth to his second son, whose name is unknown.
The cause of Seurat's death is uncertain, and has been attributed to a form of meningitis, pneumonia, infectious angina, and/or diphtheria. His last ambitious work, The Circus, was left unfinished at the time of his death. Seurat took to heart the color theorists' notion of a scientific approach to painting. Seurat believed that a painter could use color to create harmony and emotion in art in the same way that a musician uses variation in sound and tempo to create harmony in music. Seurat theorized that the scientific application of color was like any other natural law, and he was driven to prove this conjecture. He thought that the knowledge of perception and optical laws could be used to create a new language of art based on its own set of heuristics and he set out to show this language using lines, color intensity and color schema. Seurat called this language Chromoluminarism. His letter to Maurice Beaubourg in 1890, captures his feelings about the scientific approach to emotion and harmony. He says 'Art is Harmony. Harmony is the analogy of the contrary and of similar elements of tone, of color and of line, considered according to their dominance and under the influence of light, in gay, calm or sad combinations'.
Seurat's theories can be summarized as follows: The emotion of gaiety can be achieved by the domination of luminous hues, by the predominance of warm colors, and by the use of lines directed upward. Calm is achieved through an equivalence/balance of the use of the light and the dark, by the balance of warm and cold colors, and by lines that are horizontal. Sadness is achieved by using dark and cold colors and by lines pointing downwards. The technical aspects of his work influenced the fauves, and his rigorous theoretical studies, the cubists.
Extracted from Wikipedia | <urn:uuid:d4b154da-a649-4491-8aee-8269a88ccf80> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.allpaintings.org/v/Post-Impressionism/Georges-Pierre+Seurat/ | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783397562.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154957-00026-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.975701 | 812 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Play Word Games With Your Child
Does your family enjoy word games? When you play, applaud your child's efforts to come up with challenging words. Also, when you use a word that's not familiar, let her use a dictionary to verify its existence. The exercise of looking it up is as valuable as the game itself in building language arts skills. | <urn:uuid:1a4ba065-5454-49a5-b1a3-a0b83ed4a1e6> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/tip/daily-tips/play-word-games-your-child | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783396027.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154956-00134-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957085 | 71 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Scientific knowledge about the origins of oil in the Gulf of Mexico Basin and the resulting impact on oil quality has evolved over a long period of time.
The biggest changes probably took place 20 to 25 years ago, according to AAPG member Barry Katz, Chevron Fellow and team leader for hydrocarbon charge at Chevron.
He noted that’s when a step-change occurred.
“Before that, people thought every sand had its own source,” he said. “It’s a very different working model that we have today; it has been a gradual evolution.”
And it’s one that continues today – something Katz will talk about during a presentation at the upcoming GCAGS meeting in Veracruz, Mexico.
He attributes the evolution of understanding of the origins of the oils in the Gulf basin to evolving thoughts on petroleum geochemistry and the significant expansion of the available geochemical database.
Katz works the deepwater, although not the GOM. He has a particular interest in oil quality.
He emphasized that oil quality is of increasing economic importance as exploration shifts to deeper water and as reservoirs become more challenging, owing to the impact of the quality of the oil on producibility and price.
Unlocking GOM Origins
Years of study established that multiple petroleum systems ranging in age from the Jurassic to the Eocene occur in the GOM and are geographically limited. These systems produce oils of differing initial quality, depending on their lithology and depositional setting.
Source rock attributes of these systems have largely been inferred via hydrocarbon geochemistry instead of detailed source rock characterization and definitive correlations.
Katz noted there were three keys to unlocking current understanding of the GOM’s oil origins:
♦ Acceptance of the disassociated nature of the Gulf’s petroleum systems.
It’s now recognized that instead of being source-related, variances in oil character are caused by either post-charging alteration, level of maturation and/or charge timing differences.
♦ Agreement that source rock volume was not an effective substitute for source rock quality.
General acceptance that low concentrations of organic matter do not allow efficient expulsion.
♦ Overall acceptance of the importance of vertical migration in deltaic systems and where halokinesis has occurred.
Katz emphasized that the nature of the source rock is a very strong component of what is controlling oil quality in the Gulf, just like anywhere else.
