content
stringlengths 71
484k
| url
stringlengths 13
5.97k
|
|---|---|
How do we measure solubility?
|
|
|
|
How does insolubility affect the concentration in an in vitro method?
|
|
|
|
For some test items achieving suggested maximal target test concentration is difficult due to lack of solubility in test media.
|
|
|
|
For these test items should there be guidance on how to establish the top concentration to test? For example if guidance indicates substances should be tested at top concentration of 1 mg/mL or 1mM but a substance does not go into solution at that concentration, is there some fractional concentration factor that should be used to determine what next lower concentration to try?
|
|
|
|
If it is difficult to get a test item in solution, at what point is the test item set aside as non-testable in the in vitro method?
|
|
|
|
Is there a standard method or methods that could be used to accurately establish the solubility limits of test items so appropriate concentrations could be selected for testing?
|
|
|
|
Are there methods for determining solubility that work for some types of test items and not others?
|
|
|
|
What are the set of acceptable solvents that are compatible with in vitro assays?
|
|
|
|
If a test item is not soluble in the preferred solvent for a given in vitro method, how many of the other potential solvents should be tried? Will the compatible solvents be specific to each in vitro method and should the in vitro method define which are acceptable solvents and at what concentrations they are acceptable in the final test media?
|
|
|
|
If a substance is highly soluble in an aqueous solution, can the substance be dissolved in the in vitro method media directly and tested without solvent carrier? | https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/9789264304796-22-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/9789264304796-22-en |
Department of P.G. Studies and Research in Chemistry and Pharmacy, Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur, 482001, M.P.
* Corresponding author,
Pallav Namdeo
Department of P.G. Studies
and Research in Chemistry and Pharmacy,
Rani Durgavati University, Jabalpur,482001, M.P.
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
Objective: Solubility, the phenomenon of dissolution of solute in solvent to give a homogenous system, is one of the important parameters to achieve desired concentration of drug in systemic circulation for desired (anticipated) pharmacological response. Low aqueous solubility is the major problem encountered with formulation development of new chemical entities as well as for the generic development. Conclusion: More than 40% NCEs (new chemical entities) developed in pharmaceutical industry are practically insoluble in water. Solubility is a major challenge for formulation scientist. Any drug to be absorbed must be present in the form of solution at the site of absorption. Various techniques are used for the enhancement of the solubility of poorly soluble drugs which include physical and chemical modifications of drug and other methods like particle size reduction, crystal engineering, salt formation, solid dispersion, use of surfactant, complexation, and so forth. Selection of solubility improving method depends on drug property, site of absorption, and required dosage form characteristics.
Keywords: Solubility, solubility of solid in liquids, factor affecting solubility.
Introduction
Solubility is a phenomenon which involves formation of a uniform homogeneous dispersion upon interaction of two or more substances. It is dependent on many factors such as temperature, nature of solute and solvent under study, pH, pressure etc. A solution is said to be saturated when it contains the maximum amount of solute that a solvent can dissolve at a particular temperature,
As temperature influences solubility, temperature must be specified when the solubility of a substance is expressed. Under certain conditions, an unsaturated or a supersaturated solution can be obtained. An unsaturated solution is one that contains the dissolved solute in a concentration less than that for required complete saturation at a particular temperature. A supersaturated solution is one that contains more concentration of the solute in the dissolved state than would normally be dissolved at a definite temperature. A supersaturated solution may simply be obtained by cooling a saturated solution carefully to a low temperature (without any precipitation). However, this supersaturated solution is not stable and the excess solute can be precipitated by shaking,
by scratching the sides of the container or by introducing a small crystal of the solute (Lachman et al., 1986; Clugstone and Fleming, 2000; Myrdal and Yalkowsky, 2007; Martin, 2011).
Solubility expression
The solubility of a substance can be expressed in a number of ways. Most pharmacopoeia list the solubility of drugs in terms of the number of parts of solvent required to dissolve one part of the drug. For substances where the exact solubility is not known, the values are expressed by the use of certain general terms as shown in Table 1 (The United States Pharmacopeia, 2007; British Pharmacopoeia, 2009).
Table1. General Terms used for Expressing Solubility
|
|
Terms
|
|
Parts of Solvent Required to Dissolve 1 Part of Solute
|
|
Very Soluble
|
|
Less than 1 part
|
|
Freely Soluble
|
|
1 to 10 parts
|
|
Soluble
|
|
10 to 30 Parts
|
|
Sparingly Soluble
|
|
30 to 100 Parts
|
|
Slightly Soluble
|
|
100 to 1000 Parts
|
|
Very Slightly Soluble
|
|
1000 to 10000 Parts
|
|
Practically Insoluble
|
|
More than 10000 Parts
Solubility is also expressed quantitatively in terms of percentage, molarity and molality. In the pharmaceutical field, three concentration terms are often used. These are:
(i) Percent weight by weight (% w/w) which is the number of grams of salute dissolved in 100 grams of solution.
(ii) Percent volume by volume (% v/v) which is the number of ml of solute dissolved in 100 ml of solution.
(iii) Percent weight by volume (% w/v) which is the number of grams of solute dissolved in 100 ml. of solution.
Molarity is defined as the number of moles (or gram molecular weight) of solute dissolved in 1 litre of solution.
Molality is defined as the number of moles of solute dissolved in 1000 g of solvent.
Detrmination of Solubility (Martin, 2011).
Solubility of a substance is generally determined by first preparing a saturated solution of the substance in the given solvent at a particular temperature followed by analysis of the saturated solution.
For obtaining a saturated solution of the substance at the desired temperature, an excess of the powdered material is added to a solvent and stirred for several hours until equilibrium has been achieved. The temperature of the system is kept constant throughout by immersing the vessel in a constant temperature bath.
A sample of a. saturated solution is taken by separating the solution from the un-dissolved solid by filtration. Filtration is also carried out at the desired temperature for the solubility determination to prevent any change in the equilibrium between dissolved and un-dissolved solid due to change in temperature. Also, loss of volatile components ifany has to be prevented. The solution is then analysed using an appropriate method.
Solvent-Solute Interactions
In general, the solubility of a solute in a solvent may be predicted by the solute-solute, solvent-solvent, and solute-solvent interactions. When the adhesive forces (attraction between unlike molecules i.e., solute-solvent molecules) are more than, the cohesive forces (attraction between like Molecules i.e.,” solute-solute or solvent-solvent molecules), the solubility of a solute in a solvent or miscibility of a liquid in some other liquid is generally enhanced.
Water is everywhere in nature. It is considered as universal solvent due to its good solubilizing capacity of various compounds. Before proceeding further one needs to know about the classification of solvents based on its polarity.
(a) Polar solvent
(b) Non Polar solvent
(c) Semi polar solvent
(a) Polar solvent
The polarity of solvent depends up on its dipole moment. For example water has its dielectric constant value 80 and hence it falls under the category of strongly polar solvents. The solubility of compounds in solvents can be generalized under statement like dissolve in like, i.e., polar solvents have strong solubilizing power for polar substances or ionic solutes. Ionic solutes include salts like sodium chloride, potassium chloride etc. the solubility of a compounds also depends on ability to form hydrogen bonds. Compounds having high dipole moment tend to form hydrogen bonds to a greater extend and hence show higher solubility in polar solvents.
E.g. Alcohol, Aldehyde, Ketone
Water dissolves phenols, alcohols, aldehydes ketones that can from hydrogen bonds with water molecules. When polar solvents like alcohol (lower alcohols) are added to water the hydrogen bonds between water molecules are replaced partly by the hydrogen bonds between water molecules are replaced partly by the hydrogen bonds between alcohol and water molecules.
Apart from above mentioned factors the other parameters which play a key role in deciding the solubility include, ratio of polar to non polar groups of the molecule. The solubility is inversely proportional to the carbon chain length. E.g. the solubility of alcohols decreases with increasing carbon chain length. Branching of carbon chain increases the solubility of compound compared to its straight chain compound.
(b) Non Polar solvent
Non-polar solvents have the capacity of dissolving non polar compounds. Generally oils, fats come under this category. They possess a very low dielectric constant value generally ranging from 0-10.
Due to this low dielectric constant value they fail in reducing the attraction between ions of strong and weak electrolytes. These non polar solvents are also called as aprotic solvent (can neither accept nor donate protons) which makes them unable to break covalent bonds or ionize weak electrolytes. Hence non polar solvents dissolve ionic and polar solutes only in negligible quantities.
(c) Semi polar solvent
Ketones and alcohols have the property of inducing certain degree of polarity in non polar solvent molecules. They are used as solvents for increasing solubility of non polar substances in polar substances or polar substances in non polar substances E.g., Propylene glycol has been shown to improve solubility of water in peppermint oil.
Solubility of Gases in Liquids (Myrdal and Yalkowsky, 2007, Martin, 2011)
Examples of pharmaceutical solutions which contain gases dissolved in a liquid include effervescent preparations containing dissolved carbon dioxide, ammonia water and hydrochloric acid (hydrogen chloride gas in water). Pharmaceutical aerosols containing nitrogen or carbon dioxide as the) propellant may also be considered as solutions of gases in liquids.
The solubility of a gas in a liquid represents the concentration of dissolved gas in the liquid when it is in equilibrium with some of the pure gas above the solution.
factors affecting solubility of gases in liquids
The solubility of a gas in a solvent depends on temperature pressure, presence of salts, and chemical reaction if any between the gas and the solvent.
1. Effect of Pressure
The pressure of the gas above the solution is important in gaseous solutions since this significantly changes the solubility of the dissolved gas. The effect of pressure on the solubility of the gas is given by Henry's law which states that in a dilute solution, the mass of a gas which dissolves in a given volume of a liquid at a constant temperature is directly proportional to the partial pressure of the gas.
According to Henry's Law:
C ∝ Pg
C = K. Pg
Where,
C is the concentration of the dissolved gas in grams perliter of solvent
Pg = Partial pressure in millilitre of Hg
K is Henrys law constant.
P is the partial pressure in mm of Hg of the undissolved gas above the solution and can be obtained by subtracting the vapour pressure of the solvent from the total pressure of the solution s is the proportionality Constant and is referred to as the solubility coefficient.
The solubility of gases generally increases with increase pressure and oh the release of pressure, the solubility decreases and the gases escape.
2. Effect of Temperature
Solubility of most gases decreases with a rise in temperature because of the greater tendency of the gases to expand in comparison to the solvent. It is therefore essential that caution, must be,exercised when opening the container containing gaseous solution under elevated temperature. It is, better to reduce the temperature by immersing in ice-cooled water before opening such container.
Henrys law is applicable to the gas that is slightly soluble in the liquid-solvent. H2 and O2 which are sparingly soluble in water obey Henrys law. Whereas HCl, SO2, NH3 gases do not obey Henrys law. It is because of the interaction between water and these gases.
3. Effect of Electrolytes and Non-electrolytesor salts
Solubility of; a gases in a solvent is generally reduced by the addition of electrolytes such as sodium chloride or non-electrolytes such as sugar. This is referred as salting out. This is due to more affinity between the solvent arid the electrolyte or non-electrolyte than between the solvent and the gas.
4. Effect of Chemical Reaction with the solvent
Henry's law generally applies to gases that are only slightly soluble in solvent and that do not react in any way with the solvent. Chemical reaction if any between a gas and a solvent greatly increases the solubility of the gas in the solvent. For example hydrogen chloride gas reacts with water by hydrogen bonding when it dissolves in water. This increases the solubility of hydrogen chloride gas in water.
Applications of Solubility of Gases in Liquids
1. For the preparation of reagents such as HCl, H2So4 etc by passing the gases into water.
2. Preparation of carbonated beverages.
3. Solubility of oxygen in blood depends upon the concentration of haemoglobin.
4. Formulations and development of anesthetic gases
Liquids and liquids and solid in liquids (Lachman et al., 1986; Clugstone and Fleming, 2000; Myrdal and Yalkowsky, 2007; Martin, 2011).
Examples of pharmaceutical solutions containing a liquid dissolved in another liquid include hydro-alcoholic solutions, aromatic waters such as Chloroform water and Peppermint water, spirits and elixirs. Lotions, sprays, and some medicated oils also contain two or more miscible oils and hence may be considered as a solution of one liquid in another.
As discussed earlier solution can be classified into
(a) Idealsolutions in which binary solutions obey raoults law over the whole range of compressions.
(b) Real Solutions these are the binary solutions which show either positive or negative deviation from raoults law. If one compound shows positive deviation then other component also tends to show positive deviation. Positive deviations lead to decrease in solubility due to formation of dimers or polymers.
Broadly one can classify liquid-liquid systems into three categories
(a) Complete miscibility
Represents complete solubility of two or more solvents in all proportions.
E.g. Water and Methanol, Glycerin and Alcohol
(c) Partial Immiscibility
Represents systems, which are soluble in all other in definite proportions
E.g. Water and Ether, Nicotine and Water, Phenol and Water
(c) Immiscibility
Represents systems, which are not soluble with other in any in proportions
E.g. Water and Liquid petrolatum
Ideal and Real Solutions
According to the Raoult's law, at a definite temperature, the partial pressure (PA) of a component (A) in a liquid mixture is equal to vapour pressure in the pure state (P°A) multiplied by the mole fraction of the component (XA) in the solution. It is expressed as
pA = P°AXA
Ideal solutions are those which obey Raoult's law over the whole range of composition at all temperatures. Mixtures of nearly adjacent compounds in a homologous series (e.g., benzene-toluene, methanol-ethanol, hexane-heptane etc.) at low temperatures behave as ideal solutions.
However, in practice, there are deviations from Raoult's law. Such solutions showing deviation are called real (or non-ideal) solutions. The deviation may be negative leading to increased solubility because of hydrogen bonding between the polar components. If the deviation is positive, it leads to a decreased solubility because of the association of the molecules of one of the components to form limers or polymers of high order. Positive deviation in most cases is due to the difference in the: cohesive forces or internal pressures of the molecules of each constituent.
Two liquids are either completely miscible or partially miscible. Completely miscible liquids mix in all proportions and hence do hot create any solubility problem. Partially miscible liquids form two miscible liquid layers, each of which is a saturated solution of one liquid in the other. The two liquid phases are called conjugate liquid phases. The mutual solubility of partially miscible liquids is influenced by temperature. For certain systems such as a solution of phenol and water, the mutual solubilities of the two, conjugate liquid phases increase with temperature and at a temperature called critical solution temperature (or consolute temperature) they are miscible. And at this temperature a homogeneous or a single phase results- for any composition.
Ternary Systems
These systems are produced up on the additions of a third component to a pair of partially miscible liquids produce a ternary system. If the added component is soluble in only one of the two components or if its solubility in the two liquids is markedly different, the mutual solubility of the liquid pair is decreased. If the third substance is soluble in both liquids to roughly the same extant, the mutual solubility of the liquid pair is increased.
A turbid or cloudy point was observed at 67% alcohol, 27% oil, and 6% water. This indicates that alcohol which is roughly soluble in oil and water to same extent increase mortal solubility of oil and water i.e., upper critical temperature of solution is lowered and lower critical temperature of solution is raised.
Other factors which influence solubility of liquids in liquids include
(a) Dielectric Constant The solubilityof water and alcohol. Which depicts the solubility (mg/ml) in relation to dielectric constant (ϵ). The dielectric properties of a mixed solvent, such as water and alcohol, can be approximated to the weighted average properties of pure components.
Hence addtive in nature
ϵ mixture = 0.6 (ϵ (ethanol) + 0.4 ϵ (water)
= 0.6 (25) + 0.4 (80)
= 47
Molecular Connectivity
This takes into account structureal features and functional groups of the molecule. It is denoted by χ (chi). The χ represents first order chi term and is obtained by summing the bonds weighted by the reciprocal square root number of each bond.
For e.g.,
Corbon atom 1 is attached to central atom which is inturn joined to other carbons by two bonds.
Propane H3C-CH2-CH3 So the reciprocal square root valance is
1/(1.2)1/2 = 0.707
The same applied to right bond also. The total value of = 1.414
Solubility of Solids in Liquids (Martin, 2011).
Solutions of solids in liquids are the most important types of pharmaceutical solutions encountered. It is dependent only on temperature, melting point of the solid and molar heat of fusion (MHF). It is difficult to predict the solubility of solids forming-non-ideal (real) solutions because of a number of factors involved.
A solution can be defined as a defined a homogeneous mixture in which one substance is thought to dissolve in the other. In quantitative terms, solubility is defined as the concentration of solute in a saturated solution at a certain temperature. Qualitatively, solubility is defined as a spontaneous interaction of two or more substances to form a homogenous molecular dispersion.
The solutions are often referred to as molecular dispersion or true solutions, systems in which solute is dispersed as molecules or ions throughout the other solvent. A few examples of solutions are urea in water and sucrose in water.
A saturated solution is the solution in which the dissolved solute is equilibrium with the solute, at a definite temperature.
An unsaturated solution is the solution containing the dissolved solute in concentration below that is necessary for saturation, at a definite temperature.
A supersaturated solution is the one that contains more of the dissolved solute than it would normally contain at a definite temperature.
Applications
The solubility of a solute in a solvent may be considered as occurring in three steps.
(1) The first step involves the elimination of a molecule from the solute phase at a definite temperature.
(2) The second step involves the formation of a hole in the solvent just large enough to accept at solute molecules.
(3) The final step involves placement of the solute molecules in the hole in the solvent.
Determination of concentration of drug in solution
The amount of solute present (concentration) in the saturated solution can be determined by gravimetric, volumetric and modern method.
Gravimetric method if the solvent is volatile and solute is non-volatile; the amount of the latter can be determined by heating the sample to constant weight. Alternatively the solute may be converted to insoluble compound by a chemical reaction. The weight of the substance may be determined after filtration and drying.
Volumetric method acid–base titrations can be used to determine the amount of solute present in a solvent.
Modern method spectrophotometric and HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) methods provide accurate estimation.
Theories of Solutions
Ideal Solution
In an ideal solution, the heat of solution is equal to the heat of fusion. Ideal solubility is not affected by the nature of the solvent, for such a, solution, the solubility can be predicted from its heat of fusion. .The equation derived from thermodynamic consideration is:
Where,
X2i is the ideal solubility of the solute expressed in mole fraction (the superscript i indicates ideal)
T0 is the melting point in absolute temperature of the solid solute
T is the absolute temperature of the solution.
ΔHf is the molar heat of fusion of the solid state and can be determined using differential scanning calorimeter.
The equation does not apply when T > T0 and at temperatures considerably below the melting point.
Non-ideal Solution
When the heat of solution has a positive value, the solution is termed as non-ideal. This non-ideality is due to various attractive forces involved between solute, solvent and solute-solvent molecules.
In dealing with non-ideal solutions, activity of the solute must be considered. The activity of a solute in a solution is expressed as its concentration multiplied by the activity coefficient. When concentration is expressed in terms of mole fraction, the activity is expressed as:
a2= X2g2
Converting to logarithms,
log a2 = log X2 + log g2.
Multiplying by minus and rearranging,
- log a2 = - log X2 - log g2.
-logX2 = -log a2 + logg2.
In an ideal solution a2 = X2i since g2 = 1
Expressing ideal solubility in terms of activity
Combining the two equations,
The activity coefficient g2 depends on the nature of both the solute and the solvent as well as on the temperature of the solution. All the factors, must be considered before the solubility can be predicted for non-ideal solution. The log y2 appearing in the equations’ obtained from the consideration of intermolecular forces of attraction involved in the solution process or the work done in the process of solution.
Effects of Temperature
As evident from the above equation the solubility of solid in a liquid depends on the temperature. If heat is absorbed in process of solution then ∆H will be positive and solubility of solute increases with increase with increase in temperature. If a solute gives off heat during the process of solution, ∆H is negative and solubility decreases with increase in temperature.when heat is neither absorbed nor given off, the solubility is not affected by variation of temperature as is nearly the case with sodium chloride.
Solubility of Strong Electrolytes
Whenever a strong electrolyte is dissolved in a solution, we can observe the following
(a) Rise in the temperature of system, or exothermic process.
(b) Decrease in the temperature of system or endothermic process
(c) No change in temperature of system.
According to Lechaterlier principle, any system tends to adjust itself in a manner so as to counteract, any stress. So any change in the temperature of system will proceed in the direction, so as to nullify the change.
Solubility of Weak Electrolytes
Many important drugs belong to the class of weak acids and bases. They react with strong acids bases and, within definite ranges of pH, exist as ions that are ordinarily soluble in water. E.g. many drugs containing carboxylic acid as a functional group are relatively insoluble in water. Upon addition of dilute sodium hydroxide, carbonate they form soluble salts. Sodium citrate is used to solubilize acetyl salicylic acid by the formation of acetyl salicylate ion.
Effects of Ph on Solubility of Weak Electrolytes
Phenobarbital sodium, at below pH 8.3 Phenobarbital sodium starts precipitating from solution at room temperature. The pH at which the drug precipitates from aqueous solution can be calculated in the following way
Heat of solution ∆H is the sum of heat sublimation of the solid and heat of hydration (salvation) of the ions in the solution.
∆H (solution) = ∆H (sublimation) + ∆H (Hydration)
If ∆H > 0 then absorption of heat by system
If ∆H < 0 then evolution of heat by system.
Solubility of Slightly Soluble Electrolyte
The solubility of slightly soluble electrolyte is described by solubility product, Ksp, of the compound. For example, consider silver chloride which when dissolved in excess exists in equilibrium as
AgClsolid Ag+ + Cl-
The equilibrium expression may be written as
K = [Ag+] [Cl-]/ [AgClsolid]
The equilibrium expression may be written as
K = [Ag+] [Cl-] / [AgClsolid]
As the concentration of [AgClsolid] is constant
Ksp = [Ag+] [Cl-]
Addition of sodium chloride to above silver chloride solution results in common ion effect.
[Ag+] [Cl-]>Ksp
Some of the AgCl precipitates from the solution until equilibrium
[Ag+] [Cl-] = Ksp is re-established.
HP solid HP sol ………………..1
HP sol + H2O H3O+ + P- ………….2
Equilibrium constant for Eq. (2) is
Ka = [H3O+] [P-] / [HP] sol
Or [P] = Ka [HP] sol / [H3O+]
And for Eq. (1) equilibrium constant is
So = [HP sol]
The total solubility of Phenobarbital consists of the concentration of un-dissociated acid [HP sol] and [P-]
Substituting So and Ko, we get
S = So + Ka, we get,
S = So + Ka So / [H3O+]
S = So ([1+ Ka / [H3O+])
or S-So / So = Ka / [H3O+]
Applying log on both sides
pHp = pKa + Log S-So / So
Thus we can obtain the pH below which the drug separates from the solution.
The Influence of the Solvent on the Solubility of Drugs
Factors influencing solubility of drugs
Solute related factors
Such as size, shape, and surface area should be less increase the solubility. Physiochemical characters like melting point, heat of fusion, molar volume and pKa. Physical forms-as salt, crystalline state and polymorphism
Solvent related factors
Such as nature of solvent such as polarity, pH of the medium and volume of solvent
Other related factors Temperature and pressure etc.
Some factors are discussed below
Temperature
Most solids dissolve with absorption of heat and the solubility of such solids increases as the temperature is increased. This is in accordance with Le Chatelier’s principle since the system tries to neutralize the constraint (increase in temperature) imposed oil it by increasing the solubility of the solid when the extra heat gets absorbed. For solids which dissolve with the evolution of heat an increase in temperature causes a decrease in the solubility. Effect of temperature on the solubility of salts can be represented by the use of solubility curves which are plots of solubility against temperature. Most of the curves are continuous, i.e., the solubility either increases or decreases gradually with a rise in temperature. However, for certain substances such as sodium sulphate, the slope of the curve show an abrupt change. This is because sodium sulphate exists as decahydrate Na2SO4 10H2O up to a temperature of 32.5°C and its dissolution in water is an endothermic process. Hence, there is an increase in solubility till this temperature is reached. Above this temperature, the material gets converted to the anhydrous form and its dissolution becomes exothermic leading to a decrease in solubility with increase in temperature.
Molecular Structure
Slight modification in the molecular structure of solids can lead to marked changes in their solubility in a given solvent. For example, if a weak acid is converted into its salt, its ionic dissociation in water increases markedly leading to an increase in the interaction between the solute and the solvent which ultimately leads to an increase in the solubility. Solubility can also be decreased by modifications such as esterification. Such a decrease in solubility is sometimes beneficial in pharmaceutical practice since this decrease helps in taste masking of certain drugs such as chloramphenicol (very bitter) versus chloramphenicol palmitate (tasteless) and protects the compound from degradation in the gut as in case of erythromycin and erythromycin propionate.
Particle Size
The particle size of the solid also affects its solubility in a given solvent. Generally, a decrease in the particle size causes an increase in the solubility. This is because a decrease in the particle size results in excess surface free energy due to increase in surface area which increases the solubility.
The increase in solubility with decrease in particle size however, ceases when the particles attain very small radius and any further decrease in the particle size causes a decrease in solubility rather than an increase. This is because of generation of electrical charges on the particles.
Nature of Solvent and Co-solvent
The solubility of a solid depends on the nature of the solvent used, In general, polar solutes dissolve more readily in polar, solvents and non-polar solutes dissolve more readily in non polar solvents (like dissolves like).
Solubility of a solid in a solvent may be altered by the addition of some other solvent which may bring about changes in the properties of the first solvent very often; a mixture of solvents is used to increase the solubility of weak electrolytes as well as non-electrolytes. This phenomenon of increasing solubility of poorly soluble substances by the use of more than one solvent is, known as co-solvency. For example, the solubility of weak electrolytes and non-polar molecules in water may be considerably increased by the addition of co-solvents such as ethanol, glycerol, propylene glycol or sorbitol. These agents work by decreasing the interfacial tension between the hydrophobic solute arid the aqueous environment or by altering the dielectric constant of the medium.
pH
Most of the drugs are either weak acid or weak bases .and are poorly .soluble in water. The solubility of such drugs is markedly affected by a change in pH. If the pH of a solution of a weakly acidic drug or its salt is reduced, the proportion of the unionized acid molecules in the solution increases. Since the unionized form is generally less soluble than the ionized form, the solubility of such drugs decreases with a decrease in the pH. On the other hand, solubility of weakly basic drugs or their salts increases with a decrease in the pH.
The relationship between the pH, solubility and pKa value of an acidic drug is given by:
Where,
pH is the pH below which the drug precipitates from solution.
S is the overall solubility of the drug,
S is the solubility of its unionized form
For basic drugs, the relationship is:
The above equations can be used to determine the solubility of a drug at a given pH or to find the pH below which the drug will precipitate from solution. Alternatively, the minimum pH value that is required to maintain the drug in solution can be determined.
Combined Effect of pH and Solvents
The combined effect of a solvent and the pH on the solubility of a weak electrolyte can be determined by studying the solubility changes in a buffered solution. The addition of a solvent such as alcohol to a buffered aqueous solution may affect the solubility of weak electrolytes in the following two ways:
(I)It increases the solubility of the unionized species of the weak electrolyte by adjusting the polarity of the solvent to a more favorable value.
(II) It decrease's the dissociation of the weak electrolyte thereby increasing the pKa value and reducing the solubility.
Common Ion Effect
When slightly soluble electrolytes are dissolved to form saturated solutions, the solubility is described by a special constant known as the solubility product, Ksp.
For a saturated solution of sparingly soluble electrolyte AB in contact with un-dissolved electrolyte, the equilibrium may be represented as follows:
AB l A+ + B-
(Solid) (Ions)
According to Law of Mass action, the equilibrium constant in terms of concentration is given by.
