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With major shifts in cannabis legalization, it is no surprise that there has been pushback from groups around the country. The most common reason for opposing cannabis legalization (both recreationally and medicinally) is that youth populations will be severely impacted due to increased exposure to a drug they should not be using.
But according to data from the recent round of the Monitoring the Future survey, adolescents are reporting cannabis accessibility at the lowest levels in the past quarter century! Even as the rest of the country increased cannabis use and availability, middle school and high school students are not a part of that trend.
According to a spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project:”Every time a state considers rolling back marijuana prohibition, opponents predict it will result in more teen use. Yet the data seems to tell a very different story.”
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said her commission’s review of the Monitoring the Future survey was surprising due to the reported stagnation and decrease of young people experimenting with cannabis. The rates for cannabis use are highest among adults 18 through 24, and many opposed to cannabis argue that this behavior starts at an earlier age.
When reviewing the results of the survey, there is clear evidence that cannabis use among youth populations is not increasing substantially as a result of states passing laws to make cannabis more available.
While there was a brief bump in the numbers during the 2010 to 2012 period, the number of students using cannabis in that period was still 5 percent lower among 8th and 10th graders since 1996. High school seniors are still the most prevalent users of cannabis among youth populations, although they have only fluctuated 3 points on either side of 35 percent (38% in 1997, 32% in 2006).
Experts cannot be certain that cannabis legalization is the source of this decline in drug use, since drug use in general has plummeted among youth groups as well. However, there is now a clear indication that cannabis legalization, even for recreational adult use, does not in fact make it easier for young people to obtain and experiment with the drug.
Still, detractors of cannabis continue to push the narrative that cannabis harms youths. Thankfully, regulators in every state that has since legalized cannabis for recreational use has made certain to stress the importance of education programs and agencies that would keep growing minds from abusing cannabis.
The important takeaway from the Monitoring the Future survey results is that legalization is not impacting young people in a substantial way, but we also should not be crediting cannabis laws for the decline in use among teens. Most opponents of cannabis see their movement dwindling, but their concerns are valid and we should make sure that no matter what, cannabis laws do not negatively affect a very impressionable group.
Please also remember that when cannabis affects kids, it hits them hard. Recent news reports highlight those concerns, with children being hospitalized for unknowingly consuming cannabis. Many states are considering a complete ban on cannabis-infused products that might appeal to children, or be mistaken as a non-medicated sweet.
It’s easy to get involved in our community. You can sign-up for our newsletter to receive updates on our services and events. We also encourage you to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to keep up to date on all of the information and opportunities we offer.
And of course, you can explore the cannabis available at Yerba.org!
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Music: Cimarron Sunset by E. Carlos Nakai
|Playing a Trick On the Moon
A Snoqualmie Legend
Long ago, Snoqualm, or Moon, was chief of the heavens. One day he said to
spider, "Make a rope of cedar bark and stretch it from the earth to the sky."
Soon Fox and Blue Jay found the rope and climbed it. Late at night they came to the place where it was fastened to the underside of the sky. Blue Jay
picked up a hole in the sky, and the two of them crawled through.
Blue Jay flew to a tree, and Fox found himself in a lake. There he changed himself into Beaver. Moon had set a trap in the lake, and Beaver got
caught in the trap. Next morning Moon took Beaver out of the trap, skinned him, stretched his skin out to dry, and threw the body into a corner of
The next night Beaver waited until Moon was asleep and snoring loudly. Then he got up, took his skin from the place where it was stretching, and
put it back on. While Moon was still snoring, he examined the house and the sky world.
Outside he found a great forest of fir and pine and cedar trees. He pulled some of them up by their roots and then, with his spirit powers, made them
small enough to carry under one arm. Under his other arm he put Moon's tools for making daylight. He took some fire from below the smoke hole,
put ashes and leaves and bark around it, and carried it away in his other hand.
Then Beaver found the hole Blue Jay made, changed himself back to Fox again, and went down the rope to the earth. There he gave the fire to the
people. He set out the trees. He made the daylight. He set the sun in its place so it would give light and heat to all. The people were happy because of
the things Fox brought from the sky.
By this time Moon had awakened. When he found the beaver skin gone and the sun stolen, he was very angry. He knew that one of the earth people
had tricked him. Noticing footprints around the house, he followed them to the top of the rope Spider had made.
"I'll follow him to the earth world," Moon thought.
But as he started down, the rope broke. Both Moon and rope fell down in a heap and were transformed into a mountain.
Today the peak is called Mount Si. The face of Snoqualm, Moon, can still be seen on one of it's rocky walls. The trees which Fox brought down from
the sky and planted have become the great forests of the Cascade Mountains.
All Rights Reserved
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What kind of private meerkat business takes place below the ground in their tunnels and dens — places that have never been observed firsthand by humans?
What does a fish-hunting ocean dive look like to a penguin, and what's a chimpanzee’s view from the treetops?
These and other questions about the previously unknown habits of wildlife are answered for the first time in "Animals with Cameras, A Nature Miniseries," produced by the BBC. The first episode will air nationwide in the U.S. tonight (Jan. 31) on PBS at 8 p.m. EST. [Photos: Hidden Cameras Find Diverse Animals in Tropical Forests]
In this pioneering three-part documentary, filmmakers and camera designers partnered with biologists to capture unprecedented animal perspectives on land and in the oceans — including cheetahs, bears, seals and devil rays — using custom-built equipment. By outfitting animals with wearable cameras that were smaller, lighter, more sensitive and more durable than ever before, they captured high-definition footage that allows viewers to see the world through a wild animal's eyes.
To reveal habitats from an animal's point of view, the filmmakers turned to a new generation of cameras, which were designed to be comfortable for a range of animal species to wear; tough enough to withstand "exploration"; and with enough battery life to shoot for hours at a time, Chris Watts, cameraman at British Technical Films and camera designer for "Animals with Cameras," told Live Science.
Wearability and battery longevity were especially important for opening a window into the animals' interactions with each other, he explained.
"A lot of thought went into the camera mounts, and how they would attach and drop off. And the weight of cameras — we had to keep them as light as possible," Watts said.
For animals that were habituated to humans, such as the meerkats, the cameras could be attached and removed by hand, while with others — bears and devil rays, for example — the cameras were collected after a timed release.
Technical challenges and unexpected discoveries
In the first episode, cameras were fitted to meerkats in the Kalahari Desert, Magellanic penguins in South America and chimpanzees in Cameroon. Each group presented technical challenges — for the meerkats, the cameras had to be small enough for the animals to carry, but had to have enough battery life to shoot for hours in dim tunnels underground. Meanwhile, the penguin cameras, which had to be small and light, too, also had to be capable of shooting the penguins' speedy, ocean-foraging dives in deep, dark water.
But only the chimpanzees were so curious about the cameras — which hung around their necks — that they fought over who would get to wear them, "because everyone wanted one," Buchanan recalled.
"We had to create dummy cameras, so that every chimpanzee could get one," he said.
The team also needed to repeatedly update the cameras' designs to keep the chimps interested, Mimi Swift, a chimpanzee caregiver with the Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, told Live Science in an email.
"They got bored of them as soon as they had been thoroughly investigated and strength tested/destroyed, which meant we had to constantly modify them purely to keep them interesting to the chimps," she said.
But it was worth the effort. Footage of the chimps high in the treetops revealed an unprecedented glimpse of foraging and nest-building behavior, and showed the young chimpanzees developing important social skills, Swift wrote in the email. [Photos: Hidden Cameras Find Diverse Animals in Tropical Forests]
Meerkat pups and penguin dives
The meerkat footage also held surprises for the scientists. Underground at night, they were found to be unexpectedly active and vocal, calling to locate their pups and other adults, Laura Meldrum, project manager of the Kalahari Meerkat Project, told Live Science.
But the most exciting discovery was the sight of meerkat pups that were only a few hours old. Previously, the youngest pups ever seen by researchers were at least 2 to 3 weeks old, Meldrum said.
And witnessing real-time, high-definition hunting footage of Magellanic penguins as they dove after their prey was "like taking off a blindfold," Rory Wilson, a professor of zoology at Swansea University in the U.K., told Live Science.
A swimming penguin is near-impossible to observe from a boat or even from the water — "they whizz right past you," he said — and while it's possible to attach devices to the birds that gather data on their movements, underwater footage has traditionally been very poor, according to Wilson.
"It gets too dark very rapidly, it's blurry, and it makes you sick to watch it," he said.
But the new footage was exceptional. Seeing what the penguins saw as they were hunting provided critical missing information about their choices between different prey animals in the open ocean, offering a vital clue to understanding their impact on marine environments, Wilson said.
Connection and protection
Footage that captures these rare and exciting glimpses of animals' hidden habits is important to scientists, but documentaries like "Animals with Cameras" also resonate with audiences, connecting them with the beauty — and peril — of wildlife in their natural environments. Forging these connections is especially vital now, when so many creatures' habitats worldwide are threatened by human activity and human-driven climate change, wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan told Live Science.
"We can only truly protect something if we know how it lives on this planet," he added.
"Animals with Cameras, A Nature Miniseries" airs nationwide in the U.S. on Wednesdays from Jan. 31 through Feb. 14, 2018, at 8 p.m. EST on PBS (check local listings). Each episode will be available to stream the following day at pbs.org/nature and on PBS apps.
Original article on Live Science.
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Much of the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa Biodiversity Hotspot's original forests have been lost to agricultural conversion and urbanization; only about 10 percent of the original vegetation remains in pristine condition. The remaining habitat is limited to more than 400 patches of lowland forest, covering about 6,259 square kilometers.
The most significant current threat to the hotspot is the expansion of agriculture. Because the soil is poor and can only support subsistence agriculture, most agricultural development involves short-term shifting cultivation concentrating on food crops such as cassava, maize, banana, pawpaw and coconut. The human population is increasing, and the demand for additional farmland increases every year. Commercial agricultural development, in the form of coconut, sisal, clove, cardamom and cashew nut plantations, has also led to the loss of lowland coastal forests and other natural habitats.
Burning of woody plants for charcoal production causes major habitat loss near coastal towns and alongside main roads in Tanzania, while the collection of firewood poses a threat in areas away from towns and roads. Forests close to tourist areas, such as Arabuko-Sokoke Forest near Malindi and Watamu in Kenya, suffer from the high demand for wood carving (Brachylaena huillensis) and timber for the construction of hotels, private residences and tourist attractions.
Uncontrolled burning to clear farmland, to drive animals for hunting, to collect honey and to reduce tsetse flies also threatens lowland coastal forests and thicket patches, often replacing rare, endemic coastal forest species with more common wide-ranging, fire-adapted species. Illegal logging using pit-sawing techniques is also a problem in almost all coastal forests where timber trees still remain, particularly in northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania.
In addition to important biological resources, the countries of eastern Africa are endowed with a wealth of mineral resources; in coastal areas these include gas, gemstones, iron, titanium, limestone and kaolin. Destructive mining practices can destroy large areas of natural habitat. The coastal sands contain titanium and the mining of this ore destroys the natural vegetation. High-grade silica sands for glass manufacture are mined from deposits in Msambweni, while iron and manganese are mined on a small scale in the Kwale Kaya forests of coastal Kenya. There are also extensive areas of limestone along the coast, and rubies and other precious stones in some of the coastal forests of Tanzania.
Read about threats in the former Eastern Arc Mountains and Coastal Forests Hotspot in our ecosystem profile (PDF - 3.4 MB), which lies within two newly classified hotspots: the Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa and the Eastern Afromontane.
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What is the definition of
[ noun ]
(chemistry) gene that produces its characteristic phenotype only when its allele is identical
"the recessive gene for blue eyes"
To share this definition
press "text" (Facebook, Twitter) or "link" (blog, mail) then paste
| 39,489 |
Uterine Fibroids are the most common non cancerous tumors in women of child bearing age. These uterine fibroids are also called Uterine Leiomyomas or even myomas. Contrary to common fears, they do not normally convert into cancer. Uterine fibroids may be single in number or multiple. Most of the women don’t come to know that they have uterine fibroids because they may not have any visible symptoms. They are discovered only during a routine check up.
What are Uterine Fibroids
Uterine fibroids are benign smooth muscle tumors present in the uterus. These are made up of muscle cells of the uterus. The size of fibroids varies a lot. They may be as small as a seedling. In some cases they may become quite large, so much so that take up almost a complete wall of the uterus. In extreme cases large uterine fibroids have been known to push the uterus up till the rib cage. Usually large fibroids push against the urinary bladder.
What are the causes of Uterine Fibroids
The exact cause of uterine fibroids is unknown. What is known is that the fibroids develop when the cells in the muscles of the uterus begin to overgrow. The growth of the uterine fibroid is influenced by the presence of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. The level of these hormones is the highest during the child bearing age. Therefore the incidence of uterine fibroids is more during this time. Once menopause occurs, the levels of estrogen and progesterone decline and therefore the fibroids start shrinking on their own. In some cases the fibroids disappear completely after menopause.
A few of the factors that have been known in the incidence of uterine fibroids are –
- Obesity- Being overweight is a major risk factor in the development of uterine fibroids.
- Heredity- If one or more of your family members like your mother or sister has or had fibroids, the chances of your having fibroids are much higher.
- Race- Black women are more likely to have fibroids and that too at a younger age.
- Diet- Having a diet high in red meat content and low in fruits and vegetables may contribute to fibroids. At the same time intake of alcohol may also increase risk of uterine fibroids.
- Vit D Deficiency- The deficiency of Vit D may also increase your risk of having uterine fibroids.
- PCOS – Presence of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome can also predispose you to uterine fibroids.
- Diabetes- It is another common predisposing factor.
- Hypertension- Presence of high blood pressure can also predispose you to fibroids.
Symptoms of Uterine Fibroids
Most of the uterine fibroids, particularly the smaller ones are asymptomatic. This means that there are not too many symptoms. One cannot often diagnose or point towards presence of fibroids from clinical observation. More often than not, small fibroids are found accidentally during routine ultrasounds.
In cases where there are symptoms, the development of symptoms varies from patient to patient. In some patients, the symptoms are very slow to develop. It takes years to develop the symptoms. In some other cases, the symptoms develop very fast in just a couple of months.
The common symptoms of uterine fibroids are-
- Abnormal bleeding during menses- The most common symptom is a change in the normal menstrual bleeding pattern. In some cases, the bleeding may be profuse and protracted. This may last for more than a week. In yet some other cases, the bleeding may be intermittent and start mid cycle.
- Pain during menses- Another common symptom is the presence of pain during menses. This pain may be felt in the lower back, lower abdomen and pelvis.
- Pain during intercourse – There may be pain during intercourse.
- Infertility – In some cases, more so when the fibroids are large, there may be infertility. In other cases, there may be miscarriages.
- Fullness in the lower abdomen – Some females may even feel fullness or bloatedness in the abdomen.
- Anaemia- Profuse bleeding may cause anaemia.
Treatment of Uterine Fibroids
The traditional or allopathic treatment of uterine fibroids is not very effective. Usually some medicines are given that interfere with normal hormonal secretion. These medicines have side effects as they disturb the hormonal balance of a female. The common advice of gynaecologists is to go in for surgery. This is more so if the female is not thinking of having children any more. A complete hysterectomy is often advised. This means that the uterus is completely removed. This causes immediate cessation of menses. Artificial and sudden onset of menopause often leads to complications.
Homeopathic treatment of uterine fibroids
Homeopathy is much more effective in treatment of uterine fibroids. Out of all possible alternatives, Homeopathy is the best non surgical treatment for fibroids. The homeopathic medicines slowly but surely retard the growth of fibroids. Over a period of time, the fibroids disappear completely. This is a far more effective and the most convenient treatment of fibroids.
Uterine Fibroids – 5 best Homeopathic medicines for fibroids
There are more than a dozen homeopathic remedies that are used in the treatment of fibroids. All of them are equally effective when they are indicated. The indications of the homeopathic medicines depend upon matching the symptoms of the patient with that of the medicines. Once there is a good matching, the indicated remedy will surely cure the patient. Having said that, I can say with a good degree of confidence that some medicines are far more commonly indicated.
These 5 best medicines for uterine fibroids are
1. Phosphorus – best medicine for fibroids with profuse and protracted bleeding
2. Sabina- best medicine for fibroids with clotted bleeding
3. Calcarea Carb- best medicine for uterine fibroids with chilliness
4. Sepia – best remedy for uterine fibroids with irritability, indifference and bearing down pains
5. Thyroidinum- best medicine for fibroids with obesity
A brief description of the 5 best medicines with their symptoms is being given below-
1. Phosphorus- best homeopathic medicine for fibroids with profuse and protracted bleeding
When there is prolonged and profuse bleeding with uterine fibroids, Phosphorus is one of the best homeopathic medicines for uterine fibroids. There may even be bleeding in between menses. The mood of the patient is pensive and even weeps before menses.
2. Sabina- best homeopathic medicine for uterine fibroids with clotted bleeding
When there is discharge of dark or black clots with blood, Sabina is one of the best homeopathic medicines for fibroids. The menses are profue and bright. The bleeding is worse from motion. There is pain from the sacral region going down to the pubis in the front. The uterine pains often extend downwards and to the thighs.
3. Calcarea Carb- best homeopathic remedy for fibroids with chilliness
When there is chilliness and cold sweating with uterine fibroids, Calcarea Carb is one of the best homeopathic medicine for fibroids. A Calcarea Carb patient is usually fat, flabby, fair and perspires a lot. There may be sour smell about the patient. The menses may be too profuse and last too long. There is burning and itching of vulva before menses. There may be cutting pain in the uterine region during menses.
4. Sepia – best homeopathic medicine for uterine fibroids with irritability, indifference and bearing down pains.
When the mental symptoms of irritability and indifference to close family members is present, Sepia is one of the best homeopathic medicines for uterine fibroids. There are bearing down pains present in the lower abdomen. The patient feels as if everything would escape through vulva. She feels as if she must cross her legs to prevent protrusion of the contents. The periods are too late and scanty. There may be pain in the vagina during coition.
5. Thyroidinum – best homeopathic medicine for uterine fibroids with obesity
When there is obesity along with uterine fibroids, Thyroidinum is one of the best homeopathic medicines for fibroids. The thyroid gland is often underactive. The tumors may also be present in the breasts.
| 42,724 |
Importance of Co-Curricular Activities
Looking at the list of various types of activities, the question will arise in your mind is how do these activities help us in achieving the objectives of education. Also what is the need and importance of these activities? Let us first discuss the advantages. Curricular activities have a number of values like;
1. Educational value,
2. Psychological Values,
3. Development of Social Values,
4. Development of Civic Values,
5. Physical Development Values,
6. Recreational Values,
7. Cultural Values,
Let us discuss them one by one.