“In addition to the nature of the source rock, the alteration and charging history play an important role in establishing oil quality,” he noted. “Alteration processes include biodegradation, water washing, phase segregation and de-asphalting.
“The charging history includes both the actual time of emplacement, late versus early generation, as well as whether multiple charging events might have occurred, introducing the potential for oil mixing,” Katz added.
“Although most oil quality discussions focus on the degradation of oil quality,” he said, “increasing thermal maturity of the source or thermal stress on the oil-bearing reservoir results in higher quality crude oils.
“Another means of improving oil quality is through hydrocarbon recharge and the introduction of fresh hydrocarbons into a biodegraded pool,” he added.
The Value of Quality
Oil quality is a key component in establishing flow rates, flow assurance, producibility and the character of refined products. This is of particular importance in reservoirs where permeability is low and oil quality might limit flow, such as the Wilcox in the deepwater Gulf.
When queried as to the impact of this knowledge on the leasing process, Katz noted that identification of which systems are working in different parts of the Gulf is taken into consideration, because this drives the nature of crude being generated.
That, in turn, controls price at the wellhead, API gravity and how well it will flow.
“You take what you know and put it into the framework,” he said. “You want to come up with a reasonable economic model, and part of that is oil quality.
“We all see Brent and WTI quoted daily,” Katz noted. “But there’s a big range of values daily in the crude oil market as things are being discounted because of sulfur presence, lower API or higher metals.
“You like to know as close to upfront as you can what you’re going to get,” he emphasized. “You don’t want to wind up with high sulfur content you’re not prepared for, because there won’t be any space on the platform to deal with it.
“But you don’t overbuild to deal with something that doesn’t exist.” | <urn:uuid:32220349-5363-4256-a8f3-fd3d105bee5b> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.aapg.org/publications/news/explorer/emphasis/articleid/2351/all-crudes-are-not-created-equally | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783398209.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154958-00195-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951402 | 992 | 2.75 | 3 |
How-To: Planting & Caring For Fall Bulbs
Our favorite lesson in delayed gratification, fall planted bulbs are well worth the wait for the burst of color they provide to announce the arrival of spring. These guidelines will help you determine when to plant, and how to maintain and best care for your bulbs once they've flowered.
When To Plant
Most bulbs can be planted throughout the fall and even into winter, as long as the ground is not frozen. Keep in mind that if you wait until winter, the first season of bloom will be delayed by several weeks and may not be as strong.
For shallow-planted fall bulbs like crocus and muscari, plant as soon as possible to allow roots to develop before bloom. September and October is usually best for these.
How To Plant
Ideally, the soil should be cultivated 12" down and amended with organic matter. Each bulb should have its own hole, and the general rule of thumb is to plant the bulb with three times its height of soil over it. For small bulbs, a clearing can be made to nestle a group all together instead of digging individual holes.
Back fill and water to help eliminate air pockets. Apply mulch and an organic, balanced (10-10-10) fertilizer through the fall. They will need good, moist soil through to spring, and then can stay dry for the summer.
For perennial bulbs, maintain foliage until leaves yellow, when they may be cut back. It is essential for the foliage to remain on the bulb to build energy for the next flowering season.
You May Also Like: | <urn:uuid:25d7e21a-a42a-4226-b39c-369de2d80877> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.shopterrain.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/article.detail/ID/b0cae5af-b8be-47d8-a0e9-8350289565ed | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783395620.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154955-00064-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951126 | 330 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Telerobotics—with humans nearby—just might be the perfect unification of human and robotic spaceflight. Two groups at NASA and ESA are working to make this fledgling technology commonplace.
A cache of more than 8,400 unedited, high-resolution photos taken by Apollo astronauts during trips to the moon is now available for viewing and download on Flickr.
For less than $50, you can download images from NOAA satellites using your laptop and a small radio antenna.
Posted by Jason Davis on 2015/09/16 03:03 CDT
NASA's Orion spacecraft has officially moved from preliminary design to fabrication, but the agency says the first crewed flight of the vehicle could slip two years, from 2021 to 2023.
Our Advocacy Program provides each Society member a voice in the process.