Since the concentration of a solid may be regarded as being constant, the equation may be written as:
WhereKsp is the solubility product of the compound AB
If a compound that carries a common ion (For example A+) is added to the above system, there is a momentary increase in the ionic product:
[A+] [B-] >Ksp
; In order to re-establish the equilibrium [A+] [B-] = Ksp some of AB will precipitate out. The same will be the effect if a compound containing the ion [B-] is added. Thus, the addition of a compound bearing a common ion reduces the solubility of sparingly soluble salt.
Effect of Indifferent Electrolyte on the Solubility Product
An effect opposite to that of common-ioneffectwill be produced if salts carrying no common-ion (indifferent electrolytes) are added to a solution of slightly soluble electrolyte;such indifferent electrolytes even increase the solubility at moderate Concentrations as they tend to lower the activity coefficient.
Effect of Non-Electrolytes on the Solubility of Electrolytes
The solubility of electrolytes in water primarily depends on the dissociation of the dissolved molecules into ions. The ease with which the electrolytes dissociate depends on the dielectric constant of the solvent which is in effect a measure of the polar nature of the solvent.
Addition of a water soluble non-electrolyte such as alcohol to an aqueous solution of a sparingly soluble salt decreases the solubility of sparingly soluble electrolyte. This effect is due to the lowering of dielectric constant and this in turn reduces the dissociation of the dissolved salt.
Effect of Electrolytes on the Solubility of Non-Electrolytes
The solubility of non-electrolytes’ depends primarily on the formation of weak intermolecular bonds (hydrogen bonds) between their molecules and those of water. Addition 6f an electrolyte having more affinity towards water reduces the solubility of the non-electrolyte by competing for the aqueous solvent and breaking the intermolecular bonds between the non-electrolyte and water.
Effect of Complex Formation
The apparent solubility of some solutes in a liquid may be increased or decreased; by the addition of a substance that forms a complex which is either more or less soluble. The solubility of the complex determines the apparent change in the solubility of the original solute.
A well known example of complexation is the interaction of Iodine with Povidone to form water soluble Povidone-Iodine complex. A number of compounds, such as nicotinamide and Beta-cyclodextrin, have been used to increase the solubility of poorly water-soluble drugs.
It is also possible that a drug may form an insoluble complex with other ingredients so that the apparent solubility decreases instead of increasing. For example, gentisic acid forms a complex with caffeine that is less soluble than caffeine alone. Tetracycline forms an insoluble complex with calcium ions present in milk or any preparation containing calcium salts.
Effect of Solubilising Agents
Solubility of poorly soluble drugs may be enhanced by a technique known as micellarsolubilisation which involves the use of surfactant for increasing the solubility.
When a surfactant having a hydrophilic and a lipophilic portion is added to a liquid, it first accumulates at the air/solvent interface followed by its dispersion throughout the liquid bulk. At a certain concentration known as the critical micelle concentration (CMC), the dispersed surfactant molecules tend to aggregate into groups of molecules known as micelle.
In aqueous medium, the surfactant molecule Orient in such a manner that their hydrophilic por-n; faces the water while the lipophilic portion resides in the micelle interior. An insoluble compound added to the surfactant liquid either enters the micelle interior gets adsorbed onto the micelle surface or sits at some intermediate point depending on its polarity, thus effecting solubilisation. Surfactants that are used as solubilising agents generally have HLB values in excess of 13. Examples include polysorbate-80, polyoxyl 40 stearate, sodium lauryl sulphate and PEG-40-Castor oil remophor). A number of poorly soluble drugs such as fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K, antibiotics like griseofulvin and chloramphenicol and analgesics such as aspirin and phenacetin have been solubilised by this technique.
Hydrotropic Solubilization
Hydrotropic Solubilization is a solubilization phenomenon whereby addition of large amount of a second results in an increase in the aqueous solubility of another solute. Concentrated aqueous hydrotropic solution of sodium benzoate, sodium salicylate, urea, nicotinamide, sodium nitate have been observed to enhance the aqueous solubilizaties of many poorly water-soluble drugs.
Mixed Hydro trophy
It is a phenomenon to increase the solubility of poorly, water soluble water soluble drugs in the blends of hydrotropic agents, which may give miraculous synergistic enhancement effect on solubility of poorly water soluble drugs, utilization of dosages from of water insoluble drugs to minimize the side effects. In place of say 5 hydro tropes are used in 1/5th concentration reducing their individual toxicities.
Mechanism of Hydro trope Action Hydro tropes consist of a hydrophilic part and a hydrophobic part (like surfactants) but the hydrophobic part is generally too small to cause spontaneous self-aggregation. They do not have a critical concentration above which self aggregation starts to occur (as found for micelle) instead they aggregation in a stepwise self-aggregation process, gradually increasing aggregation size.
Advantages
1. It is superior to other solubilization methods such as miscibility, micelle solubilization, co-solvency and salting in because the co solvent character is independent of ph, has high selectivity and does not require emulsification.
2. It only requires mixing the drug with the hydro trope in water.
3. It does not require chemical modification of hydrotropic drugs, use of organic solvents, or preparation of emulsification system.
Distribution Phenomenon (Lachman et al., 1986; Martin, 2011).
When we add a solid or liquid to a system of two immiscible liquids .It will distribute itself between the two phases in a definite concentration ratio. The two immiscible liquids may be oil and water system or organic and aqueous phase system.
Let the concentration of solute in organic phase be Corg and aqueous phase be Caqat equilibrium. The distribution co-efficient K is the ratio of concentration of solute in organic phase to concentration of solute in aqueous phase.
Ko/w = Corg/Caq or Kw/o = Caq/Corg K is also termed as partition coefficient ratio.
Application of Distribution Coefficient
1. Absorption and distribution of drugs in the body
2. Drug action at non-specific sites
3. Preservation of oil-water system etc.
References
British Pharmacopoeia, 2009.
Clugston M, Fleming R. 2000. Advanced Chemistry. 1st edition. Oxford, UK: Oxford Publishing.
Lachman L, Lieberman H, Kanig JL. 1986. The Theory And Practise of Industrial Pharmacy. 3rd edition. Lea & Febiger.
Martin A. 2011. Solubility and Distribution Phenomena. 6th edition. Lippincott Williams and Wilkins (Physical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences).
Myrdal PB, Yalkowsky SH. 2007. Solubilization of drugs in aqueous media. In: Swarbrick J, editor. Encyclopedia of Pharmaceutical Technology. 3rd edition. New York, NY, USA, : Informa Health Care. pp. 3311.
The United States Pharmacopeia, USP 30-NF 25, 2007. | http://ajbr.in/full_text.php?acc=view&id=7f6ffaa6bb0b408017b62254211691b5 |
What does not dissolve in DMSO?
What does not dissolve in DMSO?
Some interesting examples of compounds that do not dissolve in DMSO at that concentration are: chloroquine diphosphate, ciprofloxacin (some of the other fluoroquinolines as well) and drugs with quaternary amines.
Is ethyl acetate solubility in organic solvents?
Ethyl acetate is the ester of ethanol and acetic acid; it is manufactured on a large scale for use as a solvent….Ethyl acetate.
|Names|
|Boiling point||77.1 °C (170.8 °F; 350.2 K)|
|Solubility in water||8.3 g/100 mL (at 20 °C)|
|Solubility in ethanol, acetone, diethyl ether, benzene||Miscible|
|log P||0.71|
Is ethanol and ethyl acetate miscible?
Immiscibility refer to those liquids that cannot mix to form a homogeneous solution soluble in all proportions. Immiscible solvents are incapable of mixing with another solvent and will separate out into a definite layer….
|SOLVENTS||Immiscibility|
|ethanol||can be mixed with any of the solvents listed in the column at left|
Can DMSO be diluted with water?
DO NOT ingest DMSO (dimethylsulfoxide). It is for TOPICAL USE ONLY and never use it in the presence of any chemical odors, cleaning smells or fragrances. Do not cover the area until it dries (20-30 mins). Best to dilute it to 70-75% (DISTILLED water).
What does DMSO dissolve?
It is an effective solvent for a wide array of organic materials, including many polymers. DMSO also dissolves many inorganic salts, particularly transition metals nitrates, cyanides and dichromates. DMSO is miscible with water and most organic liquids.
Why is DMSO a good solvent?
Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is an organosulfur compound with the formula (CH3)2SO. This colorless liquid is an important polar aprotic solvent that dissolves both polar and nonpolar compounds and is miscible in a wide range of organic solvents as well as water. It has a relatively high boiling point.
Does DMSO dissolve metal?
Is ethyl acetate the same as ethanol?
Ethyl acetate is an organic compound that is a clear liquid. This compound represents the ester of ethanol, known as pure alcohol, and acetic acid. Ethyl acetate is a solvent, meaning it is a substance that is used to dissolve another substance.
Which is more polar ethyl acetate or acetic acid?
Workup for Polar and Water-Soluble Solvents. Extraction Protocol for Polar Solvents….Solvents and Polarity.
|Solvent||Relative Polarity|
|acetic acid||0.648|
|ethanol||0.654|
|methanol||0.762|
|ethylene glycol||0.79|
Why is ethyl acetate used as a solvent?
Ethyl acetate is used as a solvent in the manufacture of modified hop extract and decaffeinated tea or coffee. Also used for colour and inks used to mark fruit or vegetables. In the field of entomology, ethyl acetate is an effective asphyxiant for use in insect collecting and study.
What is the flash point of ethyl acetate?
Ethyl acetate appears as a clear colorless liquid with a fruity odor. Flash point 24°F. Less dense than water. Vapors heavier than air. Ethyl acetate is the acetate ester formed between acetic acid and ethanol.
Where can you find ethyl acetate in food? | https://www.idcafe.net/what-does-not-dissolve-in-dmso/ |
which molecule is most soluble in water
Why Does Water Liquify Sugar?
Covalent network solids as well as a lot of metals are insoluble in nearly all solvents. The solubility of ionic substances is greatly determined by the dielectric constant (ε) of the solvent, a measure of its capacity to reduce the electrostatic forces between charged fragments. Table 4.1 “Typical Devices of Focus” presented you to guidelines for predicting the solubility of ionic compounds in water. Ionic compounds are usually most soluble in polar solvents; the higher the latticework energy, the extra polar the solvent have to be to get over the lattice energy as well as liquify the substance. Due to its high polarity, water is the most typical solvent for ionic substances. Numerous ionic compounds are soluble in various other polar solvents, nonetheless, such as fluid ammonia, fluid hydrogen fluoride, and also methanol.
When adding sugar to water, for example, the water molecules are attracted to the sugar molecules. Once the destination becomes large sufficient the water is able to pull individual sugar particles from the bulk sugar crystals right into the service. Typically the amount of power it requires to break as well as create these bonds establishes if a substance is soluble or not. This phase focuses on different actions of water, that is, remedies as well as solubility.
When a solution includes the optimum amount of solute that can liquify under a given set of problems, it is a saturated service. A system in which crystallization as well as dissolution happen at the same price is in vibrant equilibrium. The solubility of a material in a liquid is determined by intermolecular communications, which also identify whether 2 liquids are miscible. Solutes can be categorized as hydrophilic or hydrophobic. Vitamins with hydrophilic structures are water soluble, whereas those with hydrophobic structures are fat soluble. Lots of steels liquify in fluid mercury to create amalgams.
A saturated option at an offered temperature level is one that will certainly not dissolve any more solute when the service touches with solid solute. The solubility of a substance at an offered temperature level is the quantity of it called for to generate a saturated solution in a given amount of the solvent at that temperature. Whenever a compound is called soluble or insoluble in a solvent it is considered granted, unless otherwise specified, that the temperature level is about space temperature level. If the strong disappears, the material is certainly soluble. When a bottle of soft drink is opened, bubbles of the liquified gas, carbon dioxide, are seen leaving the liquid. If the soft drink is heated, extra bubbles of the gas leave the fluid because as a whole, gases are much less soluble in warm fluids than in cold fluids.
The degree that a solvent liquifies a given solute is referred to as its solubility. Vinegar is very insoluble in oil, and also the two materials will promptly separate right into two layers also after being drunk well. For instance, a polar solute such as sugar is extremely soluble in polar water, much less soluble in reasonably polar methanol, as well as almost insoluble in non-polar solvents such as benzene. On the other hand, a non-polar solute such as naphthalene is insoluble in water, reasonably soluble in methanol, and also highly soluble in benzene. Solubility is the relative ability of a solute to liquify into a solvent.Several elements influence the solubility of an offered solute in an offered solvent. The same concepts control the solubilities of molecular solids in fluids.
For example, elemental sulfur is a strong consisting of cyclic S8 molecules that have no dipole moment. Due to the fact that the S8 rings in solid sulfur are held to other rings by London dispersion forces, elemental sulfur is insoluble in water. It is, nevertheless, soluble in nonpolar solvents that have equivalent London dispersion forces, such as CS2 (23 g/100 mL).
Since all these solvents consist of particles that have relatively huge dipole minutes, they can engage positively with the liquified ions. When you liquify a soluble chemical in water, you are making an option. In a remedy the chemical you include is called the solute and the liquid that it liquifies into is called the solvent. Whether a compound is soluble or otherwise relies on its physical and chemical residential properties. To be able to liquify, the chemical needs to have the ability to interact with the solvent. Throughout the process of chemical dissolution, the bonds that hold the solute together require to be damaged and brand-new bonds in between the solute and also solvent need to be developed. | https://ewaterpurifier.com/which-molecule-is-most-soluble-in-water/ |
.
Quiz
iOS
Android
More
Define
amphoteric
A compound which contains both acidic and basic functional groups
Define
solubility
• The capacity of two or more substances to form, without chemical reaction, a homogenous molecular dispersion
Define
Acid
A compound which can donate a proton
Define
Base
A compound which can accept a proton
Define
solvent
the liquid componet into which the solute is dissolved
Name one source where chemical information, such as solubility, melting points, etc, can be found.
Merck index or Clark's
isolation and identification of drugs
Name 3 types of extractions.
Dry Extractions
• Liquid-Liquid extractions
• ANOR Extractions
Name 2 of the common solvents used in extractions.
chloroform
diethyl ether
petroleum ether
ethyl acetate
What extraction technique can be used specifically for methamphetamine and amphetamine?
What chemical property makes this extraction work?
Alkaline Diffusion
Takes advantage of the volatile nature of a drug in its base form
Drugs in the basic (ionic) state tend to be __________ in water while their salt forms tend to be __________ in water.
insoluble
soluble
True or False
Sugars are typically soluble in organic solvents.
True
True or False
Tablet binders are typically insoluble in organic sovents.
True
True or False
When determining solubility based on polarity, the general rule that can be applied is "like dissolves like".
True
True or False
Liquid-liquid extractions are the simplest type of extractions.
False
Dry extractions
What is a solute?
The compound that is dissolved in a liquid solvent
True or False
Cocaine base is soluble in petroleum ether, and cocaine HCl is soluble in chloroform.
True
Author:
abbyljones9
ID:
135237
Card Set:
Extractions
Updated:
2012-02-27 01:44:40
Tags:
Drug Analysis
Folders:
Description:
Test #2
Show Answers: | https://www.freezingblue.com/flashcards/print_preview.cgi?cardsetID=135237 |
The solubilities of acetylpyrazine in seven pure solvents and one binary solvent mixture were determined by a dynamic analytic method at temperatures ranging from 268.15 to 308.15 K under atmospheric pressure. For pure solvents, the solubility of acetylpyrazine increases with increasing temperature and solvent polarity. For the binary solvent mixture of ethyl acetate and isopropanol, the solubility increases with increasing temperature and mole fraction of ethyl acetate. The solubility data were correlated with some thermodynamic models, including the modified Apelblat model, λh model, CNIBS/R-K model, and NRTL model. In addition, the relationship between solubility and solvent polarity was investigated by using the Arrhenius equation. All the models or equations gave satisfactory correlation results. The results showed that the solubility of acetylpyrazine generally rises with the increase of solvent polarity at the same temperature. Moreover, the dissolution thermodynamic properties of acetylpyrazine in different solvents were calculated and are discussed based on the NRTL model.
Journal of Solution Chemistry – Springer Journals
Published: May 22, 2018
It’s your single place to instantly
discover and read the research
that matters to you.
Enjoy affordable access to
over 18 million articles from more than
15,000 peer-reviewed journals.
All for just $49/month
Query the DeepDyve database, plus search all of PubMed and Google Scholar seamlessly
Save any article or search result from DeepDyve, PubMed, and Google Scholar... all in one place.
Get unlimited, online access to over 18 million full-text articles from more than 15,000 scientific journals.
Read from thousands of the leading scholarly journals from SpringerNature, Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford University Press and more.
All the latest content is available, no embargo periods.
“Hi guys, I cannot tell you how much I love this resource. Incredible. I really believe you've hit the nail on the head with this site in regards to solving the research-purchase issue.”Daniel C. | https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer_journal/determination-and-correlation-of-the-solubility-of-acetylpyrazine-in-IwNM07Qhjf |
Thanks for your question on solubility. Usually, solubility is expressed in grams of solute per milliliters of solution. Solubility can be expressed in any mass unit per any volume unit where the molar concentrations of the two ions are labeled with square brackets and the constant K sp is the solubility product. •Unit 8 Grammar: Subjunctive Mood; Asyndetic constructions in Subjunctive Mood;construction it is 6. They have found the solubility of this substance and now can investigate its properties better Different substances have different solubilities. This table shows the solubility of substances in water at 20°C. Solubility is shown as the grams of a solute per 100 g of water.Because the molarity of is the same as the overall molarity of Ag 2CO 3 in the solution, call the carbonate concentration x and the silver ion concentration 2 x.
Solubility quizzes about important details and events in every section of the book. Therefore, the primary rule of solubility is that like dissolves like. Only when the solute and solvent molecules have.. Solubility products only apply to sparingly soluble ionic compounds. Each concentration has the unit mol dm-3. So the units for the solubility product in this case will b
. Solubility Product Experiment. Authors: Rachel Casiday and Regina Frey Molecular Basis for Water Solubility and Fat Solubility (e.g., of Vitamins). Polarity of Solvent and.. Troubleshooting in Bile solubility test: Partial clearing (partial solubility) is not considered positive for pneumococcal identification. Partially soluble strains that have optochin zones of inhibition of less..
. As soon as you add any solid, or perhaps just scratch the glass to give a rough bit that crystals can form on, all the excess solid precipitates out to leave a normal saturated solution. If you have barium ions and sulphate ions in solution in the presence of some solid barium sulphate at 298 K, and multiply the concentrations of the ions together, your answer will be 1.1 x 10-10 mol2 dm-6.
T.I.P. = [Ag+][Cl-] = (1.0 x 10-4)(1.0 x 10-5) = 1.0 x 10-9 Becomes 1.0-2x +x +x 1 For this reaction, ΔGo = -139.75 kJ at 25oC What is the value of Kp?
Since [Br-] = x + 0.10 mol/L = 6.9 x 10-7 mol/L + 0.10 mol/L = 0.10000069 mol/L solubility is dependent on temperature. In general, but not without expectations, solubility increases with temperature. smaller particles dissolves faster than larger particles Solubility units always express the maximum amount of solute that will dissolve in either a given amount of solvent, or a given amount of solution, at a specific temperature
Calculating ΔGo From K e.x. 1 The brownish haze associated with air pollution is caused by nitrogen dioxide, NO2, a red-brown gas. Nitric oxide, NO, is oxidized to NO2 by oxygen. Solubility and Solutions Unit. Water as the 'universal solvent'. By: Eric Boehm Dan Wostbrock Rebecca Uduma Rui Gloria. SCE 572. The New Science Framework and what it means For this reaction, ΔHo = -163 kJ and ΔSo = +148 J/k. What is the approximate value for Kp for this reaction at 40oC?
Solubility of solids. If a substance is soluble it will dissolve in a given amount of liquid (called the In general, solids become more soluble as the temperature increases. This is why sugar dissolves.. solubility
It should be highly soluble. The small size of the carbon molecules in MCT oil increases its Make sure you consider the total grams of MCTs per unit by assessing the ratio of MCTs to non-MCTs in.. In order to correctly express units of solubility, it is necessary to understand the terminology used to describe a solution. A solution is made of two parts: the solute and the solvent. The solute is the substance that is being dissolved, while the solvent is the substance that is doing the dissolving. The state of matter of the solvent determines the solution's state of matter. Solubility is a quantitative term defining the maximum amount of solute which gets dissolved into Dissolution and solubility are related to each other, still there is a subtle difference between them solubility 의미, 정의, solubility의 정의: 1. the quality of being able to be dissolved, or the degree to which something can be dissolved. 자세히 알아보기
Factors Affecting Solubility Polar and Non Polar Part 3. Types of Solutions: Solubility and Saturation Part 2 Solubility product constant is just a dressed up equilibrium constant. But by convention, the units for Ksp are usually left off. And this is an unusual case where we tend to just leave the units off, and..
Water solubility is measured in mg/L, the weight of pesticide (in milligrams) that will dissolve in one High water solubility: more than 1,000 mg/L or 1,000 ppm1. 1. Ronald Ney, Fate and Transport of.. It is important to note that solubility always represents a saturated solution -- one that contains the maximum amount of solute that will dissolve in a solvent at a particular temperature or pressure; the solubility of a solute in a solvent is dependent upon the state of both the solute and the solvent. For this reason, solubility is often expressed at a specified temperature and pressure.
The site owner hides the web page description Since 0.10 + 4.8 x 10-12 0.10 our assumption is valid. AgBr is about 100000 times more soluble in pure water than it would be in a 0.10 M NaBr solution. The solubility of a substance is the maximum amount of a solute that can dissolve in a given quantity of solvent; it depends on the chemical nature of both the solute and the solvent and on the If the ionic concentrations give a value more than the solubility product, enough precipitate would be formed to reduce the concentrations to give an answer equal to the solubility product.
References Science Encyclopedia: Solubility - Common Measuring UnitsCity Collegiate: Solubility About the Author Kristen Gonsoir has been writing, coaching and teaching since 1992. Her work has appeared in "The WRANGLER Horse and Rodeo News," Farm Forum and publications of the Interstate Oratorical Association. Gonsoir graduated with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and education from Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D. The unit of solubility is generally in mg/L (milligrams per liter) or ppm (parts per million). Water solubility is one of the most important properties affecting bioavailability and environmental fate of.. If the ionic concentrations give a value less than the solubility product, the solution isn't saturated. No precipitate would be formed.There [I-] = 8.3 x 10-17 = 8.3 x 10-15 mol/L 1.0 x 10-2 If you are asked to calculate a solubility product in an exam, there will almost certainly be a mark for the correct units. It isn't very hard - just take care!
Experimental Solubility: Miscible NIOSH KW2975000. Water Solubility Estimate from Log Kow (WSKOW v1.41): Water Solubility at 25 deg C (mg/L): 1e+006 Therefore Ksp = [Ag+][Br-] 4.8 x 10-13 = (x)(0.10 mol/L) x = 4.9 x 10-12 mol/L Define solubility. solubility synonyms, solubility pronunciation, solubility translation, English dictionary definition of solubility. n. pl. sol·u·bil·i·ties 1. The quality or condition of being soluble Can you get an answer greater than the solubility product if you multiply the ionic concentrations together (allowing for any powers in the solubility product expression, of course)? No!000Login to reply the answersPostHow do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.Sign inJaymeLv 44 years agoFor the best answers, search on this site https://shorturl.im/YuLrT
Solubility is defined as the highest possible concentration. So, the units are the same, A chemist Further variants are made for salts, where instead of the solubility one speaks of the solubility.. Unit Plan. Solubility. Options. Printer Friendly Version. In this unit, students will explore characteristics of different solutions. They will compare solid and gas solutes in liquid solutions under..
Solubility is a property referring to the ability for a given substance, the solute, to dissolve in a solvent. It is measured in terms of the maximum amount of solute dissolved in a solvent at equilibrium -139.75 kJ = -(8.314 J/mol K)(298.2) ln Kp
Solubility product constants are used to describe saturated solutions of ionic compounds of relatively low solubility. A saturated solution is in a state of dynamic equilibrium between the dissolved.. Calculating Equilibrium Constants at Temperatures Other Than 25oC Temperature is the only thing that will change the value of the K constant for a reaction. The relative proportions of reactants and products at equilibrium are determined by ΔGo and the above equation show that we can calculate the value of the equilibrium constant at 25oC from ΔGo. As the temperature moves away from 25oC, the position of the equilibrium also changes because the value of ΔG changes. To indicate ΔG at other than 25oC we use ΔG'. As it happens we use exactly the same equation.
Solids - solubility increases liquids - does not affect solubility gases - solubility decreases. Reveal Correct Response Spacebar. Solutions and Solubility: Unit Review. No teams 1 team 2 teams 3.. So it is possible to get an answer less than the solubility product when you multiply the ionic concentrations together if the solution isn't saturated. SINTEF Ocean. Other units. Other units But it is an equilibrium, and so you can write an equilibrium constant for it which will be constant at a given temperature - like all equilibrium constants.Another way of saying this would be that the Ag+ ions and the Cl- ions can exist together at Equilibrium in the same solution only when their concentrations are low enough so that the product of their concentrations does not exceed the Ksp value.
where β is in units of mL/L, and A# and B# are empirically derived least square fit constants My question is how to relate mL/L solubility to mg/L or mol/L of the specific gas in solution, say of.. Soluble redirects here. For the algebraic object called a soluble group , see Solvable group. Solubility is the property of a solid, liquid, or gaseous chemical substance called solute to dissolve in a solid.. Barium sulphate is almost insoluble in water. It isn't totally insoluble - very, very small amounts do dissolve. That's true of any so-called "insoluble" ionic compound. What if you mixed incredibly dilute solutions containing barium ions and sulphate ions so that the product of the ionic concentrations was less than the solubility product? UNIT 1 - Matter, Chemical Trends and Bonding. 03 - Solubility and Concentration Problems.pdf
It is important to realize that temperature markedly affects the solubility of most substances. For almost all salts, which are solid compounds composed of positive and negative ions (most often composed of both metallic and nonmetallic elements), an increase in temperature leads to an increase in the amount of the salt that will dissolve. Figure 1 shows the solubilities of potassium chloride (KCl) and potassium nitrate (KNO 3) as a function of temperature. Rs = solution gas-oil ratio (SCFstandard cubic feet/STBstock tank barrels) or gas solubility in oil. Vi = initial volume of oil plus liberated gas as a function of pressure measured at reservoir temperature The position of this equilibrium lies very far to the left. The great majority of the barium sulphate is present as solid. In fact, if you shook solid barium sulphate with water you wouldn't be aware just by looking at it that any had dissolved at all.Calculating K from ΔGo e.x. 2 Sulfur dioxide reacts with oxygen when it passes over the catalyst in automobile catalytic converters. The product is SO3. When expressing solubility with units of solution -- that is, after the solute has already been added to the solvent -- it is important to note that the weight of the solution will change as solute is added. Solubility units that incorporate units of solution include grams of solute per 100 grams of solution or grams of solute per liter of solution. Another way to express solubility is in moles of solute per liter of solution; this ratio is called "molarity."
solubility (n.) 1.the property of being dissolublehe measure the dissolubility of sugar in water. 2.the quality of being soluble and easily dissolved in liquid BWR units can operate in load-following mode more readily than PWRs. Chloride salts have advantages in fast-spectrum molten salt reactors, having higher solubility for actinides than fluorides SOLUBILITY RULES 1. Salts of ammonium (NH4+) and Group IA are always soluble. 2. a. All chlorides (Cl-) are soluble except AgCl, Hg2Cl2, and PbCl2 which
UNIT 2. SCHOOL (This is how many moles there are, this is not the concentration) 1 Solubility Unit III Lesson 1. 2 Solubility is the maximum amount of solute that will dissolve in a volume of water. Units: g/L mol/L g/100 mL The unit must have an amount on the top and volume on.. For ionizing substances that are only slightly soluble, the concentrations of the ions multiply to a constant called the solubility product in a saturated solution. For a hypothetical compound CA, where the single cation is denoted by C and the anion by A, the solubility equation is Practice a solubility calculation using silver carbonate (Ag 2CO 3) as the solute. Dissocation of the salt yields three aqueous ions:
Factors Affecting Solubility - Learn about solubility, the solubility of various substances & its importance in chemical reactions and more @Byju's Solubility. Although calcium chloride is highly soluble in water at ordinary temperatures, crystallization will occur Table 3b: Properties for Calcium Chloride Solutions in Metric Units at 25°C. % CaCl2 IUPAC-NIST Solubility Database NIST Standard Reference Database 106. Introduction A database containing solubilities originally published in the IUPAC (International Union for Pure and Applied..