1. Educational Value
These activities have great "educational" potential. All classroom teaching is theoretical.
Practical knowledge can be imparted through co-curricular activities.
Excursions and tours provide firsthand experience and reinforce classroom knowledge in subjects like history, geography, nature study etc.
Language and expression improves through debates and recitations. . Teaching of History gets vitalized by dramatization.
Practical lessons in civics can be given through student self-government.
School magazines teach students the art of writing forcefully and effectively.
Celebration of functions develops organizational capacities and leadership qualities in students.
Projects provide direct learning opportunities.
2. Psychological Value
These activities as the name suggests meet the psychological needs of the students, mainly with reference to social demands of the pupils. They help in expressing personal behavior and provide a vehicle for creative thinking.
a) These Activities act as Agent for Sublimation of the Instincts
Co-curricular activities are a means of channelizing students' instincts into healthy and fruitful channels e.g. instinct of curiosity can be fruitfully channelized by library, stamp and coin collection etc. The instinct of gregariousness can be directed through self-government, social service and other group work.
b) Emotional 'Health
A student is a bundle of innate urges or drives. It is natural for him/her to be curious, to show off, to master, to be loyal and to be sympathetic. Co-curricular activities provide valuable opportunities in which these drives may be capitalized for educational benefit.
But fortunately or unfortunately, they may not come up to the required expectation e.g. some students who are backward in studies develop inferiority complex and find school life disgusting and can get emotionally unbalanced. Such activities provide a means of emotional adjustment for students.
C) To’ Increase the Interest of Students
A student who gives his time and effort to his school is, therefore, more interested in it, because of his contributions e.g. the athlete talks about school spirit.
d) Recognition of Individual Differences Co-curricular Activities
By providing a number of co-curricular activities, we can ensure the expression of potential capacities of each individual e.g. writing, public speaking, dramatics, painting, different games and sports, organization of functions etc. which provide training in different aspects of personality of students. These activities, thus, cater to aptitude, interests and abilities of students and sometimes act as a determining factor for the choice of future vocation.
3. Development of Social Value
Social cooperation is recognized as one of the important demands of citizenship. It is difficult to teach through school subjects like Languages, Mathematics or Social Sciences. By 'participating in group activities, students learn good manners and develop a sense of cooperation. Membership in a club, student council, dramatic cast or an athletic team requires co-operation. Students learn to appreciate the relationship of an individual to the social group.
Through team activities, students learn social cooperation. They develop group spirit, 'we' - feeling, belongingness, unity and ability to be co-operative.
4. Development of Civic Value
In group activities students learn the value of doing one's duty. For example, students' self-government in schools provides an excellent training in exercising one's franchise and shouldering responsibilities. These activities train the students for good citizenship. Co curricular activities offer many opportunities for the development of self-discipline e.g. NCC and ACC. They develop in students a spirit of toleration of others' views, healthy exchange of ideas, fellow feeling and accepting victory and defeat with grace.
Secondly, the school is a miniature society and the activities of the school should have direct relations with the activities of the society.
Qualities like initiative and leadership are not always developed in a classroom. On the playground, students get opportunities to develop leadership qualities like initiative, decision-making, judgment, tolerance etc. These qualities are required for a democratic society. Many girls and boys have little practice in controlling themselves and in directing their own affairs.
They have not developed the ability to do these things. As a result, when they are placed in settings that demand self-direction, they are lost. Co-curricular activities provide numerous situations in which students may gradually get increasing responsibilities for their own direction.
The settings for developing these carry-over values must be definitely provided. A school must be a workshop in democracy.
The traits and qualities of leadership are developed in students, when they organize these activities by themselves under the guidance of teachers. Students learn to plan, organize and
I execute the plan that has been developed. This develops in them initiative, planning, thinking and power of independent judgment.
These activities provide excellent moral training. Through these activities are learnt the importance of obeying the law, rules and regulations, love for truth and above all, these activities develop moral consciousness by providing moral experiences. For example, a boy in charge of finances has to act honestly. On the play field, one has to show sportsman spirit.
5. Physical Development Value
While games, sports and athletics directly contribute to physical development of students, other co-curricular activities also indirectly contribute to it. These activities provide a useful channel for the growth and development of the body.
6. Recreational Value
Lack of ability and training in proper utilization of one's leisure time is one of the major defects in our present system of education. By providing and organizing various activities, we provide wholesome opportunities to our students, rather than to spend their spare time in undesirable activities e.g. Movies, TV, idle talk etc. Hobbies developed at the secondary school stage become lifelong habits.
7. Cultural Virtue
Some co*curricular activities are of tremendous value, as they help in providing opportunities for better understanding of our cultural heritage and traditions, for example, activities like dramatics, folk songs, dance, folk music, exhibitions and celebration of various religious and social festivals provide better knowledge and understanding of our culture, foster cultural tastes and awaken cultural interests among students. Student would appreciate to learn all these though our language, religion, culture, food habits, dress etc. are different but we are one, and that we are leman beings of the same universe.
Thus, co-curricular activities will help in developing national and international understanding.
We can concede by saying that co-curricular activities cater to the development of a child's entire personality, draw out the latent powers of children of different temperaments, supplement academic work, develop social and civic sense. Without these activities students would be mere book-worms.
These activities are really important as they have a potential of developing the intellect of a student which is always not possible with theoretic procedures. For this co-curricular activities need to be effective so that they can give the right exposure to the mind. When effective these activities provide a practical hands-on approach to the students which provide similar experiences which they will face in the outside world. Such experiences go a long way in producing multi-faceted personalities which, in due course of time may bring honor to the country as well. Students have a right to a broad education. A wide range of experiences prepare students better for the future, especially in today’s uncertain world. Broad education can provide better preparation for life in a society where an individual may need to change career several times in their life. Student minds aren't mature enough to ascertain what's good and what's bad for them? Their decisions may be influenced by peer pressure etc. but at the same time these activities should not be forced. Co-curricular activities need to be more refined, varied and interesting so as to be widely accepted and successful. A successful co-curriculum builds links between the school and the wider community, bringing local enthusiasts in to work with students, and sending students out to work on community projects. Many children have talents in all sorts of different areas, and it is wrong to force them to specialize too early. A career is not the only part of an adult’s life – school needs to make sure they have interests and skills that will help them in their family and leisure lives too. Through equal balancing of academic and co-curriculum, the students have the chance to exercise their rights and the opportunity to be multi-talented.
Role of Co-Curricular Activities in a Student's Life
- It helps to develop the all-round personality of the students to face the undaunted task and turbulent world of future. Experience and accolades gained through many of these activities help during internships and other school sponsored work programs.
- The aim of curricular activities is to make the students fit for the future time and to develop a sense of competitive spirit, co-operation, leadership, diligence, punctuality, and team-spirit as well as to provide a backdrop for the development of their creative talents. Whenever someone is chosen as a head boy or is given leadership in certain matters, it boosts self-confidence and sense of achievement.
- Extra activities for school students are a means to enhance social interaction, leadership, healthy recreation, self-discipline and self-confidence. Competitions may also be organized to create a competitive environment and groups with an objective to work towards a better society and the world as well.
- In today's competitive world, percentage makes a lot of difference during admission into various courses. Such students are given preference as compared to non participants. These may make a difference when the students are considered for the most popular courses.
- When the students in their early teens are given some responsibilities like giving first aid they acquire a sense of responsibility.
- Some tasks require precision, management and organizational and such activities provide training to prepare students for the outside world.
- In polytechnics and universities, certificates of such activities are given weight age by potential employers.
- Students in the form of Alumni etc., act as counselors or guides in their respective institutions in such matters. They impart what they have learned to their juniors. Whilst doing so they are imparting knowledge and helping in the development of a productive society.
- Such activities divert student's attention from harmful activities like drugs, crime etc. It channelizes their energies in fruitful activities.
- Physical activities like running, football etc. help not only in the physical fitness they also refresh the burdened mind.
- Success in organizations requires more than high intellect. Thus, college recruiters commonly examine job candidates' extracurricular activities in search of well-rounded, emotionally intelligent, and interpersonally skilled students. Intuitively, extracurricular activities are like valuable student experiences.
Scope of CCAs
· The scope of CCAs is wide due to a nearly inexhaustible list of interests. Some of the major groups include Computer Club, Art Club, Dance Club, Swimming, Basketball and Photography Club. Uniformed groups include the St. John Ambulance Brigade (SJAB), Red Cross, Military Band, The Singapore Scout Association, Girl Guides Singapore, National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC) and National Cadet Corps (NCC). Performing arts groups are also included, with Chinese Orchestra, choirs, bands and Dance Clubs among such CCAs.
· CCAs are held outside standard curriculum hours and the activities partaken depend on the nature of CCA. For example, uniformed groups do foot drills and team-building exercises while competitive sportsmen spend most of the time training and learning techniques from their instructors.
· In the first year, the students are required to pick one or more interest group to join. While the choices available to students differ from school to school, there are national requirements for the different levels of education.
· In some primary schools, students may choose not to join a CCA. In primary school, Brownies are likened to junior Girl Guides.
· There is a wide choice of CCAs in schools, for which students can sign up based on their interest and ability.
· In secondary schools, CCAs are treated more seriously. Belonging to a Core CCA is compulsory, and the students may choose a second CCA if they wish. At the end of the fourth/fifth year, 1 to 2 'O' Level points are removed from the examination aggregate (a lower aggregate indicates better marks). Although the marks are few, it is believed by many that they may make a difference when the students are considered for the most popular tertiary school courses. For example, to enter RIJC via the 'O' Levels requires a perfect score as well as removal of points. In addition, as the students are in their early teens, they are given some responsibilities. Red Cross and SJAB members, for example, are often required to render first aid at public events. Most uniformed groups require precision, management and organizational skills, providing training to prepare students for the outside world. In polytechnics and universities (tertiary education institutes), CCA records are considered by potential employers.
· CCA groups are mostly groups catering to specific interests. Such groups would elect from among themselves a Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer, among other positions. The National Police Cadet Corps has started a few Open Units in the tertiary institutions, recruiting members to serve as student leaders in the secondary school units.
· Many former students return to their alma mater after graduation to help impart what they have learned to their juniors. Some do so within a formal framework, such as those in the uniformed groups (where ex-cadets are appointed as cadet officers), or the Voluntary Adult Leader scheme (for those above age 20). Others do so on a casual basis.
· Competitions may also be organized to create a competitive environment and provide such CCA groups with an objective to work towards. In Singapore, there are competitions at the zonal and national level. These include the Annual Zonal and National Sporting Competitions for sportsmen and the bi-annual Singapore Youth Festival for the Aesthetics-related CCAs.
· Co-curricular activities are those activities which fall outside the regular academic curriculum. They are also know as 'Extra-curricular' activities. Most of the educational organizations in various different parts of the world facilitate these activities for school and college students. Faculty is mostly involved in organizing and directing these activities in schools while it maybe independent from faculty in universities or colleges. Extracurricular activities exist at all levels of education, from 4th-6th, junior high/middle school, high school, college and university education. These activities are compulsory in some institutions while in others it's voluntary. Where these are compulsory all school students must participate them alongside the standard study curriculum. At higher levels of education student participation generally include academic points in lieu of the efforts put by a student in a particular activity. These are held outside standard curriculum hours and the activities partaken depend on the nature of the institute and occasion. Catholic convents schools have generally have Christmas celebration as a major part of the co-curricular activities due to catholic significance. While some schools are more inclined towards annual function. Some give significance to both. Today these activities have become more profound than ever before. Most of the institutes highlight them as a crucial advertising factor in their prospectus or advertisements in order to attract parent-students attention. Though not all of these activities may pursued with great enthusiasm these are however popular and leave a life long lasting experience for most. These activities are not examined in the same way that the academic curriculum is, and because most of them take place outside lessons, such activities have less status in education than the main curriculum. However, they are often held to be very important to the wider education of young men and women. Co-curricular activities form the core of students' life. Many schools and colleges have different units like clubs or houses in which all the students have been divided into four houses. Each house has a house Master & staff of the school to guide the students for various internal competitions
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St. Zoe with her husband and sons
Holy Martyr Zoë was the wife of St. Hesperus. They suffered in the second century during the persecutions under Emperor Hadrian. Zoë and Hesperus had been Christians since their childhood, and they also raised their children, Cyriacus and Theodulus, in the Faith. They were all slaves of an illustrious Roman named Catullus, who lived in Asia Minor. While serving their earthly master, the saints never defiled themselves with food offered to idols.
Once, Catullus sent Hesperus on business to Tritonia. Sts. Cyriacus and Theodulus decided to run away, unable to endure the constant contact with pagans. However, Zoë, did not bless her sons to take this action. They returned and asked their mother’s blessing to confess their faith in Christ openly.
When the brothers explained to Catullus that they were Christian, he was surprised, but he did not deliver them to be tortured. Instead, he sent them with their mother to St. Hesperus at Tritonia, hoping that both parents would persuade their children to deny Christ. At Tritonia, the family lived in tranquility, but prepared for martyrdom.
All the slaves returned for the birthday of Catullus’ son, and a feast was prepared at the house in honor of the pagan goddess Fortuna. Food was sent to the slaves from the master’s table, including meat and wine that had been sacrificed to the idols. However, Zoë and her family refused to eat the food. She poured the wine on the ground and threw the meat to the dogs. When he learned of this, Catullus gave orders to torture Zoë’s sons.
The brothers were stripped, suspended from a tree, and raked with iron hooks before the eyes of their parents, who counseled their children to persevere to the end.
Sts. Hesperus and Zoë were then subjected to terrible tortures. Finally, all four martyrs were thrown into a red-hot furnace, where they surrendered their souls to the Lord. Their bodies were preserved in the fire unharmed, and angelic singing was heard, glorifying the confessors of the Lord.
By permission of the Orthodox Church in America (www.oca.org)
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|Are you bored with your workouts? Is your workout so redundant that you need to force yourself to the gym or out for a run, swim, or bike? Do you remember someone telling you "variety is the spice of life?"
The above saying applies to exercise in the same manner that it does to food selection. Nutritionally speaking, it means balancing your intake of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats in proper proportion. In exercise, variety is identified by the name "cross-training".
Just What is Cross Training?
What is cross training? Simply stated, it refers to training for more than one sport at the same time, or training for several different fitness components (such as endurance, strength, and flexibility) at one time. When combined efficiently, they may simply provide a more complete body workout. For example, runners need more upper body workout, so swimming and/or weightlifting would be great complementary activities.
Cross-training can provide whole body benefits. Many people find a cross-training program more interesting and beneficial than participating in the same sport every time. Another advantage is that cross training may reduce overuse injuries. When the same muscles and joints are continually stressed, the risk of injury increases.
However, by alternating activities that stress different major muscle groups and joints, you give your body a much-needed rest and decrease risk of injury due to over training and overuse. Furthermore, with cross training, if you do injure yourself, you limit lost training time by merely changing your workout emphasis in those activities that will not exacerbate your condition.
Improve Your Primary Exercise Activity
Cross training can make you stronger in your primary exercise activity. Even though your favorite activity may be tennis or racquetball, stationary cycling, jogging, or aerobics a couple of times per week will really help your overall game. Your general overall fitness will improve, you will perform and feel better and maybe even want to participate in new activities.
Aerobic or fitness classes are changing to meet the varying needs of different age groups and different conditions. High impact, low impact, kickboxing, step, sculpt, indoor cycling, yoga, Pilates, aqua and circuit classes are available to suit the needs and demands of our more educated population.
Remember, keep variety in your workout, stay active, and do everything in moderation. Cross training will allow you to keep your workout's fun, safe, effective and always different.
Stay healthy, be happy and remain fit.
Cross training helps to keep your workouts fun, safe and effective.
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Hexadecimal is a number system that uses 16 symbols to represent values, instead of the 10 symbols used in decimal (base-10) system. In hexadecimal, the symbols used are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, where each symbol represents a specific value. For example, in decimal the number 10 is represented as 10, whereas in hexadecimal it is represented as A.
Hexadecimal is commonly used in computer science as it allows binary data to be represented in a more compact and human-readable form. Each hexadecimal digit represents 4 bits of binary data, which can make it easier to work with and manipulate binary values.
In addition to its use in computer science, hexadecimal is also used in other fields such as color representation in web design, where it allows for more concise and intuitive representation of color values.
The use of hexadecimal as a number system can be traced back to the ancient Babylonians, who used a number system based on 60, which can be seen as a type of sexagesimal (base-60) system.
However, the modern use of hexadecimal as a compact representation of binary data can be traced back to the development of early computers, when the need arose for a more concise and human-readable representation of binary values.
It is not clear who first thought of using hexadecimal for this purpose, but its use became widespread in the computer science community in the mid-20th century, as computer technology advanced and the need for more efficient ways to represent and manipulate binary data became increasingly important.
Since then, hexadecimal has become an indispensable tool for computer programmers and engineers, and continues to be widely used in various fields, such as cryptography and web design.
Hexadecimal is primarily used by computer programmers and engineers, as well as other technical professionals, such as web developers, who work with binary data. Its compact representation of binary values makes it easier for these professionals to understand, manipulate, and debug binary data.
Additionally, hexadecimal is also used in certain other fields, such as cryptography and color representation in web design, where its compact representation of numerical values can be useful.
In short, hexadecimal is for anyone who needs a more concise and human-readable representation of binary data or numerical values, including computer programmers and engineers, web developers, cryptography experts, and others working in related technical fields.
Hexadecimal is important for several reasons, including:
Compactly Representing Binary Data: Hexadecimal allows binary data to be represented in a more compact and human-readable form. This makes it easier for computer programmers, engineers, and other technical professionals to understand and manipulate binary values.
Efficient Debugging: Hexadecimal representation of binary data makes it easier for technical professionals to identify and debug issues with binary values.
Human-Readable Representation: Hexadecimal provides a human-readable representation of binary data, making it easier for people to work with and understand binary values.
Web Design: In web design, hexadecimal is important as it allows for more intuitive and efficient representation of color values, making it easier for web developers to specify and work with color values.
Cryptography: In cryptography, hexadecimal is important as it allows for more compact representation of large numerical values, making it easier for cryptography experts to work with and manipulate these values.
In short, hexadecimal is important because it provides a more compact, human-readable representation of binary data, making it easier for technical professionals to understand, manipulate, and debug binary values, and it is used in fields like web design and cryptography to efficiently represent numerical values.
Hexadecimal is widely used in many fields, including:
Computer Science: Hexadecimal is commonly used in computer science to represent binary data in a more human-readable form. For example, it is used to represent memory addresses, data stored in memory, and values in programming languages.