Funding is critical. The more we have, the more effective we can be, translating into more missions, more science, and more exploration. | <urn:uuid:a2db5494-8e6d-4017-9497-8ecb6022b573> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/jason-davis/index.jsp?page=10 | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783391519.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154951-00007-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928171 | 193 | 3.078125 | 3 |
In the United States, almost 90 percent of state judges have to run in popular elections to remain on the bench. In the past decade, this peculiarly American institution has produced vicious multi-million-dollar political election campaigns and high-profile allegations of judicial bias and misconduct. The People’s Courts traces the history of judicial elections and Americans’ quest for an independent judiciary—one that would ensure fairness for all before the law—from the colonial era to the present.
In the aftermath of economic disaster, nineteenth-century reformers embraced popular elections as a way to make politically appointed judges less susceptible to partisan patronage and more independent of the legislative and executive branches of government. This effort to reinforce the separation of powers and limit government succeeded in many ways, but it created new threats to judicial independence and provoked further calls for reform. Merit selection emerged as the most promising means of reducing partisan and financial influence from judicial selection. It too, however, proved vulnerable to pressure from party politics and special interest groups. Yet, as Jed Shugerman concludes, it still has more potential for protecting judicial independence than either political appointment or popular election.
The People’s Courts shows how Americans have been deeply committed to judicial independence, but that commitment has also been manipulated by special interests. By understanding our history of judicial selection, we can better protect and preserve the independence of judges from political and partisan influence.
This is an important book on a vastly important topic--the indispensable source for anyone interested in how the United States arrived at the 'peculiar institution' of judicial elections.
--John Fabian Witt, Yale Law School
The People's Courts is the first comprehensive history of judicial elections, an exciting work that sharply challenges how we usually think about courts, constitutionalism, and democracy. For a long time to come this is going to be the definitive book on elected judiciaries.
--Robert W. Gordon, Stanford Law School
A powerfully framed and comprehensive exploration of how judges and politicians (often politician-judges) responded to the apparent tensions between popular democracy and judicial independence. The People's Courts will be essential reading for everyone interested in the political history of the judiciary.
--Hendrik Hartog, Princeton University
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Jed Shugerman's The People's Courts: Pursuing Judicial Independence in America
The People's Courts: Pursuing Judicial Independence in America by Jed Shugerman (Harvard Law) has been published by Harvard University Press. The publisher's description and blurbs follow. | <urn:uuid:116a2692-7631-4d50-b9ca-71e6c86db783> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.ro/2012/02/jed-shugermans-peoples-courts-pursuing.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00045-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941102 | 516 | 2.765625 | 3 |
In a sense, even though the Jewish nation is thousands of years old, the Israeli nation is just about a century old (or, depending how you count, only sixty-two years old). Part of the Israeli journey towards a coherent cultural identity is culinary. The very question of “what is Israeli food?” is often the focus of public debates, especially around our Independence Day.
In fact, Israeli cuisine is effected by so many culinary traditions, it’s almost mind boggling. Jewish people immigrated to Israel from literally every continent, bringing with them their unique flavors and spices, foods and recipes. Middle Eastern Jews, as well as local Palestinians, provided the connection to the local climate and ingredients. Not to play it up on the puns, but in this case, we are talking more about a culinary salad bowl, more than a melting pot.
Historically, Israel developed under a socialistic mindset. The leadership of the pre-state Jewish settlement was kin on building a solid healthy base for the new State. National health care services have been in place long before the declaration of the State of Israel. Healthy nutrition was high on the agenda with strict recommendations for lots of fruit and vegetables. With the authority figures being of Ashkenazi, or Eastern European, cow-originated dairy products as well as eggs, were considered healthy too. As for meat, there just wasn’t plenty of it around.
So, with that background in mind, here are a few more things you may want to know about real Israeli food –
- Meat, chicken and fish are consumed, but in lesser quantities than in most Western countries. Obviously, pork is not part of your typical Israeli menu – although it is popular with new immigrants from the former USSR.
- Salads are huge part of the Israeli diet. The classical Israeli salad has tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers, some shredded lettuce, and sometimes onion and carrot shreds too. It is served with breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- The Israeli breakfast, worthy of a post in its own right, usually has a large salad (see above), at least one type of soft low-fat cheese, eggs and some bread and butter.