Disclaimer [I-]2 = Ksp = 7.9 x 10-9 [Pb2+] 1.0 x 10-2 The tables give the solubilities of some common gases and the solubility of (solid) naphthalene in In all three solvents, the gas hydrogen (which boils at -252.5° C) is less soluble than nitrogen (which.. Solubility Unit Teacher Guide L1-3. temperature water to the first beaker and ask the students to Solubility Unit Teacher Guide L1-3. directed to compare their extrapolations that were performed.. what is the unit in grams? Answer. 3 years ago. Units Of Solubility
There are several units in which solubility can be expressed using units of solvent. When water is the solvent, solubility can be expressed in relative volume, commonly as grams of solute per 100 grams of solvent. If water is the solvent, for example, this is expressed as grams of solute per 100 grams of water. If the solute is a gas, the solubility may be expressed in grams of gaseous solute per one kilogram (or, alternately, one liter) of water. This expression of solubility considers the mass of the solvent before the solute is added. These equations are valuable because they allow us to relate ΔGo to K (sometimes called the thermodynamic equilibrium constant) quantitatively. There is one complicating factor. For reaction involving gases, the K that is calculated is Kp with partial pressures expressing in atmospheres. For reactions involving liquid solution, the calculated K is Kc. Table 2 gives the solubility products for some important compounds that are sparingly soluble. The values are for 25°C, and each of them will vary with temperature. Open access peer-reviewed chapter. Solubility of Chitin: Solvents, Solution Behaviors and Their Related Mechanisms. By Jagadish C. Roy, Fabien Salaün, Stéphane Giraud, Ada Ferri Start studying Solubility Unit. Learn vocabulary, terms and more with flashcards, games and other study tools
The solubility of a chemical substance is a physical property referring to the ability of that substance, called the solute, to dissolve in a solvent. It has been called one of the characteristic properties of a substance, meaning that it is commonly used to describe the substance, to indicate its polarity.. If this problem persists please contact customer support Petroleum Testing Equipment. Click here to view our complete line of Laboratory Instrumentation. Combination Octane Rating Unit Engine. Click here for more information Ag | AgCl(s) | Cl-1 (1 M) || Ag+1 (1 M) | Ag(s)
INTRODUCTION: Solubility : Solubility is defined as the number of milliliters of solvent in which 1 Descriptive term Approximate volume of solvent in milliliters per gram of solute very soluble less than.. Calculating the solubility of copper(II) hydroxide from Ksp using an ICE table.Created by Jay. So if we wanna go to solubility in grams per liter, let's look at our units and see what we'd have to do Each concentration has the unit mol dm-3. So the units for the solubility product in this case will be:
In fuel cell power generators, a steam reformer unit typically produces the hydrogen needed for the cell stack. This example illustrates the modeling of a steam reformer solubility - Traduzione del vocabolo e dei suoi composti, e discussioni del forum. The geologist tested the mineral's hardness and solubility. Il geologo ha testato la durezza del minerale e la sua.. Solubility is defined in terms of the maximum mass of a solute that dissolves in 100g of solvent. For example, the solubility of sodium chloride (NaCl) in water at 25⁰C is about 36g per 100g of water Aqueous solubility calculation: ALOGpS was developed using 1291 molecules and provided improved aqueous solubility prediction (rms=0.49, s=0.38) compared to our previous analysis . The..
The definition of solubility is the maximum quantity of solute that can dissolve in a certain quantity of solvent or quantity of solution at a specified temperature or pressure (in the case of gaseous solutes) Unit/10 Bundle 1: Pioneers of Design. Sold Out This page looks at how solubility products are defined, together with their units. It also explores the relationship between the solubility product of an ionic compound and its solubility.
Mutual solubility is a limiting factor for the identification of solvents for microextraction techniques where the In many cases, mutual solubility decreases in the presence of salts (salting-out effect) Solubility and Complex-Ion Equilibria. Discussions of solubility equilibria are based on the following assumption: When solids dissolve in water, they dissociate to give the elementary particles from which.. Rental Units. Troubleshooting. Plant Inspection & Process Optimalisation. The warmer water decreases the solubility of oxygen in the water and it also causes water organisms to breathe faster Business Units. Find the biofunctional products that meet your specific needs by market segment, origin, cosmetic activity, technology, solubility etc. using our new tool Note: The simplest explanation for this is that the concentration of a solid can be thought of as a constant. Rather than have an expression with two constants in it (the equilibrium constant and the concentration of the solid), the constants are merged to give a single value - the solubility product.
This unit does not deal with substances that dissolve readily in water or other solvents. Some of these questions are: 1) How can the approximate solubility of a precipitate be calculated Solubility Of Gases. Gases are defined as the substance that can expand freely and fills the space The law states that solubility of the gas is directly proportional to the surface pressure of the gas in..
The Ksp value for AgCl is 1.8 x 10-10. This shows that the [Ag+] and [Cl-] are very low in a saturated solution of AgCl. Equilibrium is established before a significant amount of AgCl dissolves. The units for solubility products differ depending on the solubility product expression, and you need to be able to work them out each time. Removing #book# from your Reading List will also remove any bookmarked pages associated with this title. Custom Pack. -Unit- mg. Bioorganic Medicinal Chemistry Letters 22:2705-2707. Solubility. Stability. Further Information Solubility: They are soluble in water, slightly soluble in alcohol and dissolve with difficulty in methanol, ethanol, and propanol. R-group of amino acids and pH of the solvent play important role in solubility
Solubility definition is - the quality or state of being soluble. Recent Examples on the Web Then, as the elements mix, solubility and chemical reactions come into play Appendix C: Units and Conversion Factors. Appendix D: Fundamental Physical Constants. Appendix J: Solubility Products
e.x. The decomposition of nitrous oxide, N2O, has Kp = 1.8 X 1036 at 25oC. The equation is: The unit of y is not clear from the table, maybe it is specified in the text. Probably y is a mole fraction The solubility of a solid solute in the scientific papers is usually presented in terms of mole fraction.. ..of Solubility: g/L Units of Molar solubility: mole/L Some salts are very soluble (> 0.1 M). Recall solubility rules. Some salts are sparingly soluble (< 0.1 M) sometimes referred to as 'insoluble' Solubility and dissolution. Learning objectives. Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able Solubility and dissolution are different concepts, but are related. Solubility is the capacity of a solute.. Solubility - PowerPoint PPT Presentation. To view this presentation, you'll need to allow Flash. Precipitation reactions. AgNO3(aq) NaCl(aq) AgCl(s) NaNO3(aq) formula unit equation counterion.. if you shook some solid barium sulphate with water, a tiny proportion of the barium ions and sulphate ions would break away from the surface of the solid and go into solution. Over time, some of these will return from solution to stick onto the solid again. | https://kind-they-see.com/48-15093yy8n/solubility-unit.html |
Solute and Solvents Examples
Solute and Solvents are the two major components of a solution. A solution always contains less of the solute than it does of the solvent. When a solution is prepared, the solute will disperse evenly in the solvent, which is usually water. A typical example of a solute is salt. The solvent is always water. Adding salt to water will form a sodium chloride solution and vice versa.
Solvents
Solvents are chemical substances used to dissolve different types of molecules. They come in many different forms and can be classified based on their dielectric constant. Water has a dipole moment of 1.85D, making it a universal solvent. Water disrupts molecules to form solutions and is an essential part of organisms at the cellular level. Organic solvents include toluene, acetone, methyl acetate, petrol ether, and citrus terpenes.
Some examples of solvents are water, ethanol, acetone, and chloroform. These substances can also be solids, gases, and milk. They can dissolve multiple solutes in one medium. Oxygenated solvents have a high purity level, while halogenated solvents have a low pH. Both types of solvents are essential for chemical reactions. These two types of solvents can be used to dissolve different types of molecules.
Switchable solvents are useful in chemical processes because they can switch their physicochemical properties if the gas CO2 is added or removed. These switchable solvents can be brought back to their original state after use, which helps reduce energy use and the use of hazardous materials. To create switchable solvents, researchers will have to discover a new solvent, quantify its properties, and develop a process that takes advantage of its uniqueness.
A liquid solvent is a chemical substance that dissolves another substance. However, they can also be solid, gas, or supercritical fluid. The solute’s solubility depends on the solvent’s temperature, pressure, and other substances in the sample. For example, table salt becomes more soluble in hot water than in cold water. The same goes for a solid solvent. The term “solvent” is derived from the Latin word solve, which means “to dissolve”.
While most solvents are flammable and highly volatile, there are exceptions. Some solvents can be dangerous if exposed to high levels of them. They may cause liver cancer, kidney failure, and malignant lymphoma. Some people also experience headaches, dizziness, and nerve damage on their faces. Therefore, it is essential for the individual to practice safe handling and storage. A good way to prevent solvent-induced encephalopathy is to use protective gear and use caution while working with these chemicals.
Solutes
Water is a universal solvent. Many substances dissolve in it, including salt. Water’s polarity makes it an excellent solvent for a variety of reactions. A few examples of common solutions are oil and seawater. Water can dissolve both solid and liquid substances, so the difference between a solute and a solvent is important in chemistry. However, some liquids are better solvents than others. If you’re unsure of whether a liquid is a solvent, try self-check questions.
Solutes and Solvents interact with each other in a solution. In a solution, the solute is always a smaller amount than the solvent. Both the solvent and the solute have different boiling points and physical states. The solvent is generally a liquid while the solute is solid. Depending on its properties, a solvent can either be liquid or solid. Therefore, you must understand the properties of each to fully understand what happens in a solution.
Solvents can be divided into polar and non-polar. Non-polar solvents contain less than 20% water. Halogenated solvents are non-polar but still contain hydrogen atoms. Alcohols, water, and acetone are all examples of non-polar solvents. Water and salt are both solutes. These chemicals can dissolve each other in water and salt solutions. Solutes and Solvents examples are a helpful way to understand how chemicals interact with one another.
A simple example of a solution and a solute is bronze. This metal is mostly copper, but tin is also present. Copper and tin form a solid solution at room temperature. The properties of a solvent are important to its ability to dissolve different types of compounds. A saltwater solution, for instance, is composed of a solid salt dissolved in liquid water. Solid salt dissolved in water is a saltwater solution, and the same goes for non-polar solvents.
Insoluble substances, on the other hand, can dissolve very poorly into a solvent. They rarely, if ever, completely dissolve. They tend to be dissolved, but only to a small extent. A solute is insoluble if it only dissolves about 0.1 g of its solvent. However, a solid-gas solution is nearly impossible, as the composition of the solid is uniform. In general, liquids are more soluble than solids.
Surface area
The total surface area of solute and solvent examples can be compared to determine how much volume is removed. The surface area shows a similar trend to the rate of diffusive mass removal, as the more particles the solvent contains, the faster it will dissolve them. This is also related to the volume of the solvent and the material properties of the solute. As the volume of the solvent decreases, the surface area of the solute decreases, as does the particle size.
A solution is a mixture of a solute and a solvent. The solute and solvent can exist in different states; most are liquid and some are gaseous. The solution is almost always in one of these states, solubility is a direct result of the difference in the solute’s boiling point. The properties of the solvent and solute determine the degree of solubility. Solubility is the ability of a solute to dissolve in a liquid.
Another way to measure the surface area of a solution is to compare the size of a solute and its solvent. Smaller particles have a greater surface area than larger pieces, and the solute will dissolve more rapidly in water than a large chunk of the substance. A packet of granulated sugar will dissolve in a solution faster than a cube of sugar because it has more surface area.
Solvability is the ability of a solute to dissolve in a solvent. The solute and solvent concentration interact with each other. When the concentration reaches a maximum, it is referred to as saturation. This occurs when the solute and solvent interact in such a way that the solute and solvent molecules are attracted to each other. This attraction is what stabilizes the solute in the solution.
The surface area of a solid and a liquid is similar. Solutes are usually liquids, while solids may be gases or vapors. Their boiling point and surface area are similar. A small amount of liquid will dissolve a small amount of solid. The amount of solute dissolved in a solution depends on the temperature of the medium. Solutes can interact directly with each other so that their surface area is similar.
Precipitation reactions
Precipitation reactions involve dissociation and rebonding of dissolved substances. Precipitation reactions occur when ions or other dissolved compounds dissolve in a solvent. Special forms of precipitation equations are used for various situations. In general, the concentration of the reactants is a key factor in precipitation. Usually, precipitation occurs when the concentration of ions is above a certain threshold.
The precipitation reaction can be designed and analyzed. The concentration of the reactant and the solute play an important role in precipitation. The reaction products are often insoluble. Moreover, the ionic reactants must produce an insoluble product. When these processes are controlled, they can be used to identify unknown solutions and prepare compounds for further use. Detailed reaction models are available for many applications.
In many cases, dissolving and precipitation occur simultaneously. When a solution is made with a solid solute, some molecules or ions leave and others bump into the solid. The overall effect of precipitation and dissolution depends on their rates. If precipitation is faster than dissolution, the solid is removed in a short time. This is called a supersaturated solution.
One of the most commonly used types of a chemical reaction is precipitation. When two solutions of the same kind mix, they form a new insoluble substance called a precipitate. This precipitate can remain suspended in the solution or fall out on its own. The precipitate can be separated from the liquid through centrifugation, decantation, or filtration. The remaining liquid is called supernate.
The solubility of ionic compounds depends on how much they dissolve in a particular solvent. In most cases, increasing amounts of a given substance are soluble in a certain solvent. A saturated solution is formed when no more can dissolve. Thus, the relative solubility of ionic compounds is difficult to predict because of many factors. The relative solubility of two substances is a key factor in the formation of precipitates.
A solute in a solution can precipitate into another compound by breaking the bonds between the two. The heat energy released from the solvent is absorbed into the system. Moreover, the increased temperature causes the solute to become more solubilized. Ultimately, this increases the concentration of the solute. However, this is not a complete description of precipitation reactions. The reaction has a more complex mechanism. | https://abroadlearners.com/solute-and-solvents-examples/ |
The maximum amount of solute that deserve to disresolve in a known quantity of solvent at a particular temperature is its solubility.
You are watching: Which compound is most soluble in water
A solution is a homogeneous mixture of one or more solutes in a solvent. Sugar cubes included to a cup of tea or coffee is a prevalent instance of a solution. The building which helps sugar molecules to dissettle is known as solubility. Hence, the term solubility have the right to be characterized as a building of a substance (solute) to dissolve in a given solvent. A solute is any kind of constituent which have the right to be either solid or liquid or gas liquified in a solvent.
Solubility Product
The term solubility product is primarily applicable for frugally soluble salts. It is the maximum product of the molar concentration of the ions (raised to their correct powers) which are developed because of dissociation of the compound.
At a offered temperature the solubility product is continuous. Lesser the worth of solubility product suggests reduced solubility and greater value of solubility product indicates higher solubility.
Solubility Definition
Solubility is a building referring to the capability for a provided substance, the solute, to disdeal with in a solvent.It is restrained in regards to the maximum amount of solute liquified in a solvent at balance. The resulting solution is referred to as a saturated solution. Certain substances are soluble in all proparts via a offered solvent, such as ethanol in water. This property is well-known as miscibility.Under numerous conditions, the balance solubility deserve to be surpassed to give a so-called supersaturated solution, which is metastable.The solvent is commonly a solid, which deserve to be a clean substance or a mixture.
Solubility of Gases In Liquids
Gas solubility in liquids entails the principle of gas disfixing in a solvent. Let us first specify solubility. For any kind of substance, solubility is the maximum amount of solute that have the right to be liquified in a provided solvent at a certain temperature. Now our issue is gas solubility in liquids. The gas solubility in liquids is significantly affected by temperature and pressure and also also by the nature of the solute and the solvent.
(picture will be uploaded soon)
There are many gases that readily disresolve in water, while tright here are gases that do not disfix in water under normal conditions. Oxygen is simply sparingly soluble in water whereas HCl or ammonia conveniently dissolves in water.
Other Types of Solubility
Solubility of Liquids In Liquids
Water is recognized as a universal solvent as it dissolves nearly eexceptionally solute except for a few. A few components have the right to affect the solubility of a substance.
Solubility is the brand-new bond development amongst the solute molecules and also solvent molecules. In terms of amount, solubility is the maximum concentration of solute that dissolves in a recognized concentration of solvent at a given temperature. Based on the concentration of solute dissolves in a solvent, solutes are categorized into very soluble, sparingly soluble or insoluble. If a concentration of 0.1 g or more of a solute can be dissolved in a 100ml solvent, it is sassist to be soluble. While a concentration listed below 0.1 g is dissolved in the solvent is well-known to be sparingly soluble. Thus, it is well-known that solubility is a quantitative expression and also articulated by the unit gram/litre (g/L).
Based on solubility, various forms of solution have the right to be obtained. A saturated solution is a solution wright here a given amount of solute is completely soluble in a solvent at a provided temperature. On the other hand, a supersaturated solution is those where solute starts salting out or precipitates after a certain concentration is liquified at the same temperature.
Factors Affecting Solubility:
The solubility of a substance hinges on the physical and chemical properties of that aspect. In addition to this, tright here are a few problems which have the right to manipulate it. Temperature, push and the kind of bond and pressures in in between the pposts are a couple of among them.
Effect of Temperature on Solubility:
By changing the temperature we ca rise the soluble property of a solute. Usually, water dissolves solutes at 20° C or 100° C. Sparingly soluble solid or liquid substances have the right to be liquified totally by increasing the temperature. But in the instance of gaseous substance, temperature inversely impacts solubility i.e. as the temperature increases gases expand also and escape from their solvent.
Forces and Bonds:
Like dissolves in favor. The form of intermolecular pressures and also bonds differ among each molecule. The chances of solubility in between two dissimilar aspects are even more challengeable than the like substances. For instance, water is a polar solvent where a polar solute like ethanol is easily soluble.
Pressure:
Gaseous substances are a lot more affected than solids and also liquids by push. When the partial press of gas rises, the possibility of its solubility is additionally hiked. A soda bottle is an instance of wbelow CO2 is bottled under high push.
See more: ️ Why Is It Important For Element Ids To Have Meaningful Names?
Solubility of Solids In Liquids
It has actually been observed that solid solubility relies on the nature of the solute and the solvent. We commonly check out that substances choose sugar, widespread salt (NaCl), etc quickly dissolve in water while substances favor naphthalene execute not disfix in water. | https://couchsurfingcook.com/which-compound-is-most-soluble-in-water/ |
Diethyl ether has a very low dielectric constant (4.33), it’s dipolar moment is 1.3 it’s slightly polaire . So it is considered as non polar solvent.
Is petroleum ether polar or nonpolar?
Petroleum ether is a volatile clear colorless liquid, with a characteristic smell of alkanes. Being a non-polar liquid, it is immiscible with water, but miscible with many other solvents, such as acetone or ethanol.
Is petroleum ether soluble in water?
Petroleum ether mixtures are insoluble in water and hydrolysis is not expected to be significant. Based on water solubility and estimated bioconcentration factors, potential for bioconcentration in aquatic organisms is low to moderate.
Is petroleum ether acetone polar?
Petroleum Ether Acetone, the solvent used in the lab, was organic and 92% non polar and 8% polar.
Is dry ether polar?
Ethers are essentially non-polar and insoluble in water. Diethyl ether is a bent molecule, so there is a small dipole across the oxygen to the diethyl side. This must help with the dissolving of slightly polar molecules, where the poles can interact, or with non-polar solutes where a small polarity can be induced.
What is the most polar solvent?
Key
|Solvent||Snyder Polarity||ε|
|Water||9.0||80.10|
|Methanol||6.6||33.0|
|Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO)||6.5||47.24|
|Dimethylformamide||6.4||38.25|
What is polar and non polar solvent?
Polar solvents have large dipole moments (“partial charges”); they contain bonds between atoms with very different electronegativities, such as oxygen and hydrogen. Non polar solvents contain bonds between atoms with similar electronegativities, such as carbon and hydrogen (think hydrocarbons, such as gasoline).
How is petroleum ether used?
Petroleum ether, also known as benzine, is primarily used as a solvent or glue remover. It is a light hydrocarbon of the pentane family, and a natural byproduct of the gasoline refining process. The substance is highly volatile and flammable, and must be handled with care.
Is petroleum ether toxic?
Acute Toxicity:
Harmful when inhaled in high concentrations or ingested. Petroleum ether may cause dizziness and drowsiness if inhaled, and high concentrations may result in central nervous system depression, and loss of consciousness.
Is acetone more polar than ethanol?
It is true that acetone is less polar than ethanol.
Is acetone polar or nonpolar?
Acetone is a polar molecule because it has a polar bond, and the molecular structure does not cause the dipole to be canceled.
Why are ethers non polar?
Ethers are rather nonpolar due to the presence of an alkyl group on either side of the central oxygen. … The two lone pairs of electrons present on the oxygen atoms make it possible for ethers to form hydrogen bonds with water.
How can you tell if a protic solvent is polar?
Polar protic solvents are water, ethanol, methanol, ammonia, acetic acid, and others. Polar aprotic solvents contain no hydrogen atoms connected directly to an electronegative atom, and they are not capable of hydrogen bonding. These are acetone, dimethyl sulfoxide, DMF etc. | https://nipexnig.com/technologies/question-is-petroleum-ether-polar-or-non-polar.html |
DEFINITION OF SOLUBILITY
The solubility of a substance is the amount of that substance that will dissolve in a given amount of solvent.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOLUTE AND SOLVENT
- SOLUTE – the substance to be dissolved
- SOLVENT – the liquid for dissolving the substance
For a fizzy or soft drink, CARBON DIOXIDE is the SOLUTE and the SWEET SYRUP is the SOLVENT.
Isn’t that interesting!
HOW TO CLASSIFY A SUBSTANCE AS SOLUBLE
If you can dissolve more than 0.1g of a substance in 100ml of water, you can call that substance soluble.
SOLUBILITY AND THE PERIODIC TABLEYou can find an interesting website showing a table of solubilities in the periodic table .
A SOLUBILITY CHART
- Every chemical substance which dissolves in water has a fixed solubility.
- If it does not dissolve – its solubility is zero.
- Solubility charts can be used for identifying unknown substance.
- Let say you are given some substance but you don’t know what it is. If you conduct a solubility experiment, you may be able to find out how much can be dissolved under a given temperature and pressure. You can compare your results with existing solubility charts of known elements and hence determine your unknown substance.
Saturated solution means no more solute can be dissolved. It has reached the maximum.
WHAT IS SOLVATION? | https://surfguppy.com/solutions/solubility/ |
To assess solvent resistance, first consider solvents spread out on a polarity scale. Non-polar solvents are at one end, such as paraffin, petrol and diesel. At the other ‘highly polar’ end we find alcohols and water. In between are moderately polar solvents such as acetone, esters and chlorinated solvents. On the same polarity scale we can place the families of thermoplastics. Polyethylene and polystyrene are at the non-polar end, polyamides at the highly polar end. PVC, acrylics and polyesters are somewhere in between in the ’moderately polar’ region.
Where an amorphous thermoplastics and a solvent match up on the scale, we can expect total solubility, given a bit of time and heat to get the polymer to eventually dissolve. However, semi-crystalline thermoplastics will not dissolve at ambient temperatures although the amorphous regions would mop up the matching solvent and cause swelling. If a thermoplastic and solvent mismatch significantly on the scale then there would be little or no interaction, regardless of whether it is amorphous or semi-crystalline.
This explains why styrene polymers are seriously affected by hydrocarbon solvents. In contrast, polypropylene and polyethylene, being semi-crystalline, show much better resistance at ambient temperatures. The polarity scale also explains why PVC is credited with ‘good chemical resistance’. Although PVC, a moderately polar, amorphous thermoplastic, can be attacked and dissolved in moderately polar solvents such as tetrahydrofuran, it is resistant to the solvents at either end of the polarity scale — oil, fuel and water, which of course are the more generally encountered every day chemicals. | https://www.hardiepolymers.com/knowledge/is-solvent-resistance-predictable/ |
.
Commonly called the “Tampa Conference,” 2020 will mark the 33
rd
year where more than 700 researchers, evaluators, policy makers, administrators, service providers, parents, youth and advocates gather to share cutting-edge research and innovative models and approaches to address behavioral health issues for children, adolescents and adults.
The Movember Foundation and the University of South Florida are sponsoring the
Innovative Initiatives on Improving Men and Boys Mental Health and Wellbeing
track. This track will
focus on prevention and effective interventions
aimed at addressing the behavioral health needs of men and boys. Of particular interest are proposals that present research or evaluation that:
Highlight
innovative programs, partnerships or policy initiatives
that focus on men and boys of color, or other marginalized or at risk male populations.
Consider the
interplay of socio-ecological factors
that affect the behavioral health of men and boys.
Focus on policy, community, interpersonal or individual level factors
affecting male mental wellbeing, including the role of masculinity and gendered norms.
Presents research and evaluation approaches/metrics assessing the impact of the factors above
, as well as approaches and metrics assessing the outcome of male centered programs.
Call for Proposals Online Submission
Submission portal opens August 2, 2019 and closes October 11, 2019.
Please share with colleagues!
The Making Connections Evaluation emphasizes
theory-driven evaluation
,
which promotes development of shared vision, clear linking of strategies to intended outcomes, and a commitment to using data to inform decision making at all stages and levels of implementation.
Copyright © 2019 University of South Florida, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you are part of the Making Connections Initiative. | https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Evaluation-Connections.html?soid=1103816580844&aid=DBWh_FrOBIU |
In our everyday lives, we often hear, read or talk about mental health. But what is it that the term actually means? According to the World Health Organization , mental health is not just the absence of mental disorder and is defined as a state of well-being. Being mentally healthy means that you engage in productive activities that help you grow and develop. It means you have fulfilling relationships that make you feel happier, stronger and supported. And most importantly, being mentally healthy means you have the ability to adapt and cope with adversity or stress when it happens.
Although many people the world over are living contented lives in a positive state of mental health, mental disorders are commonly occurring and often seriously impairing a significant proportion of the world’s population.
Bipolar disorder, also called manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. It is associated with mood swings that range from the highs of mania on one extreme, to the lows of depression on the other. According to the National Institute of Mental Health , bipolar disorder often develops in a person's late teens or early adult years, with at least half of all cases starting before age 25.