Web Design: Hexadecimal is also used to represent color values in web design. Each color can be represented as a six-digit hexadecimal code, making it easy for web developers to specify and work with color values.
Cryptography: Hexadecimal is used in cryptography to represent large numerical values in a more compact form.
Digital Electronics: Hexadecimal is also used in digital electronics to represent binary values in a more compact form, making it easier for engineers to understand and manipulate binary values.
Other Technical Fields: Hexadecimal is also used in other technical fields, such as computer networking, where its compact representation of binary values can be useful.
In short, hexadecimal is used in a variety of fields where a compact and human-readable representation of binary values is needed, including computer science, web design, cryptography, digital electronics, and other technical fields.
You can learn more about hexadecimal by following these steps:
Read introductory materials: Start with introductory articles or chapters in computer science or programming books that explain the basics of hexadecimal and how it is used to represent binary data.
Practice conversions: Try converting binary numbers to hexadecimal and vice versa to gain a better understanding of how the two number systems relate to each other.
Study examples: Look at examples of how hexadecimal is used in computer science and other technical fields, such as web design, cryptography, and digital electronics.
Take online courses or tutorials: Consider taking online courses or tutorials focused on computer science, programming, or related subjects to learn more about hexadecimal and its applications.
Join online forums: Join online forums or discussion groups focused on computer science, programming, or other technical fields to discuss hexadecimal and ask questions of more experienced professionals.
Experiment: Try experimenting with hexadecimal representation in a programming language or on a calculator to gain hands-on experience with the number system.
By following these steps and actively seeking out opportunities to learn, you can gain a deeper understanding of hexadecimal and its uses.
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created 2008 · complexity basic · author Sightless · version 7.0
Often when you enter a blank line by pressing Enter twice in insert mode, Vim removes the indent from the blank line and your cursor moves back to column 1. Likewise, if you position the cursor on a blank line and press letter
o to open a new line below it, Vim does not open that line with any indent. Often, though, you want to use the same indent as the preceding non-blank line.
There are two ways to achieve this. If you can tolerate lines in your files that contain only whitespace, you can simply put this in your vimrc:
:inoremap <CR> <CR>x<BS>
Vim doesn't delete the indent if you type something, even if you delete that something, and this mapping simulates your typing something even if you didn't, and deletes it before proceeding to the next line! This approach is not recommended, though, as it is generally considered poor practice to have lines that contain only whitespace.
Another approach is to save the following in a .vim file in your ~/.vim/plugin (or $HOME/vimfiles/plugin on Windows) directory, or add it to your vimrc:
function! IndentIgnoringBlanks(child) let lnum = v:lnum while v:lnum > 1 && getline(v:lnum-1) == "" normal k let v:lnum = v:lnum - 1 endwhile if a:child == "" if ! &l:autoindent return 0 elseif &l:cindent return cindent(v:lnum) endif else exec "let indent=".a:child if indent != -1 return indent endif endif if v:lnum == lnum && lnum != 1 return -1 endif let next = nextnonblank(lnum) if next == lnum return -1 endif if next != 0 && next-lnum <= lnum-v:lnum return indent(next) else return indent(v:lnum-1) endif endfunction command! -bar IndentIgnoringBlanks \ if match(&l:indentexpr,'IndentIgnoringBlanks') == -1 | \ if &l:indentexpr == '' | \ let b:blanks_indentkeys = &l:indentkeys | \ if &l:cindent | \ let &l:indentkeys = &l:cinkeys | \ else | \ setlocal indentkeys=!^F,o,O | \ endif | \ endif | \ let b:blanks_indentexpr = &l:indentexpr | \ let &l:indentexpr = "IndentIgnoringBlanks('". \ substitute(&l:indentexpr,"'","''","g")."')" | \ endif command! -bar IndentNormally \ if exists('b:blanks_indentexpr') | \ let &l:indentexpr = b:blanks_indentexpr | \ endif | \ if exists('b:blanks_indentkeys') | \ let &l:indentkeys = b:blanks_indentkeys | \ endif augroup IndentIgnoringBlanks au! au FileType * IndentIgnoringBlanks augroup END
You can change the
* in the
au command at the bottom to make it apply to only the filetypes you want, or put the part after the
* in after scripts instead of with the above. :help after-directory
It works by 'wrapping' your indentexpr in another. The script sets the indentexpr to its own function, which adjusts the cursor position and variables as if you were inserting directly after the last non-blank line, not after the blank line, and then evaluates the original indentexpr.
- See :help prevnonblank(). It should greatly simplify your method.
Regarding :help prevnonblank(): Rather than simplifying it, this function would make the script more complicated; what we need is not a non-blank line but a line preceded by a non-blank line; we also need the cursor moved. Sightless 23:26, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
- I don't understand. Don't you just want to set the current indent to be the same as the indent level of the previous line that isn't blank? This is easily done using prevnonblank, with an example given in the help: "
let ind = indent(prevnonblank(v:lnum - 1))". Won't this work? Am I missing something? --Fritzophrenic 19:45, 16 February 2009 (UTC)
Yeah, it's not that simple. What we want to do primarily is trick the syntax-specific indentexpr so it thinks it's opening a line below a correctly indented line, not below a blank line, and leave it to calculate whatever complicated indent change it wants to. Sightless 15:04, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
The script seems fairly solid. It should now behave the same as Vim when there are no blank lines involved. When blank lines are involved, and 'autoindent' would otherwise be in effect, the script takes the indent from whichever non-blank line is closest. This will usually be what the user wants. It can't second-guess indent expressions' intentions, though, so it may be slightly out in some cases. Sightless 15:04, 17 March 2009 (UTC)
This approach is not recommended, though, as it is generally considered poor practice to have lines that contain only whitespace.The thing is, using indented blank lines is useful. One example is diff'ing files often result to much cleaner and understandable diffs if blank lines are indented instead of empty. The main problem I have with the current system is that it makes trailing whitespace removal a mandatory and always-active part of the indenting system. An option would be good, but maybe the best thing would be to remove the option from the indenting and create a trailing-spaces removal system that allows to remove whitespace automatically all the time, and not in some specific conditions (i.e. blank lines if the blank line has not been modified). 23:54, October 15, 2011 (UTC)
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The increasing immigration of America by Europeans forced the nation to begin expanding the land it needed. The idea of Manifest Destiny was prevalent throughout the citizens of the US, and each wanted his/her piece of land so they could start living out their lives. Florida was one the most lush and fertile areas in the country, and was prime location for more settlers who wanted to acquire property so that they could make some money. However, there was a large Native American population that had been living there for centuries. So, something had to give, and it ended up being the Native Americans.
For the Seminole Indians of Florida, this was a serious issue. Formed during the 18th century by Indians from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi and former members of the Creek nation. When they were told to relocate, thousands did so, but several hundred stayed behind to stay and fight the settling whites as well as the government forces. During what is known as the Seminole Wars, the tribe fought, and killed, over 1500 American soldiers. This group can still be considered unconquered, because they were never truly defeated.
In 1853, the Governor of Florida passed a bill stating that any Indian captured in Florida would be sent west of the Mississippi. This was a major moment for Anglo-Indian relations in Florida, because it was the first document forced relocation in Florida history. It caused thousands of Seminoles to leave, and for those who stayed, they were forced to accept land that was a pittance compared to the land they had previously overseen.
- "No title," New York Times, February 21, 1853.
- Library Of Congress, "Immigration Native American", Library Of Congress, http://international.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/native_american2.html (accessed November 5th, 2008).
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Monday, 01 Oct 2018
Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a Mexican holiday for celebrating and honoring those who have passed. One tradition includes building ofrendas (altars) honoring the deceased using brightly colored skulls, marigolds, and possessions of the departed. Instead of sugar, our skulls are paper mache, but we invite you to decorate them in the spirit of Dia de los Muertos using paint, glitter, gems, flowers and other adornments.
How can an evidence-based approach to implicit bias promote greater equity and inclusion within STEM teaching and learning? Join us on Mondays in October to explore this question in depth alongside future faculty from all disciplines, levels, and roles within STEM.
While the current bodies of literature on implicit bias are extensive, fewer studies focus on its scope in STEM teaching and learning. In the first session of this CIRTLCast series, invited speakers will discuss the prevalence of implicit bias in STEM, particularly in the context of higher education. We will define and discuss key terms, such as equity, oppression, privilege, and microaggressions.
"Get Out the Vote Plays," Tiffany Antone, lecturer in music and theatre will curate short, nonpartisan plays. This lunchtime series features facets of composition and art through a series of readings or performances curated by Iowa State faculty. Bring your lunch or stop by Bookends Café on your way.
What defines effective teaching, and how do we measure it? These questions are critically important to the teaching mission and to faculty careers. The ISU Faculty Handbook states that "When teaching is part of the faculty assignment, effectiveness is an essential criterion for advancement." CELT will be hosting two nationally recognized scholars who will share their research on Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness, with particular focus on:
Learn the fundamentals of woodworking equipment while creating a tool carrier. Leave class with knowledge of proper machinery use, and, most importantly, woodshop safety.
4 weeks beginning Monday, October 1, 6:00 - 8:30 p.m. Join professional photographer and instructor Mark Stoltenberg for a four-part class covering the basics of photography including equipment (and how to use it), depth of field, aperture, light, composition, finding your subject & "tips and tricks".
Flowing, graceful, and distinctive are just a few words to describe the wonderful group of garden plants known as ornamental grasses.
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After a short winter with plentiful rain, the valley of the sun's mountains and desserts are filled with wildflowers and plump cactus. With a beauty unlike anything seen elsewhere, and some that are just bazaar, it is natural to desire a means of identifying these unique flowering plants. Given the limited amount of flowering plants in the Arizona, this is not a difficult task.
Identify whether the plant is a cactus or another variety of plant. Cactus and succulents will have thick, strange-shaped leaves, and many have needles. If the flower is on top of a very tall cactus, this is a saguaro. If it is on a short ovular-shaped cactus, it belongs to the barrel family. The barrel family has hybrids available that produce bright pink and orange flowers. If it has long, thick looking leaves, it is either an agave or an aloe vera.
Determine whether the other variety of plant is a ground cover or a shrub. A ground cover is a plant that spreads out along the ground and usually produces small clusters of flowers. The most common ground cover plants found in Arizona include lantana, sandpaper verbena and trailing dalea. Lantana produces tiny flower clusters that are usually yellow, orange or purple. Sandpaper verbena produces circular clusters of bright purple flowers. Trailing dalea's flowers are deep purple and about the same size as the plant's leaves.
Identify the color and size of the shrub's blooms. Common Arizona shrubs include the Mexican bird of Paradise, which has bright red and yellow flowers, and the Green Feathery Cassia, which has showy yellow flowers. It may also be Mexican Honeysuckle, which has orange tubular flowers, or the Chaparral Sage, which contains purple spikes of flowers.
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Created with Grolier Online, Scholastic’s “Research Starters: The Anasazi and Pueblo Indians” offers students a jump-start on their research papers about these Native American cultures.
In addition to a brief introduction, students will find a glossary of terms to know, and links to 12 Scholastic reading activities on related subjects, from the Natural Bridges National Monument to Kivas (sacred ceremonial chambers of present-day Pueblo Indians).
Plus, Scholastic culled the Web and tracked down 32 helpful, interesting sites related to Native Americans, including:
• Native American Home Pages: Award-winning database of Native American Web resources covering individual nations, organizations, colleges, arts, languages, native businesses, and more. Maintained by Lisa A. Mitten, bibliographer at the Univ. of Pittsburgh.
• National Museum of the American Indian: This Smithsonian Institution site contains information about the museum's exhibitions and research as well as an annotated listing of other Native American sites on the Internet.
• Collapse — Why Do Civilizations Fall?: This Web site, from the Annenberg/CPB Project, presents theories and methods used by archaeologists to study the decline of societies. A journal allows users to record clues and reach conclusions regarding the collapse of individual civilizations.
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National Water Policy 2012
It's main emphasis is to treat water as ECONOMIC GOOD which the ministry claims to promote its conservation and efficient use.
Features of National Water Policy:
- To ensure access to a minimum quantity of potable water for essential health and hygiene to all citizens, available within easy reach of the household.
- To curtail subsidy to agricultural electricity users.
- To keep aside a portion of the river flow to meet the ecological needs and to ensure that the low and high flow releases correspond in time closely to the natural flow regime.
- To give statutory powers to Water Users Associations to maintain the distribution system.
- Project benefited families to bear part of the cost of resettlement & rehabilitation of project affected families.
- To remove the large disparity between stipulations for water supply in urban areas and in rural areas.
- To support a National Water Framework Law.
Major Provisions Under this policy are:
- Envisages to establish a standardized national information system with a network of data banks and data bases.
- Resource planning and recycling for providing maximum availability.
- To give importance to the impact of projects on human settlements and environment.
- Guidelines for the safety of storage dams and other water-related structures.
- Regulate exploitation of groundwater.
- Setting water allocation priorities in the following order: Drinking water, Irrigation, Hydropower, Navigation, Industrial and other uses.
- The water rates for surface water and ground water should be rationalized with due regard to the interests of small and marginal farmers.
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Monitor for Leafrollers and Other Caterpillars
Bloomtime applications of Bacillus thuringiensis for peach twig borer help to keep leafroller and other caterpillar populations under control. Leafroller damage is not a problem for prunes grown for the dried market, but needs to be monitored on fresh market prunes so that prompt action can be taken if damaging populations develop.
Monitor for the presence of caterpillars from the beginning of bloom (green fruitworm) through petal fall (leafrollers), looking for any species that may cause fruit damage. Carefully check young leaves and shoots for the presence of peach twig borer and leafroller larvae and leaf damage. Use a beating tray to catch green fruitworm larvae that drop from the tree as you shake blossom clusters.
Use the photos below to identify caterpillars that are present in the orchard at this time of year. Names link to more information on identification and management.
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Could The Science Behind Jurassic Park Save Our Insects?
You all know about the premise for Steven Spielberg's 1993 Jurassic Park, and hopefully you also know about the global effort going on to the reverse the impending extinction of Bees on Earth , but do you know what they have in common?
It turns out that both are rooted in one scientist's discovery in Lebanon during the 1980s.
The story of this elusive discovery began in Jezzine, a small town within the Mt-Lebanon mountain range in southern Lebanon. Once upon a time, during the mid 1980s, an amber expert from the American University of Beirut named Afti Marka uncovered some 130-150 million year old amber fragments while excavating the rock underneath the cliffs of Mt-Lebanon. Marka discovered that these fragments contained a number of well-preserved Jurassic-period insects. Amazed by what he found, he began studying the samples and developed a tentative hypothesis about what the potential for such well-preserved samples might be — a hypothesis that we all know so well thanks to Michael Crichton's classic tale, Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, Marka soon disproved his own theory, limiting its influence to the world of science fiction.
The tragedy of this story actually lies in all of the hype and excitement that the film and the novel created around the fictionalization of the research, and the subsequent shadow that was cast upon other directions that Azar's findings could have taken. Once scientists put the fictionalized pseudo-scientific speculations to rest concerning dinosaurs, they moved on from Azar's exceptional fossils, leaving them behind to be forgotten. Such is the nature of over-kill.
Although it has been thoroughly proven by now that we will never be able to recreate dinosaurs, or at least not by the methodology used in Crichton's Jurassic Park - the initial research might soon be making a prominent comeback to the forefront of biological/paleontological research. This time, though, it will be paying more attention to the preserved insects that started it all. Scientists believe that one of the big riddles of the 21st century will be the increasing threat to the survival of insect species that are essential to the balance of Earth's ecosystems.
More to the point, the human race's survival is heavily tied to the survival of insect species. Einstein is rumored to have believed that the human race could only survive about 5 years past the extinction of bees and, whether or not he did predict this, the fact remains that the environment as we know it is completely dependent on the various insect species who all perform specific duties that are crucial to the survival of the human race on Earth.
By examining these Jurassic period insects that have been so well preserved, researchers hope to discover information about the mysterious history of insect evolution that could guide us towards a future direction of insect extinction prevention. It could be that these ancient little creatures hold the key to the elusive insect resilience that allowed many species to survive the various extinction events of the last 200 million years.
So, if scientists can figure out a way to use this key to unlock a solution to the future doom of insects, it could be that the same discovery that inspired a fictional tale of bringing an extinct species back to life will save our species from extinction in the future.
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We are committed to choosing suppliers that have recycling systems in place and reuse their materials.
Glass Bottles: Our bottles are made from recycled glass, which helps to reduce the amount of silica sand extracted and thereby decreases soil erosion in Chile’s coastal zones.
Did you know that
Recycled Cardboard boxes: We use suppliers that manufacture boxes from recycled cardboard to help save trees and reduce cellulose production, which can pollute the environment when contaminants are discharged into rivers.
Plastic containers: We choose suppliers that reuse their packaging materials to reduce polluting the land with polyethylene which does not biodegrade but takes 200 years to decompose.
WE ONLY PRINT MATERIAL WHEN ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY and we reuse sheets of paper by printing on the back.
Did you know that one tree produces about 20 reams of paper? That is quite a lot, right? 20 x 500 = 10,000 sheets of paper.
If 10,000,000 people printed one less page per day, we would save 1000 trees each day.
These are some of the actions we carry out to care for our planet, and every day we look for ways to conserve resources such as water, gas, and electricity, and separate our garbage for recycling and reuse.
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The heating of the ingot is not uniform, the heating temperature is too high or too low, the tube and bar extrusion tube or piercing needle is too smooth, the piercing needle is cracked or the extruded product is not cut clean, and delamination is formed after further stretching and rolling.
The surface of the product is in contact with the surrounding medium, chemical or electrochemical reaction takes place, and the process of forming a product film on the surface is called corrosion.
After corrosion, the surface loses its metallic luster and forms corrosion spots of different colors.
The causes of corrosion are: the surface of the product is not clean, there are residual liquid such as water and emulsion, or improper storage, wet climate or water droplets invade the surface; there is a corrosive atmosphere in the environment.
At higher temperatures, products come into contact with oxygen to form oxides called oxidation.
After oxidation, it shows different oxidation color, loses metal luster, and serious oxide scale appears.
The main causes of oxidation are: oxidizing atmosphere in annealing furnace, natural oxidation of surface due to high annealing temperature or long exposure time in air, and high residual temperature of rolled piece, oxidation is formed after coiling or stacking.
The local rupture on the surface of the product is called peeling. The appearance of a needle-like metal filament on the surface of the product is called prickling.