- Some foods are uniquely Israeli and go back to the poverty-stricken years of 1950’s. Chocolate spread that contains no chocolate, Ben Gurion rice that has no rice (a variety of it is now known as “Israeli couscous), and “chopped liver” with no liver.
- While there is a very strong Middle Eastern tendency, generally, food is slightly less spicy compared to that served in neighboring countries.
- Israelis have adopted foods from across the globe, often giving them a unique local interpretation. For example, schnitzel is made of chicken, rather than veal, and typically consumed inside a pocket of pita bread.
I plan on developing this tasty theme in future posts and perhaps in Hub Pages too, so stay tuned for more and do ask me anything you want to know about the delicacies (and roughies!) of Israeli cuisine 😉 | <urn:uuid:118174f6-1694-4b5d-b99f-1ae0c5f0c6af> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://www.israelimom.org/israeli-culture-2/1040/about-israeli-food.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393442.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00106-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968831 | 637 | 2.578125 | 3 |
If you're looking for Earthlike planets around other stars places about the size and temperature of our own planet, where life could in theory be found it might seem like a letdown to stumble instead on a world bigger than Jupiter, hotter than molten iron and, with a density like that of Styrofoam, the most insubstantial planet ever seen. But when NASA astronomer Bill Borucki stood before a packed audience at this week's meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington to announce the discovery of Styrofoam World, along with four other huge, hot planets, he didn't seem even slightly disappointed.
Borucki heads the Kepler Mission, a space-based planet-hunting telescope that went into solar orbit last spring to search for distant worlds like our own. While the first five worlds detected are nothing like Earth, nobody expected them to be. What's important, Borucki declared, was that "these five new exoplanets come from the first six weeks of data." An additional eight months of Kepler observations are already in the can and awaiting analysis, meaning many more planets are undoubtedly lurking on hard drives at the NASA Ames Research Center in California, where Kepler is headquartered. "We're going home to lots of presents still unopened," says Natalie Batalha, a San Jose State University astronomer on the Kepler team.
Still, even these planetary finds are unlikely to be exact copies of Earth, and for a very simple reason. Kepler spots faraway planets by watching them transit, or pass in front of, their stars, blocking out a little bit of light and making the star slightly dimmer. The five planets just announced orbit very close to their suns, which is the reason they're so ridiculously hot. That proximity also means they move very fast, completing three or even more transits in the first round of observations which is just the kind of data stream the Kepler team prefers. "We want to see at least three transits to be absolutely sure," says Borucki.
The dimming caused by an Earth-size planet would be easy enough for Kepler to notice too, and such smaller planets most likely exist. But to be in an orbit where the temperature is balmy enough to support life, the planet has to be about as far from its star as Earth is from the sun, making its orbit about a year long; and that, by definition, requires at least two years after the initial detection. "Have patience," said Jon Morse, director of NASA's astronomy and physics division, to the assembled crowd.
For many scientists, just watching the data come in is a pleasure all by itself. "Kepler is working so amazingly well," says Berkeley's Geoff Marcy, a champion planet hunter in his own right and a member of the Kepler science team, "that the light curves [that is, the dips in light caused by transiting planets] look like they come from a textbook, not a real instrument."
It's that precision, plus the fact that Kepler is staring, unblinking and unceasingly, at 150,000 mostly sunlike stars in the Milky Way, that makes astronomers confident that Earths are in Kepler's future. As for any signs of life on those Earths, their detection will undoubtedly have to wait for future telescopes that can image the planets directly, probing their atmospheres for gases that hint at biological activity.
Still, Kepler has had some tantalizing news on the biology front too. While looking for planets, the probe has been taking note of the behavior of the stars themselves. Our sun is remarkably steady, without dramatic changes in warmth and brightness that might have prevented the emergence and evolution of life and Kepler now reports that two-thirds of the sunlike stars it's monitoring are no more active than the sun at its most turbulent. Lots of stable suns could mean at least a handful of promising Earths and those, in turn, could mean living company for our own still lonely world. | <urn:uuid:63a8f569-36bc-4119-8ec6-f28075ee3a26> | CC-MAIN-2016-26 | http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1951805,00.html | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2016-26/segments/1466783393997.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20160624154953-00100-ip-10-164-35-72.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962785 | 810 | 3.171875 | 3 |
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