A person with bipolar suffers from bipolar episodes characterised by states of mania and depression, which can occur in distinct episodes or can switch rapidly, even multiple times in one week. A person who is experiencing a severe bipolar episode may also have psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations or delusions.
The exact cause of bipolar is unknown, but experts do believe that genetics play a part as bipolar disorder tends to run in families. People with bipolar disorder also seem to have physical differences in brain structure. The significance of these differences is still uncertain but may eventually help pinpoint causes. In addition, there is growing evidence that environmental factors such as stress, abuse or drug use affect the severity of the disorder.
The first step in getting a proper diagnosis is to talk to your doctor, who may conduct a physical examination, an interview and lab tests. Bipolar disorder cannot currently be identified through a blood test or a brain scan, but these tests can help rule out other conditions that may be causing your symptoms. Your doctor may then choose to conduct a comprehensive mental health evaluation, or provide a referral to a trained mental health professional to carry out the evaluation.
Bipolar disorder has no cure, but proper treatment helps most people with the disorder to gain better control of their mood swings and related symptoms. Because bipolar disorder is a lifelong and recurrent illness, people with the disorder need long-term treatment to maintain control of their symptoms. An effective treatment plan usually includes medication and psychotherapy for preventing relapse and reducing the severity of symptoms. | https://www.enritsch.com/health/mental-health/bipolar-disorder |
This project will examine the relationship between stress, stressful life experiences, and COVID-19. Stress is a risk factor for many illnesses, including infectious diseases such as viruses. Stress can increase both the likelihood of developing an illness and the severity of symptoms. Preliminary research suggests that childhood trauma, a stressful life experience, increases the likelihood of developing "long COVID", a COVID infection with symptoms lasting 3+ months. In our research, we will determine if stress and stressful life experiences are significant risk factors for severe COVID illness.
To conduct our research, we will look at patients with positive COVID-19 diagnoses and examine medical records to determine symptoms. We will look at a variety of metrics related to mental health, including current stress levels and recent stressful experiences, as well as stressful experiences that happened in childhood. We will also consider medical diagnoses, such as diabetes, and sociodemographic factors, such as age, as potential confounding variables. We will use multiple measurements to determine severity of COVID illness: severity of symptoms, total number of symptoms, and duration of symptoms. Using this data, we will investigate if more severe illness correlates with stress and stressful life experiences.
As the data is already collected, we aim to complete our analyses within the span of approximately 18 months. Regardless of our findings, this study will have a positive impact on public health. If we determine that stress and stressful life experiences are risk factors for severe illness, this will help treatment and prevention at multiple levels. Individuals will be able to more accurately assess their own risk and make informed decisions regarding their health and safety. Doctors will be able to better predict if their patients will develop severe illness, and create treatment plans accordingly. Public health institutions will be able to target at-risk populations for testing and prevention efforts. If we determine that stress and stressful life experiences are not risk factors for severe illness, future researchers can focus on investigating other potential risk factors. | https://www.ukbiobank.ac.uk/enable-your-research/approved-research/associations-between-covid-19-symptoms-stressful-life-experiences |
Anxiety And How It Affects Society
These are just a few of the ways unresolved anxiety affects our society.
Those who have an anxiety condition:
- Often feel out of control of their health and life
- Experience higher levels of overall stress
- Often struggle with low self-esteem
- Feel nervous in many social situations
- Have difficulty managing pressure
- Feel disconnected or detached from reality and life
- Often feel they are just on the edge of losing control
- Often arent reliable
- Become inward focused and dwell on their health condition and personal problems
- May jump from relationship to relationship in search of perfection
- May jump from job to job because of higher levels of stress
- Live a restricted lifestyle
- Feel life is passing them by
- Question their faith and Gods presence in their lives
- Feel at a distance from God
In addition to anxiety disorder impairment, those who seek help may encounter real and perceived barriers to help:
- the individual or medical professional may not recognize the symptoms
- symptoms may interfere with the persons ability to seek help
- specialized help may not be available in their area
- long waiting lists limit access to professional help
- the individual has insufficient medical insurance coverage
- they may believe there is a stigma attached to mental illness and wish to avoid any association with it
- they may be avoiding the perceived appearance of weakness
- they may be in denial
With the right help and healing, those who have experienced an anxiety condition can:
Disease Burden Of Mental Health And Substance Use Disorders
Health impacts are often measured in terms of total numbers of deaths, but a focus on mortality means that the burden of mental health disorders can be underestimated.2 Measuring the health impact by mortality alone fails to capture the impact that mental health disorders have on an individuals wellbeing. The disease burden measured in Disability-Adjusted Life Years considers not only the mortality associated with a disorder, but also years lived with disability or health burden. The map shows DALYs as a share of total disease burden mental and substance use disorders account for around 5 percent of global disease burden in 2017, but this reaches up to 10 percent in several countries. These disorders have the highest contribution to overall health burden in Australia, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
In 2017, an estimated 264 million people in the world experienced depression. A breakdown of the number of people with depression by world region can be seen here and a country by country view on a world map is here.In all countries the median estimate for the prevalence of depression is higher for women than for men.
DALYs from depression
The chart found here shows the health burden of depression as measured in Disability Adjusted Life Years per 100,000. A time-series perspective on DALYs by age is here.
Types Of Anxiety Disorders: By The Numbers
Research has revealed the prevalence rates of the various types of anxiety disorders, including:
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Generalized anxiety disorder statistics show that this condition affects 2.7 percent of the population, with 3.4 percent of females and 1.9 percent of males being affected.
- Panic Disorder: Panic disorder statistics reveal that the prevalence of this condition is 2.7 percent, with 3.8 percent of females and 1.6 percent of males being affected.
- Social Anxiety Disorder: According to social anxiety disorder statistics, this condition impacts 7.1 percent of the population, 8 percent of women and 6.1 percent of men.
- Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder : OCD statistics show a prevalence rate of 1.2 percent for OCD. The condition affects 1.8 percent of women and only 0.5 percent of men.
- Phobias: Specific phobias are the most common anxiety disorders, impacting 9.1 percent of the population. According to phobia statistics, rates vary based on gender, with 12.2 percent of women and 5.8 percent of men being affected.
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder : PTSD facts and statistics show that this condition occurs in 3.6 percent of the population or 5.2 percent of women and 1.8 percent of men.
Recommended Reading: Can I Get Ssi If I Have Depression And Anxiety
Lifetime Prevalence Of Social Anxiety Disorder Among Adolescents
- Based on diagnostic interview data from National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement , Figure 3 shows lifetime prevalence of social anxiety disorder among U.S. adolescents aged 13-18.4
- An estimated 9.1% of adolescents had social anxiety disorder, and an estimated 1.3% had severe impairment. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria were used to determine impairment.
- The prevalence of social anxiety disorder among adolescents was higher for females than for males .
Figure 3
|Demographic|
Anxiety Statistics By Education Levels
- Americans with higher education are less likely to have an anxiety disorder. Anxiety affects 3.9 million adults who have less than a high school education, 3.3 million who have graduated high school, 2.8 million with some college, and 3 million who had a college education or more.
- One Canadian study found that for each additional level of education, people were 15% more likely to see a psychiatrist.
- Anxiety is the highest concern for counseling services in college. Of the college students receiving counseling services, 41.6% are seen for anxiety.
Also Check: How Anxiety Affects The Body
Is Anxiety On The Rise
Some researchers suggest that anxiety disorders are not necessarily increasing, but people are more open about their anxiety and actively seeking treatment. Years ago, mental health disorders and anxiety were taboo topics, but now anxiety has become a constant topic of discussion. Were rates of anxiety mostly underreported in the past?5 Even if this is the case, anxiety is certainly a topic that should be at the forefront of our conversations. With 6.8 million Americans currently struggling with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, 6 million Americans with Panic Disorder, 15 million Americans with Social Anxiety Disorder, and 19 million Americans with Specific Phobia Disorder, anxiety is not going away any time soon.1
If you suffer from anxiety or another mental health disorder, you are not alone. Anxiety is so common and often linked to co-occurring disorders. Whether you or someone you love is looking for a mental health program, or specifically foranxiety treatment in Boca, we can help. We also provide co-occurring disorder treatment in Boca.
Seek immediate help by calling. Our mental health facility can provide you with more information on how we may be able to improve your mental health and treat your anxiety.
The State Of Mental Health In America
In the above links you will find a Collection of Data across all 50 states and the District of Columbia answering the following questions:
- How many adults and youth have mental health issues?
- How many adults and youth have substance use issues?
- How many adults and youth have access to insurance?
- How many adults and youth have access to adequate insurance?
- How many adults and youth have access to mental health care?
- Which states have higher barriers to accessing mental health care?
Our Goal:
- To provide a snapshot of mental health status among youth and adults for policy and program planning, analysis, and evaluation
- To track changes in prevalence of mental health issues and access to mental health care
- To understand how changes in national data reflect the impact of legislation and policies and.
- To increase dialogue and improve outcomes for individuals and families with mental health needs
Why Gather this Information?
- Using national survey data allows us to measure a communitys mental health needs, access to care, and outcomes regardless of the differences between the states and their varied mental health policies.
- Rankings explore which states are more effective at addressing issues related to mental health and substance use.
- Analysis may reveal similarities and differences among states in order to begin assessing how federal and state mental health policies result in more or less access to care.
Read Also: How To Manage Anxiety At Work
Deaths From Mental Health And Substance Use Disorders
The direct death toll from mental health and substance use disorders is typically low. In this entry, the only direct death estimates result from eating disorders, which occur through malnutrition and related health complications. Direct deaths can also result from alcohol and substance use disorders these are covered in our entry on Substance Use.
However, mental health disorders are also attributed to significant number of indirect deaths through suicide and self-harm. Suicide deaths are strongly linked although not always attributed to mental health disorders. We discuss the evidence of this link between mental health and suicide in detail later in this entry.
In high-income countries, meta-analyses suggest that up to 90 percent of suicide deaths result from underlying mental and substance use disorders. However, in middle to lower-income countries there is evidence that this figure is notably lower. A study by Ferrari et al. attempted to determine the share disease burden from suicide which could be attributed to mental health or substance use disorders.1
As a result, direct attribution of suicide deaths to mental health disorders is difficult. Nonetheless, its estimated that a large share of suicide deaths link back to mental health. Studies suggest that for an individual with depression the risk of suicide is around 20 times higher than an individual without.
You Stress Out About Losing Control
Again, anxiety is all about fearing a loss of control, which is why many sufferers go out of their way to prepare. That can develop counterproductive behaviors, like obsessive over-preparing or guardedness,Dr. Seda Gragossian, clinical director at Talk Therapy Psychology, tells Bustle. This is commonly seen in people with social anxieties who will avoid putting themselves entirely in situations where they have no control of an outcome.
Also Check: How Do You Know If You Have An Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety Disorder Statistics By Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity
Statistics around sexual orientation and mental health are difficult to quantify, but the studies that have been conducted point to mental health disparities among some, but not all, sexual minority groups. Researchers emphasized the importance of including multiple measures of sexual orientation in population-based health studies.
One study found that mental health outcomes differed by sex, dimension of sexual orientation, and sexual minority group. Whereas a lesbian, gay, or bisexual identity was associated with higher odds of any mood or anxiety disorder for both men and women, women reporting only same-sex sexual partners in their lifetime had the lowest rates of most disorders.17 The same study revealed:17
- Higher odds of any lifetime mood or anxiety disorder were more consistent and pronounced among sexual minority men than among sexual minority women
- Bisexual behavior conferred the highest odds of any mood or anxiety disorder for both males and females.
An additional study showed that sexual minority groups when compared to heterosexual respondents were significantly more likely to describe their lives as stressful, with a weak sense of belonging in their community. Researchers concluded that factors placed them at significantly greater odds of the negative mental health outcomes.19
A review of multiple studies concluded that:
Depression By Education Level & Employment Status
The statistics presented in the entry above focus on aggregate estimates of prevalence across total populations. In the chart we present data on depression prevalence across a number of OECD countries, disaggregated by education level and employment status. This data is based on self-reported prevalence of depression as requested by surveys. There are multiple reasons why this data may differ from IHME statistics presented above: it is based only on adults aged 25-64 years old, and focuses on self-reported depression only. The lack of differentiation in these surveys between mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety disorders, and bipolar disorder mean that self-reported depression data may include individuals with these other disorders.
Categories in the chart have been coloured based on education level, with further categorisation based on whether groups are employed, actively seeking employment, and the total of employed, active and unemployed. Across most countries we tend to see the lowest prevalence in depression amongst those with tertiary education and highest prevalence in those who did not reach upper secondary education.
It is also notable that the large differences in education level close or disappear when we look only at the sub-group of those employed. Overall, the prevalence of depression appears to be lower in individuals in employment relative to those actively seeking employment, or the total population which also includes the unemployed.
Don’t Miss: How Do I Manage Stress And Anxiety
Globally 1 In 13 Suffers From Anxiety
You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license.
U. QUEENSLAND Depression and anxiety are found in every society in the worlda finding that debunks old theories that only people in the West get depressed.
These new findings come from the worlds most comprehensive study of anxiety and depression research to date, published by researchers at the University of Queensland.
In two separate studies of anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder study authors found that surveys of clinical anxiety and depression have been conducted across 91 countries, involving more than 480,000 people.
The findings, published in the journal Psychological Medicine, show that clinical anxiety and depression are serious health issues all around the world.
Anxiety disorders were more commonly reported in Western societies than in non-western societies, even those that are currently experiencing conflict.
Clinical anxiety affected around 10 percent of people in North America, Western Europe, and Australia/New Zealand compared to about 8 percent in the Middle East and 6 percent in Asia.
The opposite was true for depression, with people in Western countries least likely to be depressed.
Depression was found to be lowest in North America and highest in some parts of Asia and the Middle East.
However, she warns that it can be difficult to obtain good quality data from some low- and middle-income countries.
Panic Attacks And Panic Disorder
Panic disorder is characterized by repeated, unexpected panic attacks, as well as fear of experiencing another episode. Agoraphobia, the fear of being somewhere where escape or help would be difficult in the event of a panic attack, may also accompany a panic disorder. If you have agoraphobia, you are likely to avoid public places such as shopping malls, or confined spaces such as an airplane.
You May Like: How Many Teens Have Anxiety
Mental Health As A Risk Factor For Substance Abuse
Mental health is known to be an important risk factor for the development of substance use disorders . The increased risk of a substance use disorder varies by mental health disorder type:
- for alcohol dependency the risk is highest in individuals with intermittent explosive disorder, dysthymia, ODD, bipolar disorder and social phobia. This is discussed in our entry on Alcohol Consumption.
- for illicit drug dependency the risk is highest for individuals with intermittent explosive disorder, ADHD, and bipolar disorder. This is discussed in our entry on Substance Use. | https://www.anxietyprohelp.com/how-many-people-suffer-from-anxiety/ |
Mental Health Care Must Remain Priority Within Disaster and Emergency Response Profession
I have previously written about the urgent need to address mental health support for those who work in fields where they are at risk of exposure to stress, high-stress and hyper-stress events. This need is heightened where there is the possibility of experiencing traumatic events. The recently announced rise in PTSD military veterans suicide numbers nonetheless shocked me and they should be shocking to us all. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has provided important information to help us understand the scope and salience of the crisis. Further, the numbers of professionals in the emergency management, disaster recovery and crisis/consequence management who suffer from PTSD are little recognized, poorly defined and receive far too little in terms of mental health support and healing options.
Suicides are the Peak Point for a Larger Problem
Per the U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs, it is challenging to determine an exact number of suicides. Many times, suicides are not reported and it can be very difficult to determine whether an individual’s death was intentional. For a suicide, even to be officially recognized, medical examiners must be able to say conclusively that the deceased meant to die. Data from the National Vital Statistics System, a collaboration between the National Center for Health Statistics of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and each U.S. state, provides the best estimate of suicides. Overall, men have significantly higher rates of suicide than women.
For comparison review the following Veteran Affairs statistics:
- From 1999-2010, the suicide rate in the general U.S. population among males was 19.4 per 100,000, compared to 4.9 per 100,000 in females.
- Based on the most recent data available, the suicide rate among male Veteran VA users was 38.3 per 100,000, compared to 12.8 per 100,000 in females.
Do professionals in the Emergency Response, Crisis Management and Disaster Recovery Field Experience High Levels of Stress and/or Traumatic events?
When individuals experience a disaster (including those who plunge into the middle of a disaster as a responder), they may experience a variety of psychological reactions to the situation. Most of the time, people demonstrate psychological resilience, effective stress management and with the passage of time they cope with the experience(s) without enduring adverse complications. Unfortunately, there are others who find themselves suffering with enduring adverse complications long after the traumatic event has passed.
Although everyone reacts differently to disasters, some of those affected may suffer from serious mental or emotional distress. These individuals may develop or experience exacerbation of existing mental health or substance use problems, including for example, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Finding treatment in a timely fashion will help individuals minimize negative outcomes. SAMHSA provides a treatment locator and trains responders how to recognize and respond to symptoms of PTSD, depression or severe reactions.
Does Experiencing Traumatic Events Negatively Impact Mental Health and/or Increase an individual’s Suicide Risk?
Disasters are traumatic experiential events (involving stress, risk, exposure to negative stimuli, adverse emotional and distressing) that may result in a wide range of mental health consequences. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is probably the most commonly studied post-disaster psychiatric disorder. Research conducted after disasters in the past decades suggests that the burden of PTSD among persons exposed to disasters is substantial.
A body of research indicates that there is a correlation between many types of trauma and suicidal behaviors. For example, there is evidence that traumatic events such as childhood abuse may increase a person’s suicide risk Though considerable research has examined the relation between combat or war trauma and suicide, the relationship is not entirely clear. Some studies have shown a relationship while others have not. There is strong evidence, though, that among Veterans who experienced combat trauma, the highest relative suicide risk is observed in those who were wounded multiple times and/or hospitalized for a wound. This suggests that the intensity of the trauma experienced, and the number of times it occurred, may influence suicide risk.
Among scholars and mental health professionals, there is disagreement about the reason(s) for the heightened risk of suicide in those who have experienced traumatic events. Whereas some studies suggest that suicide risk is higher among those who experienced trauma due to the symptoms of PTSD, others claim that suicide risk is higher in these individuals because of related but distinct psychiatric conditions.
One study analyzing data from the National Comorbidity Survey, a nationally representative sample, showed that PTSD alone out of six anxiety diagnoses was significantly associated with suicidal ideation or attempts. While the study also found an association between suicidal behaviors and both mood disorders and antisocial personality disorder, the findings pointed to a positive relationship between PTSD and suicide after controlling for other variables. A later study using the Canadian Community Health Survey data also found that respondents with PTSD were at higher risk for suicide attempts after controlling for physical illness and other mental disorders.
Per the U.S. Deptartment of Veteran Affairs, some studies that point to PTSD as a precipitating factor of suicide suggest that high levels of intrusive memories can predict the relative risk of suicide. Anger and impulsivity have also been shown to predict suicide risk in those with PTSD. Further, some cognitive styles of coping such as using suppression to deal with stress may be additionally predictive of suicide risk in individuals with PTSD.
Can Mental Health Treatment Help Respond to the Disaster?
Current practice guidelines for treatment of PTSD indicate that trauma-focused therapies are not recommended for individuals with “significant suicidality tendencies.” However, individuals with PTSD who present with intermittent but manageable suicidal thoughts may benefit from trauma-focused therapy. Two effective treatments for PTSD, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and prolonged exposure (PE) have been shown to reduce suicidal ideation. A recent study that randomized women who experienced rape into CPT or PE treatment found that reductions in PTSD symptoms were associated with decreases in suicidal ideation throughout treatment. The reductions were maintained over a 5-10-year follow-up period.
It is imperative to work directly with the appropriate mental health provider professionals to begin to address the damaging fallout from hyper-stress and traumatic stress on ourselves and our colleagues. We have too long ignored the problem, or tried ad hoc or self-constructed “solutions” that have proven inadequate.
It is common for some people to show signs of extreme and traumatic stress after exposure to a disaster. It is therefore important to have processes in place to monitor and where appropriate intervene to help ensure the physical and emotional health of these individuals. Building stress resilience and providing post-disaster mental health support must become a standardized part of our crisis management and disaster recovery plans. This has been a missing piece of our preparedness planning for too long.
Call to Take Steps Forward
The disaster, emergency and crisis management professional field must prioritize the prevention and treatment of PTDS by responders and managers. We must make mental health support and treatment options common and ubiquitous. We need to talk openly and frankly about the nature of the problem and bring it out of the dark closet and into the light. We must declare the mental health disaster that is claiming those who have been in harm’s way and continue to suffer the consequences of that experience. This is one disaster to which we as a professional community are not (yet) responding to. We must respond to manage and resolve this mental health issue with same tenacity and purposefulness that emergency responders and disaster workers push ahead to do their jobs responding to physical disaster. | https://www.firestorm.com/mental-health-care-must-remain-priority-within-disaster-and-emergency-response-profession/ |
Employee support, Management tips
The trick to measuring employee engagement.
November 30, 2017
Compared to employee engagement, most KPIs are a cinch to track. Want to know your return on investment, click-through rate, or cost per acquisition? No problem. Just pop some numbers into a formula and you’re in business. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy to calculate employee engagement. There’s no neat little formula you can conveniently rely on, and to complicate matters, everyone has their own definition of what it means to be engaged.
Defining engagement
Just because it’s difficult to measure employee engagement doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. The only way you can improve something is to benchmark and track it, so don’t shy away from this task. After all, highly engaged employees are more productive, which drives up profits and growth.
First, let’s start by figuring out what it means to be engaged at your organization. Research conducted by Officevibe found the following ten metrics to be integral to employee engagement:
- Feedback (continuous communication)
- Recognition (displays of gratitude)
- Relationship with peers (friendships)
- Relationship with managers (encouragement, mentorship)
- Personal growth (ability to move up in the organization)
- Alignment (compatibility of beliefs, values, and goals)
- Satisfaction (overall fulfillment, and appropriate compensation)
- Wellness (all aspects of personal health)
- Ambassadorship (evangelists within the organization)
- Happiness (affected by many of the other metrics)
Which ones apply to your organization the most? Are there any metrics you would add or remove? Once you have an idea of the components you want to track, it’s time to collect some data.
Measuring engagement
Many of the metrics above are impossible to measure quantitatively. You can’t put a meaningful number to how satisfied your employees are, or the quality of their relationships with their colleagues. However, you can use a variety of techniques to gather insights that will shed light on what’s going well and what needs improvement. Some of these methods include surveys, group and individual conversations, and exit interviews. Here are some helpful questions to ask:
- What’s your favorite aspect of your role?
- What about your role do you dislike?
- Do you have a close friend at this organization?
- Do you feel like you receive adequate recognition for your achievements?
- How well do you get along with your manager/junior employees?
- Describe your ideal day at work.
- Do you often have good days at work?
- What happened the last time you had a bad day at work?
- What makes you feel loyal to this organization?
- Have you considered working at another organization?
- What makes you want to work somewhere else?
For the best quality data, be sure to mix up the types of questions you ask. Questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no aren’t as revelatory as those that require a longer answer. In a previous post, we explored the importance of asking open-ended questions to solicit more detailed answers. However, close-ended questions and those that can be answered on a scale of 1-10 are useful for finding statistical trends. For example, facts like “73% of employees say they enjoy coming to work” are much easier to find using yes/no questions (“Do you enjoy coming to work?”) than open-ended questions (“What excites you about coming to work?”).
Use your data effectively
Now that you have this information, you can build a roadmap to guide your organization toward even higher engagement levels. Start by communicating your findings, even if they’re negative. It’ll demonstrate to your employees that you’re taking their feedback seriously, and that you genuinely want them to be happy at work.
Next, analyze the data to figure out which changes are necessary, then implement and track them. Learn from what’s effective and what’s not. And, of course, repeat. This is a cyclical process, and it will evolve as the needs of your workforce change.
How to maximize employee engagement
It’s hard for employees to concentrate at work when they’re distracted by personal issues like divorce or health concerns. That’s why it’s essential that employers provide them with the right tools and information they need to address these challenges. The LifeSpeak platform contains nearly 2000 expert-led resources on topics like physical and mental health, relationships, professional development, and parenting so they can be as focused and productive as possible. To learn more, request a free demo today. | https://lifespeak.com/trick-measuring-employee-engagement/ |
Standard metrics to assess outcomes of youth mental health apps
To understand whether mental health apps are safe and effective, we must reliably measure mental health outcomes for those who use them. While there are many tools and methods available to monitor an individual’s response to treatment, not all of these tools and methods have been scientifically validated for use in the digital mental health world.
In partnership with Frayme, HRI will work to identify the tools and methodologies that are most effective for measuring outcomes related to anxiety and depression among youth who use mental health apps. An expert panel including scientists, mental health professionals, and people with lived and living experience of related mental health challenges will work together to identify the outcomes that matter most to app users. They will also collaborate to determine the most effective tools, metrics, and methodologies for rigorously measuring these priority outcomes. The result will be a standardized set of metrics and methods that can be used to assess app effectiveness, compare apps, and ultimately improve services to benefit users. | https://hriresearch.com/research/digital-innovations/digital-innovations-research-in-progress/standard-metrics-to-assess-outcomes-of-youth-mental-health-apps/ |
Audit of a Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Course Within a Prison.
- PsychologyJournal of correctional health care : the official journal of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care
- 2021
Levels of depression and anxiety were reduced while mindfulness scores had increased, suggesting that mindfulness helped participants cope with difficult feelings and sensations.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Prison: Experiences of Inmates, Instructors, and Prison Staff
- PsychologyInternational journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology
- 2019
Both participants and instructors/prison staff reported improvements in all of the addressed domains and expressed satisfaction with the intervention, and challenges were mainly identified in practical issues regarding the organization of the intervention sessions.
A Systematic Review of Literature: Alternative Offender Rehabilitation—Prison Yoga, Mindfulness, and Meditation
- LawJournal of correctional health care : the official journal of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care
- 2020
The impact of yoga, mindfulness, and meditation in the criminal justice system is discussed, the major findings are highlighted, and the gaps needed to be filled are identified.
The effect of mindfulness training on mental health in long-term Chinese male prisoners
- PsychologyPsychology, health & medicine
- 2019
Overall, the study provides evidence that mindfulness-based intervention can enhance the mindfulness level and mental health of long-term male prisoners.
Mindfulness Meditation as an Adjunct Approach to Treatment Within the Correctional System
- Psychology
- 2013
Cognitive-behavioral therapy and relapse prevention represent the correctional gold standard in treatment, while the principles of risk, need, and responsivity are widely recognized as essential for…
Mindfulness Meditation: A Practical Intervention in Addressing Stress and Anxiety in Inmates
- Psychology
- 2015
This research study explores the history of meditation, and the evolution and use of mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions to address certain physical, emotional and mental health…
The Effects of Mindfulness Training on Emotional Health in Chinese Long-Term Male Prison Inmates
- PsychologyMindfulness
- 2016
The results support the use of a mindfulness-based intervention to enhance the emotional health of long-term male prison inmates.