Peeling or prickling is generally distributed continuously or intermittently along the rolling direction, and there are often oxide scale or other dirt, inclusions and so on. The peeling of tube and bar generally forms tongue-like and fish-scale-like warping along the processing direction, which seriously runs through the whole product, and local serious scarring is formed. Prickling often occurs in the last process of rolled products.
The main reasons for peeling are: defects in ingots and uneven surface; surface defects caused by oxidation or previous process caused by high processing temperature; dirt such as water and oil on rolls, extruding cylinders and piercing needles; defects in processing tools and mechanical damage in the machining process.
The main causes of prickling are: roll cracking, uneven edge of billet, irregular depression and so on.
The surface of the product is uneven, with light microwave depressions and protuberances called wrinkling.
Wrinkling is generally consistent with the rolling direction or oblique distribution, showing a single or more uplift, feel more smooth, larger area.
The main causes of wrinkling are: uneven rolling piece, or poor unidirectional bending flatness; uneven tension (uneven tension roll or tension sleeve); poor plasticity and serious eccentricity of tube billet; uneven or excessive deformation of thick-walled tube; poor roll adjustment and other process defects.
The rough surface with tiny point-like depression and uneven surface is called hemp surface.
Hemp noodles are distributed locally or continuously, individual ones are called pockmarks, and serious ones are called pockmarks. The hemp caused by coarse grains is commonly known as orange peel.
The main causes of hemp surface are: too high annealing temperature, too long time, coarse grains; over pickling; too small processing rate, non-smooth surface; uneven roll surface hardness, serious wear, rolling tool corrosion, oxide scale or foreign metal.
The external force acts on the surface of the product or the dislocation between the plate and foil layers, resulting in strips, bundles, pits, sharp grooves and other shapes of scars, such as scratches, scratches, bruises and bruises.
The phenomenon that there are great differences in chemical composition in different parts of the product after rolling or annealing is called uneven composition. Uneven composition can cause differences in color or deformation characteristics, macroscopic examination can see the composition segregation point or segregation area, microstructure and properties are different, and even cracking.
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Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) has two important functions associated with site security and integrity:
• When your SSL certificate is digitally signed by a trusted third party certificate authority, it helps to verify that your site is identifying itself correctly
• SSL encrypts all communications between the user and your site, making it difficult for somebody to extract anything useful even if they are able to intercept the communication
Every site that is owned by a business, non-profit organization, or government agency should have an SSL certificate. The only exception is where your site does not collect or disseminate any sensitive information.
When you have an SSL certificate, users can connect to your site via the HTTPS protocol. The “S” in HTTPS stands for “secure”. Although we use the term “SSL”, which is the one most people are familiar with, the standard has actually been superseded by something called TLS (Transport Layer Security). But you don’t need to worry about this because TLS is going to be enabled by default on any modern web server.
Even though the technology is enabled by default, sites that have an SSL certificate still need to set the HTTPS version of their site as the default protocol for inbound connections. A 2014 survey by Moz showed that less than 18% of respondents were already using HTTPS, and as recently as 2015, it was found that less than 2% of the top 1,000,000 sites had HTTPS set as the default protocol.
As a user, you can ensure that HTTPS is used whenever possible regardless of a site’s default settings by installing the HTTPS Everywhere plug-in.
Using SSL may give your site a boost in Google rankings. In August 2014, Google announced that it would take SSL into account as a ranking factor.
It also must be considered that HTTPS does slightly lower the speed of a site, so if your site is already slow (which it shouldn’t be – fix it!), you could see your rank actually slip as a result of adding HTTPS. It will really come down to the differential between the benefit from HTTPS and the benefit from having a fast site.
Google wants sites to use HTTPS because it makes it easier to verify the integrity of a site, but that doesn’t automatically mean you need to do it. Most sites will benefit from having HTTPS, but because SSL certificates aren’t free, you might choose not to have one if the cost can’t be justified.
Risk vs. reward: the privacy and security advantages of SSL
You have to think about the financial cost of purchasing and renewing your SSL certificate. If there’s nothing on your site that needs to be confidential, you may not need to go to the trouble.
But if your site collects personal information from the user, has password authenticated log-ins, or engages in any sort of e-Commerce, you absolutely must have SSL if you want to avoid problems and retain the full confidence and trust of your users.
How to get an SSL certificate
Buying an SSL certificate is not like a regular purchase, because there are a few tests and checks that have to be done before a certificate can be issued. This is for the protection of everyone, including you. Usually the easiest way is to get your Hosting company or SEO manager to obtain the certificate for you, because this will simplify the process greatly.
If you’d prefer to do it entirely on your own, your first step is to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) on your server. This is a block of encrypted text that looks similar to a PGP signature. What you need to type to generate the request depends on what server software your web host is running.
Most websites are hosted on Apache servers, and Apache uses a service called OpenSSL to generate a CSR. Here’s an example of how to generate a CSR for a company called Widgets-R-Us Inc, with domain widgets.com, based in Los Angeles:
openssl req -new -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -out widgets_com.csr -keyout widgets_com.key -subj “C/=US/ST=California/L=Los Angeles/O=Widgets R Us Inc./CN=widgets.com”
The section that’s relevant about the company is the -subj section. This contains a string value with specific values, as follows:
• C is a 2 digit country code, for example: US, UK, IE, FR, DE, BE, and so on.
• ST is the state or province
• L is the city
• O is the organization name
• CN is the “common name”, which is a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
There’s an optional value called OU that can appear between O and CN, but it is rarely used, and can cause problems. Currently (at the time of writing) the SSL certificate of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is affected, for example. OU stands for “organizational unit” and means a department within the organisation.
After generating the CSR, it would look something like:
—–BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST—– MIIHVjCCBj6gAwIBAgIQVXENtd02KRwAAAAAUNuvdTANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQsFADCB ujELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxFjAUBgNVBAoTDUVudHJ1c3QsIEluYy4xKDAmBgNVBAsT H1NlZSB3d3cuZW50cnVzdC5uZXQvbGVnYWwtdGVybXMxOTA3BgNVBAsTMChjKSAy MDEyIEVudHJ1c3QsIEluYy4gLSBmb3IgYXV0aG9yaXplZCB1c2Ugb25seTEuMCwG A1UEAxMlRW50cnVzdCBDZXJ0aWZpY2F0aW9uIEF1dGhvcml0eSAtIEwxSzAeFw0x NzAzMDIyMjA5MzNaFw0xODAzMDIyMjM5MzFaMIGNMQswCQYDVQQGEwJBVTElMCMG
—–END CERTIFICATE REQUEST—–
In this case it is contained in the generated file “widgets_com.csr”. You need to open that file in a text editor, then cut and paste all the text (including the begin and end instructions) into the online form of the SSL certificate authority you are ordering from. Do not confuse the csr file with the key file.
Once the certificate authority has validated your domain and company, it will email you a copy of your SSL certificate, which you then need to install on your server.
Due to the complexity involved, most people prefer to have professional assistance rather than opting to do it themselves.
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Terminator-style lenses a step closer
Terminator lenses The latest steps in the development of a computerised contact lens that could be used for navigation, health monitoring or even to sneak access to information, has been unveiled by US researchers.
A paper describing the lens appears in the latest issue of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering.
"Some day maybe we'll have full-fledged streaming in your contact lenses," says co-author Associate Professor Babak Amir Parviz, from electrical engineering at the University of Washington (UW).
Parviz along with an international team of engineers has constructed a contact lens embedded with a tiny LED that can light up when a wireless signal is sent to it.
He collaborated on the device with UW ophthalmologist Tueng Shen and researchers from Aalto University in Finland led by optoelectronics professor Dr Markku Sopanen.
Parviz's group specialises in incorporating miniaturised devices into unconventional materials and has been working on functional contact lenses for a while, he says.
"If we can make very small devices of various sorts, if we have the ability to put them into different materials, what can I do with this contact lens that I stare at every morning?"
The engineers took an extremely small custom-designed LED made with sapphire and embedded it in the centre of a plastic contact lens.
They also embedded a circular antenna around the inside lip of the lens. A miniature integrated circuit connects the antenna and the blue LED. Using remote radio frequency transmission, the group was able to control a single pixel.
With this setup, a human eye still wouldn't be able to distinguish that pixel due to the minimum focal distance required to see anything clearly.
With that in mind, the researchers created a separate, non-computerised contact lens containing an array of special flatter, thinner lenses known as Fresnel lenses, each less than a micron thick. The array successfully focused light from the LED.
Testing on rabbits
Once the researchers had determined that the experimental lenses were safe in the lab, they tested them on live rabbits.
After wearing them for a short period, the rabbits didn't have any abrasions or thermal burning.
"We have been able to build the whole system and test it on rabbits, on live eyes, and show that this works and it's safe," says Parviz.
Being able to display information and images directly into the field of vision via contact lens would be useful in a number of ways, according to the engineers.
The devices could be used for navigation, for gaming, and even as a way to monitor someone's health and safety. It could also be a super sneaky way to access info while carrying on a conversation.
This early system is still extremely rudimentary, says Parviz. The computerised lens is made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a hard plastic that doesn't allow airflow to the eye, limiting usage to only a few minutes.
Although the device could be powered from about three feet away when outside the eye, that distance narrowed to below a few centimetres when the contact was in an actual eye.
While a single pixel lighting up could potentially be useful as a warning, without the focusing micro-lenses, the rabbits only saw a blurry shadow.
The researchers are planning to tackle these challenges. They are working on combining the flat micro-lens technology that can focus light with the computerised device in the lab.
They would like to increase the pixel count, refine the antenna design, widen the wireless range, and get the components into a softer, more flexible material.
"If we can make them as comfortable as normal contact lenses, you don't feel you're wearing them," says Parviz.
Contacts would allow users to take their displays with them anywhere, hands and headset-free, he adds.
"In a sense, it's the ultimate electronic gear that is totally unnoticeable."
More integration needed
Dr Arnaud Bertsch is a microsystems researcher at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland who previously worked on incorporating sensors into a soft contact lens for glaucoma detection. That project resulted in a commercial product now sold by the Swiss company Sensimed.
"There's still a little more integration to do to have something that can be used as a device for projecting an image onto the retina, but basically the concept is here," he says of the new contact lens.
Bertsch thinks that it could take 10 years to achieve fully functional computerised contact lens displays, but adds that the field has taken big steps forward with help from miniaturisation.
"Five years ago, it was something like science fiction. When we started to discuss integrating things into a contact lens, people were laughing," he says. "Now it's real."
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Airborne contact dermatitis
Allergic contact dermatitis to aerosol substances can produce an eruption on exposed skin that resembles a photodermatitis.
Involvement of typically sun-spared areas such as upper eyelids or submental areas suggests airborne contact dermatitis. Typically, relatively sheltered areas are spared.
A careful history is necessary to delineate it from other causes of eruptions of exposed skin.
Patch testing to contact allergens is indicated.
- Removal of the offending allergen, followed by topical mid-strength topical steroids is quite effective.
- Chronic allergic contact dermatitis of the face can lead to thickening of the skin, requiring more potent topical steroids.
- Close follow-up is necessary when potent topical steroids are used or atrophy may occur.
Back to Skin Care Glossary - A Index |
Back to Skin Care Glossary Index
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One of the most important consequences of ecosystem dynamics in terms of human impact is biomagnification. Biomagnification is the increasing concentration of persistent, toxic substances in organisms at each successive trophic level. These are substances that are fat soluble, not water soluble, and are stored in the fat reserves of each organism. Many substances have been shown to biomagnify, including classical studies with the pesticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), which were described in the 1960s bestseller, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. DDT was a commonly used pesticide before its dangers to apex consumers, such as the bald eagle, became known. In aquatic ecosystems, organisms from each trophic level consumed many organisms in the lower level, which caused DDT to increase in birds (apex consumers) that ate fish. Thus, the birds accumulated sufficient amounts of DDT to cause fragility in their eggshells. This effect increased egg breakage during nesting and was shown to have devastating effects on these bird populations. The use of DDT was banned in the United States in the 1970s.
Other substances that biomagnify are polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), which were used as coolant liquids in the United States until their use was banned in 1979, and heavy metals, such as mercury, lead, and cadmium. These substances are best studied in aquatic ecosystems, where predatory fish species accumulate very high concentrations of toxic substances that are at quite low concentrations in the environment and in producers. As illustrated in a study performed by the NOAA in the Saginaw Bay of Lake Huron of the North American Great Lakes (Figure 20.8), PCB concentrations increased from the producers of the ecosystem (phytoplankton) through the different trophic levels of fish species. The apex consumer, the walleye, has more than four times the amount of PCBs compared to phytoplankton. Also, based on results from other studies, birds that eat these fish may have PCB levels at least one order of magnitude higher than those found in the lake fish.
Other concerns have been raised by the biomagnification of heavy metals, such as mercury and cadmium, in certain types of seafood. The United States Environmental Protection Agency recommends that pregnant women and young children should not consume any swordfish, shark, king mackerel, or tilefish because of their high mercury content. These individuals are advised to eat fish low in mercury: salmon, shrimp, pollock, and catfish. Biomagnification is a good example of how ecosystem dynamics can affect our everyday lives, even influencing the food we eat.
- 2919 reads
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Photo Credit: ERIKA SANTELICES/
One Island, But Different Worlds: The History Of Haiti And The Dominican Republic
Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR) may occupy the same island of Hispaniola on the Caribbean Sea with nearly the same populations hovering around 10 million people, but the similarities between the two stop there.
“Culturally, we’re different,” said Frantz G, who was born and raised in Haiti for 15 years until moving to the United States and settling in the Midwest with his family. “A lot of that has to do with the fact that we were colonized by the French and the Dominican Republic was colonized by the Spanish. We speak more of a French creole in Haiti and people from the Dominican Republic speak Spanish.”
The history of oppression and colonization has played a significant role in both countries and their differences span beyond the language barriers and political border boundaries.
Colonization, in part, is one reason why Haiti continues to struggle economically when compared to the Dominican Republic. The economy in the DR is reportedly 10 times larger than Haiti’s.
Spanish and French Rule
Tension between the Spanish and French is what eventually led to the division of the island. Spain had claimed the entire island but in the 1600s, France took over the western part of the island from Spain.
Haiti officially gained its independence from France in 1804 by self-liberated slaves who were anti-colonialism through what is known today as the Haitian Revolution. After breaking away from French rule, the country claimed the title as the world’s first Black republic in the Western hemisphere.
That independence has proven to come with consequences as Haiti was ordered to pay France, its colonizers, approximately 90 million gold francs over 30 years to compensate former plantation owners who lost their property as a result of Haiti’s newfound independence.
Another cost was isolation from the rest of the world as there were growing concerns that slaves from other countries in the Americas would rebel as well.
And across the border, the Dominican Republic gained independence from Spain in 1844.
How Colonization Impacted Economic Freedom In Haiti
Before Haitian slaves rebelled against French occupiers, the French exploited the land for its sugar cane and coffee to make Haiti an economic hub. The Spaniards, however, had a different approach that didn’t involve exploiting the land and eventually integrating with the indigenous people on the DR side through marriage and developed political systems, according to Vox Borders.
According to Restavek Freedom, the geographic makeup of the island puts Haiti at a disadvantage. On the western side, the mountains block the rainfall needed to grow essential crops and sustain livestock. But on the eastern side of the island, the rain is in DR’s favor making the soil healthier and better to grow essential crops and more.
Haiti simply didn’t have a fair chance at gaining economic freedom because by the time Haiti became independent, the land was already exploited, therefore destroying the fertility of the land, which was not the case in the Dominican Republic.
One Island But Two Worlds
The average Haitian is reportedly nearly 10 times poorer than the average Dominican, and much more likely to be unemployed. The infant mortality rate is double the rate in Haiti. When it comes to food security, Haiti has more people to feed than the DR but less food.
Despite the odds, Haiti continues to forge toward a better tomorrow.
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the US regulatory authority that ensures compliance with the principles of net neutrality, which were established by the Commission’s Open Internet Order in February 2015.
Net neutrality means that all content on the internet shall enjoy the same priority, i.e. Internet service providers and any authority regulating the Internet should treat all data on the Internet equally and not discriminate or charge differently based on user, content, website, etc. Net neutrality is considered a vital component of the concept of Open Internet.
The FCC has set forth the following three rules in order to ensure net neutrality:
- No Blocking: Broadband providers may not block access to lawful content, applications, services or unharmful devices.
- No Throttling: Broadband providers may not deliberately target some lawful internet traffic for slower delivery to users than other traffic.
- No Paid Prioritization: Broadband providers may not favor some internet traffic in exchange for consideration of any kind- in other words, no “fast lanes.” Internet service providers are also banned from prioritizing content and services of their affiliates.
Restoring the Freedom of the Internet?
On May 1st, nine Republican senators submitted a legislation proposal with the title: A bill to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission from reclassifying broadband internet access service as a telecommunications service and from imposing certain regulations on providers of such service (“Restoring Internet Freedom Act”). The proposed bill aims at preventing the FCC from classifying Internet Service Providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act and it would prohibit the FCC from exercising the part of their regulatory authority that allowed the Commission to issue net neutrality rules (the full bill text is not available yet).
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) stated that the internet “is threatened by the Federal Communications Commission’s 2015 Open Internet Order, which would put federal bureaucrats in charge of engineering the Internet’s infrastructure.” During the announcement, co-sponsor of the bill, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) repeated his charge that net neutrality is “Obamacare for the Internet”.
Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai had previously launched an initiative to roll back the net neutrality regulations.
Coincidental Court Ruling
On the same day, the United States Court of Appeals for the Columbia District Circuit denied the United States Telecom Association’s petition for a rehearing of their action against the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order (the net neutrality rule), which had been dismissed on appeal. The court has confirmed the lawfulness of the FCC’s net neutrality rules at this point. However, the reason for the denial of the rehearing was that a review of the case would be particularly unwarranted at present in light of the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the FCC’s Order as the Commission would soon consider adopting a notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would replace the existing rule with a markedly different one.
It remains to be seen what this markedly different rule will look like – that is, if the new bill will not by then have taken away the FCC’s authority to issue such rule. If broadband internet access service no longer is classified as telecommunications service, then privacy rights pertaining to telecommunications services, such as the secrecy of communication, may no longer apply to internet communication.
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Nepal’s Rhino Population Up By 16.5 Pc In Last 5 Yrs
The number of one-horned rhino in Nepal has increased by 16.5 per cent in the last five years, despite an increase in cases of natural death and incidents of poaching.
A census conducted between March and April revealed that the number of endangered species has increased by 107 in the last 5 years despite a surge in natural deaths and incidents of poaching.