Meditation in a Deep South Prison: A Longitudinal Study of the Effects of Vipassana
- Psychology
- 2012
In an era marked by pronounced overcrowding, including an increasing number of offenders serving long-term sentences, correctional systems continue to search for innovative and effective treatments.…
Mindfulness training in social rehabilitation effects. The theoretical context
- Psychology
- 2019
Despite the great popularity and effectiveness of actions based on cognitivebehavioral approaches in working with inmates, still we are looking for innovative interventions which will facilitate the…
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 50 REFERENCES
First Prison Study Using the Transcendental Meditation Program
- Psychology
- 2003
Abstract This repeated-measures study investigated effects of the Transcendental Meditation1 technique on physiological and psychological variables in 17 prison inmates. After practicing the…
Walpole Study of the Transcendental Meditation Program in Maximum Security Prisoners III
- Law
- 2003
Abstract Part III of the Walpole Prison Study builds on the earlier longitudinal and cross-sectional findings in Parts I and II that reported reduced psychopathology and accelerated psychological…
Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits. A meta-analysis.
- Psychology, MedicineJournal of psychosomatic research
- 2004
Although derived from a relatively small number of studies, these results suggest that MBSR may help a broad range of individuals to cope with their clinical and nonclinical problems.
The effects of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction program on mood and symptoms of stress in cancer outpatients: 6-month follow-up
- PsychologySupportive Care in Cancer
- 2001
This program was effective in decreasing mood disturbance and stress symptoms for up to 6 months in both male and female patients with a wide variety of cancer diagnoses, stages of illness, and educational background, and with disparate ages.
Change in Stress Levels Following Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction in a Therapeutic Community
- Psychology, Medicine
- 2003
The results suggest that a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction intervention may influence the physiological response to stress for individuals in a therapeutic community and support the use of salivary cortisol as an indicator of the stress response in this setting.
The clinical use of mindfulness meditation for the self-regulation of chronic pain
- Psychology, MedicineJournal of Behavioral Medicine
- 2004
At follow-up, the improvements observed during the meditation training were maintained up to 15 months post-meditation training for all measures except present-moment pain, and the relationship of mindfulness meditation to other psychological methods for chronic pain control is discussed.
Hard time: the stressful nature of incarceration for women.
- Psychology, LawIssues in mental health nursing
- 1993
This descriptive, correlational study explored the stressful life event of incarceration for women prisoners and examined its relationship to selected health outcomes. Interviews with 55 women during…
Three-year follow-up and clinical implications of a mindfulness meditation-based stress reduction intervention in the treatment of anxiety disorders. | https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Mindfulness-Based-Stress-Reduction-in-Massachusetts-Samuelson-Carmody/6fe7f7c039759e661bcd35e0afa70f76c1a6e04c |
Depression is a common mental health condition that affects millions of people around the world. While there are various treatment options available, including therapy and medication, many people are turning to meditation as a complementary approach. Meditation has been shown to have numerous benefits for both physical and mental health, including reducing symptoms of depression.
Studies have shown that regular meditation practice can change the way the brain functions, particularly in areas associated with mood regulation and stress response. This leads to improved mood and reduced stress levels, which can in turn help alleviate symptoms of depression. Meditation has been found to be particularly effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety, which is often co-occurring with depression.
In addition to its direct impact on depression, meditation can also promote overall health and well-being by teaching individuals to cultivate a more mindful and present state of mind. This can help individuals better manage negative thoughts and emotions, reduce stress, and increase feelings of peace and calm.
One study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology found that a mindfulness-based meditation program significantly reduced symptoms of depression in a group of patients with major depressive disorder. Participants in the study reported increased feelings of well-being and improved sleep quality, as well as decreased symptoms of anxiety and stress.
For those who are new to meditation, there are many beginner-friendly resources and guides available to help get started, including guided meditations, app-based programs, and instructional books and videos.
It’s important to note that meditation should not be considered a replacement for conventional treatments for depression, such as therapy and medication. Instead, it can be used as a complementary approach to help manage symptoms and promote overall health and well-being.
Overall, the evidence suggests that meditation can be a valuable tool in the management of depression. Whether practiced on its own or as part of a larger treatment plan, meditation can help individuals better manage symptoms and improve their overall quality of life.
Sources: | https://news.portalit.net/health-news/the-benefits-of-meditation-for-depression-3381.html |
03/09/2020 / By Grace Olson
Stress can either be a person’s boon or his bane, depending on the situation. In certain situations, it can motivate people, but those with chronic levels of stress are more likely to develop health problems, including heart disease and even mental disorders. To combat its adverse effects, researchers have developed a simple test to help measure and monitor stress levels.
The test, a brainchild of researchers from the University of Cincinnati, uses a biosensor that measures stress hormones through sweat, blood and urine. In their preliminary paper, which the researchers published in the American Chemical Society Sensors, they highlighted the device’s potential, in particular, for home application. The National Science Foundation and the U.S. Air Force Research Lab sponsored the study.
“I wanted something that’s simple and easy to interpret,” said Andrew Steckl, a co-author of the study and a professor of electrical engineering at UC. “This may not give you all the information, but it tells you whether you need a professional to take over.”
For most people, stress is deeply ingrained in daily life. While healthy levels of stress can help a person perform better in school or work, being subjected to elevated levels of stress can lead to bad habits like sleep deprivation and overeating. Over time, chronic stress can lead to the development of more serious conditions, like atherosclerosis. For UC researcher Prajokta Ray, who is also the study’s first author, the primary motivation behind the study was to develop a test that was cheap, effective, and affordable.
The device, which is currently in its development phase, uses UV spectroscopy to measure stress-related hormones and neurotransmitters. These compounds include cortisol – better known as the stress hormone, serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine and neuropeptide. The device detects their concentrations in various bodily fluids.
“You’re not going to replace a full-panel laboratory blood test. That’s not the intent,” Steckl noted. “But if you’re able to do the test at home because you’re not feeling well and want to know where you stand, this will tell whether your condition has changed a little or a lot.”
Despite the device being in its early stages, people can still make use of other natural methods to manage their stress levels. Here are some ways to reduce stress naturally. (Related: How to Manage Stress and Anxiety Naturally.)
Getting the body moving is a great way to help relieve mental stress. Exercise, in particular, helps lower cortisol levels in the body and releases endorphins. The latter improves mood and offers pain relief. Additionally, exercising helps a person get better sleep.
People who feel stressed out often feel that they cannot manage things. However, making simple behavioral changes can greatly help manage, even avoid, stress. For instance, if the sound of honking cars is exceptionally irritating, try to avoid these areas, or plan a different route to avoid being stressed out.
Studies have found that practicing either yoga or meditation can help reduce stress levels as it develops mindfulness and improves mental health.
Social support, such as talking to others and listening, can go a long way when it comes to stress relief. Both men and women benefit from camaraderie and friendship, so make some time to interact with others.
Learn more about stress relief for maintaining overall health at Health.news.
Sources include: | https://www.mindbodyscience.news/2020-03-09-scientists-start-measuring-stress-hormones.html |
Now that 2020 is underway, business owners are looking forward to a better year. All business owners would, of course, say they are aiming to have a strong and successful 2020 – but have you outlined exactly what counts as “success” from a human resources perspective?
A company’s employees play a pivotal role in its success, and metrics related to human resources can provide insight into how well the company is doing from several perspectives.
Employee Satisfaction
Employee satisfaction can be measured in a variety of ways. Employee Satisfaction Surveys are one tool that enables employers to gain a better sense of internal employee sentiments related to satisfaction and engagement. It can serve as a way to gather feedback on current work processes, changes, and areas that need more rigor. It is similar to a stay interview in the sense that it allows management to gather information that can guide improvements in the workplace. These information gathering tools are a good way to check-in with existing employees, rather than waiting for unfortunate situations where critical talent decides to resign and you are conducting an exit interview. Taking proactive action is much preferred to reactive action, because timing can make all the difference.
As you conduct these information gathering exercises, it is important to follow-through and act upon the findings. Otherwise, you risk the possibility of losing credibility amongst employees. Further, another word of caution must be made that satisfaction is different than engagement. The higher your employee engagement levels, the more likely your business will be successful because you have people who align with your vision and a strong commitment to contribute beyond their job description to succeed together. Hence, you should also focus upon maintaining your company culture long term.
HR Metrics
In addition to qualitative research methods, it is also advisable to look at quantitative HR measures. Some of the most common ones include turnover rates and retention rates. The idea of team is very important, so a greater focus on team cohesion and collaboration can lead to positive results. Mainly, your workforce will perform better if they have the ability to form deep connections and a strong understanding of each other’s skillsets. It also leads to more happier and productive employees who demonstrate a greater level of commitment. Oftentimes, these employees are also a great source of innovation because they operate from a mindset of possibility.
If you notice your turnover rates increasing, there are many ways to impact those numbers to incentivize employees to stay. You just need to be careful about being overly successful, because you don’t want to encourage under-performing employees to stay since that will hurt your overall business performance. One way to reward an employee for their contributions is through service awards that celebrate their work anniversaries at specific milestones (e.g., 1 year, 5 year, etc.).
Company Metrics
Additionally, companies often look at metrics such as profit, production levels, and number of loss-time days to define success. Success in these areas benefits the company as a whole, but can also provide benefits to employees. In some organizations, employees share directly in growing profits via a profit-sharing bonus program. Rewards programs like these help employees to feel directly invested in their company’s success. Other companies offer rewards if production reaches certain target levels, providing incentives for employees to reach those targets. Finally, while the benefits of avoiding loss-time incidents is clear, an additional benefit that many be overlooked is that fewer WCB claims can result in lower premiums. Plus, it is always nice to know that your team makes it home safely at the end of each workday.
Measuring and evaluating these company performance indicators can also provide the leadership team with valuable information about their overall health of the business. If management is very diligent, they may also be able to identify problems early to resolve them sooner rather than letting them fester into chaos. Awareness is just the first step, followed by proper planning and action to make visions of success a reality.
Here to Help
Would you like to learn more about measuring success within your company? We can be reached for a free confidential consultation at +1-403-470-5350 or [email protected].
For further details on how Honiva can help ensure your policies and procedures are up to date, please view our service offerings.
You can also follow along for more informative tips by joining us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Further Reading
Other articles you may be interested in: | https://www.honiva.com/knowledge-hub/2020-01-16-defining-what-success-looks-like-for-your-company |
Survey results | Mental health and wellbeing
According to Statistics Canada, of all age groups, youth have experienced the greatest declines in mental health since the COVID-19 pandemic began. A recent CBC article cites that 70 per cent of youth reported a decline in their mental health during COVID’s first wave.
To gain a sense of how our students are experiencing the pandemic, a few weeks ago, students in Years 6 to 12 completed a mental health and wellbeing survey that consisted of questions from a variety of validated measurement tools related to the following areas:
- thoughts and worries
- general mood and energy
- perceived stress
- substance use
Questions were selected that included normative data for age-appropriate comparisons on the various dimensions listed above. Although the normative samples were completed during non-pandemic times, these results provide a benchmark as to how our students are functioning in relation to typical times. It’s appreciated that due to the increased stress caused by the pandemic that the results will be elevated. Dr. Geoff Sorge, the College’s psychologist, is reviewing and analyzing the results. Here are some initial themes and trends that have emerged:
- Completion rate for the survey was 47% overall (66% of Year 6 and 7; 45% of Upper).
- With respect to student levels of anxiety and worrying, both Prep and Upper reported high levels of anxiety and worrying. The general trend was that Year 11 and 12 reported more anxiety and worrying than younger years.
- Concerns related to low mood and low energy levels were reported by both Prep and Upper; however, Year 7 indicated substantially more concerns than Year 6, while over half of all Year 12 that completed the survey reported significant concerns related to mood and energy.
- A significant portion of the student population indicated moderate to high levels of perceived stress with stress levels being slightly higher with each year level (i.e., Year 12 reported the highest levels).
- Students at the Upper School completed a measure of substance use. A small percentage of students indicated risky substance use behaviours, with more use being reported by students in higher year levels.
We’re developing a multi-pronged strategy in response to the results which will include support from our Health Centre team, the continuation of targeted student wellbeing programming and the introduction of some new initiatives. As part of our initial response strategy, all students will be advised of available supports that were also identified as part of the survey. Further, Dr. Sorge and Ms. Boyce will contact students who have provided feedback that suggests specific follow up.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have. | https://headsup.ucc.on.ca/article/survey-mental-health-and-wellbeing/?division=whole-school&distribution-date=february-18-2021 |
Feedback-informed therapy (FIT), where the therapist is given feedback on the progress of the client, has been shown to enhance traditional CBT, as well as internet-delivered CBT. In recent years, FIT has been benefitting from advances in machine learning (ML), which allows for more complex models to be built to assist in the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of mental health problems. ML techniques have been used to predict outcomes from treatment, select the best treatment for a given patient, identify different subgroups or subtypes of treatment response, and predict new onsets of mental health episodes. Using ML to enhance FIT initiatives, especially for technology-delivered interventions such as iCBT and within service settings that routinely collect outcome data could prove beneficial to overall service performance and client outcomes. We have recently developed one such algorithm that uses data from the first three assessments to predict whether a patient is likely to improve or not at the end of treatment. The current work will utilise a randomized controlled trial design, where the supporters (Psychological Wellbeing Practitioners) at one IAPT site (Berkshire Talking Therapies) will be randomized into two groups; supporters in group one will benefit from the predictive outcomes from the Deep Learning Model DLM while supporters in group 2 will practice as usual. The aim is to assess the performance and acceptability of this prediction tool in iCBT for depression and anxiety. Regarding performance, we expect a higher percentage of patients whose PWPs are in the DLM group to achieve reliable improvement compared to the patients whose PWPs do not have access to the tool. Regarding acceptance, we expect PWPs to find the tool acceptable, user engagement metrics to be higher in the DLM group, and the tool to influence the clinical decision-making and therapeutic skills of the PWPs.
Trial Registration: ISRCTN18059067
COMPARING LOW-INTENSITY PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERVENTIONS
Low-intensity interventions for common mental disorders (CMD) address issues such as clinician shortages and barriers to accessing care. However, there is a lack of research into their comparative effectiveness in routine care. We aimed to compare the treatment effects of three such interventions, utilising four years’ worth of routine clinical data. Users completing a course of guided self-help bibliotherapy (GSH), internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT), or psychoeducational group therapy (PGT) from a stepped-care service within the NHS in England were included. Propensity score models (stratification and weighting) were used to control for allocation bias and determine the average treatment effect (ATE) between the interventions. 21,215 users comprised the study sample (GSH = 12,896, iCBT = 6,862, PGT = 1,457). Adherence-to-treatment rates were higher in iCBT. All interventions showed significant improvements in depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7) and functioning (WSAS) scores, with the largest effect sizes for iCBT. Both propensity score models showed a significant ATE in favour of iCBT vs GSH and PGT, and in favour of GSH vs PGT. Discernible differences in effectiveness were seen for iCBT in comparison to GSH and PGT. Given the variance in delivery mode and human resources between different low-intensity interventions, findings should be considered for service provision and policy decision-making.
UNIFIED PROTOCOL
Research has shown that internet-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy(iCBT) can be a very promising solution to increase access to and the dissemination of evidence-based treatments to all the populations in need. However, iCBT is still underutilised in clinical contexts, such as primary care. To achieve the effective implementation of these protocols more studies in ecological settings are needed. The Unified Protocol (UP) is a transdiagnostic CBT protocol for the treatment of emotional disorders, which includes depression, anxiety, and related disorders, that has shown its efficacy across different contexts and populations. An internet-based UP (iUP) programme has recently been developed as an emerging internet-based treatment for emotional disorders. However, the internet-delivered version of the UP (iUP) has not yet been examined empirically. using a parallel-group randomised design, the current project seeks to analyse the effectiveness of the iUP as a treatment for depression, anxiety, and related emotional disorders in a primary care public health setting.
Trial registration: ISRCTN18056450
PRECISION IN PSYCHIATRY (PIPS)
Whilst the evidence that internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) is effective in treating depression andanxiety is well-established, not all patients benefit from the treatment. There is a lack of understanding of what constitutes the optimal patient profile for iCBT. Research to-date has yielded inconsistent findings, which may partially be due to the small samples typically employed in basic analyses that are ill-equipped to interpret the complexinterplay between psychiatric risk factors and treatment. This project seeks to remedy this by leveraging large patient samples to develop objective, data-driven tools that can improve precision in iCBT treatment allocation, by generating machine learning algorithms to predict the likelihood of an individual patient’s response to iCBT. Predictors will include socio-demographics, clinical characteristics, and cognitive test data linked to specific brain mechanisms relating to psychiatric disease and treatment action. Machine learning will be used to develop models using baseline data (before treatment starts) or early clinical change data (the first 4 weeks of iCBT). Complementing this predictive approach with network analysis aims at understanding why iCBT works for some, but not others; to examine the dynamic interactions between symptoms over time and how that varies depending on treatment success. The findings will provide a clinically-valuable set of tools that can augment clinicians’ decision-making in treatment referral and improve our understanding of why iCBT works, thus informing future treatment development.
Lee, C.T., Palacios, J., Richards, D., Hanlon, A.K., Lynch, K., Harty, S., Claus, N., O’Keane, V., Stephen, K.O., Gillan, C., (2022, March 3). The Precision in Psychiatry (PIP) study: an internet-based methodology for accelerating research in treatment prediction and personalisation. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/4j6z8
Fox, C., Lee, C. T., Seow, T. X. F., Lynch, K., Harty, S., Richards, D., Palacios, J., O’Keane, V., Stephan, K. E., & Gillan, C. M. (2021). Are Metacognitive Biases in Anxious-Depression Ameliorated Following Successful Depression Treatment? A Longitudinal, Observational Study. Biological Psychiatry, 89(9, Supplement), S127.
SMARTWATCH AND DEPRESSION TREATMENT
Mood tracking is commonly employed within a range of mental health interventions. Physical activity and sleep are also important for contextualizing mood data but can be difficult to track manually and rely on retrospective recall. Smartwatches could enhance self-monitoring by addressing difficulties in recall of sleep and physical activity and reducing the burden on patients in terms of remembering to track and the effort of tracking. The study has the potential to show that smartwatches are an acceptable means for patient self-monitoring within iCBT interventions for depression and support potential use-cases for smartwatches in the context of mental health interventions in general.
Prospectively registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT04568317).
Trial Protocol:
Nadal, C., Earley, C., Enrique, A, Vigano, N., Sas, C., Richards, D., Doherty, G. (2021). Integration of a smartwatch within an internet-delivered intervention for depression: Protocol for a feasibility randomized controlled trial on acceptance. Contemporary Clinical Trials. 103:106323. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2021.106323. PMID: 33621632. Link to Paper
DEBT AND MENTAL HEALTH
Previous research has shown a strong relationship between financial difficulties and mental health problems. Psychological factors such as hope and worry about finances appear to be an important factor in this relationship. We developed an online based psychological intervention (Space from Money Worries) to tackle the psychological mechanisms underlying the relationship between poor mental health and financial difficulties, and to conduct an initial evaluation of the acceptability and preliminary efficacy of the intervention.
Richardson, T., Enrique, A., Earley, C., Adegoke, A., Hiscock, D., Richards, D., (2022). The Acceptability and Initial Effectiveness of ‘Space from Money Worries’: An Online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Intervention to Tackle the Link Between Financial Difficulties and Poor Mental Health. Frontiers in Public Health. 10. Link to Paper
CANCER CARE AND ICBT
Depression and anxiety are common problems among breast cancer survivors. Carer support is one of the most important determinants of women’s psychological wellbeing. Survivors’ distress can be alleviated by giving carers access to survivors’ evidence-based treatment, which will help carers understand what survivors have been going through and help survivors feel more supported. Given the limited access to evidence-based treatments, an adapted internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) intervention for breast cancer survivors, but also open for carers’ access, has the potential to decrease survivors’ depression and anxiety symptoms and improve cancer-related communication and relationship quality between survivors and carers.
Trial Protocol:
Akkol-Solakoglu, S., Hevey, D., Richards, D. (2021). A randomised controlled trial of an adapted internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) with main carer access for depression and anxiety among breast cancer survivors: study protocol. Internet Interventions. 24, 100367. Link to Paper
SAHA
Development and evaluation of internet-supported treatment for recently arrived children and adolescents with psychiatric problems
The overarching aim of this research is to develop and test methods for effective screening and assessment of mental and somatic health among recently arrived immigrant children and adolescents as well as develop effective internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (ICBT) interventions targeted towards common mental health problems in these groups such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress. The research project is a collaboration between groups in Linköping, Stockholm, Östersund, and Dublin and will be organized in seven different work packages (WP) over a period of six years. These WPs will include development and pilot testing of three different ICBT programs, two targeted towards adolescents speaking Arabic and Dari, and the third targeted towards Arabic-speaking children aged 8-12 years and their parents. The programs targeted towards adolescents will be evaluated quantitatively first in a pilot study and secondly in a state-of-the-art randomized controlled trial whereas the program targeted towards children and their parents will be evaluated in a pilot study only. We will also conduct qualitative interviews with participants from these programs to complement the quantitative evaluation. This project aims to further the understanding regarding how to effectively assess and treat mental health problems in this vulnerable population, thus giving these young people increased well-being and a better chance of successful integration into society. https://www.swecris.se/betasearch/details/project/201805827VR?lang=en
PREVIOUS PROJECTS
INSOMNIA/ SLEEP DISORDER
Patients (n = 35) will be invited to use the supported intervention over an 8-week period. Participants will indicate consent and complete screening measures online before beginning the programme. They will then be referred to a supporter from within Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust. Primary outcome measures will be the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and sleep efficiency (SE) as calculated by the programme’s in-built sleep diary. Secondary outcome measures will be the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and the Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS) as part of the minimum data set administered routinely by this IAPT site. All measures will be administered at baseline and weekly thereafter.
Wogan, R., Enrique, A., Adegoke, A., Earley, C., Sollesse, S., Gale, S., Chellingsworth, M., Richards, D. (2021). Internet-delivered CBT intervention (Space for Sleep) for sleep disorder in a routine care setting: Results from an open pilot study. Internet Interventions, 26. Link to Paper
DIGITAL IAPT
The Effectiveness & Cost-Effectiveness of Internet-Delivered Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders in the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Programme D-IAPT.
For many years now, the UK IAPT services have been using SilverCloud to deliver low-intensity online delivered cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) to clients. Data reported nationally through this service demonstrates that SilverCloud interventions perform very well with 70% of clients showing reliable improvements in their symptoms after treatment. The current trial seeks to establish very robustly and independently the effectiveness of online CBT as a treatment for depression and anxiety. It also seeks to show that providing this service is cost-effective for the National Health Service.
Trial registration: ISRCTN91967124
Published protocol
Main Outcomes paper
RESILIENCE
Assessing the efficacy and acceptability of an internet-delivered intervention for resilience among college students: A pilot randomised control trial
A pilot randomised controlled trial included three groups: 1) an intervention group with human support; 2) an intervention group with automated support, and 3) a waiting list control group. The intervention, Space for Resilience, is based on positive psychology and consists of seven modules, delivered over a period of eight weeks. Primary outcome measures will include the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) and the Pemberton Happiness Index (PHI). Secondary outcomes measures will include the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the Patient Health Questionnaire – 4 items (PHQ-4), the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the Perceived Stress Scale – 4 items (PSS-4). Acceptability will be examined using the Satisfaction with Treatment (SAT) questionnaire. The analysis will be conducted on an intention-to-treat basis.
Trial registration: ISRCTN11866034
Published protocol
Enrique, A., Mooney, O., Salamanca-Sanabria, A., Lee, C.T., Farrell, S., Richards, D. (2020). Assessing the efficacy and acceptability of a web-based intervention for resilience among college students: Pilot randomised control trial. JMIR Formative Research. Link to Paper
PROJECT TALIA
In Project Talia we are exploring how we can best leverage AI to help improve the effectiveness of important mental health services. This partnership with Microsoft Labs Cambridge and SilverCloud Health aims to jointly explore how AI can be used to enhance SilverCloud Health’s digital mental health services that deliver cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) programs to a large and growing number of people in need of effective care. Using probabilistic machine learning frameworks, the aim is to identify new routes for personalizing treatments and improving patient engagement and clinical outcomes.
Website:https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/project-talia/
Recent Events
- Microsoft Research Blog: Data-driven insights for more effective, personalized care in online mental health interventions
- CHI 2020 paper: Understanding Client Support Strategies to Improve Clinical Outcomes in an Online Mental Health Intervention
- Microsoft Future Decoded
- Microsoft Research Blog: Microsoft collaborates with SilverCloud Health to develop AI for improved mental health
SUSSEX
Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavior Therapy as a Prequel to Face-To-Face Therapy for Depression and Anxiety: A Naturalistic Observation
Online CBT has been mostly used with people in the mild-moderate symptom range. Although this is changing and the question that this study was interested in examining was whether we could use the Silvercloud interventions as part of a treatment package offered to clients who were assessed as severely depressed or anxious and waiting for face-to-face treatment. The study also facilitated us taking a look at the important construct of therapeutic alliance online and the perception of the clinical staff of the usability and acceptability of using a digital intervention as part of a package of care for their clients.
ONLINE RECOVERY TOOLKIT FOR BIPOLAR: IRELAND
The current project developed an evidence-based recovery-orientated toolkit as an intervention to support the care of patients with a bipolar diagnosis. We worked with one of the recognised global leaders in Bipolar Disorder, Professor Steve Jones of Lancaster University. The intervention was developed with subject matter expertise alongside stakeholder involvement from patients, service users, and clinicians.
We successfully piloted the intervention at three sites in Ireland. Participants had a mean age of 40 and preliminary results show a significant improvement in measures of recovery and quality of life for patients with bipolar disorder. Overall, the service users showed good levels of acceptability of the intervention, found it easy to use, and they would continue using it over time. They also reported that they found the program quite helpful.
CULTURAL ADAPTATION AND EFFICACY OF ICBT IN COLOMBIA
This study aimed at evaluating the efficacy of a culturally adapted and internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT) through a randomised controlled trial (RCT) and with 3-months follow-up. The programme consisted of 7-modules. Two hundred and fourteen Colombian college students with depressive symptoms were randomly assigned to either the treatment group (n= 107) or a waiting list control group (n=107). Participants received weekly support from a trained supporter. The primary outcome was symptoms of depression as measured by the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the secondary outcomes were anxiety symptoms assessed by the Generalised Anxiety Disorder questionnaire (GAD-7).
Trial registration: NCT03062215
Published protocol
Paper on cultural adaptation methodology
Main outcomes from an efficacy trial
MINNESOTA
This trial implemented Silverclouds interventions for depression, anxiety, and stress in a University student population. The aim of the study was to see how well it could be implemented and also assess outcomes. An interesting feature of this trial is the ability of the user to choose which programme they wish to use – a patient preference was included after participants learned their scores on the psychometric measures we used to assess their symptoms on depression, anxiety, and stress levels. | https://www.derekrichards.ie/projects/ |
Having a more efficient ‘marketplace’ depends on funders and conservation groups aligning on what the right metrics are for providing evidence of ‘results’ and impact.
It is important to invest time in discussing what the right metrics and variables are for measuring and documenting impact. Using the wrong metrics or failing to provide context or rationale for those metrics can do a great deal of harm by focusing attention, and investment, on the wrong outcomes.
In order to design meaningful and appropriate metrics, organizations need to invest time and resources into the processes, such as strategic planning, which result in clarity around what an organization is trying to achieve, and how it goes about that work (e.g. key goals and theory of change). Funders have a role to play in supporting and participating in those processes that will result in better metrics and document clear impact from the investment of funds.
Funders should support not only programmatic work, but also the development and implementation of Monitoring & Evaluation systems required to collect the right data and information.
Funders should be pro-active in recognizing the challenges inherent to short-term and project-based funding models, and develop solutions with practitioners.
Funders should conduct due diligence- listening to different sources and/or conducting field visits- so that they align their funding with effective and impactful conservation work.
Competition amongst organizations- both practitioners and funders- is wasteful and counterproductive. Funders that are informed and pro-active can help alleviate this problem and promote collaboration.
Trust funds are an important and expanding model for establishing long-term funding required for effective and lasting conservation work.
There is a role for a clearinghouse mechanism that connects smaller funders with smaller organizations, and improves the overall efficiencies of these interactions and networks within the conservation space. It is equally challenging for Africa-based conservation organizations to identify and connect with funders who are dispersed around the US, as it is for funders to identify effective African-based organizations.
The need to do a better job of showcasing success in African conservation.
Most funding for African conservation comes from bilateral and multilateral government aid agencies, and is often heavily constrained, but smaller amounts of strategic, flexible private funding can leverage and amplify those larger funding sources.
Organizations need sufficient and flexible budgets to invest in and retain top talent, with an intent of building capacity over a 10 year time frame- a break from the current, predominant short-term nature of hiring.
Conservation needs more women in senior positions in conservation organizations.
Funders need to have an interest in and be willing to invest in how conservation organizations are managed and governed, supporting the investment in people through organizational development grants, professional development, and other mechanisms.
Overall, there is a need for safe communities of practice to share challenges, build relationships, and develop collaborations between African conservation organizations.
There were recurring themes around the need for better communication both between funders and practitioners, as well as between funders. The current community of practice suffers from inefficiencies around due diligence and information asymmetry between funders and practitioners. Participants expressed some interest in exploring the potential for additional convening, funders discussion and education, and more efficient due diligence. Maliasili Initiatives will be following up with participants to gather additional feedback and chart a course of action. | https://www.maliasili.org/blog/impact-forum2017 |
In 2017, we launched an expansion to bring the eSchool 360 program to 35 additional schools in the Eastern Province in Zambia. This initiative has been funded through the Board of American Institutes for Research (AIR), whose members visited the pilot program in Zambia in the spring of 2016. AIR will also design and implement a cluster-randomized controlled trial to determine the impact of the program on children’s learning outcomes.
These efforts will bring a quality education to 3,500 additional children in 35 schools across three districts of Zambia’s Eastern Province, and build important evidence on the effectiveness of the eSchool 360 program across three districts in Zambia.
Our Pilot Schools
In 2013, we completed our initial pilot of the eSchool 360 program across 9 schools in Katete District. After launching the expansion project, we continue to work with these initial schools to pilot new innovations that have the potential to help rural community schools across the country.
Learn more about the initial schools here!
In 2016, we created a virtual reality experience to bring our supporters inside our schools in rural Zambia. Click here to watch the 360 video and learn more. | http://www.impactnetwork.org/our-schools |
Public schools in the U.S. Virgin Islands will resume in-person operations when the 2021-22 school year kicks off on Aug. 9, the V.I. Department of Education announced.
The announcement came following walkthroughs of campuses in the two districts by V.I. Department of Health officials.
“We are prepared and excited to safely bring all of our students back to our campuses on Aug. 9,” Education Commissioner Racquel Berry-Benjamin said in a news release issued Saturday. “We continue to work hand-in-hand with Commissioner [Justa] Encarnacion and the Department of Health on all matters concerning the safe operation of our schools during the pandemic.”
Berry-Benjamin said the Department of Education reopened some of its school campuses for in-person instruction at the end of the 2020-21 school year, giving schools the opportunity to hone their operations in anticipation of the return of all students in the new school year.
“We successfully opened some of our school campuses from March to May of the 2020-2021 school year,” she said. “Those two months afforded us the opportunity to test the effectiveness of the safety protocols in place at our campuses, and we have been pleased with the outcomes. We look forward to returning all of our students and staff to safe, in-person school environments.”
Return to In-Person Learning
According to the department’s news release:
– All USVI public schools will resume in-person operations on August 9, 2021
– Schools and/or classes will revert to virtual or hybrid instruction ONLY if COVID-19 cases are impacting in-person operations
– The Department of Education has equipped its schools with the necessary technology to seamlessly move from in-person operations to virtual/hybrid operations when necessary
– All students needing a laptop computer or MiFi internet device will be issued these items when schools reopen
– Students are required to be dressed in the school’s uniform while on campus
Special Virtual Pilot Program
For the 2021-2022 school year, the Department of Education will pilot a fully virtual program for select students who qualify in each district. The program is not open to all students.
Eligible students for the virtual program are in grades six through 12 who have:
1. Demonstrated the ability to work independently online, as evidenced by student grades from the 2020-21 school year
2. Or, students with an illness, confirmed by a note from a licensed health practitioner, that prevents the student from attending classes in person.
The Department of Education will inform families of their eligibility to participate in the virtual pilot program; space is limited.
Instructors for the virtual pilot program will be sourced through an online educational service provider.
The virtual pilot program is intended to explore the department’s interest in establishing an online public school in the future. The department laid out the following protocols for campus safety.
Masks
– Students and staff are required to wear masks at all times while on campus; masks are not optional; they are considered a part of the school uniform.
– Regular breaks are incorporated into the school day, or on an as-needed basis for students to remove their masks outside, under the supervision of a teacher.
Hand Washing/Sanitization
– Frequent hand washing and/or the use of hand sanitizer is a normal part of the school day.
– Additional handwashing stations have been placed throughout school campuses; bathrooms and classrooms have been retrofitted with automatic paper towel, soap and hand sanitizer dispensers.
Social Distancing
– Under the guidance of the VIDOH, a two-foot distance will be maintained between desks and students/staff are required to maintain three-feet social distancing when traversing the campus.
– Student and staff temperatures will be checked at the gate of the campus each morning before entry is allowed.
– Isolation rooms are made available on each campus to cater to students exhibiting signs of illness.
– Plexiglas barriers are installed at teacher and student desks, and front offices. These barriers are not a requirement of the CDC or the VIDOH; the Department of Education installed the items as an added measure of safety for students and staff.
Vaccination/Testing
– There is no local or federal mandate for residents to be vaccinated for COVID-19; however, the V.I. Department of Education strongly encourages employees and students, aged 12 and up, to get vaccinated.
– With guidance and support from the VIDOH, schools will conduct regular COVID-19 testing of students, with parental consent.
Meals/Transportation
– Students in grades PreK-3 will receive covered breakfast and lunch in their classrooms.
– Students in grades 4-12 will receive covered breakfast and lunch at a designated area on campus in a grab-and-go format.
– Cafeterias will remain closed to avoid large crowds congregating.
– Parents/guardians of students enrolled in the virtual pilot program may pick up meals at the school nearest to their homes.
– School bus transportation will resume across the territory. Students are required to wear a mask at all times while being transported on the school bus.
– Under guidance from the VIDOH, students may sit two to a seat on school buses.
– School bus drivers are required to wear masks.
New Developments
Arthur A. Richards K-8 Merger
– Arthur Richards K-sixth grade students will attend Eulalie Rivera K-8 School. Eulalie uniform is to be worn.
– Arthur Richards seventh- and eighth-grade students will attend John H. Woodson Jr. High; Woodson uniform is to be worn.
– Claude O. Markoe Elementary sixth-graders promoted to seventh grade last school year will attend John H. Woodson Jr. High School.
Expansion of Early Childhood Learning
– Lew Muckle Elementary School will be the site of the St. Croix District’s newest Granny Preschool – email [email protected] for more information.
– Joseph Sibilly Monroe Annex will be the site of the St. Thomas-St. John District’s newest Sugarapple Preschool – email [email protected] for more information. | https://stthomassource.com/content/2021/07/12/usvi-public-schools-resume-in-person-operations-on-aug-9/ |
The second point of our initial blog on BBS concerns the importance of piloting your intervention. Why conduct a pilot test?
A pilot test will help confirm if you are ready for full-scale implementation. A pilot test can serve as a trial run for your program and can help determine if any adjustments to your plan or adaptations to the program are necessary. It can also reveal unforeseen challenges that might arise during implementation (i.e., issues with the setting and logistics, particular lessons or activities for which more staff training or attention may be necessary) and ensures that your staff is well prepared to handle issues that come up during the full-scale implementation.
Pilot testing is an opportunity to gauge how your people will react to the program. It’s best to select a pilot group that is similar to your program’s specific target groups. The feedback from these people can offer a glimpse into how the group may respond to the plan. Most importantly, it can help confirm whether or not your program is a good fit for your people and whether minor adaptations to the program are appropriate or necessary.
Pilot testing can help you make better decisions about how to allocate time and resources. Pilot testing your program can help you determine if you need to spend more time or resources on particular aspects of the program. For example, you might learn that changes to your recruitment strategy are necessary or that you need to allocate more time for completing the evaluation activities than you had originally anticipated.
Pilot testing can help ensure that you are well prepared to measure the success of your program. A pilot test can highlight any adjustments to your evaluation plan that might be necessary to ensure that you are measuring the desired outcomes in the best way possible. The pilot test will be an opportunity to test your evaluation instruments as well. The pilot test will give both the evaluation team and the implementation team a chance to work together before full implementation and troubleshoot any issues that might arise with the distribution and collection of the evaluation data. | https://www.certaintysoftware.com/a-pilot-intervention-for-your-behavioral-based-safety-system/ |
LARAMIE – For a group of students at Laramie High School, a trip to the dump could be the key to passing Algebra 1.
In a new beta test with virtual reality company Prisms, students can do that and more without ever leaving the classroom.
The class, led by educators Jenny Taufa and Kerry O’Dea, has completed three of the five modules included in the beta test, which involves the use of a virtual reality headset and hand controls to teach students some aspects of mathematics. The modules address situations where mathematics can be used to solve problems and improve the world.
As soon as the students put on their headphones, they are immersed in a cool and quiet world in which they become the expert advisers and the decision makers. Teachers can monitor students from a computer and help them solve problems if necessary.
In one module, students are air traffic controllers and must write equations to prevent planes from crashing. In another, they are confronted with the melting of a glacier and must calculate how long it will take for the city of Miami to be submerged in the ocean.
Using technology like virtual reality has potential as an educational tool that goes beyond teaching algebra, said Andrea Burrows, associate dean of the University of Wyoming College of Education. .
“There has been a lot of research in the area of virtual reality,” Burrows said. “It is often used to increase students’ intrinsic motivation. Often, this intrinsic motivation is linked to collaborative spaces.
Virtual reality can mimic hands-on real-world experiences for students, which can increase their understanding of the subject.
In the landfill module, students learn about the impact of waste management on natural spaces by watching piles of waste build up around them.
“It was sad. I had to throw the fries away,” LHS student Jarod Whisler said of an exercise that involved sorting trash into appropriate containers.
To predict the impact of population growth on waste generation in a park, students plot points and draw a line of best fit on a graph. In the three-dimensional virtual space, students do not look at a graph in front of them, but stand in the middle of it.
“With VR, you’re going to have a lot of engagement because it’s new and innovative,” Burrows said. “It’s usually something we haven’t seen or thought about in some way that excites us.”
For Taufa, the program fills a gap in the real-world applications of math that she hadn’t had time to plan for before.
“Virtual reality will increasingly be part of our lives. Being exposed to that is important,” Taufa said. “I also think it’s important for students to see math in different ways.”
Burrows explained that because every student learns differently, virtual reality may be a better option for some who may be more visual or practical thinkers, while other students may not be as receptive to the approach. Application also depends on the field and its ability to lend itself to this type of hands-on learning.
“There’s not one thing that’s going to save us, because not every person in your class is the same,” Burrows said. “That’s the beauty of teaching, that everyone is different.”
Only about 10% of virtual reality technology in education is used in secondary schools, and research around its use in math is even less, Burrows said.
There are some universal drawbacks to using VR in classrooms, such as accessibility barriers due to cost and the time it takes for teachers to learn how to use the technology.
“On day one, only about five minutes were actually spent in VR,” Taufa said of the beta testing experience. “The rest of the time I was trying to figure out how to do it.”
Some students have expressed frustration with the unclear instructions and lack of user-friendliness of the technology, as well as some disinterest in the concept – no matter how flashy the technology is, it’s still a math lesson.
For Taufa, these challenges can also offer unexpected benefits.
“In life, it’s not always clear. You’re in this world where it’s okay if you press the wrong button and you have to start over,” Taufa said. “It’s a very safe world to maybe try those things that make us uncomfortable.”
Whether it’s crashing planes or simply logging into the program, students have the opportunity to problem solve and help each other. Taufa’s class is the only one at LHS to use the headsets, which means one day these students could be tasked with helping their peers learn to use technology, build leadership skills and confidence on the job. road.
Just down the street, the UW College of Education and the College of Engineering and Applied Science are working to expand access to virtual reality in schools.
The university has been working for some years on recruiting schools and educators to conduct testing and research on the subject.
The university offers grants and professional development opportunities for schools to implement virtual reality. It also offers a program where teachers can be paid to work in a virtual reality research lab for six weeks over the summer. | https://roxxcloud.com/pinedale-rally-students-use-virtual-reality-to-connect-with-algebra/ |
About this conference
The National Centre for Family Hubs (NCFH) is hosting a virtual conference on Implementing Family Hubs. The event will launch the pilot of the Family Hubs Implementation Toolkit: a collection of coproduced resources aimed to support Local Authorities, Health, Education and VCS teams to implement Family Hubs in their local area.
After an opening address by the new Minister for Children and Families, Will Quince MP, participants will hear from the practitioners, evidence experts, parents, young people and Local Authority leaders who have helped to shape this toolkit through a range of plenaries and workshops. In the afternoon session we are delighted to be joined by Rt Hon. Dame Andrea Leadsom DBE MP, who will discuss the Start for Life vision and the importance of Family Hubs in making it a reality.
The aim is for participants to explore the key themes covered by the modules in the pilot Implementation Toolkit, looking at the evidence, examples of good practice, and how to use the elements of the toolkit to implement Family Hubs.
With the toolkit in pilot phase and at the start of an iterative, coproduced development schedule, we want to use this event to hear feedback from participants on what is helpful, what is missing, and what needs to change to enable effective implementation of Family Hubs in local areas.
We look forward to welcoming you on the day and to working together to implement Family Hubs across the country.
Visit the National Centre for Family Hubs website
Please download the timetable for the full event details.
Event Schedule:
09.30-09.40 Welcome
09.40-09.55 Opening address
09:55-10:40 Plenary 1 – Why Family Hubs, Q&A
10.40-10.55 Break
10.55-11.45 Plenary 2 – The Implementation Toolkit in Practice, Q&A
11.45-12.00 Break
12.00-12.50 Module Workshops – Topics include:
1. Coproduction
2. Integration
3. Relational Practice
4. Evaluation
12.50-13.40 Lunch
13.40-13.45 Youth Perspective on Family Hubs
13.45-14.00 Best Start for Life
14.00-14.50 Plenary Panel - Family Hubs: From Vision to Impact
14.50-15.00 Closing & next steps
Keep informed about our future national and regional events by signing up to Family Hubs in Mind, our free learning network
- Who is the event suitable for?
Leaders, commissioners, or managers from Local Authorities, Health/CCGs, Education, or Voluntary and Community Sector.
- Aims of the day
- Understand the Family Hubs policy framework
- Learn from other Local Authorities sharing examples of good practice in Family Hubs implementation
- Learn about the evidence base for Family Hubs
- Discover, test and feedback on the pilot modules of the implementation toolkit produced by the National Centre for Family Hubs
- Find out about upcoming events, action learning sets, and bespoke support available from the National Centre for Family Hubs to help with implementing Family Hubs
- System requirements of online events
This event will be delivered online. A laptop, PC/Desktop will be the most suitable device for this event. Further system requirements needed for this event will be displayed in due course. | https://www.annafreud.org/training/training-and-conferences-overview/online-conferences-webinars-and-events/implementing-family-hubs/ |
The State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) today announced it is launching the Tennessee Educator Fellowship, a program that will provide Tennessee teachers an opportunity to have a greater impact on key state-level education policy issues. The Tennessee Educator Fellows will be led by Tennessee teacher Cicely Woodard.
Woodard brings over 11 years of classroom experience to this role. An eighth-grade math teacher at Rose Park Math and Science Magnet in Metro Nashville Public Schools, she also served as a teacher leader supporting, training, and coaching teachers across Tennessee and has testified before numerous legislative hearings at the request of education committee leadership.
SCORE, a nonpartisan, nonprofit education research and advocacy group founded by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, will select approximately 20 classroom teachers to serve a one-year term. The fellows will learn about, reflect upon, inform, and advocate for policies, practices, and systems that impact educator effectiveness and student achievement. Fellows representing each of Tennessee’s three geographic divisions will be chosen from varying subjects and grade levels. Each fellow will continue as a full-time teacher during the term and will receive a stipend.
“Teachers bring a critically important perspective to speak to the progress our students have made, to help identify the obstacles that stand in the way of ensuring all students graduate ready for college and career, and to advocate for adjustments and improvements that still are needed,” Woodson said.
After receiving training in education policy issues, the fellows will work to inform policymakers and their communities about issues affecting students and teachers and to provide feedback to SCORE for the development of statewide education priorities. Most important, the teachers who join the Tennessee Educator Fellowship will provide a clear, consistent, and student-focused voice as Tennessee works to ensure all students graduate from high school prepared for the future.
Woodard began her education career in 2003 at Rose Park after earning a bachelor’s of mathematical sciences from the University of Memphis and a master’s of education from Vanderbilt University. She also has led professional learning communities of teachers, facilitated numerous workshops on teaching mathematics, and served as a Tennessee Common Core Coach for Algebra I.
The Tennessee Educator Fellowship is open to Tennessee public school teachers with at least three years of classroom experience. Applications for the 2014-15 program must be submitted by July 18 at http://bit.ly/TNEducatorFellowship. | https://tnscore.org/score-launches-tennessee-educator-fellowship/ |
All over the world people are living longer and as far as possible they prefer to grow old in their own homes. However, this is not always easy. Homes suitable for an active 60 year old are often not adapted for an elderly person in their mid-70s due to for example, stairs or a bath rather than a shower, which increase the risk of falls. As we get older we are also more prone to illnesses which if they are not cared for correctly can result in physical decline and vulnerability.
Without careful planning and support, for the elderly person, whose children may well have moved away, the possibility to stay at home becomes more limited. Many good support services for senior citizens run by associations and social services exist, but there is limited coordination between them and local health services. In addition certain geographical areas suffer from poor access to public health and social services. The Alpine area characterises this particularly well with rural Alpine valleys that are often isolated and difficult to reach.
“CoNSENSo: Innovating to provide better health & social care for senior citizens in the Alpine Space”
The aim of the CoNSENSo project is to develop a care model that puts the elderly at the centre of health and social care, building on the crucial role of the Family and Community Nurse: a key person to help and support the daily activities of the elderly and their families. The Family Community Nurse would form the link between the different health and social worlds, facilitating a 3-way dialogue (Elderly person – Health services – Social services), organising appropriate social services, like a home help or ready prepared meals, contacting doctors if a health problem is suspected and providing advice on how to adapt the home environment.
This new model of health & social care will be tested during the project in 5 pilot regions through
- providing dedicated training for nurses
- evaluating the benefits of the model in zones with diverse territorial challenges, compared to areas not using the model
- working on how to make the care model sustainable in the different countries
Led by the Piemonte Region, CoNSENSo brings together 10 partners from Austria, France, Italy and Slovenia and 7 observers representing governmental ministries, health authorities and professional associations from the Alpine Space area. The project runs for 36 months starting in December 2015.
Expected outcomes
The project expects to create the right conditions to improve health and life quality of senior citizens in the Alpine Space enabling them to stay at home as long as possible.
This will be achieved through
- the design and implementation of new public policies based on this social innovation model for elderly care
- building training modules for nurses that can be adapted and transferred to training institutions in the Alpine Space and beyond
- stimulating social enterprise development and entrepreneurship among nurses.
Funding: Total eligible costs: 2.052.400 EUR / ERDF grant: 1.744.540 EUR.
— —
Adult Cognitive Decline Consciousness
Innovative training tools for prevention and management of cognitive decline
The ageing of the European population is it serious social and economic challenge that calls for action and innovative solutions at all levels. In connection with ageing, cognitive decline is a phenomenon of growing numeric dimensions, which represent this severe burden for the European families and the healthcare systems.
There is therefore a need to tackle this issue with a strategic perspective, oriented towards prevention and education: health literacy of EU citizens has to improve since it is the basis for allowing people to increase their knowledge, share it within the community, make informed decisions and take action concerning their health
There is a huge amount of health information available both on paper and online across Europe, but if the level of literacy of the population is not adequate, their accessibility becomes almost null, both in terms of capacity to understand them and in terms to find them. Spreading scientifically validated knowledge throughout our communities means huge perspective in the savings in health and social care system, i.e. working towards a more sustainable European society in the long term.
General purpose
The general purpose of ACDC is to develop a set of innovative training tools addressing the health and digital health literacy issue for the prevention and management of cognitive decline in the elderly population and make them available to the widest possible audience.
Specific objectives
- to validate an innovative form of strategic partnership designed to conceive and deliver the most proper health literacy training tools for better ageing and cognitive decline prevention;
- to set up and test an e-learning based edutainment tool for health literacy through a gaming approach and structure;
- to test a viable approach for making the training and educational content available to the widest possible audience of European citizens;
- to deliver the training contents to adults and -through them – to families.
Target
ACDC target groups are adults in the age of 40-60 as main target for prevention and the same young adults together with their family members as target/beneficiaries for increased health literacy for the effective management of elderly family members with cognitive decline.
Partnership
Coordinated by IAL Nazionale, ACDC partnership is composed by six more partners from Austria, Belgium, Greece and Italy.
Expected results
ACDC project aims to empower the European adults by making them more informed about their health, to have a change of attitudes of adult people towards healthy behaviours and self-care in order to create a health literacy mentality, to give community and stakeholders a tool to improve the health literacy in our society.
Funding: Total EU contribution: 448.395,00 EUR
— —
Integration of Young Adults into Labor Market through Cultural Heritage
Erasmus+ Programme KA2 strategic partnership project n° [2019-1-LT01-KA204-060482]
It is difficult for young adults to find jobs, because they often lack of experience, it is difficult to integrate into continuously changing life and work environment. Project “Integration of Young Adults into the Labor Market Through Cultural Heritage” will help in getting to know the most important places or traditions of other countries, provide young adults with the necessary information for integration, self-confidence, inspire and motivate them and strengthen the competences for collaboration. For example, while knowing the cultural history and traditions of other country, the project participant would easier integrate into the cultural and social context of other country, will get a job or will create a job place by himself. The main objectives of the project is to empower entrepreneurship and social dialogue through cultural knowledge and to help forming a strategy of creative thinking, while creating new work places.
For this project three objects of cultural heritage are chosen: old-towns, traditional songs and dances, traditional food. The project team is going to promote the cultural values of each country, demonstrate what kind of jobs can be found or created in every area and field of the project. All the project activities will be included into a cognitive, entertaining, educational video about historical places and history of the towns with interactive exercises to develop cultural competencies and social dialogue with questions and possible answers, as well as a collection of traditional music examples (songs and dances) – an interactive video tool for learning with questions and answers, a video about traditional meal with tasks for learners, and a competition “I virtually create an attractive work place” will be organized.
The project participants will widen up the knowledge of English language, necessary for a communication and development of social dialogue, as well as they will know more about various traditions of EU countries (songs, dances, culinary heritage), necessary for an original creation of new work places. They will also learn to develop thinking design, for a creation of a work place and interior, will develop possibilities to evaluate own competences.
During this project four international mobilities are going to take place:
- a kick-off meeting in Lithuania, which is meant for refining project‘s activities, deciding on what results are wanted, excluding the strongest sides of our partners, foreseeing the good experience and ways to share it;
- an international meeting in Sweden „Intercultural competence acceptance and evaluation“, which is needed for a team to create and work out instruments to evaluate competence, decide if that instrument works with project participants;
- an international meeting „Entrepreneurship promotion in an intercultural space and virtuality“ in Greece is for the creation of virtual products and their presentation. The products will be tested during the mobility, so that the project teams could continue creating and perfecting their products;
- an international meeting „Virtual entrepreneurship and social dialogue“ in Portugal will open up an opportunity to practically try out a business model when meeting local learners. The aim of the 4th transnational meeting is the dissemination of work places and use of the cultural events for young adults searching for a job in the European country.
- Alongside with the international meetings, the Austrian partner will organize a one-week joint staff training event. The participants will be those representing their partner country, responsible for the project, adult educators and project executive team.
The transnational meetings are necessary for the exchange of good practices and innovations, for implementation of activities, making the project video and executing the website, monitoring and evaluating project quality and impact on the adult learners.
Employment of young adults will be achieved through a non-traditional path (arts, food, architecture, songs) and new technologies (while making a video, creating and monitoring a website, creating a virtual work place, communicating). While knowing the cultural history and traditions of other country, the project participant would easier integrate into the cultural and social context of other country.
— —
EMPATHY FOR CHILDREN – E4C – ELEOS
Erasmus+ Programme KA2 strategic partnership project n° [2019-1-SK01-KA201-060787]
Pupils who can manage change and take risks are best prepared for the future. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of national, regional and local measures and actions to promote empathy skills in European education is hindered by the lack of political will, education strategies and guidelines. Raising empathy awareness in schools can have a positive impact on their learning environment, influence future decisions, help in the understanding of the intentions of others; their actions and feelings, and help both students and teachers anticipate the short and long-term consequences of what they do.
The concept of competency implies more than just the acquisition of knowledge and skills; it involves the mobilisation of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to meet more complex demands. Future-ready students will need both broad and specialised knowledge. Pupils will need to apply their knowledge in unknown and evolving circumstances. For this, they will need a broad range of skills, including social and emotional skills (e.g. empathy, self-efficacy and collaboration). The methodology and pedagogical approaches that Empathy for Children intends to implement, monitor, develop and assess are those advocated by Mrs Iben Sandahl. Iben Sandahl is an internationally-renowned public speaker, best-selling author, psychotherapist and educator. She has more than 20 years of experienced insight into child psychology and education, which in a most natural Danish way of practicing parenthood.
Iben Sandahl’s methodologies are embedded in Danish BA Teacher Education Programmes and incorporate different approaches, including group work, discussions and lectures, all of which are conducted in a spirit of intellectual freedom, equality and democracy with the skills to plan both the academic as well as the educational (learning environment) aspects of the teaching and learning.
Empathy for Children aims to give all pupils the best opportunities for all-round development and learning. The methodologies build on the principle of differentiated teaching. The teaching is organized in such a way as to strengthen and develop the individual pupil’s interests and through common experiences and situations, providing them with experience which prepare them for cooperation in the performance of tasks. All this develops a pupil’s awareness, imagination and a confidence in their own possibilities and backgrounds such that they are able to commit themselves and willing to take action.
All this lays the foundation for developing empathy skills and understanding of others. The evaluation phase of this project will be a combination of pilot schools’ experiences, including the experiences of pupils, teachers and parents. The project’s structure foresees:
- 5 days transnational training to prepare teacher-trainers
- national training to disseminate the acquired skills
- 19 months piloting in primary schools.
The intellectual outputs of the project will be a multilingual Empathy toolkit and guidelines for teachers and stakeholders (including policy makers) in order to include Empathy in the European education curriculum. The main target groups are the teachers/parents and pupils. The goal is to involve 10 schools in each partner country in order to build a research community. Each school will involve 4 school classes with an average of 25 pupils (= 40x4x25 = 4000). This means that at national level training will involve at least 40 teachers who will be tasked with building a research community in the classroom. Considering that parents will also be involved (4000×2), the number of participants will be more than 12.000
individuals
Empathy for Children will have a direct impact on the evolution of European education curriculum including Empathy in the primary school curricula.