One-horned rhinoceros, also known as Indian rhinoceros, is a rhino species native to the Indian subcontinent. It is listed as ‘vulnerable’ on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
In the earlier census conducted in 2015, the population of one-horned-rhino stood at 645 which in a span of five years has increased to 752, Nepali officials announced.
“The number of rhinos has increased by 107, now the total number stands at 752 in various protected areas of Nepal. The highest number of rhinos are now residing in Chitwan National Park where the number stands at 694. Likewise, 38 are in Bardiya National Park, 17 in Shuklaphanta National Park and 3 in Parsa National Park,” Dr Bishwa Nath Oli, Secretary at Ministry of Forests and Environment told ANI over the phone.
Of them, 146 are male, 198 are female whereas 408 have not been identified sex-wise. Based on the age, there are 520 adult rhinos, 96 semi-adults and 136 calves.
Earlier, the count of the endangered one-horned rhinoceros remained constant from 2019 to 2020 due to the budget crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the last five years, a total of 161 rhinos were found dead in and around Chitwan National Park out of which five were killed by poachers whereas the remaining died due to natural causes.
Originally published at Ani
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If you’ve looked up at the night sky recently, you might have been surprised to see a train of bright lights moving across from one side to the other. What's going on?
The lights appear in groups of up to 60 in a long line. There have been numerous reports from places like the U.S. and U.K. of people seeing them, with explanations ranging from UFOs to an alien invasion. Of course.
But fear not. These lights are actually satellites, launched into space by the U.S. company SpaceX, run by South African entrepreneur Elon Musk. And they're a bit controversial.
The satellites are part of something called Starlink. This is a project by SpaceX to launch thousands of satellites into orbit, and beam the internet to Earth from space. SpaceX hopes to use this to fund missions to Mars.
Since the first launch in May 2019, SpaceX has launched about 360 of these satellites. Each weighs about 260 kilograms and is roughly the size of a flattened car, with a large solar panel that reflects sunlight.
SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to blanket the space around Earth in these satellites. They plan to operate 12,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, and potentially up to 42,000. This is known as a mega constellation.
The satellites are launched in batches of 60, with SpaceX aiming to launch roughly two batches very month – although they haven’t quite achieved that frequency yet.
Each time the satellites are launched, on the company’s own reusable Falcon 9 rockets, they are placed into orbit about 290 kilometers above the surface of Earth.
The satellites then use their onboard ion engines to raise their altitude up to their operational orbits of between 340 and 550 kilometers. This can take several months to do.
During these months, the satellites can appear very visible in the night sky when they fly over your location because of their reflective surfaces.
After dusk and before dawn, when the Sun has dipped just below the horizon, the satellites reflect the Sun’s light back onto the ground, making them shine quite brightly.
As they pass overhead, they appear like a bright train of lights as the satellites follow one after the other in orbit.
SpaceX’s goal with Starlink is to beam high-speed internet to every single location on Earth, from London to Antarctica. People will then pay a fee to access the service, with speeds estimated to be slower than fibre broadband but faster than existing satellite internet services.
However, people have raised concerns about the number of satellites SpaceX is launching. Today only about 2,000 active satellites orbit Earth; SpaceX will increase this by six times, and possibly by 21 times.
This poses a considerable risk for satellites colliding in Earth orbit. If two satellites collide, they can explode and produce thousands of small pieces of debris. This happened in 2009 between a U.S. and Russian satellite.
Each of these pieces of debris can then also impact other satellites. This could lead to a worst-case scenario where parts of Earth orbit become unusable, known as the “Kessler syndrome”, and popularized in the movie Gravity.
Another concern is that the satellites are very bright, outshining 99 percent of all other satellites in the night sky.
Because of this, astronomers have reported that the satellites are hampering their ability to study the universe. The satellites can appear as bright streaks in telescope images, ruining observations of galaxies and stars.
With many more satellites set to be launched, astronomers have raised concerns about the number of satellites that will be visible in the night sky.
By some estimates, hundreds of Starlink satellites could be constantly visible in the night sky from any location on Earth. This could ruin the natural beauty of the night sky, and make astronomy much more difficult.
Currently there are no laws or regulations that protect the aesthetic of the night sky. But some people are looking to change that, and potentially take legal action against SpaceX.
SpaceX, for its part, says it is addressing these concerns.
Regarding collisions, its says each of its satellites is equipped with an automated system to dodge other satellites. However, in September 2019 this system failed, leading to a close call with a European science satellite.
The company also says it is trying to make the satellites less bright. In January 2020, it launched a Starlink satellite that had been coated in a darkened paint, to try and lower its reflectivity.
Early results suggest that, when it reached its operational orbit, this satellite did appear dimmer than other Starlink satellites. However, it still appeared bright in the months it took to reach this orbit.
The company is also working with astronomy groups to try and figure out ways to lower the impact of Starlink satellites on the work of astronomers. Elon Musk, however, has said he thinks there will be "zero" problems.
So far SpaceX has launched 3% of its initial planned constellation of 12,000 satellites, and 0.9% of the potential 42,000 satellites it might launch.
There are some arguments that many of the problems with the satellites should have been sorted out before SpaceX started launching them.
However, for the time being, there are no rules or regulations stopping SpaceX from launching more and more Starlink satellites into orbit.
Before the coronavirus pandemic emerged, the company planned to launch about 1,500 Starlink satellites by the end of 2020, bringing its service online in the U.S. and Canada first. That may now change.
But for the time being, you will likely continue to see these trains of satellites in the night sky. You can use websites like Find Starlink or this handy tool to see when they will be visible above your location.
SpaceX's next Starlink launch, its seventh, is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22 from Cape Canaveral in Florida.
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This glossary has been compiled from various different sources. Some of the terms have been reproduced with kind permission from the Stanley Gibbons Philatelic Terms Illustrated by James Mackay. If you think a term is missing please e-mail us.
Red Cross Stamps
Stamps either commemorating the Red Cross or bearing a premium in aid of the Red Cross.
Printing plates used for making Penny red stamps of Great Britain in 1841 (q.v Black Plates).
A new printing of a stamp whose design differs in some detail from the original while retaining its principal features.
Stamps printed by presses using continuous reels of paper.
Picture postcards issued by the various regional postal boards in the UK.
Postal stamps issued by the British Post Office for use in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man. Following the postal independence of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man, stamps issued for use in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are now described as "Country Issues" q.v.
Any marking in the sheet margin in the form of lines, dots and arrows, placed as a guide to colour registration.
Special Envelopes pioneered in GB in 1878 for registered packets and distinguished by crossed blue lines.
Special marks applied to registered packets to indicate greater security in transit.
Labels affixed to mail to show that it has been registered. Service now replaced in the United Kingdom by "Royal Mail Special Delivery" with delivery guaranteed by either 9.00am or 12 noon, the following day.
Special adhesive stamps or postal stationery denoting that the registration fee has been paid.
A stamp whose original gum has been lost and which has been issued with a fresh layer applied. Maybe also re-gummed to simulate original gum that was earlier removed in use to increase its possible market value.
(German) Imperial Post.
A stamp or series of stamps brought back into general use after being withdrawn.
Printing from raised type often referred to as letterpress.
Unsold stamps on hand after an issue has been taken off sale.
Correction of a damaged or faulty printing plate, cylinder, die or perforation pins.
A stamp which has had a fault or defect hidden in order to increase its possible market value.
A stamp which has had perforation applied unofficially to an imperforate or damaged margin.
Copy or imitation of the design and colour of a stamp.
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Through the Geographic Information Systems - Cartographic Specialist program you can become a proficient GIS practitioner, visual designer and communicator - creating a variety of customized maps and other products for the many users of geographic information.
Please note: this program is 10 months duration.
Cartography - known as the art and science of making maps, has come a long way since the efforts of early mapmakers who worked with pen and ink. While cartography still relies on many of the traditional principles, mapmaking now requires incorporating the best of modern research and technology. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) allows today's "cartographer" to store geographic data in an organized way, to allow for quick access, correlation, and analysis. This system also facilitates the development of cartographic displays. By using GIS, cartographers are able to collect, store, and combine data about a given area, subject, or region being researched. GIS helps planners working on environmental, public health, municipal planning, and natural resource projects (to name a few uses) monitor change, predict trends and manage resources using current relevant data.
The GIS Cartographic Specialist program is an advanced post-graduate program, building on your existing, related skills.
- Fleming's leadership in this field has been recognized by industry, government and business through their support in establishing the Geomatics Institute at Fleming.
- These strong partnerships offer students access to the latest software packages and data resources as well as unprecedented learning and employment opportunities.
- Most GIS programs focus on geographic analysis and application - but the Fleming Cartographic Specialist program is based on a dual approach which is truly unique.
- You will become a proficient GIS practitioner, as well as a visual designer and communicator - using GIS data and software to create a wide variety of customized maps and other products for users of geographic information.
Not sure which of our two GIS Ontario College Graduate Certificate programs is right for you? The common first semester in the GIS Cartographic Specialist and GIS Applications Specialist programs gives you a good overview and understanding of the technologies and diverse skills particular to careers in these fields. Subject to enrolment capacity, you can choose which area of specialized study you will pursue in semester two. In addition to acquiring a hands-on, firm foundation using Cartography, digital mapping and GIS technology skills and tools, you will have many opportunities to build on your teamwork, team building, project management, problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Since employers are seeking these broad-based transferrable skills, this experience working in technology teams will give you an edge in the workplace.
This three-semester (10-month) program starts in September with a 15-week semester ending in December, continues in January with another 15-week semester ending in April, and concludes with a seven-week semester starting in May and ending in June.
Why Choose Fleming
Graduates of Fleming's cartographic programs have earned a reputation for excellence through their achievements in the workplace, and through cartographic and GIS competitions. Over the years, they have captured 80 American Congress on Surveying and Mapping awards in annual competitions (student category), as well as numerous awards from the Canadian Cartographic Association and the Canadian Institute of Geomatics.
Graduate Meghan Miller is featured in a January 2012 article of GoGeomatics with an interview describing her experience in the program and her career path since graduation. Meghan now works for Canadian Cartographic Corporation (CCC) : http://www.gogeomatics.ca/magazine/?s=meghan+miller.
Adam Thom, 2010 program graduate, won the Arthur Robinson Award for Best Printed Map at the 2011 Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CaGIS) Map Design Competition. The award is sponsored by the National Geographic Society and Avenza-MAPublisher.
You'll spend a significant part of your time in the program doing experiential work - putting theory into practice. A co-operative GIS project in the final semester involves cross-disciplinary teams from the GIS Cartographic Specialist and Applications Specialist programs working together on a project for a business, government, or industry client.
Is this You?
While not prerequisites, there are a few skills and abilities that will help you to succeed in this program. These include:
- good creative thinking skills
- strong oral and written communication skills
- excellent time management skills
- analytical skills
- computing skills
With your GIS-Cartographic Specialist certificate, you will be able to pursue a variety of exciting, responsible positions within GIS and digital mapping environments, such as:
- provincial and federal government mapping agencies
- municipal utility, engineering, and planning departments
- private sector mapping, planning, consulting, utility, and natural resource firms
Minimum Admission Requirements
- A university degree or college diploma, or equivalent education or work experience. On rare occasions, substantive work experience in the field of Geomatics will be considered as equivalent to a degree or diploma, and these cases will be reviewed on an individual basis.
Although traditionally GIS training accompanied a degree or diploma in natural resources, with exponential growth in the field of GIS sciences, applicable backgrounds now range from forestry to marketing, from resource extraction to municipal planning, from health care to law enforcement. Previous GIS experience, while helpful, is not required for admission.
Since GIS is a field of study that makes extensive use of computer hardware and software technology, students entering the GIS-Cartographic Specialist program must be familiar with computers.
You can obtain a Trent University Honours Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Arts Degree in either Geography or Environmental Science/Studies and a Geographical Information Systems Ontario College Graduate Certificate in four years, with the third year spent studying at Fleming College. In other words, get both qualifications in four years - instead of five. For details, see Trent/Fleming Joint Degree, Geographical Information Systems Special Emphasis.
School of Military Mapping, Mapping & Charting Establishment of the Canadian Armed Forces
If you are a graduate of the Geomatics Technician program from the School of Military Mapping, Mapping & Charting Establishment of the Canadian Armed Forces, at the QL5 Level, you are eligible to apply for advance standing into the second semester of the three-semester Geographic Information Systems - Applications Specialist or Geographic Information Systems - Cartographic Specialist graduate certificate programs. For complete details see Transfer Credit Articulation Agreement.
If you have significant difficulty perceiving distinctions between colours you will experience greater challenges in map-making.
Plan to spend about $1000 for books and supplies.
Every attempt is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on our website and in our publications. The College reserves the right to modify or cancel any course, program, fee, timetable, or campus location at any time.
| 33,109 |
Katie is an adorable 7-year-old who was adopted from China. She’s an affectionate child with a great sense of humor who loves to draw and go to the playground. However, socks really bother her. After she puts them on, Katie feels her socks for hours, and if they have seams or little pills on them, they annoy her all day long. Katie also cannot tune out the casual touch sensations that are an everyday part of life. The breeze outside gently blowing on her arms feels like little insects. And while Katie is a gentle, kind child who loves her classmates, a child might accidentally brush against her, so she avoids sitting right next to other children and pushes them away if they get too close. Better to sit a bit on the sidelines than be worried about getting in trouble for pushing. Katie loves reading, but is comfortable handling only certain types of paper. Some types of paper send chills up her spine. She hates getting glue on her skin and refuses to finger-paint. She can hear a dog bark outside from the 28th floor of her apartment building. She is terrified of fire drills-and was hugely relieved when her school agreed to having the classroom aide take her outside before to the alarm rings. With all of these bothersome sights, sounds, and touches all day, it’s no wonder Katie gets so cranky in the evening. When it’s finally bedtime and lights out, her body just doesn’t feel right. Most nights, she thrashes around in her bed for 30 minutes or so until she finally falls asleep.
What is going on with Katie? She shows signs of sensory integration issues.
What is Sensory Integration?
All of us learn about and comprehend the world through our senses. We see things, we hear things, we touch things, we experience gravity, and we use our bodies to move around in it. All of the sensory input from the environment and from inside our bodies works together seamlessly so we know what’s going on and what to do.
Sensory integration is something most of us do automatically. Usually, sensory input registers well, gets processed in the central nervous system and then hooks up seamlessly with all of the other senses. This lets us think and behave appropriately in response to what’s going on.
Kids with sensory integration (SI) dysfunction experience the world differently. They don’t take in and use sensory information the same way. Their central nervous system responds to sensory input differently, so they’re not always getting an accurate, reliable picture of their bodies and the environment.
Think of sensory integration like an orchestra. You need the woodwinds section, the strings section, the percussion, the piano to all be in tune, playing in key at the right volume, all perfectly coordinated with each other. With SI dysfunction, the conductor isn’t controlling the music well. Different sections in the orchestra are out of tune and out of sync so it doesn’t sound right.
For a child with severe sensory issues, walking into the supermarket can feel like walking into a rock and roll concert. Such a child may be able to see and hear the fluorescent lighting flicker, a squeaky shopping cart may sound like thunder, the meat department may smell like a garbage dump, and navigating the aisles and other shoppers may feel like being on a bumper car ride.
What seems normal to us can easily overwhelm a child with sensory problems.
Common Signs of Sensory Integration Dysfunction
• Out of proportion reactions: over or undersensitivity to touch, sounds, sights, movement, tastes, or smells
• Problems with vestibular (movement) and proprioceptive senses (body awareness)
• Bothered by particular clothing fabrics, labels, waistbands, etc.
• Avoids or excessively craves intense movement — slides, swings, bouncing, jumping
• Resists grooming activities such as brushing teeth and washing hair
• Avoids foods most children enjoy
• Gets dizzy easily-or never at all
• Seems clumsy or careless
• Often “tunes out” or “acts up”
• Poor attention and focus
• Uncomfortable in group settings
• Very high or very low pain threshold
• Squints, blinks, or rubs eyes frequently (may have an undiagnosed vision problem)
What causes sensory problems?
Sensory problems result from neurological differences, and new research is being done to confirm this. It’s a difference in how the brain and nervous system are wired. Sensory problems are quite often seen in children born prematurely (especially the smallest and the youngest), those adopted from overseas, children who have experienced birth trauma or prolonged hospitalization, and those exposed to heavy metals. Sensory problems are common symptom of other special needs diagnoses. However, a child can have sensory problems and nothing else.
What about sensory integration in children adopted from overseas?
Children who have been adopted are at increased risk for sensory problems, with those adopted from overseas orphanages at significantly higher risk. The conditions in these orphanages vary greatly, but all too often facilities have limited resources, poor nutrition, lack of sensory stimulation, and limited social interactions that can lead to developmental delays, medical problems, emotional difficulties, and yes-sensory issues. Many children placed in overseas orphanages may have been born prematurely or with low birth weight to begin with. So it’s a double whammy to be predisposed to problems and then be placed in an institutional environment. What’s more, the biological mother may have been malnourished and had limited or no access to prenatal care. So much-but certainly not all-depends on prenatal factors, birth, and environment.
Sensory problems make adjusting to a new family and a new culture even harder. Katie lived in a Chinese orphanage for eight months, where she had limited sensory experiences: a monotonous daily routine, and rarely being held, rocked, cuddled, feeling different clothing, being carried around in someone’s arms or moving in a stroller or car, rarely being outdoors, being bottled propped, and looking at the same bare walls and toys month after month.
She certainly wasn’t used to being hugged and smothered with kisses by her adoring new parents, getting bounced on someone’s lap, being pushed around the park on a sunny day looking at animals at the petting zoo with the sound of a fire truck in the background and lots of people laughing and talking and brightly colored toys dangling from her stroller. Her brain and body never had that kind of exposure, and she hadn’t yet built the neural connections for that kind of thing.
The Good New: There is help for sensory integration problems!
With appropriate interventions and time, most children develop needed central nervous system connections and sensory input starts getting more familiar and more comfortable. Not always, but most of the time, children can overcome their sensory problems, especially with parents who develop their own “sensory smarts.”
If you are concerned about whether your child has sensory integration issues, the first step is to get an evaluation from a qualified health care professional. This may be a developmental pediatrician or an occupational therapist who has special training and experience in this area. If your child is under age 3, you can get a multidisciplinary evaluation through your state’s Early Intervention program (see www.sensorysmarts.com for a link to your state’s EI program). If your child is over age 3, you can request an occupational therapy evaluation from your school district. You also have the option of hiring an OT privately, which may be covered by your health insurance.