— —
BUILDING UP a DIGITAL SKILLS ALLIANCE for the ENHANCING of PROGRAMMING COMPETENCIES – DiGiS
ERASMUS+ SECTOR SKILLS ALLIANCES – 621690-EPP-1-2020-1-CZ-EPPKA2-SSA
The project aims to enhance the CVET representation in the context of VET in the participating countries and improve the link between IVET and CVET by means of implementing individual VET training pathways methodologies by creating a new VET qualifications of Drone programmer and operator and Virtual reality (VR) applications programmer(developer).
Drone and Virtual Reality areas are the fastest growing areas among new smart technologies (Industry 4.0) with huge potential for further development in many sectors with benefit for European economy and society. These two sectors will contribute to creating new business and jobs, protecting environment, and improving the quality of life.
Drones and their software capture images, create maps and 3D models, and analyse data across economic sectors: in agriculture, construction, mining, services, etc. Although drones are one of the most innovative technologies with applications in many industries and business, the related profiles of a drone software programmer or drone operator are still not part of the national qualification systems and the required digital skills are not yet taught under the current VET curricula in many EU countries.
Virtual reality is already one of the top emerging technologies, which is mainly used in the entertainment industry now. However, the VR holds enormous potential outside of entertainment e.g. architecture and construction, healthcare, education, automotive industry, aerospace, manufacturing, tourism, retail and others.
The FIRST specific objective is to create a new European vocational qualification standard for these occupations:
- Drone programmer & operator.
- Virtual reality applications programmer & developer.
The project will identify and describe the digital skills required by the market demand. A survey will help define a joint qualification minimum.
The SECOND specific objective is to develop/improve curricula for the new qualifications, and prepare grounds for the delivery by VET providers. The project will include new 2 yearlong VET programs. An open online course platform will be developed for their delivery and guidelines and methodologies drafted for implementation in graduate and post graduate schools.
The THIRD project objective is to pilot the new curricula in the addressed qualification fields to obtain feedback from target groups and assess the new programs quality. Online distance courses will be offered via webinars, online exercises and e-testing. Practical training and the joint certification will be piloted involving teachers and students from VET project partners.
The FOURTH project objective is to obtain recognition of the new qualifications in as many EU countries as possible, to enable international mobility of workforce and the new curricula integration into the VET programs of public and private VET providers in initial and continuing education.
Cooperation structures at national and transnational level will be set-up during the project with the aim to support:
- the recognition of the joint qualifications
- dissemination of project outputs, promoting the online platform.
- implementation and delivery of the programs by CVET providers in EU countries.
The FIFTH project objective is to evaluate the pilot projects and share experiences among the partners. Good practices will be sought in the implementation of the new study plans, but also in other activities that are developed and integrated into the project, improving the quality of the results. | http://www.ecece.org/projects/ |
Write Your Future (High Schools): A Citizen Science Project
Background and aim Building on the DIAS Citizen Science project ‘Write your Future’, this pilot aims to explore whether a similar project is possible involving high schools. The Write Your Future project asked university students to compose short fiction texts (fewer than 1200 words) set four years into the future. The resulting stories expressed the authors’ concerns, hopes, and overall impressions about the near future and the potential impacts of COVID-19 (and related government measures) on society. These stories are research data for the exploration of scientific literacy, climate anxiety for young adults and confronting social issues.
This pilot builds on this previous project’s success by expanding the scope of the experiment to cover potentially several different high schools in the area and their students. It will investigate whether it’s possible to design and run a big scale project potentially for all Danish high schools.
For this pilot, students will write short stories and analytical essays on the future impact of climate change on their personal lives as well as on society as a whole. The aim is a co-created Citizen Science project in dialogue with teachers and high school students that teaches high school students to express and make sense of topics that are important for society. In addition, the project will provide potentially unique data to researchers and can serve as a bridgebuilder for recruiting motivated new students to the study of the humanities or related fields.
Research design and goals
- Provide Scientific Literacy and Democratic Participation
This pilot program is organized around the principle that citizens should become literate in envisioning and making sense of anticipated futures in order to (among other things) work toward desired futures and recognize potential threats. To meet this objective, citizens must also identify and use methodologies that help to form a common will in the process of applying practical knowledge (or ‘phronesis’) and also develop strategies that serve the common good (Scharmer, 2016; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 2021).
- Address Existing Climate Anxiety for Young People
High school students and their generational peers face are in many respects uniquely aware of climate change’s impact on their personal lives (and futures) when compared to previous generations of students. Young people are developing their education during a time when the consequences of carbon emissions are increasingly difficult for politicians and governments to ignore. As a result, this generation may feel especially ignored or marginalized by institutions that are supposed to represent their interests. For example, a recent Bath University survey across 10 countries showed that nearly 60% of young people (between ages 16-25) are very worried about climate change, and two-thirds remarked feeling sad, afraid, and anxious when thinking about the future (Hickman et al., 2021).
"Eco-stress" due to climate change is only now beginning to be documented (Usher, 2019), which suggests that more work needs to be done not only to understand this phenomenon but to give young people an outlet for expressing their concerns.
- Confront Social Issues via Creative Writing and Analysis
The flash fiction component of this pilot program addresses this knowledge gap in two ways. First, it provides students with a creative outlet for expressing their concerns, hopes, and anxieties regarding climate change (and its possible impact on their individual future). Each student will write a flash fiction text as well as a short story consisting of fewer than 1200 words. The premise of flash fiction is to condense potentially complex topics down to an essential core expressing the author’s key insights or expectations regarding the topic. Previous studies have shown that flash fiction is an effective tool for non-experts to generate ideas about prospective scenarios and anticipated societal changes in the near and far future (Wolf et al., 2018).
Second, the pilot program provides a catalogue of stories that, when read both individually or collectively, provide insights into feelings young people express about climate change. In short, the program amplifies and disseminates the thoughts and opinions of a population that feels underrepresented in policy debates while also equipping this group with tools for channeling their concerns into legible texts. Previous studies affirm that, with regards to climate change, the uptake of developed visions is higher when the results will impact the life of people (Selin, 2006).
In connection, the project is based on Citizen Science principles of inclusion, contribution and reciprocality (Golumbic et al. 2017)
Practicalities
The basic idea is to develop and test a methodology to increase the participants’ literacy in creative expression, critical analysis, and social/democratic participation. As the visions produced by the creative essays need to be stored somewhere to become publicly accessible, a sub-goal is to develop an infrastructure in the form of a digital learning platform a la ‘Our History’, Professor Klaus Petersen) that fits the learning goals and expectations of teachers. It would seem the course (fag) English is a fit.
The schools have so far reacted favorably on the first contact. High school students in the course English on level 2.G or e.g., 3.G would work on curriculum-based materials and training provided by SDU and submit short stories to SDU researchers.
The progression of the pilot course would be:
- Module 0: Masterclass for teachers
- Module 1-2: What is climate fiction, themes, and semantic glossary (in class)
- Module 3-4: Flash fiction workshop and story writing at each of 3-4 high schools
- Modules 5-6: follow up (in class); analysis and interpretation of short stories; short story composition
- Assignment for the students: Write a short story (min. 1000 words)
- Handing in and grading the short stories by teachers; teachers submit short stories for competition.
- Module 7: Virtual red-carpet event. Feedback from researchers and small awards for top 3 short stories.
- Investigation of publication of a brief volume of stories e.g., by a media partner.
Phases, scope and outcome
The project is planned in two phases. The first is a pilot phase in 2022 with 3-4 regional high schools and 6-8 classes. In the pilot methods and research aims is developed in a partnership with teachers and students. A large-scale design is investigated. The second phase is a potential national project 2023-2027 in which high schools across Denmark would access learning materials and submit their short stories and are included in the analysis? In connection, the outcome is:
- A method and prototype for a large-scale scale project
- A unique collection of stories for researchers on topics like eco-anxiety (and related emotions); climate fiction; speculative/science fiction; flash fiction; the social imagination
- An increased sense of responsibility and awareness towards global challenges
- An increased sense of democratic and scientific literacy.
- Student-teacher-researcher generated research within the Humanities and Social Science.
- A contribution to upgrading English, Social Science and Literature teaching at schools
- The pilot will investigate the design of a digital teaching portal with nano modules as a tangible bridge builder between SDU and high schools.
- The pilot will also investigate whether this approach can be applied at e.g., Danish classes at Danish high schools.
Phase One (pilot)
This phase will develop a teaching portfolio at high schools coupled with a process of gathering data in the form on student’s short stories on climate fiction and climate change. The steps will be:
- Develop and test the method by a project/research design:
- Dialogue with high teachers on a teaching and data collection process
- Input for a teaching platform
- Input for the design (specification) of a future application for data collection
- Input for the demands of storage (database)
- Investigation of GDPR
- Considerations of FAIR data
- Input for a feedback loop to students and teachers
- Input for the future design of a digital learning platform based on ‘Fremtidens Uddannelse’.
- New partnerships
- Exploration of funding opportunities
Link to learning and teaching in high school
The project addresses high school students by developing their knowledge, skills and competencies on a research-based background. A course plan based on the academic goals in the course curriculum for English (stx)1 will be composed. Students must be able to
- understand oral English texts and conversations of a certain length on general and academic topics
- express themselves coherently and fundamentally fluently, including formulating own views, in presentation, conversation and discussion in English on general and academic topics with a relatively high degree of grammatical accuracy
- read and understand written texts in English in different genres of a certain length on general and academic topics
- write clear, detailed and coherent texts in English with different purposes on general and academic topics with a relatively high degree of grammatical accuracy Language, text and culture
- analyze and describe the English language using relevant professional terminology
- explain content, views and linguistic features in English-language texts
- analyze and interpret texts using professional terminology and method
Milestones
In order to succeed the following steps is required: | https://www.sdu.dk/en/forskning/dias/research-projects/write+your+future+high+schools+a+citizen+science+project |
Virtual reality classes will be formed in Transcarpathia
The event was attended by managers of the MU "Agency for Regional Development and Cross-Border Cooperation "Transcarpathia" of the Transcarpathian Regional Council", which is the main partner of the project, the manager of the partner - Department of Education of Tyachiv Distrct State Administration - Vasyl Hayovych, as well as the director of Solotvyno boarding school Adriana Pop and media representatives.
During the event, they discussed features of the project implementation, prospects of innovative development of education in schools of Tyachiv district. The overall goal of the project is to increase the capacity of secondary schools to increase the students' motivation to learn and work capacity (7-17 years), as well as to improve the quality of education through partnership, innovation and interactive educational technologies in border communities of Satu Mare County and Transcarpathian region. The total budget of the project is 332,580.5 euros (9772721.7 hryvnias), of which the EU contribution is 299.286.85 euros (8794403.4 hryvnias), where the budget for Ukraine is 166.936.5 euros (4806268.77 hryvnias). Implementation period is 18 months. The project is implemented jointly with partners from Romania: Mircea Eliade High School in Satu Mare and Anghel Saligny Technical School in Turta (Satu Mare County). As part of the program, a repair of a 100 sq. m. classroom will be carried out in the Solotvyno boarding lyceum with the potential of zoning and a separate individual entrance to the premises, where virtual reality equipment will be installed. In Nyzhnya Apsha Secondary School a computer classroom will be equipped, for which they will buy 16 PCs. As part of the project, the iternational Scratch Cup will be held. The competition will be held in two stages: national competitions in Romania and Ukraine and the international final, the so-called "Scratch weekend" in Ukraine. After the installation of the equipment, the pilot schools will hold test lessons in virtual reality classrooms. A cross-border conference on the use of new technologies in education will also be held. | http://uzhgorod.in/en/news/2020/maj/virtual_reality_classes_will_be_formed_in_transcarpathia |
ASCO is currently accepting applications from medical schools located in the U.S. to participate in the 2021 Oncology Scholars Rotation pilot program, which will take place in Summer 2021.
The ASCO Oncology Scholars Rotation (OSR) is an immersive summer pilot program for rising second year medical students from populations underrepresented in medicine (URiM).
The OSR is designed as a 4-week program to be implemented in the summer break between the first and second year of medical school. Activities will take place five days per week, Monday – Friday, during each week of the program.
OSR Program Overview
The OSR curriculum components are outlined below. Please review the Program Overview document for full details on the curriculum, program structure, and ASCO support.
Virtual Education Seminar: Mix of synchronous and asynchronous format (Daily)
- Scholars watch oncology seminar videos and participate in live Zoom discussion sessions.
- ASCO develops and leads seminars.
Mentoring and Physician Shadowing (Daily)*
- Scholars shadow and meet one-on-one with local oncology professionals.
- Institution identifies faculty, develops schedule, and determines format.
Networking Lunches (2-3 per week)*
- Intimate forum for scholars to network with and learn from local leaders in medicine.
- ASCO provides funding and institution coordinates these activities, determines format, and identifies topic based on local circumstances.
Social Events (Weekly)*
- Build a sense of community amongst scholars.
- ASCO provides funding and institution identifies and coordinates activity based on local circumstances.
ASCO Assigned Background Materials & Discussion Questions (Daily)
- Scholars review assigned background materials (readings, videos, etc.) and discussion questions to prepare for seminars.
- ASCO identifies and assigns content as well as discussion questions.
*NOTE: Activity format (in-person vs. virtual) and feasibility of hosting these activities should be determined by the institution. To determine the feasibility of hosting any in-person events, please consider current COVID-19 circumstances in the local area and look to any local, state, and institution policies related to social distancing and hosting in-person events.
Request for Applications
The ASCO OSR program will launch at select medical schools in the United States as a pilot program in Summer 2021. Pilot participation will be limited. ASCO will select medical schools based on the institution’s demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion, ability to implement the program, and number of eligible URiM students who enroll in the program.
ASCO is currently accepting applications from institutions to be considered as a host-site in the Summer 2021 pilot program.
To apply, interested medical schools should complete the following steps by Monday, November 2 at 11:59pm ET. All application instructions are outlined in the application form linked below.
- Download the fillable application form.
- Complete all fields in the application form.
- Return the completed application documents by email to [email protected].
Application & Selection Timeline
- Institutions Apply to Participate as host-site for 2021 Pilot: October 1 – November 2, 2020
- ASCO Notifies Selected Institutions: Early November 2020
- Selected Institutions Notify Eligible Students about OSR Program: Mid-November 2020
- Students Indicate Interest in Participating: Early December 2020
- Deadline for Students to Enroll in OSR Program: Mid-January 2021
* The OSR should be implemented as a cohort program and as such, institutions must have at least three scholars who enroll in the program to participate in the 2021 pilot program.
Please contact ASCO Professional Development with questions. | https://www.asco.org/practice-policy/cancer-care-initiatives/diversity-oncology-initiative/oncology-scholars-rotation |
From virtual to real: Why ICRC is testing VR’s empathy generating potential
With our new interactive, virtual reality film, The Right Choice, produced with the support of Google's Daydream Impact program, we wanted to find out what you think. Fifty million people around the world bear the brunt of urban violence. Can VR engage a new audience to understand what that impact looks and feels like on the ground?
The ICRC is showing 'The Right Choice' at events and public places around the world and is gathering data and feedback via a short online questionnaire. Findings will be shared in early 2019 with other charities, academic institutions, and policy makers.
The results will help us and others decide how best to use immersive technology to shed a light on the experience of civilians bearing the brunt of war in cities around the world. Audience insights from this experience have the potential to affect future investment in VR as a critical tool for education and awareness raising.
Using virtual reality at the ICRC is nothing new. A dedicated VR unit has been producing bespoke content to help educate authorities and armed factions about the rules of war for several years now. However, this is the first time the ICRC has used this medium for a more public-facing campaign. | https://www.icrc.org/en/document/right-choice-virtual-reality-film |
May 9 – May 15, 2015
This week, we want to highlight Ohio HB 64, which would significantly advance competency education in the state by providing funding for up to ten school districts to pilot competency-based learning. Each pilot district or school would receive $250,000 per year to plan for and implement personalized learning models that advance students upon mastery, rather than seat time. Pilot sites can be run by a school district, school, or a consortium of districts and schools led by an educational service center.
The bill defines a “Competency-Based Educational Program” as a system of academic instruction, assessment, grading, and reporting where students receive credit based on demonstrations and assessments of their learning rather than the amount of time they spend studying a subject.
Importantly, the legislative language requires that the plans submitted by pilot program applicants must satisfy the following components, which bear a strong resemblance to the iNACOL CompetencyWorks definition for competency education:
- Students advance upon mastery;
- Competencies include clear, measurable, transferable learning objectives that empower students;
- Assessments are meaningful and a positive learning experience for students;
- Students receive timely, differentiated support based on their individual learning needs; and
- Learning outcomes emphasize competencies that include application and creation of knowledge, along with the development of work-ready skills.
The pilot program also requires applicants to partner with postsecondary institutions and local industry.
In the May 13, 2015 iNACOL Leadership Webinar, Buddy Harris, Senior Policy Analyst for the Ohio Department of Education, spoke of Ohio H.B. 64. He stated that he has good expectations that the legislature will maintain the proposal in the budget and pass it into law.
Since Ohio H.B. 64 is a budget bill, it would directly tie resources to the pilot program. Most states have introduced measures to enable competency education as stand-alone bills without resources attached. If this pilot program passes, not only can schools petition for flexibility from state policy barriers, but also acquire the necessary resources to plan and implement truly transformative changes to the learning environments they offer. Currently, Ohio has a Credit Flexibility Plan, which allows local boards to guide credit flexibility for high school students. All public schools had to implement a policy for Credit Flex for the 2010-2011 school year. Students must get their flex credit plan approved, however, which means districts are empowered to determine how easily students can access credit flexibility. Seat-time waivers are available in Ohio, but few schools have sought them. This measure would encourage a real shift in thinking to competency-based learning environments. iNACOL President and CEO Susan Patrick recently provided testimony in support of the Ohio competency-based education pilot program.
A summary is below; a more detailed version with additional legislative information is available in the members-only iNACOL Member Forums. We track policy priorities and issues related to the field’s needs as outlined annually in the iNACOL State Policy Frameworks. This report provides background information and recommendations for issues on the critical policy shifts needed to transform K-12 education.
State Policy Highlights
- iNACOL is currently tracking 98 bills in 31 states.
Legislative Calendars
- Colorado adjourned May 14, 2015.
Bills on the move
- A California bill that would appropriate $1 million to train K-12 teachers to more effectively utilize technology and digital resources within their instructional day was considered by the Appropriations Committee on May 11 and placed in the “Appropriation Suspense File,” which means that the bill will be considered when the state has a better sense of available revenue.
- The Ohio Senate Finance Subcommittee for Education considered the state budget bill, which includes a provision to allocate $2.5 million to create up to ten competency-based education pilot schools.
- An amendment has been offered to the Illinois Course Access bill (which has already been amended to a degree that it no longer qualifies as a true course access program) that would replace the current language with language that establishes a Virtual Education Review Committee. This amendment essentially kills Course Access in Illinois.
- The Governor in Indiana has signed a bill that would establish “Innovation Network Schools.”
- A bill in New Hampshire that would allow districts to participate in the Performance Assessment for Competency Education (PACE) system of local assessments, which was approved under the US Department of Education’s ESEA flexibility waiver, was considered in the Education Committee and amended.
- The Governor in Oklahoma signed a bill that would require the Statewide Virtual Charter School Board to establish a process to review and certify the quality of supplemental online courses, moving the state closer to a course access policy.
- In California, a bill that would provide charter schools with increased flexibility surrounding the amount of time students must receive direct instruction in a physical classroom was originally scheduled for a hearing on May 13; however, it has been postponed.
iNACOL 2015 Blended and Online Learning Symposium
The iNACOL Blended and Online Learning Symposium will be held November 8-11, 2015 in Orlando, Florida. Registration opened Tuesday, March 31.
Already a member? Access the more detailed legislative highlights through the Membership Forum.
Not yet a member? Join iNACOL to gain access to this Membership Forum, job postings, announcements, grant opportunities, and the latest information from the field. | https://www.inacol.org/news/ohio-advances-competency-education-pilot-program/ |
Why should you implement an innovative strategy within your school? International education expert and guest panelists addressed this question through the lens of three emerging aspects of school life during the ISC Research Edruptors@School conference in June:
- How to successfully implement hybrid learning
- Cybersecurity in education technology and how leaders can keep all members of the school community safe online
- And how innovative school strategies such as virtual reality and the metaverse in education may become foundational learning resources of the future
Successful implementation of hybrid learning
Beginning the hybrid learning session, Philippa Wraithmell, digital education specialist, encouraged school leaders to consider all possible needs as a school when selecting technology. This involves thinking about communication, safety, and building capacity. Concentrate on communication with all stakeholders including your international community, and how the technology will enable you to do that effectively with active engagement, she advised. Philippa stressed the importance of considering cultural differences and expectations within the school community that will impact everyone’s understanding of safety. She recommended that school leaders should look at the values of their school and align the curriculum and school values with the technology used by the school. “Dive into something new”, she suggested, and “start to build that strategy of what you want to be able to achieve.”
Sabina Pecoraro, Assistant Headteacher at Emirates International School Jumeirah, spoke about the use of a hybrid model post-COVID, suggesting that it can maximise the productivity, scalability, and flexibility of learning. She emphasised the need for the upskilling of school leaders and teachers to promote student engagement. “As educators, we need to keep upskilling ourselves so that we are technology focused and can continually be adapting to keep our students engaged,” she said. However, to deliver collaborative, innovative, and intuitive teaching methodologies to students, teacher access to the right technology and resources is crucial, she outlined.
Dr Vandana Lulla, Principal at Podar International School talked about being a paperless school with the goal of a sustainable future, highlighting the opportunities and challenges faced. When adapting to the online mode of teaching during the pandemic, Vandana highlighted the need to tweak the curriculum and ensure innovative teaching resources were accessible. To improve the curriculum, Vandana emphasised the importance of gathering feedback alongside providing parents and teachers with an enhanced support network: offering coffee mornings, buddy systems, step-by-step videos, and more. “Parents, teachers, and students had access anywhere and anytime: there was consistency,” she said.
Crucial awareness around cybersecurity in edtech
The second session of the day involved Matt Harris, co-founder, and CEO at ChildSafeguarding.com, and Bethan Eveleigh, online education and safeguarding specialist. Both experts urged the importance of cultivating knowledge and awareness around the risks of technology, sharing strategies and recommendations for stakeholders to implement protective measures in schools.
Bethan addressed who should be responsible for cybersecurity within a school. “Life for most people is online, so the message to international school leaders is that it’s everyone’s responsibility,” she said. She explained the significance of teaching students and staff how to be safe online. “If we don’t teach students how to be safe, how can they be? Teaching them about technology and the virtual world is our responsibility for our young people’s future,” she insisted.
Matt discussed the cybersecurity challenges most schools face, outlining the need for a preventative measure of ‘walled gardens’ in the digital space. He shared real examples of incidents and emphasised that everyone must know the processes regarding cyber protection and safety. “External risks are the ones that are increasing the most…tending to be the most impactful,” he said. However, Matt spoke of the lack of awareness that some school staff have about the internal risks which can impact the whole school when they occur.
Pioneering school strategies: VR and the metaverse
The final session of the day prompted an inspirational discussion around innovative school strategies and shifting the mindsets of school leaders.
Dwayne Matthews, Head of School, Innovation and Partnerships at Ontario Virtual School, kicked off the discussion by talking about the paradigmatic shift of immersive learning. “It allows us to connect with communities in much more meaningful ways, with increased inclusivity, as well as developing skills in different ways,” he said. Dwayne believes we should consider technology, including virtual reality, as tools for the school. However, he stressed the need to understand the purpose of technology and its use within the school environment, particularly within the classroom. Teachers should know if they are “substituting, augmenting, or transforming the learning with the support of technology,” he said. He added that, regardless of innovative technology, the role of teaching has not changed. “We are preparing students for the future and about their future preparedness to contribute to the greater whole,” he said.
Nathan O’Grady, Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality (VR/AR) and eSports Lead at King’s InterHigh, part of the Inspired Education Group, covered the risks and challenges associated with moving into an immersive learning terrain. He explained that safeguarding is a significant risk, alongside ensuring technology remains curriculum aligned. “A key risk is the balance of strategic use rather than overuse of this technology,” he said. Challenges include recognising that not all schools have equal funding or access to technology, onboarding, and overcoming barriers to learning. “An important point to recognise is that this is a different type of technology than we have had before,” he expressed. Nathan encouraged school leaders to not fear the change but instead to “embrace the opportunities that it can bring to a wide variety of people.”
Dr Jeremy Williams, Vice President of Community for Monax Labs, a web3 infrastructure studio, spoke about web3. Web3 is in its early days with a long way to go, but the fundamental building blocks of web3 are important to understand, he told delegates. Jeremy discussed the challenges around the ability to adopt technology. “There has got to be conversation around the value that technology is adding to students; maybe this is virtual reality, maybe it is not,” he said. “If it’s only a substitution for an alternative tool, then it can be a harmful scenario,” he warned. A bigger priority for some schools is to focus on the infrastructure first before getting distracted by assets, he advised.
Thank you to Pearson and Discovery Education for sponsoring the day two discussion sessions. For those who registered for the online conference, recordings of all panel discussions are available through the Edruptors@School Whova platform until September. | https://iscresearch.com/implementation-of-an-innovative-school-strategy/ |
Sugarloaf Mountain in Campbellton and Atholville is part of the Appalachian range. The mountain, located within Sugarloaf Provincial Park is 305 metres high. Geologists believe Sugarloaf Mountain was perhaps a volcano in the Late Devonian or at least the pipe feeding magma toward the surface. Its formation is associated with a period of crustal thinning that followed the Acadian Orogeny in the northern Appalachian Mountains. According to the Mi'kmaq, Koluskap created Sugarloaf Mountain. A group of giant beavers had dammed the Restigouche River, blocking the salmon from their spawning grounds and depriving the Mi'kmaq of their food source. Koluskap flung the leader of the giant beavers and when the beaver landed it turned into rock and became Sugarloaf Mountain.
Many of the pink coloured rocks seen road outcrops in Campbellton and Atholville are rhyolite, lava of similar composition to granite. Rhyolite is an extrusive igneous rock. It erupts at the surface and cools quickly. Granite is an intrusive igneous rock that cools slowly below the surface of the Earth. | http://magnificentrocks-rochesmagnifique.ca/the_periods-les_periodes/devonian-devonien/familiar_landscapes-paysages_familiers/sugarloaf_mountain_campbellton-campbellton_mont_sugarloaf-eng/ |
A fun place to explore in southern Frederick County is Sugarloaf Mountain. Not too far from Washington D.C., Sugarloaf is just north of Montgomery County, and close to the state of Virginia.
From the base of the mountain, you can drive up to the Potomac Overlook. Park on the east or west side and hike up one of 2 trails to the Bill Lambert Overlook. Each trail is just 1/4 mile long, but they are very steep in places, and can be strenuous. We had fun climbing all over the rocks at the top.