Lindsey Biel, OTR/L is the co-author of Raising A Sensory Smart Child… For more information on sensory integration issues, practical solutions, finding professional help, advocating with schools, and more, see Raising A Sensory Smart Child: The Definitive Handbook for Helping Your Child with Sensory Integration Issues, by Lindsey Biel, OTR/L and Nancy Peske (foreword by Temple Grandin). Also visit www.sensorysmarts.com.
| 36,480 |
One of the big worries about climate change is that organisms will be unable to migrate or adapt quickly enough to deal with all the coming changes to their environments, which could lead to a lot of extinctions. But a new study led by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which appears in Molecular Biology and Evolution, shows that some plants may be able to adapt more quickly than expected due to epigenetics.
In traditional genetics, adaptation occurs through the development of random mutations in DNA and the survival, through natural selection, of those better fit for an organism's environment. It is a slow process. But the genetics of organisms are actually far messier, and the DNA sequence of a gene is only one part of the picture. For instance, with DNA methylation, a methyl group attaches to DNA and results in less expression of that gene. Epigenetic effects like this can be directly influenced by an organism's environment, and they can be quickly passed on to subsequent generations.
The new study focused on three recently formed species of European marsh orchids of the Dactylorhiza genus. The three species are very similar genetically, but have different appearances (though they're all purple) and live in different environments. The researchers determined that the three orchid species diverged so quickly not because of changes in DNA sequence, but because of epigenetic variation.
"Our results show the importance of the environment in altering inherited traits in these orchids and also contributing to biodiversity," said leader researcher Ovidiu Paun. "The epigenetic level of natural variation can be adaptive and has the potential to be rapidly released, in a few generations, in contrast to genetic variation."
This means that plants, at least, may be able to adapt to a new environment more quickly than scientists had thought. However, Paun warns that these results also imply that trying to save threatened species by relocating them to places like botanical gardens for preservation could backfire. The plants could just as quickly lose the traits that made them so well adapted to their home ecosystem.
Check out the entire collection of Surprising Science’s Pictures of the Week on our Facebook page.
| 24,148 |
When workers in Connecticut clock in for the day, they expect to be greeted with a safe environment. However, workplace hazards can exist in any job. Knowing how to identify the core or root hazards in one’s place of work can do wonders when it comes to preventative actions to avoid accidents.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a segment on hazard identification which can be used by workers of all types. This includes a lot of prep work like collecting information on known hazards, and inspecting the workplace in full to identify health hazards or other possible accident sources. Once these issues have been identified, it’s then possible to create plans to circumvent them.
There are also plenty of lists focusing on common workplace hazards, like the Safety and Health Magazine’s list of seven common hazards that can lead to injury. Some of these issues just come along with the territory of a job, such as forklifts or working at tall heights. Others, like extension cords or general clutter, are preventable hazards. Improper preparation or a lack of correct teaching on how to handle dangerous situations ranks in the same category.
Workers should take their health and safety and work seriously, whether they’re in an industry job handling heavy chemicals every day or an office worker who risks repetitive stress injury. Know the risks that are unique to one’s own job and know how to minimize those risks and dangers, or spot them when they begin to emerge.
| 5,503 |
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
|Born||1 July 1646|
|Died||14 November 1716 (aged 70)|
|Doctoral advisor||Erhard Weigel|
|Doctoral students||Jacob Bernoulli|
Christian von Wolff
|Metaphysics, Mathematics, Theodicy|
|Infinitesimal calculus, Monadology, Theodicy, Optimism|
Leibniz formula for pi
Leibniz harmonic triangle
Leibniz formula for determinants
Leibniz integral rule
Principle of sufficient reason
Notation for differentiation
Proof of Fermat's little theorem
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (also Leibnitz or von Leibniz) 1 July 1 (21 June OS) 1646 – 14 November 1716) was a German intellectual who wrote mostly in French and Latin. He played an important role in both philosophy and mathematics. He invented calculus independently of Newton, and his notation for derivatives is the one in general use since then. He also invented the binary system, foundation of modern computers.
Works[change | change source]
He was taught law and philosophy. He served as secretary to two major German noble houses: one became the British royal family while he served it. Leibniz played a major role in the European politics and diplomacy of his day.
Philosophy[change | change source]
In philosophy, he is most remembered for optimism. He thought our universe is the best possible one God could have made. He was one of the great 17th century rationalists. René Descartes and Baruch Spinoza are the other two. His philosophy also both looks back to the Scholastic tradition and anticipates modern logic and analysis.
Technology[change | change source]
Leibniz also made contributions to physics and technology, and anticipated ideas which surfaced much later in biology, medicine, geology, probability theory, psychology, and information science. He wrote on politics, law, ethics, theology, history, and philology. Sometimes, he even wrote in verse. His contributions are scattered in journals and in tens of thousands of letters and unpublished manuscripts. There is no complete edition of Leibniz's writings, and a complete account of his accomplishments is not yet possible. Leibniz is sometimes known as the last "universal genius". Leibniz is perhaps most famous for his involvement in development of calculus independent of Isaac Newton and creation of Leibniz Notation which is the standard form of calculus today.
Related pages[change | change source]
References[change | change source]
- ↑ IPA pronunciation: /'laɪpnɪts/.
- ↑ "List of Calculus and Analysis Symbols". Math Vault. 2020-05-11. Retrieved 2020-10-14.
- ↑ Copleston, Frederick C. 1958. The history of philosophy, Vol. IV: Modern philosophy: from Descartes to Leibniz. London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne.
- ↑ Look, Brandon C. (2020). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2020 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
| 3,918 |
Pattani was a seat of the Sailendra power during the Sailendra domination of the Malay Peninsula and later was the center of a Malay state, which was drawn into the Thai orbit. With Ayutthaya , it was one of the first places in Siam opened to the Portuguese in the 16th cent. At first bound only by tenuous links of suzerainty to the courts of Ayutthaya and Bangkok, against which it was several times in revolt, the Pattani sultanate was annexed in 1902. The region has been the scene of attacks by Malay separatists (in the 1970s and 80s and again in the early 21st cent.).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Thai Political Geography
| 38,478 |
The development and advancement of technology has led to the discovery of more efficient methods of dealing with various life-threatening diseases, including cancer. However, even though today’s generation is well aware of cancer and is well acquainted with the precautions as well as its symptoms, it has still caused 46,880 deaths in Australia.
How to Cure it?
Radiation therapy and chemotherapy are just 2 solutions to this one deadly disease. However, the decision of which one to use as your treatment method is made by your doctor.
So, what exactly is the difference between the two when it comes to curing cancer?
Chemotherapy involves the usage and administration of a high dosage of a drug that is used to treat cancer. This is because the high dosage quantity and intensity facilitates in the destruction of cancer-producing cells in the body. However, one should be aware that this is a blind drug; it hunts down cancer-producing cells as well as the healthy cells!
There are a number of side-effects of chemotherapy as well which affect;
- Platelet Count: A reduced platelet count results in a slow skin healing process and frequent bleeding.
- White Blood Cell Count: These cells are responsible for protecting us from infections and diseases. A low white blood cell count results in the weakening of the immune system and heightened vulnerability to attacks from infections.
- Red Blood Count: These cells are responsible for circulating oxygen throughout your body. Having a lack of red blood cells will make a person feel tired and suffer from heart contractions and other sombre complexities.
- The Hair: Causing a condition known as alopecia, the strong chemo drugs cause the fragile hair cells to be damaged beyond repair, resulting in increased hair fall and breaking of one’s hair from the roots. It may also lead to partial or complete baldness.
- Stomach Cells: Once affected, these cells can cause digestion problems and lead to instances of diarrhoea and puking.
As mentioned by Morgan G., Ward R., and Barton M. in their article titled, “The contribution of cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adult malignancies”, the overall effectiveness of chemotherapy in Australia stands at a meagre 2.3%.
Radiation therapy is an x-ray-based treatment is which external beams target the cancer-affected area with high levels of domestic energy as prescribed by a radiotherapist. This is one of the few reasons why it has fewer side effects than chemotherapy. Usually, the side effects of radio therapy are directly linked with the concerned area, sparing other organs from being affected. More than this, radiation is also a very cost effective treatment.
It is used;
- In the early stages of treatment of cancer to make the tumour more fragile
- If case of relapse
- If the cancer is strong and needs to be monitored to prevent it from spreading.
The success rate of radiation therapy is far greater than that of chemotherapy. This is because radiation therapy does not damage any internal organs, unlike chemo, which affects and kills any cells that it finds. This is why chemotherapy is more hazardous than effective and is never preferred, unless it is in combination with radiation therapy.
| 21,123 |
stub(redirected from counterfoil)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Legal, Financial.
in microwave engineering, a section of transmission line that is joined to a main line and through which microwave energy is transmitted from an oscillator to a load. The transmission line may be a hollow-pipe wave guide, a dielectric wave guide, a strip transmission line, a coaxial cable, or a two-wire line. A stub is regarded as a type of two-terminal network with a specified inductive or capacitive reactance. It may be connected to a load either serially or in parallel. A variable-impedance stub may be designed either as a short-circuited or open-circuited section of transmission line of variable length or as a section of transmission line of fixed length with a variable capacitive or inductive reactance.
In microwave engineering, stubs are frequently used to match lines and loads. A stub is connected to a load in parallel in a section of a main line where the conductance of the main line is equal to the line’s characteristic admittance 1/ρ, where ρ is the line’s characteristic impedance. The susceptance of the main line is balanced by the admittance of the stub, which is equal in magnitude but opposite in sign. Examples of two-wire matching stubs are the Tatarinov stub and the Nadenenko stub.
Quarter-wave stubs, which have a very high input impedance, are used in coaxial and strip transmission lines as quarter-wave isolators. Systems of open-circuited and short-circuited stubs are employed in the technology of strip-line and coaxial electric filters. Variable-impedance stubs, which can be moved along a line (especially in coaxial and two-wire lines), and systems consisting of several stationary variable-impedance stubs are used as general-purpose impedance transformers; a system of several stationary stubs usually consists of three stubs separated from one another by a distance of λ/8, where λ is the wavelength in the line.
Variable-impedance stubs with a short-circuiting plunger, which are usually coaxial or wave-guide stubs, are widely used to measure the characteristics of microwave four-terminal networks. Stubs with a variable reactive load are very promising in the technology of adjustable strip-line and coaxial phase shifters, switches, and attenuators. In such stubs, the reactive load may be a p-i-n diode, a varactor, or an electrical component containing a ferroelectric.
Systems of stubs in combination with certain types of ion devices are used in antenna switches to switch antennas from the receiving mode to the transmitting mode. The ion devices change the reactive load in the stubs as a function of the power level of the oscillations in the line.
REFERENCESValitov, R. A., and V. N. Sretenskii. Radioizmereniia na sverkhvysokikh chastotakh. Moscow, 1951.
Matthaei, G. L., L. Young, and E. M. T. Jones. Fil’try SVCh, soglasuiushchie tsepi i tsepi sviazi, vol. 2. Moscow, 1972. (Translated from English.)
Bova, N. T., P. A. Stukalo, and V. A. Khramov. Upravliaiushchie ustroistva SVCh. Kiev, 1973.
R. I. PERETS
| 49,717 |
Total Eclipse of the Moon
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Dec. 2, 2011: Waking up before sunrise can be tough to do, especially on a weekend. On Saturday, Dec. 10th, you might be glad you did. A total eclipse of the Moon will be visible in the early morning skies of western Northern America.
The action begins around 4:45 am Pacific Standard Time when the red shadow of Earth first falls across the lunar disk. By 6:05 am Pacific Time, the Moon will be fully engulfed in red light. This event—the last total lunar eclipse until 2014—is visible from the Pacific side of North America, across the entire Pacific Ocean to Asia and Eastern Europe: global visibility map.
For people in the western United States the eclipse is deepest just before local dawn. Face west to see the red Moon sinking into the horizon as the sun rises behind your back. It’s a rare way to begin the day.
Not only will the Moon be beautifully red, it will also be inflated by the Moon illusion. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects. In fact, a low Moon is no wider than any other Moon (cameras prove it) but the human brain insists otherwise. To observers in the western USA, therefore, the eclipse will appear super-sized.
It might seem puzzling that the Moon turns red when it enters the shadow of the Earth—aren’t shadows supposed to be dark? In this case, the delicate layer of dusty air surrounding our planet reddens and redirects the light of the sun, filling the dark behind Earth with a sunset-red glow. The exact hue (anything from bright orange to blood red is possible) depends on the unpredictable state of the atmosphere at the time of the eclipse. As Jack Horkheimer (1938-2010) of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium loved to say, "Only the shadow knows."
Atmospheric scientist Richard Keen of the University of Colorado might know, too. For years he has studied lunar eclipses as a means of monitoring conditions in Earth's upper atmosphere, and he has become skilled at forecasting these events.
"I expect this eclipse to be bright orange, or even copper-colored, with a possible hint of turquoise at the edge," he predicts.
Earth's stratosphere is the key: "During a lunar eclipse, most of the light illuminating the moon passes through the stratosphere where it is reddened by scattering," he explains. "If the stratosphere is loaded with dust from volcanic eruptions, the eclipse will be dark; a clear stratosphere, on the other hand, produces a brighter eclipse. At the moment, the stratosphere is mostly clear with little input from recent volcanoes."
That explains the brightness of the eclipse, but what about the "hint of turquoise"?
"Light passing through the upper stratosphere penetrates the ozone layer, which absorbs red light and actually makes the passing light ray bluer. This can be seen as a soft blue fringe around the red core of Earth's shadow."
Look for the turquoise near the beginning of the eclipse when the edge of Earth's shadow is sweeping across the lunar terrain, he advises.
A bright red, soft turquoise, super-sized lunar eclipse: It’s coming on Saturday, Dec. 10th. Wake up and enjoy the show.
A Dawn Eclipse of the Moon -- timetables and more information from Sky and Telescope
Dec. 10, 2011, Lunar Eclipse -- NASA home page for this event
The Animated Eclipse -- created by graphic artist Larry Koehn of ShadowandSubstance.com
| 42,294 |
The Millionaire Who Took on McCarthyRoundup
tags: McCarthy, William Benton
A melodramatic mix of half-truths, rants, and innuendoes made Wisconsin’s junior Senator Joseph P. McCarthy powerful and intimidating. By 1951, he had cowed some of the Senate’s all time all stars, including Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Estes Kefauver, Robert Taft, J. William Fulbright, and Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
The rare senator willing at that time to confront this “hit and run propagandist of the Soviet type” was a rookie senator from Connecticut. For introducing a resolution to expel this blathering bully, William Benton suffered McCarthyite blowback, including a $2 million libel suit. Many also believe Benton’s heroism lost him his Senate seat in 1952. Still, Benton insisted: “Somebody had to do this job.” Years later, as his legend grew, he would demur: “Well of course I like to think I did a lot of things that showed courage in the Senate.” But he admitted, it may have been “in part because of my political inexperience.”
This political amateur also had something his other colleagues lacked: a real life awaiting back home. As a millionaire adman, publisher of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and owner of the Muzak Corporation, Benton could afford to be daring. Professional politicians, he would lament, “too often underestimate the long-range values of boldness and stubbornness in defense of an ideal.” As America’s new leaders take office, they should remember William Benton’s courage, deciding what ideals they will champion, no matter what.
Born in 1900 in Minneapolis, Benton was a true child of the 20th century who would master the business of mass communication. He was also the kind of preacher’s kid like Woodrow Wilson and John Foster Dulles who retained their parents’ puritan moralism even in the dirty world of politics. At Yale, class of 1921, he often felt treated like a Midwestern rube. After learning how to sell at the National Cash Register Company, Benton entered the world of secular American evangelism—advertising—working for 1920s’ legendary agency, Lord and Day.
In 1929, Benton launched Benton and Bowles with his former assistant Chester Bowles. Among the first to use consumer research surveys and radio advertising intelligently, they gave the world radio soap operas—and jingles. Six years later, despite the Great Depression, “rags-to-riches” Benton sold his share in what was now America’s sixth largest agency for $1 million. ...
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| 47,609 |
the Fourth Week of Lent
Thibaut de Champagne
The Catholic Encyclopedia
Thibaut IV, count of Champagne and King of Navarre, a French poet, b. 1201, at Troyes; d. 8 July, 1253. He was the posthumous son of Thibaut III, Count of Champagne and Blois, and Blanche, sister of Sancho VII, King of Navarre. He had to defend his rights to his countship first in 1221 against his uncle, Count of Brienne, and later against his aunt, Alice, Queen of Cyprus. During the minority of Louis IX, he first sided with the nobles against Blanche of Castile, but he soon separated from them, and being attacked by them, he was defended by the queen. In 1234, his uncle Sancho VII having died childless, he succeeded him as King of Navarre. He was the leader of the crusade organized in 1239 by Gregory IX, and landed at Acre on the first of September, fought several unsuccessful battles, and after his troops were decisively defeated at Gaza, he left Syria on 1 September, 1240. In order to arouse the zeal of the nobility for the defence of the Holy Land, he composed four songs, known as Crusade songs, which rank among his best; their literary value is equal to their Christian inspiration. Very little is known of his life after he returned from his campaign in Palestine. There is some uncertainty concerning the place where he died, at Provins, Troyes, or in Navarre. He is regarded as one of the greatest lyrical poets of the thirteenth century. His rhythm are most harmonious, his combinations of metres show a real skill, while his expressions are full of refinement and true sentiment. His verses have been published, under the title of "Poésies du Roi de Navarre", by Lévesque de la Ravallière (Paris, 1742). They consist of sixty-six poems, divided as follows: thirty-nine love sings, twelve jeux-partis, or debating songs, four Crusade songs, and eight serventois. Dante spoke of him in most laudatory terms.
D'ARBOIS DE JUBAINVILLE, Hist. des comtes de Champagne (Paris, 1866); PETIT DE JULLEVILLE, Hist. de la langue et de la litterature francaise, II (Paris, 1894); BEDIER, Chansons de croisade (Paris, 1909).
These files are public domain.
Obstat, Nihil. Lafort, Remy, Censor. Entry for 'Thibaut de Champagne'. The Catholic Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/t/thibaut-de-champagne.html. Robert Appleton Company. New York. 1914.
| 11,076 |
Freedom Riders: Art and activism 1960s to now
The starting point for the exhibition FREEDOM RIDERS: Art and activism 1960s to now is a major portrait, Charlie Perkins, 1986, by Aboriginal artist Robert Campbell Jnr in the University Union Art collection. Perkins was the first Aboriginal graduate at the university and a key figure in the Freedom Ride, a historic intervention initiated by Sydney University students in 1965. The Freedom Ride focused unprecedented attention on the systematic racism experienced by Aboriginal communities in regional towns across New South Wales. Campbell’s art played a pioneering role in exposing the social and political realities of NSW Aboriginal people. His Perkins portrait and the Freedom Ride provided an historic framework for the work of six Aboriginal artists Karla Dickens, Adam Hill, Jonathan Jones, Michael Riley, Elaine Russell and Christian Thompson.
As featured on the ABC's 7:30 NSW, Friday 1st July 2011: FREEDOM RIDERS
Click here for the pdf of the exhibition catalogue
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Why are hermit crabs hairy?
Why are hermit crabs hairy? Those little ‘hairs’ you see all over the body and chelipeds of your hermit crab are not hairs at all. They are an extension of the exoskeleton and are called setae. A seta is an elongate projection with a more or less circular base and a continuous lumen; the lumen has a semicircular arrangement of sheath cells basally. Revising the definition of the crustacean seta and setal classification systems based on examinations of the mouthpart setae of seven species of decapods A. GARM Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, Volume 142, Issue 2, October 2004, Pages 233–252 What inRead More →
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Pictured holding his iconic walking stick, Zeedyk is a riparian restoration expert here to teach Montana managers his unique methods for repairing meadows like this one in sagebrush country.
Pictured holding his iconic walking stick, Zeedyk is a riparian restoration expert who recently taught Montana managers how to cost-effectively repair wet meadows like this one in sagebrush country.
Story and photos by Sarah Keller for the Intermountain West Joint Venture
On an overcast fall afternoon in southwest Montana, nearly two dozen land managers and conservationists are gathered in the sagebrush around a vertical face of eroding soil. During spring runoff, wet meadows like these green up and become a vital food source for wildlife. But as livestock and people create trails through these broad catchments, among other factors, the trails erode into deep gullies and headcuts like the one the group is observing. It’s a problem here in Montana, as well as around the West.
Low-tech watershed restoration efforts, like using Zeedyk structures, benefit both working lands and wildlife.
“With a headcut such as this one, if you don’t treat it, it’s going to keep going,” said Bill Zeedyk, as he gestures at the exposed earth with a walking stick. “There’s no natural process to stop it. You have to be proactive.” Soon the crew surrounding him moves into action to start clearing soil away and stacking rocks.
Zeedyk is a riparian restoration expert here to teach Montana managers his unique methods for repairing meadows like this one in sagebrush country. In the case of this headcut, it is part of a wet meadow that begins on Bureau of Land Management public land and continues onto the private Hansen ranch. The restoration of this site means building a series of three rock steps against it to slow the flow of runoff. Like all of Zeedyk’s techniques, it’s a simple, elegant structure designed to work with water to catch sediment, and level out the meadow so runoff can spread over it again.
Everyone here pitching in to stack rocks is part of a multi-day workshop learning about these habitat restoration techniques. The pervasiveness of degraded wet meadows seems like a daunting problem. But many land managers see restoring them as a conservation opportunity, particularly when the methods are simple and cost-effective, like Zeedyk structures. Read more >>
See the full story at PartnersInTheSage.com
Learn more about Zeedyk structures
Read SGI’s wet meadow restoration strategy
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Hyperglycemia in diabetes
High blood sugar (hyperglycemia) affects people who have diabetes. Several factors can contribute to hyperglycemia in people with diabetes, including food and physical activity choices, illness, nondiabetes medications, or skipping or not taking enough glucose-lowering medication.
Early signs and manifestations: Recognizing early side effects of hyperglycemia can offer you some assistance with treating the condition immediately. Look for: Frequent pee, Increased thirst, Blurred vision, Fatigue, Headache. Later signs and indications: If hyperglycemia goes untreated, it can bring about harmful acids (ketones) to develop in your blood and pee (ketoacidosis). Signs and manifestations include: Fruity-noticing inhale, Nausea and heaving, Shortness of inhale, Dry mouth, Weakness, Confusion, Coma, Abdominal torment.
Get physical. Regular exercise is often an effective way to control your blood sugar. However, don't exercise if ketones are present in your urine. This can drive your blood sugar even higher. Take your medication as directed. If you have frequent episodes of hyperglycemia, your doctor may adjust the dosage or timing of your medication. Follow your diabetes eating plan. It helps to eat less and avoid sugary beverages. If you're having trouble sticking to your meal plan, ask your doctor or dietitian for help.
The numbers are staggering, and it is estimated that there are approximately 175 million worldwide sufferers.According to statistics, 67 percent of women with excessive sweating seek treatment, while only 32 percent of men with the condition do so.In all suffering from the condition the disease was bilateral, the mainly affected locations being: hands (35.7%), legs (21.4%), axilla (17.9), face (10.7%), back (7.1%), chest (3.6%) and abdomen (3.6%). There was no predominance regarding gender, age or BMI. We found a positive relationship with BMI and observed a prevalence ratio of 2.48 higher in overweight students than in normal weight or underweight ones.
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Over a half century has passed since the end of World War II, but some Japanese leaders continue insisting their nation did nothing wrong by invading China or attacking the United States. This month, General Tosho Tamogami was fired for an essay in wrote in which Japan is the innocent victim and the United States and China are the culprits in World War II. According to the general, the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor was a trap set the by the Americans and Japan’s brutal invasion of China which resulted in the death of over four million Chinese really wasn’t that bad. Japanese peace activists are shocked by the essay because it reveals there are still many people who work hard to justify murder, brutalization, and aggression. A recent film, “We Won’t Forget” portrays the Japanese nation as being forced to invade China, kill millions, and attack the United States.
It would be beneficial for Japanese educators to study from German educators who have developed extensive programs to teach their children the truth about Nazism and its brutality. German students learn about the Holocaust unlike Japanese students who do not learn about the killing and raping by Japanese soldiers in Nanking. Perhaps, the Japanese government should invite German educators to assist their school system in developing educational programs that do not justify war and brutality. In the end, the truth is the best weapon to prevent future wars.
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Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Updated January 2016
Barbara Higham, Wharfedale, UK
Photo: Erin White
What’s in it for mothers?
Mothers know breastfeeding is good for babies. It’s the natural thing to do: human milk provides optimal nutrition and strengthens immune systems. We know too that formula-fed babies suffer more illnesses than breastfed babies.
But how often do mothers hear about the advantages that exist for their own short and long-term health?
The reporting of these ‘selfish’ benefits is often limited to the perk of speedier weight loss postpartum.
Any discussion of the emotional pluses tends to focus primarily on the baby and the ease of bonding with a more settled child.
Mothers want what’s best for their babies, whose needs will come first. But painting a one-sided picture of breastfeeding as an ideal gold standard gift means many mothers think it’s an unattainable ideal—on a par with never eating sugar or using silk diapers—rather than the biological norm, something that is simply meant to happen.
We are designed, like all mammals, to breastfeed and not doing so may have far-reaching consequences for both babies and their mothers.
Breastfeeding is a two-way relationship, not a sacrificial gift.
Women need to be well and content in order to be up to the job of mothering. It can be such hard work and personal rewards definitely help.
Women should be entitled to good health information and that includes what’s in it for us (free from misleading commercial promotion) when we are deciding how we want to feed our babies.
Good for mothers too
Following birth, immediate skin-to-skin contact and the baby’s suckling release oxytocin from the mother’s pituitary gland. This hormone signals the breasts to let down milk to the baby and simultaneously produces contractions in the uterus to expel the placenta naturally, helping prevent hemorrhage and promoting uterine involution.
As long as a mother breastfeeds without substituting formula, food or pacifiers for feedings, the return of her menstrual periods is delayed. (Why does no one tell women that?)
As natural family planning for the first six months, breastfeeding according to these criteria is considered up to 99% effective when used correctly (Kennedy et al 1992).
Lactational amenorrhea is variable, with some women reporting their first postpartum menses as late as 42 months. (I enjoyed 24 months with no periods following the birth of each of my children.)
Natural child spacing ensures both the optimal survival of each child and the mother’s physical recovery between pregnancies. In contrast, the formula-feeding mother requires contraception within six weeks of the birth.
The amount of iron a mother’s body uses in milk production is much less than the amount she would lose from menstrual bleeding, decreasing her risk of anemia.
The suppression of a woman’s menstrual cycle by exclusive breastfeeding reduces her lifetime exposure to estrogen, which ‘feeds’ cancers.
The recent research is particularly convincing.
In 2009, The American Institute for Cancer Research (a member of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a part of the World Health Organization) released the largest review of research into lifestyle and breast cancer ever conducted, which reinforced previous findings that women can reduce their risk by maintaining a healthy weight, being physically active, drinking less alcohol, and breastfeeding their children.
In an eight-year study of over 60,000 women who had given birth, having breastfed at all provided up to a 59% reduction in the risk of developing pre-menopausal breast cancer in women with a family history of the disease (Stuebe et al 2009). That means, for women with a family history of breast cancer, breastfeeding can reduce the odds of developing pre-menopausal breast cancer by more than half.
Another meta study (compiling data from 47 smaller studies) concluded that a woman who breastfed for 12 months in her life reduced her risk of developing breast cancer by 4.3%. This benefit can be multiplied as a mother breastfeeds one child or several children. For example, a mother who has two children and breastfeeds each for two years can realize a 17.2% reduction in her risk of developing breast cancer later in her life (Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer 2002).
The cumulative protective effect of lactation is one explanation for why developed countries, whose mothers breastfeed for shorter durations (or not at all) and have fewer children in their lifetimes, have higher rates of breast cancer.
The most recent review and meta-analysis (Islami et al. 2015) found that breastfeeding reduced the risk of hormone receptor negative tumors, a very aggressive type of breast cancer, by up to 20%. Even a brief period of breastfeeding reduced the risk of the tumors, which are more common in younger women.
Breastfeeding also lowers a mother’s risk of developing other cancers including ovarian, uterine and endometrial (Cramer 2012).
Production of milk is an active metabolic process, requiring the use of calories. Like any biological process, this varies from person to person, but if a mother exercises and eats a healthy diet, nature intends for her to lose the extra weight she puts on during pregnancy in the few years it intends her baby to get breast milk.
The reduction in BMI associated with just six months’ breastfeeding could importantly reduce women’s risk of obesity-related disease and their costs as they age (Bobrow et al 2013).
The findings of one study suggest that women who breastfeed have reduced amounts of abdominal fat, even decades later. Middle-aged women who consistently breastfed their children had waist circumferences that were an average of 2.6 inches smaller than women who had never breastfed (McClure et al 2010). Since the belly is the least healthy place for women to store fat, this is a compelling incentive to breastfeed.
Lactation may have persistent favorable effects on women’s cardiometabolic health, which is good news for diabetic mothers (Gunderson et al 2010) and an important consideration for all since heart attacks are the leading cause of death in women.
Breastfeeding substantially reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes in later life. (Liu et al 2010).
Researchers (Erica et al. 2015) evaluated nearly 1000 mothers from diverse backgrounds who had developed gestational diabetes during their pregnancies and monitored them closely for two years after the birth. Nearly 12% had gone on to develop type 2 diabetes. Those who breastfed for more than ten months cut their risk of a diabetes diagnosis by almost 60% in the two years they were followed. Of the women who only breastfed and used no formula for the first two months of the baby’s life, 8% developed diabetes, compared with 18% of the mothers who did not breastfeed and only used formula.
Calcium is necessary in the production of milk. Because women lose calcium while lactating, many people wrongly assumed an increased risk of osteoporosis for women who breastfed. However, current studies show that lactation is associated with greater maternal bone size and bone strength later in life (Wiklund et al 2012).
Women who breastfed had higher adjusted total body bone mineral content, total hip bone mineral density and lower fat mass than did parous non-breastfeeders (Paton et al 2003). Chantry et al (2004) concluded that breastfeeding may be protective to the bone health of adolescent mothers.
Women who had breastfed for 13 months or longer were half as likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis as those who had never breastfed. Those who breastfed for between one and 12 months had a 25% decreased risk (Pikwer et al 2008).
Breastfeeding mothers exhibit a less intense response to adrenaline (Altemus 1995). Breastfeeding compels mom to relax. For a start she is sitting or lying down. With an increase in maternal levels of natural opiates during lactation, the release of oxytocin (the hormone of love) followed by a release of prolactin (the milk-making and calming hormone), there comes a letting go, followed by a blissful serenity that helps her slow down to adopt this new pace of life, to cope and enjoy mothering.
All this is quite apart from the personal satisfaction and peace of mind she may have from doing what is best for her child, who will suffer fewer illnesses and will cost her nothing to feed for at least the first six months.
One study found that breastfeeding may protect against negative moods and stress. Breastfeeding mothers had more positive moods, reported more positive events and perceived less stress than formula-feeders (Groër 2005).
Doan et al (2007) found that mothers who exclusively breastfed slept an average of 40 minutes longer than mothers who supplemented with formula. Breastfeeding mothers are less tired and get more sleep than their formula or mixed-feeding counterparts and this lowers their risk of depression (Dorheim et al 2009). Doan and colleagues noted that supplementing with formula as a coping strategy for minimizing sleep loss can actually be detrimental because of its impact on prolactin production and secretion. Maintenance of breastfeeding, as well as deep restorative sleep stages, may be greatly compromised for new mothers who cope with infant feedings by supplementing in an effort to get more sleep.
A mother who feels that breastfeeding is the only thing that is working well in her life does well to continue if she chooses to take medication to treat her depression. Most antidepressants prescribed nowadays are compatible with breastfeeding, though not all GPs are aware of this.
Mothers who breastfeed may have a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease in later life (Fox et al 2013). The link may be down to breastfeeding’s action in restoring insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance, which is significantly reduced during pregnancy. More research is needed to investigate the relationship between breastfeeding physiology and cognitive health.
The list of good things for mothers’ health resulting from breastfeeding is far from comprehensive and all women deserve to know about these very significant benefits.
From a mother’s perspective breastfeeding is a shared gift: one she gives to herself as well as to her baby.
Altemus, M. et al. Suppression of hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to stress in lactating women. J Clin Endocrinal Metab 1995; 80:2954.
Bobrow, K. et al. Persistent effects of women’s parity and breastfeeding patterns on their body mass index: results from the Million Women Study. International Journal of Obesity 2013; 37, 712–717.
Collaborative Group on Hormonal Factors in Breast Cancer. Breast cancer and breastfeeding: collaborative reanalysis of individual data from 47 epidemiological studies in 30 countries, including 50302 women with breast cancer and 96973 women without the disease. Lancet 2002; 360, 187–95.
Cramer, D. The epidemiology of endometrial and ovarian cancer. Hematol Oncol Clin North Am 2012; 26(1):1–12.
Doan, T. et al. Breastfeeding increases sleep duration of new parents Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing 2007; 21(3), 200–206.
Dorheim, S. et al. Sleep and depression in postpartum women: A population-based study. Sleep 2009; 32(7), 847–855.
Fox, M. et al. Maternal breastfeeding history and Alzheimer’s disease risk. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease 2013; DOI 10.3233/JAD-130152.
Freudenheim, J. et al. Exposure to breastmilk in infancy and the risk of breast cancer. Epidemiology 1994; 5, 324–331.
Gunderson, E. et al. Duration of lactation and incidence of the metabolic syndrome in women of reproductive age according to gestational diabetes mellitus status: a 20-year prospective study in CARDIA (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults). Diabetes 2010; 59(2):495–504.
Gwinn, M. et al Pregnancy, breast feeding, and oral contraceptives and the risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. J Clin Epidemiol 1990; 43: 559–68.
Hunziker, U. et al. Increased carrying reduces infant crying: a randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics 1986;77(5):641–8.
Kennedy, K. et al. Contraceptive efficacy of lactational amenorrhoea. Lancet 1992; 25;339(8787):227–30.
McClure, C. et al. Presentation, American Heart Association’s Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention Annual Conference, San Francisco. 2010.
Paton, L. et al. Pregnancy and lactation have no long-term deleterious effect on measures of bone mineral in healthy women: a twin study. Am J Clin Nut 2003; 77: 707–14.
Stuebe, A. et al. Lactation and incidence of premenopausal breast cancer: a longitudinal study. Archives of Internal Medicine 2009; 169, 1364–1371.
World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research. Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective Washington, DC: AICR, 2009.
Zinaman, M. et al. Acute prolactin and oxytocin responses and milk yield to infant suckling and artificial methods of expression in lactating women. Pediatrics 1992;89 (3): 437–40.
Barbara Higham has been a La Leche League Leader since 2004 and is managing editor of Breastfeeding Today for La Leche League International. She lives with Simon and their three children in Ilkley, Yorkshire, UK.
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Cloud Computing the ‘Future of the Future
At the National ICT Business & Innovation Symposium recently, Jeremy Geelan, president of 21st Century Internet Group Inc concluded his keynote address by saying, “Cloud computing allows you to create and if you can create, you can be what’s next.”
The lecture, entitled The New Cloud Enabled World, aimed to illustrate the many benefits of cloud computing. Geelan, who is also the conference chair of the International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo, refers to himself as a “domain expert on the future of the future” ie The Cloud.
Cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage and process data rather than a local server or a personal computer.
When he rhetorically asked the audience, “Why move to cloud?” his answers included these reasons: unlimited processing and storage, elasticity, maximised revenue, reduced cost, expedited time and the ability to do more projects.
To support his claims, Geelan provided some statistics on Internet usage. According to Geelan, in the early days of the Internet during the 1990s, there were approximately ten million users. Now, the Internet has more than one billion users, he said. This growth is also visible by looking at Web sites: a little over a decade ago there were one million Web sites—a number which has now leaped to 100 million. The number of Internet connected devices now stands at five billion and
Geelan believes that estimate is conservative. As further evidence, Geelan pointed out that the file-hosting site Dropbox, founded only in 2007, had 100 million users with one billion files saved every two hours.
One of the possibilities Geelan posed to the audience was the problem solving power of using cloud: “If every car in T&T had an IP address it might be very easy to figure out why traffic is such a problem,” he suggested.
The cloud-enabled concept car, Evos, revealed by US motor company Ford earlier this year can track driver preferences, work schedules, music and weather information and it also allows for coal data to be shared through vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
While Geelan offered examples of many businesses and organisations that were 100 per cent cloud operated such as Amazon, Coca Cola, Maersk and even the US Central Intelligence Agency, Guardian technology columnist Mark
Lyndersay believes the road to full cloud dependency is still far reaching, particularly in T&T. “Now that enterprise is looking into the cloud model for more everyday tasks, there are a number of issues that are coming to the forefront. Data security, broadband accessibility and reliability, and depth of Internet penetration become critical factors in doing business this way, which is quite a conceptual jump from individuals making use of services on the web,” he said via e-mail.
“There’s a huge conceptual jump between having a Facebook page and running your business off a cloud based service and that’s where the evangelising of cloud computing solutions has become critical.”
Apart from security risks, Lyndersay also pointed out that cloud computing was not exactly a new phenomenon. “The real challenge that cloud computing proponents face is that they aren’t really introducing a new product. The concept of cloud computing has been growing around us for several years now, long before it was formalised as a name and a decade’s worth of young people and reasonably experienced web users have come to expect data held on servers on the Internet as part of the overall computing experience.”
Geelan proffered that cloud computing was an example of the “democratisation of IT” making access to services, learning and even funding easier, particularly for those living in T&T’s rural areas. He said T&T may be ahead of the curve because business technology is now becoming social technology and the high saturation of smart phones in T&T could be the turning point.
However, Lyndersay was not convinced that the proliferation of smart phones and other mobile Internet connected devices was a sure sign of progress. “I’m not sure that it’s true to describe T&T as being ahead of many countries in the saturation of smart phones. Such devices only get their intelligence with a broadband connection and that’s still quite far from reaching saturation point,” he said.
Cloud computing is the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage and process data rather than a local server or a personal computer. The name comes from the use of a cloud shaped symbol used to represent the complex infrastructure it contains in system diagrams. Cloud computing entrusts remote services with a user’s data, software and computation. Consumers access cloud based applications through a Web browser or a light-weight desktop or mobile application while the business software and user’s data are stored on servers at a remote location. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale similar to a utility, like electricity, over a network.
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Dog with Rabies
"Dog with Rabies is very unusual. Vaccination protects against the disease. There is no cure for this virus."
A dog with rabies is rare in the U.S. It is more common in some other parts of the world, such as Asia. All warm-blooded animals can get rabies including humans. All dogs should be vaccinated for rabies at age 12 – 16 weeks and again at age one year. After that, they should be vaccinated on a regular basis. There is no cure for rabies, so vaccination is critical.
Rabies is transmitted through a bite by an infected animal. However, not all bites by infected animals result in infection. Only about 15% of bites result in transmission of the disease.
If you are bitten by a dog or suspicious animal seek immediate treatment and read our guide to dog bite rabies.
Canine Rabies SymptomsWhen an infected animal bites a dog, the rabies virus moves along the nerves toward the brain. It is a slow-moving virus and there is an incubation period of 3 – 8 weeks before symptoms are shown.
There are three stages of rabies symptoms.
The first is the prodromal stage. This stage usually lasts for 2 – 3 days. Dogs become nervous and may avoid contact with people. They often run a fever. They will lick the site of the bite excessively.
The second stage is the furious stage. This lasts for anywhere from 1 – 7 days. Dogs become irritable and aggressive. They are hypersensitive to auditory and visual stimuli.
The third stage is the paralytic stage. Nerves of the head and neck are affected. The dog becomes unable to swallow and so begins to salivate and drool. Dogs may make a choking sounds and it may seem as if something is lodged in their throats. Labored breathing and dropping of the jaw occur as the muscles of the diaphragm and face become more and more paralyzed. The dog will get weaker and weaker and eventually die of respiratory failure.
Canine Rabies Diagnosis
Currently the only way to make an accurate diagnosis of rabies in a dog is to examine the brain. This means the dog must be dead. Researchers are working on developing blood tests to test for the disease.
A tentative diagnosis can be made based on the symptoms described above. A dog with rabies symptoms should be treated as if he may have the disease and be isolated from other animals.
Canine Rabies Treatment
There is no dog with rabies treatment. The disease is fatal. That’s why it is so important to have your dog vaccinated. There are both a one-year vaccine and a three-year vaccine available. Talk to your veterinarian about which vaccine is best for your dog.
Clinical Diagnosis for Rabies in Live Dogs
Tesumethanon, Veera, DVM, Lumlertdacha, Boonlert, DVM, Mitmoonpitak, Channarong, DVM, Wilde, Henry, MD
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More than 20 years after seaweed farming was introduced on the island of Zanzibar, it is still predominantly portrayed as a success. Arguments such as job creation for women and increased household income prevail and used as justifications for both corporate and developmental projects.
But a more nuanced picture is required.
Overlooked, but no longer
In a study recently published in Aquaculture, centre researcher Maricela de la Torre-Castro together with colleagues from Stockholm university and University of Dar es Salaam has identified serious health problems among female seaweed farmers on the island.
This has been largely overlooked in previous research.
A largely female occupation, seaweed farmers considered their health significantly poorer than non-seaweed farmers and reported issues like back pain, allergies, musculoskeletal pain, hunger, respiratory problems, eye related problems, injuries from hazardous animals and sharp shells.
"These problems are clearly associated with poor working conditions, intensive work and long exposure to sun, wind and seawater," says de la Torre-Castro.
In their study, a list of health problems was developed and an analysis was done to identify to what extent these health problems are present among seaweed farmers compared to non-seaweed farmers. This was then tested by interviewing 140 women from seven different villages.
An intergenerational trap
The most common response from the women was that seaweed farming was energy consuming and physically hard compared to the low income it generates. In fact, most seaweed farmers' earnings were below the absolute poverty level but a lack of stable economic activities and the abandoning of traditional activities force the women to continue.
Although 75 percent of the women clearly demonstrated a wish for their children to get an education in order to have a good job so as to avoid getting involved in the farming, most young girls follow the same path as their mothers. The tragic irony of it all is that the mothers continue working to support their childrens' education.
The women also fear seaweed farming have negative health effects on their children. Mothers reported how children show symptoms such as coughing and fever when seaweeds are stored at home. A possible explanation to these problems could be the exposure to toxic vapours released from the algae during the drying process.
It could still be a success story
De la Torre-Castro and her colleagues are not calling for the abolishment of seaweed farming, but rather to encourage changes towards better working conditions for the farmers.
"Since seaweed farming has implications for thousands of poor households worldwide and the Zanzibar case is normally used as a positive example, our study should provide a more nuanced picture to help improve the working conditions of this important livelihood," de la Torre-Castro says.
Source: Fröcklin, S., M. de la Torre-Castro, L. Lindström, N.S. Jiddawi, and F. E. Msuya. 2012. Seaweed mariculture as a development project in Zanzibar, East Africa: A price too high to pay? Aquaculture356—357:30—39
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Earthquake off the Coast of Venezuela
A strong earthquake struck off the Venezuelan coast on September 12, 2009. The magnitude 6.3 earthquake occurred underneath the Caribbean Sea near the city of Puerto Cabello. According to reports from Reuters some buildings in the Venezuelan countryside were damaged, but there were few injuries.
The United States Geological Survey indicated that the earthquake epicenter was in the region of the San Sebastián and El Pilar faults, both of which are seismically active. The fault zone is near the boundary of the South American and Caribbean tectonic plates. The Caribbean plate is moving 20 millimeters (0.8 inches) per year with respect to the South American Plate. Previous earthquakes in the region occurred in 1989 and 1967.
This image originally appeared on the Earth Observatory. Click here to view the full, original record.
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Shuyak Island Cultural History
Although Shuyak’s wooded shores are quiet today, with no modern communities, the island was once an integral part of the Alutiiq nation. The Alutiiq people are the original residents of the Kodiak archipelago. Anthropologists believe they settled here more than 7,500 years ago, traveling by boat from the Alaskan mainland.
At least 30 archaeological sites record the prehistoric cultures of Shuyak. Like other regions of the archipelago, Shuyak sites date to three major cultural periods, each representing a unique way of living. Early sites in protected places like the shores of Big Bay date to the Ocean Bay tradition (ca. 7500 – 4000 years old) and likely represent the camps of families pursuing sea mammals and marine fish. By about 4,000 years ago, Native people began living in sod house villages and storing quantities of fish. Sites of this era, belong to the Kachemak tradition (ca. 4000 – 900 years old) on Shuyak. They have small single-roomed houses surrounded by deposits of ancient garbage. By 900 Alutiiqs lived in larger villages with multi-roomed houses. Koniag sites are the most common on Shuyak, reflecting growth of the regions population.
Historical records indicate that Shuyak was home to at least two Alutiiq communities when Russian traders arrived in the late eighteenth century. Russian entrepreneur Gregorii Shelikov established trading relations with the chief of one of these villages, although the Alutiiq settlements were soon destroyed or abandoned following conflicts with the traders.
In the twentieth century, Alutiiq families salted salmon on Shuyak for both human consumption and to produce animal food for the fox farming industry. In the 1930, fish processing expanded with the development of a cannery in Port William. Other enterprises, including mining, logging, and bear hunting are also part of Shuyak’s more recent history. Cabin foundations, mineshafts, historic garbage, a shipwreck, and the remains of a World War II era air navigation facility are some of the historic features that document the island’s recent past.
Visitors to Shuyak Island State Park should remember that state laws protect archaeological sites. Enjoy viewing the evidence of past settlers as you explore the island, but do not disturb or collect anything. For more information on Alaskan archaeology the laws that protect archaeological sites, please visit the Alaska Office of History and Archaeology’s web site at: http://www.dnr.alaska.gov/parks/oha/index.htm
Return to Kodiak State Parks Recreation Guide
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Contact: (Media Inquiries Only)
The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced today that the agency has released a white paper on the use of patent pools as one way to address the issue of access to vital patented biotechnology products and processes.
"Biotechnology, an increasingly important industry to the American economy, is heavily dependent on patent protection to maintain viability. While most biotechnology companies are responsible corporate citizens, offering reasonable access to their patented inventions, one concern about broad patenting in biotechnology, especially regarding genomic inventions, is the ease and cost of licensing multiple patents," noted Q. Todd Dickinson, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. "Patent pools can allow reasonable access to patented genomic inventions, thereby promoting research and development while also promoting competition through patenting."
A patent pool is an agreement between two or more patent owners to license one or more of their patents to one another or third parties. A patent pool allows interested parties to gather all the necessary tools to practice a certain technology in one place, e.g., "one-stop shopping," rather than obtaining licenses from each patent owner individually.
The USPTO white paper defines a patent pool, summarizes their history in the United States, addresses the legal implications of patent pools, and analyzes their potential benefits. The white paper is available here.
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The Oldest Neighborhoods in Chicago
Chicago has roots back to the late 17th century when French explorers and missionaries first made contact with the Potawatomi natives. The Battle at Fort Dearborn caused the early settlers to leave the area. From there, real estate was built very quickly because of the desire for easy access to transportation. After that, Chicago quickly became a melting pot and diverse cultural area. Here are some of the oldest neighborhoods that may resemble what life was like back then.
Old Town is also known as “The Cabbage Patch” because original German immigrants were attracted to the area for the farming. Old Town houses many beautiful Victorian style homes. It has preserved by the Chicago Historic District since 1977. One of the most notable events in Old Town was that it was designated as a neighborhood defense unit by Chicago’s Civil Defense Agency during World War II. Currently old town is popular due to the comedy shows and family owned restaurants. The town celebrates and recognizes small family owned stores and steers clear of corporate chain stores. Old Town also hosts one of America’s oldest art fairs, the Old Town Art Fair which has been around since 1950. The art fair also has live music, which brings many to enjoy over 200 artists.
St Charles was believed to host locations in the underground railroad during the slavery abolishment era. Many community leaders of St. Charles were known slavery abolitionists. Many of the older homes still have evidence of the underground railroad. St. Charles is home to a famous historic building called the Collins House. The Collins house was built around 1836 and there is evidence of a trap door which was believed to help aid those using the underground railroad to reach freedom. The Hotel Baker was opened in 1928 and attracted many tourists as a popular romantic vacation hotel destination.
Lake forest remained inaccessible to early farmers looking to settle in Chicago. Railroads were built in 1855 that allowed transportation to Lake Forest and it was first settled by Presbyterians in 1857. The neighborhood was designed by many famous land and home architects. The landscape design was purposely engineered to be secluded from the rest of the rest of Chigaco due to conflicting religious and social beliefs of the residents from the rest of the Chicago area.
Norwood Park was formed in 1872 after the railroads started to extend their reach and allow for easier transportation to and from the area. The neighborhood was named after a town in a famous novel by Henry Ward Beecher. Norwood Park is home to one of the oldest farmhouses in Chicago, the Wingert House. The house was home to John Wingert and was built in 1854. John Wingert fled Germany to escape religious persecution. Chicago’s oldest house also resides in Norwood Park, The Clarke House. The Clarke House is now a museum located in the Chicago Women’s Park.
If you are fortunate enough to live near these historic neighborhoods, it’s always a treat to stop by and learn more about their history. If you are planning on visiting the Chicago area, it is a really great place for history fanatics.
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In 1975 Fred Whipple questioned the possibility of a comet striking Tunguska. He estimated that if we take the mass of the comet as 1 million tonnes, as suggested by Fesenkov, the chance of such a comet striking Earth every 100 years would be about 1 in 20,000. 'It appears unlikely, therefore, that the Tunguska explosion was produced by a bona fide active comet a hundred or so meters in dimension ... more likely, however, the Tunguska object was an inactive, low-density, friable body ... There is no reason to suspect it was interstellar.'
Most contemporary scientists also reject the idea of a comet. 'Comets are fluffy in comparison with asteroids and burn up quickly in the atmosphere', Richard Stone writes in Discover magazine. 'For one to have produced an explosion as big as the one over Tunguska, it would have started out as a million-tonne object. The vast swath of gas and dust left by such an object on its way down might well have shut out the sun or altered the climate.' Zdenek Sekanina, an expert on comets at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, agrees: 'The effect on life on Earth would have been horrendous. It would have been a global catastrophe, comparable to nuclear winter. The effects on mankind would have been so overwhelming that we could not discuss the topic, because we would not be here.' You and I are still discussing the topic; therefore, the Tunguska fireball was not a comet. QED.
Although the probability of such low-density objects colliding with Earth is obviously quite small, there is still hope for the comet theory - and it comes from Down Under. Assuming a speed of 108,000 kilometres per hour, as the Australian scientists Duncan Steel and Richard Ferguson present their case, seven hours before the impact the Tunguska object would have been about
750,000 kilometres from Earth. Active comets produce tails that stretch millions of kilometres away from the Sun, so it is possible that there could have been an encounter between Earth and the tail of the comet. This encounter could produce an aurora in the hours before the impact. But did anyone observe an aurora seven hours before the Tunguska blast?
Steel, a well-known authority on the threat posed by asteroids, was at a conference on asteroids, comets and meteors in Sweden in 1989, when the Russian scientists Nikolai Vasiliyv and G. Andreev circulated a short report on Soviet research on Tunguska. He was intrigued by the following paragraph in the report:
A special item in this respect could be the search for the original diary entries by Mouson who observed auroras from near the Erebus volcano at Antarctica during the summer of 1908. There is information in Shackleton's accounts that on June 30, Mouson registered an aurora which he visually considered to be anomalous. Unfortunately, Shackleton's accounts do not contain further details.
Steel soon figured out that 'Mouson' was 'Mawson', after transliteration from the Latin script to Cyrillic and then back again, and 'the summer of 1908' was in fact 'the Antarctic winter of 1908'. Coincidentally, at that time Steel was at the University of Adelaide, where Mawson's notebooks from the Antarctic Expedition of 1907-09, led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, are archived in the Mawson Institute for Antarctic Research. Mawson (later Sir
Douglas Mawson) was a young geologist on the expedition, and kept a diary of his observations. Steel and Ferguson made extensive searches of Mawson's diaries and all other expedition papers, but failed to find any record of aurora australis at the time of the Tunguska blast. However, they found a record of an exceptional aurora seven hours before the blast. Was this aurora caused by the Tunguska fireball? If yes, then the fireball was, as Mawson would have said, a fair dinkum (genuine) comet.
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How polar bears got their white coat remains a scientific mystery, but newly published research suggests a way they could turn brown again.
One of the study’s authors says that’s what might eventually happen to some groups of modern bears as climate change alters their habitat.
“It’s not something that happened in the past and might happen in the future — it’s happening today,” said Beth Shapiro, one of the authors of the study published in the journal PLOS Genetics.
Shapiro and her colleagues were looking for insight into the evolutionary past of bears. The researchers were trying to understand when black, brown and polar bears diverged from each other and developed their modern appearance.
Scientists still don’t know when polar bears acquired their distinctive coat. The oldest remains only date from about 110,000 years ago, by which time the species was already well-developed.
“This 110,000-year-old bone probably isn’t the earliest polar bear,” said Shapiro. “We have no idea how early polar bears diverged from brown bears.”
But there is one group of brown bears that has shown signs of mixed heritage — the so-called ABC bears on the Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof Islands off the coast of Alaska. Previous studies of some of their DNA have shown the ABC bears are more closely related to polar bears than they are to other browns.
Shapiro and her team decided to look more closely at the ABC bruins. They employed sophisticated DNA analysis to look deeply into their past.
What they found is that ABC bears are genetically close to polar bears because that’s what they used to be.
Shapiro’s paper suggests that the ABC bears are a remnant of an ancient population of polar bears that lived in the area during the last Ice Age. As that period ended and the ice slowly retreated, the ABC population got cut off from other polar bears.
“They couldn’t mate with any more polar bears,” Shapiro said.
“As the weather started to get warmer and warmer, brown bears — males, as it turns out — could swim across the channel that separated the ABC islands from the Alaskan mainland and colonize these islands. There they ran into this isolated, trapped population of polar bears and they started hybridizing with them.”
That scenario conforms to modern bear behaviour, in which it is the young males that set out from their birth range in search of new territory. It’s also borne out in the DNA evidence. The team found the greatest percentage of polar bear genetic material in the female X chromosomes of the ABC bears.
“All of the DNA that’s shared between mom and dad has about 1 to 4 per cent polar bear remaining in it,” Shapiro said. “The X chromosomes have a lot more — up to around 15 per cent.”
That isn’t enough for the ABC bears to have maintained their original genetic identity, she said.
“In that particular location, they were converted into brown bears.”
Shapiro said something similar is happening today as climate change reduces sea ice and changes the habitat of some polar bears to look more like that of their southern cousins.
“We’ve seen that polar bears are hybridizing with brown bears now, at the edge of their range in Canada.
“I guess it means if we destroy all their habitat, and the only habitat that’s left for polar bears looks like brown bear habitat, then they’re just going to hybridize with brown bears and turn into brown bears.”
If that were to happen, it would take thousands of years, Shapiro hastened to add. But it does prove how adaptable polar bears can be — to the point of adapting themselves out of existence.
“Because they still retain the ability to hybridize with brown bears, they’re still pretty environmentally adaptable, which is kind of a shame for polar bears.”
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