If it is crowded at the overlooks, try the more remote 5 mile Northern Peaks Trail and stop at the White Rocks viewpoint. If you want a longer hike, you can extend it with the 2 1/2 mile Mountain Loop Trail. Another option is the 7 mile Saddleback Horse Trail that circles the entire mountain. | http://www.ramblingtraveler.com/2007/04/sugar-loaf-mountain-maryland.html |
In the parking lot tailgaters in lawn chairs sit around grills, and coming down the mountain, skiers and snowboarders are dressed in tie-dye and wildly bright apparel. Sam points to a duo with skis slung over their shoulders— one is in a gorilla suit and the other is dressed like a banana. We are quickly realizing that Reggae Fest is kind of like a Halloween party on the mountain, where 80s snowsuits are relevant and practical. The valet takes care of our car as we unload and head inside to check in at the hotel.
6:30 p.m. @ 45 North
After a seamless check-in, we drop our bags in a guest room that has a beautiful view of the untamed Bigelow Range northwest of Sugarloaf. We follow the reggae music through an opened barn door into the hotel’s restaurant that has a rustic, cozy interior. A six-piece band plays to the après-ski crowd. After our first round, we head into the dining room, where we have a hard time choosing just one dish off a menu that featuresthe kind of Maine comfort food one needs on chilly evenings. I decide on the baked salmon over snow peas and Sam goes with the flat-iron steak that he tells me is “cooked to perfection.” So far, so good.
8:15 p.m. @ the Widowmaker Lounge
We walk over to the Widowmaker and take a seat by a window. We can’t look away from the carved runs as the trees become deep purple silhouettes against a glowing pink sky. As night falls, the snowcats’ lights are small distant beacons. They’re perfecting the snow for tomorrow, and for the first of many times on this trip, we come to understand that someone is always taking care of the mountain.
10:00p.m. @ Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel
It’s back to our cozy room so that we can be ready for a busy day tomorrow. The staff at the front desk nods at our decision.
Saturday
8:00 a.m. @ D’Ellies
We meet our friends, Mac and Mattie, for breakfast at a place Mattie swears by. She has been coming to Sugarloaf since she was a kid, so we trust her opinion. We order breakfast sandwiches (some on English muffins, others on bagels) and the chef calls our names as we pick them up hot from the grill. We sit at a high top by the window, watching as a Santa suit goes by with others dressed in neon attire. As I listen to conversations around me, I quickly learn that this weekend is a tradition for groups of families and friends—and as the years add up, groups expand, packing lists grow, costumes are passed down, and funny stories pile up.
10:00a.m. @ Sugarloaf Outdoor Center
Outside the center, which sits on Moose Bog, we take in a view of Sugarloaf and the western mountains that reminds us how small we are in comparison. We pack water and snacks, and then we’re off snowshoeing well-maintained trails on a beautiful sunny day. Occasionally, we traverse over cross-country trails where we exchange hellos with jacketless skiers happily gliding along the trails.
1:00 p.m. @ Gepetto’s
We head back to grab some lunch at Gepetto’s, where we just beat the rush as a line forms out the door of skiers taking a break after a morning on the trails. The restaurant is casual, and tables are pulled together to accommodate large groups. I order the chicken Caesar salad, Sam gets the burger, and the waitress convinces us to embellish our lunches with half-priced housemade sangria, “it’s Reggae Fest after all,” she tells us.
2:30p.m. @ Narrow Gauge Pathway
A short ride takes us to another snowshoeing trail. We talk conditions with other snowshoers who explain they are good, but unfortunately, melting. We hurry onward, crossing a bridge that takes us to to the now-rushing dark-blue waters of the Carrabassett River. Ice chunks occasionally float by, reminding us of the river’s still-frigid core. We walk in the same direction as the river, stopping to gaze into the thick forest, take pictures, and throw snowballs into the rolling water.
4:30 p.m. @ the Beach at Sugarloaf
The Beach is located in front of the Widowmaker, at the base of the mountain. We stand in the sun, listening to the free live reggae show, which features Green Lion Crew, Royal Hammer, and CatchaVibe. Despite the chilly temperatures, we join the crowd in grabbing beers from the outdoor bar— exchanging money and cans from gloved hand to gloved hand with the bartenders. We talk with a couple who tells us they recently moved to the valley so they could ski all the time in the winter.
6:30 p.m. @ Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel
Our legs are tired from snowshoeing all day, so we join Mac, Mattie, and another friend, Cyndi, in the Jacuzzi. Many hotel guests have the same idea, but we all pile in and enjoy sinking our bodies into the warm water while our faces catch the cool breeze that blows down from the mountain.
8:00 p.m. @ Shipyard Brew Haus Sugarloaf
We catch a shuttle to the Shipyard Brew Haus, although we later discover that we could have either skied or hiked down from the hotel since it’s located under the Sawduster lift on the Birches Trail. Inside, the atmosphere feels authentically ski lodge with dark wood and dozens of mugs on display up over the bar. Mattie and Mac rave about their salads and we all devour spinach and artichoke dip in a bread bowl, fulfilling the hunger that comes from a long day of activity outdoors.
9:30 p.m. @ Sugarloaf Inn
While it’s not reggae music, the Sugarloaf Inn is hosting North of Nashville. The two-man new-country band plays tunes to an enthusiastic audience that two steps in pairs.
10:00 p.m. @ the Widowmaker
Back at the Widowmaker, the feature show of the weekend takes the stage. Neon lights fill the lodge packed with the reggae lovers. Iration plays to a sold-out crowd.
12:00 a.m. @ Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel
After the concert the crowds leaves the Widowmaker, emptying into a silent resort. We hit the hay back at the hotel, resting up for another day of fun on the mountain.
Sunday
8:00 a.m. @ Sugarloaf Mountain
On our last day, the weather breaks from yesterday’s warmth and sun, reminding us that we are still within the reach of a northern winter. Snow falls from an overcast sky, and the summit is covered by clouds.
9:30 a.m. @ Java Joe’s
We fill up on muffins and lattes from Java Joe’s. Mattie bumps into her childhood ski instructor and they plunge into stories from years past. It must have been very special to be able to grow up coming to a place like this—where relationships are forged and outdoor adventures are part of everyday life.
10:30a.m. @ Sugarloaf Mountain
Mattie and Mac take on King’s Landing Trail, which is Mattie’s favorite because it’s long and winds down the mountain. I settle on Lower Timberline, which is a much easier run. The first run was carved in the 1950s. Today, the mountain has
60 miles of skiable terrain, with a good mix of easy, intermediate, and advanced trails.
2:00p.m. @the Bag and Kettle
We have a late lunch at the Bag and Kettle restaurant and regroup to talk over our favorite trails and lookout points. Skiers unwind with a beer and swap stories about the day’s rides.
3:30 p.m. @ the Downhill Supply Company
I head into the ski shop to see if I can find anything to remember my trip by. The store sells ski clothing as well as an array of colorful boards and skis that kids call their parents over to—a hint for next year’s Christmas. At the end of the season, many items are on sale, and I decide on a Sugarloaf sweatshirt, which features the mountain’s snow-covered peak.
5:00 p.m. @ Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel
It’s time to head home. We’re happy that we really made the most of our weekend. We leave with sore muscles, but mostly stories and reminders of how beautiful and satisfying a weekend spent in the outdoors can be. | https://www.themainemag.com/48-hours/2625-carrabassett-valley/ |
Sugarloaf Mountain is a small mountain with beautiful scenery in Frederick County, Maryland.
The mountain is privately owned by Stronghold, Incorporated, a non-profit corporation, and is open to the public for hiking, horseback riding, and picnicking. With an elevation of 1,282 feet and a vertical height of 800 feet above the surrounding farmland, visitors enjoy the striking views and the variety of plants and wildlife at Sugarloaf Mountain.
Sugarloaf Mountain is a wonderful place to enjoy hiking and nature trails. Four well-marked hiking trails are available:
*Blue – Northern Peaks Trail – 5 miles
*Purple – Alternate Route to White Rocks – 1.5 miles
*White – Mountain Loop Trail – 2.5 miles
*Yellow – Saddleback Horse Trail – 7 miles
Trail Map: PDF of the map
Learn More: http://www.sugarloafmd.com
Fun Fact:
The mountain was designated a National Natural Landmark in 1969. | https://wanderstarr.com/listing/sugarloaf-mountain/ |
LOCATION: Rt. 302,3 miles East of Twin Mountain.
Zealand, Sugarloaf I and Sugarloaf II are three popular campground in the beautiful Zealand Valley. They are located on Zealand Road off Rout 302, 3 miles east of Twin Mountain, NH. There is a maximum of 8 people and 2 vehicles per campsite. Campground stays are limited to 14 days. Pets must be leashed. Mountain biking, fishing and numerous hiking opportunities are nearby.
11 grass pads, open sites. | http://icampnh.com/zealand-valley/zealand-campground/ |
A rugged thru-hike bagging five of the Catskill High Peaks.
Severe Hiking
- Distance
- 35 km
- Ascent
- 2.6 km
- Descent
- 2.6 km
A challenging day hike connecting three trails and summiting Sugarloaf Mountain.
Hiking Severe
This popular but challenging day hike links the Pecoy Notch Trail to the Mink Hollow Trail, summiting Sugarloaf Mountain via the infamous Devils Path.
Begin your hike at the DEC Trailhead located along Dale Lane. Including nearby pull-offs, there is space for fewer than 10 vehicles. In the winter months, road closures make this trailhead inaccessible.
While some would suggest hiking the mountain from east to west, it can be done either way. Clockwise, the climbing is gradual but more sustained. Reversed, a relentless climb leads up Mink Hollow Trail and will put your legs and lungs to the test.
Keeping left at the first junction, follow the Pecoy Notch Trail as it climbs towards the Devil's Path. Along the way, you'll pass through an area known for its rock "chairs." Catskill Mountaineer even suggests they are "...the most elaborate rock structures in the Catskill Mountains." This elaborately constructed area even offers some partial views over Platte Clove Valley.
As you near the notch, you will cross over a wooden bridge before reaching a picturesque beaver pond. The entire area is riddled with beaver activity and the serene pond offers a beautiful backdrop for a photo.
The Pecoy Notch Trail terminates at the Devil's Path, arguably one of the most challenging thru-hikes in the Catskills, if not the entire state. For an optional addition to this route, make the short—though steep—trek to the summit of Twin Mountain. Sweeping views of the Catskills' dramatic terrain make this one of the best overlooks in the region. It also offers a vantage to view both Sugarloaf Mountain and nearby Indian Head Mountain.
A final climb separates the notch from the 3,800-foot summit of Sugarloaf Mountain. As you are now on the Devil's Path, know that there is no easy portion ahead of you. The relentless rocky, rooted terrain makes hiking slow, often demanding three points of contact. Around 3,400', look for a short spur trail leading to a partial overlook. It's worth the view, and a reward for your efforts thus far.
Expect no views from the official summit, but continue and look for a short spur trail denoted by yellow blazes. It's easy to miss, but offers astounding views and sees few visitors.
Ahead, you have one of the most difficult stretches of the Devil's Path to traverse. Rocks and roots form an almost alien landscape as you descend off the western face of the mountain. The trail is extremely steep: watch your footing and use three points of contact when necessary.
Finish your hike by returning on the Mink Hollow Trail. Though the brunt of the elevation change is over, this portion is still demanding, making you earn every step.
Mind the trail blazes closely as it can become easy to leave the trail as it follows a creek. A quaint stream cascades its way below a bridge and one final overlook denotes the hike is nearly over. At the junction with the Pecoy Notch Trail, keep left and return to the trailhead to round out your hike.
Sources: http://www.catskillmountaineer.com/IH-sugarloaf.html
Severe
Hiking challenging trails where simple scrambling, with the occasional use of the hands, is a distinct possibility. The trails are often filled with all manner of obstacles both small and large, and the hills are very steep. Obstacles and challenges are often unexpected and can be unpredictable.
2.9 km away
A rugged thru-hike bagging five of the Catskill High Peaks.
Severe Hiking
2.9 km away
A relentless day hike to the summit of Indian Head Mountain.
Severe Hiking
4.5 km away
A popular route to summit the Kaaterskill High Peak.
Difficult Hiking
4.5 km away
A shorter day hike to an excellent vista atop Huckleberry Point.
Moderate Hiking
8.9 km away
An intense, lesser-traveled approach to the Kaaterskill High Peak.
Severe Hiking
8.9 km away
A phenemonal day hike or overnight trip to a historic fire tower and serene lake. | https://fatmap.com/discover/route/united-states-of-america/new-york/hiking/sugarloaf-mountain-loop/133726 |
Jerry Corbetta, the voice of Sugarloaf’s ’70s hits “Green Eyed Lady” and “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You,” passed away Friday, a week shy of his 70th birthday. He died of a neurological disorder that forced his retirement seven years ago.
“Green Eyed Lady” was the band’s breakthrough in the fall of 1970. Cut down from a seven-minute-long album track to a single less than half the length, it was a tour-de-force for Corbetta’s keyboard skills. The hit put the Colorado rockers on the map and landed them on American Bandstand months later. Sugarloaf later also performed on The Midnight Special.
Originally billed as Chocolate Hair, the band’s label Liberty Records was uncomfortable with the name, fearing it might have a racial connotation, and asked the group to change it. Jerry and his partners chose Sugarloaf for the famed Utah mountain. | https://www.wheelz1045.com/2016/09/19/sugarloaf-frontman-jerry-corbetta-dead-at-69/ |
After Sugarloaf Lookout (Alberta) and Sugarloaf Peak (Arizona), Sugarloaf Mountain was our third, sweet spot. Not only was this a quick trip for Dinah and me, it was less than 10 minutes from our hotel in Riverside. The mountain, which is little more than a grassy hillock with a few rocks and bushes thrown in, rises above San Bernardino Valley.
We started up the trail at the edge of a residential area and soon reached a saddle. We turned left and continued up a gentle incline. Ahead, however, the grade steepens considerably. Dinah decided to hang back while I continued to the summit. Below me, I saw urban sprawl stretching across the valley. A hummingbird with a red cap zipped passed, perhaps the same one Dinah and I had seen earlier.
On the summit, I had a grand view of distant peaks. I could see 3500 m San Gorgonio Mountain to the northeast, still covered in snow. Then I followed the trail down to join Dinah on the lower slope, and we completed our little hike. It's nice to know that in the bustling city of Riverside, tranquility can be found on Sugarloaf Mountain.
We parked at the trailhead in sight of Sugarloaf Mountain
A dedication sits at the start
The trail soon reaches a saddle
There were a few tiny flowers
Some cactus like this cholla
The trail turns to climb the ridge on the left
The trail will soon steepen. Ahead is a false summit.
Looking back. Dinah is in the centre. | https://bobspirko.ca/USTrips/California/SugarloafMtn/SugarloafMtn.htm |
Local name: Pao de Acucar
Due to erosion, the leftovers of an immense mountain range are seven cone-shaped rock formation. The Sugarloaf Mountain is one of them. The top can be reached on foot or, much easier, via a 1,400 meter long cablecar.
The cablecar ride gives you a stunning view of the city. The white sandy beaches, the city, the statue of Christ, the National Park and everything that makes Rio … well … Rio!
Ideal for photographs, especially at the end of the day. Or in the early morning when all is relatively quiet. The rule of thumb “clear day ensures impressive panoramic views” also applies here. One thing becomes really clear: Rio is one of the most beautifully positioned cities in the world.
If possible, return to the Sugarloaf when it’s dark and the views of the city are phenomenal. Avoid the weekends, because it gets extremely busy.
You can also climb up the Sugarloaf Mountain. There is a path, but part of it can also be done by real rock climbing. This is by no means easy, a guide can help you with the basic techniques and provide safety.
It is also possible to go up on foot and then descend in the cablecar t to take in the view. Or the other way around. | https://www.amazingplaces.com/brazil/sugarloaf-mountain-rio-de-janeiro/ |
Climber:
Jeffrey McLean
Date:
Friday, October 19, 2012
Ascent Type:
Successful Summit Attained
Peak:
North Sugarloaf
Location:
USA-New Hampshire
Elevation:
2310 ft / 704 m
Ascent Trip Report
Middle and North Sugarloaf are two great, easy little mountains. It's about an hour up the Sugarloaf trail to the trail junction if you take it slow. The trail up to the junction is a pretty easy grade. The only somewhat steep part has a set of rock steps, but those probably aren't even needed. About 1/3 of the way up there are a few places where there is a variety of interesting large boulders. Very pretty forest throughout the trip to up in the fall. Lots of bright yellows in the trees for us. We chose to do Middle Sugarloaf first. It's a half mile from the junction. It's mostly flat to start. You'll hit a steep part after a few minutes that then levels out after you bend to the left. Once the trail turns back to the right you'll start climbing moderately to a wooden stair case. This leads you to the broad open summit. There are plenty of places to sit up here, and even on a crowded day you probably would have no problem finding a place to yourself. Great views in almost every direction if you walk around the top. From the junction to North Sugarloaf is slightly different from it's sister mountain. The forest is a little more open. You'll descent first, climb for a bit, and level off as the trail arcs to the right around the summit crown. You'll start climbing steeply, take a sharp right, and you're almost at the top. Great views here as well, but not as far around as Middle Sugarloaf. After the descent we did the Trestle trail that follows the Zealand river. This is a nice trail and it leads to a HUGE boulder that's very fun to explore. The bridge is washed out so you'll have a difficult water crossing to do the loop. Most of the north side of the river is inside the campground, so you're almost better off turning back than attempting this crossing. Even at low water it's slick and difficult.
Summary Total Data
Ascent Part of Trip:
Middle and North Sugarloaf
Complete Trip Sequence:
Order
Peak/Point
Date
Gain
1
Middle Sugarloaf
2012-10-19
2
North Sugarloaf
2012-10-19
This page has been served 171 times since 2005-01-15.
Copyright © 1987-2021 by Peakbagger.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=278109 |
Fire is well north of Chetco Bar Fire, in West Indigo Creek drainage, east of Sugarloaf Mountain. Currently 50-75 acres. US Forest Service responding. Helicopters dropping water. | https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/photograph/5385/97/ |
The East side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is home to some of the best hiking in California. Throughout this stretch of the mountain range, hikers pass by pristine alpine lakes, over mountain passes with views of jagged peaks, through wildflower-studded meadows, and along crystal clear rivers and streams. The area is well-known for its 211-mile John Muir Trail that winds its way through stunning Wilderness, but there are also plenty of great day hikes here as well, many that are easily accessed via the small mountain town of Mammoth Lakes. I’ve lived just south of Mammoth for about four years, and these six Mammoth Lakes hikes showcase the best views, lakes, pine forests, and natural beauty of the Eastern Sierra. Pro tip: bring your bathing suit!
When we steer through the roads of Regents, the towering procession of the Sugarloaf Mountain often falls in our view unnoticed. Albeit the unfortunate mudslide that is associated with it, the mountain’s formation is dazzling and its trails offer this abysmal forestry and steep climbs that are both soothing and nerve-wreaking. It is the perfect spot for the serenity seeking-hikers-and-the-cliffhanger-obsessed-adventurers.
The spectacle at the ceiling of Mount Sugarloaf is just wow… It is the most stunning display of nature’s handiwork. The scene is filled with an uninterrupted overlapping of hills and lush greenery. In the countenance of that setting, an hour could easily go by unnoticed for it’s lit with serenity at its best. We stood there, basking in the view, doing all the world poses for the cameras and relaxing while some of those that were left behind catch-up with us. They relate the stories of how others decided to turn back. We all joined together, make good memories of the experience before we descend the mountain. The entire hike took just over an hour or more to do. Going down the mountain seem easy but tricky because of the steep slopes. Before we set out to descend the peak, we advise ourselves to move cautiously. And cautiously we move knowing fully well, at that particular moment, we’ve conquered ourselves
It was on a Saturday morning that we decided to conquer ourselves in the form of the Sugarloaf Mountain. We gathered at the foot of the peak, over a dozen of us, male and female, black and white, young and not so young adults formed this galaxy of hikers. Those who knew each other stood chatting as we prep for the hike. For some of us who had done a far more exhilarating hike such as the Pickett Hill, our perception of Sugarloaf Mountain was nothing short of a quick-sprint-hiking.
From what I could savour from the chitchats, it was apparent that the hiking trip is both an escape and a workout event for some. Such an idea was anticipated, because, these days, there’s so much constant mental stimulation and muscles contraction activities in the bustling demands of the urban lifestyle. It has almost replaced the desire for body-drillings, adventures and mind-relaxing ordeals such the one we’re about to embark on. The hike to the sugar loaf Mountain was the third instalment of the Movember hiking series organized by Visit Sierra Leone . | https://loucospordeus.com/the-eastern-sierra-visit/ |
The fall season is in full swing here in Western Maine and we wanted to get out this weekend and take advantage of the colorful foliage. We decided to take a drive up to Sugarloaf in Carrabassett Valley and check out their annual Homecoming Weekend. This is a weekend filled with a schedule of events for everyone to enjoy. Before going to the mountain, we stopped at the Carrabassett Coffee Company in Kingfield and picked up some of our favorite coffee. They were open later than usual for the holiday weekend and we were in luck, because we usually seem to either make it right before they close or they are closed already. The smell of the coffee is always very welcoming when you get inside. Everyone was in bright spirits and we even got a tour of some of the day-to-day operations in the back. We were then on our way up to Sugarloaf.
When we made it to Sugarloaf, the parking lot close to the hotel was packed so we had to park in one of the lots pretty far away. This wasn’t a problem, because we got a ride from the bus. I’m sure this comes in handy when you are lugging a bunch of ski and snowboarding gear. Our first stop was the book sale offered by the Carrabassett Public Library. The book sale was held in the spruce room of the base lodge. There was a nice selection and we ended up leaving the sale with a few books. Next, we went upstairs to the Upcountry Artists Art Show. This show showcases some of the finest artists and craftsman of Western Maine. There were a bunch of wonderful items, from handmade jewelry and furniture to beautiful photography, artwork and crafts.
We then decided it was time to go on the scenic chairlift ride to the top of the mountain. We were able to take a few photographs before the sunlight disappeared and the clouds started to roll in. On the way up the mountain, the air was filled with a wonderful fragrance from the pine trees. The air temperature at the base was in the 50s and at the top, it was probably somewhere in 30s. The base elevation is 1417 ft and the top elevation is 4237 ft. Being this wasn’t my first fall chairlift ride, I brought my mittens just in case and I’m sure glad I did. It was pretty cold there and there was even a sighting of a few falling snowflakes. Anyway, we took a few photographs and we got back online to go down. The line was pretty long. A few brave souls hiked down, but we passed the time talking with a nice couple we met from Arizona. We all took the ride back down together. The only scary part of riding on the lift was when it had to make stops. As we were stopped and dangling in the air, the chair would continue to swing a bit. This only happened about three times or so. I don’t believe you have a chance to think about your ride on the lift during the winter. It is usually the one way up and the lift is going at a much faster pace. Anyway, we all made it in one piece and we had a great time soaking in the fall mountain views.
The Welcome Home Sugarloaf sign.
The base of Sugarloaf.
The base lodge at Sugarloaf.
The thirty person outdoor hot tub at the Sugarloaf Mountain Hotel.
The beach at Sugarloaf.
Pumpkins and Mums.
A parked Vespa scooter.
The Hunker Down and Restaurant Bar.
Flower-lined stairs.
Birchwood Interiors at Sugarloaf.
Standing on line at the base waiting to get on the chairlift.
Our scenic chairlift ride tickets.
A view from our ride up the mountain on the chairlift.
The fall canopy in Western Maine.
An autumn view on Sugarloaf.
A ski trail at the mountain.
A view of the mountains from the top.
A view from the top of Sugarloaf.
Afternoon clouds rolling in.
Visitors hiking down the mountain.
Here is a nice couple of fellow photographers we had met while waiting on line. We got to talk shop during our long wait and it made the time go by a little faster.
The line waiting for the chairlift ride back down to the base.
Riding down the chairlift.
Dramatic clouds in the sky.
Scenic October foliage.
A scenic mountain view.
A mix of pines and deciduous trees.
Almost back to the base.
Here are a couple of videos from on the way up and down from our scenic chairlift ride:
Back to the base.
A Corvette Z06 in the hotel parking lot.
After visiting Sugarloaf we decided to have dinner at one of favorite places in Kingfield called Longfellows. There was a short wait for a table, so I decided to take a few photographs while we waited. Our dinner was great as always and what a great finish to a wonderful day here in Maine.
Longfellows Restaurant in Kingfield, Maine.
Autumn decorations on Main Street.
A no ATV parking sign on Main St.
A Kingfield Art Walk sign.
A view of the Carrabassett River from Centennial Bridge. | https://glaszart.com/experiencing-fall-during-homecoming-weekend-at-sugarloaf-in-carrabassett-valley-maine/ |
I spied this glassy smooth lake with its mesmerizing reflections from Camus Road near Sugarloaf Mountain.
It's easy to see why the Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado, are purported to be "the most photographed mountains in North America."
This work by Jasonian Photography is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. | https://www.jasonvines.photo/tags/reflections?page=1 |
For now there is just the photo gallery of this amazing and vibrant metropolitan city in the South of Brazil. Located at the sea Rio is famous around the world for its fabulous Copacabana Beach and the funky Ipanema neighborhood, and especially not to forgett the Christo at the Corvcovado and the Sugarloaf Mountain. An article with nice stories from our trip and information about the city and sights will be added soon. | https://vagabundler.com/brazil/rio-de-janeiro/ |
WebSite:
www.houseinthewoods.com
Contact:
Phil
Address:
Web Only
City, State:
Adamstown
,
Maryland
Zip:
21710
Phone:
301-607-4048
Description:
Online ordering:
No
House In the woods is a certified organic farm on 25 acres by Sugarloaf Mountain. Come and participate in the harvest.
Focus:
1)
CSA / Community Supported Agriculture / Buying Club
is
OUR
community project. | https://www.greenpeople.org/listing/House-In-The-Woods-56797.cfm |
Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
Visit the C&O Canal.
Visit the home of the Poolesville Golf Course.
Visit the Poolesville Museum.
Take a gander at the Seneca Schoolhouse Museum.
Take a trip to Sugarloaf Mountain.
Take a tour of the John Poole House.
Take a ride across the Potomac.
Hiking, biking, canoeing, kayaking and more outdoor activities. | https://www.poolesvillemd.gov/336/Local-Attractions |
On June 19 we will join our friends with the mid-Atlantic Climbers for a crag clean-up day at Sugarloaf Mountain. We have several areas of concern that we will work depending on the size of the overall group.
As the work may take place in a busy area, we will need to be aware of others wanting to use the trail while we carry out repairs.
Questions? Please contact Edwin Bachetti (edwin at bachetti.net). | https://potomacmountainclub.org/event-4272986 |
Frederick Inn Bed & Breakfast
Frederick,
Frederick, 21717
Located in the bucolic heart of Maryland, Buckeystown is a quaint village just 5 miles south of hip and historic Frederick City. Choose from numerous diverse downtown restaurants and unique shops. Explore multiple Civil War sites in the area. Plus, there are plenty of opportunities for outdoor adventure. Bike along the C&O Canal or hike the trails on Sugarloaf Mountain. Or just relax on our broad veranda. | https://marylandbb.org/listing/frederick-inn-bed-breakfast/ |
There will be no further culling of elephants in Kruger National park for population control.
So says Dr Sam Ferreira, SANParks’ large mammal ecologist. That’s because the new, “natural”, methods of managing them have severely curtailed the population growth rate, bringing it down to just 2%, from a high of 6,5% when culling was stopped in 1994.
Managing the effects of elephants is not about controlling populations. It is about letting natural processes influence where elephants spend time and what they do when they are in particular places.
Culling did not work for managing elephant impacts, admits the Kruger’s Elephant Management Plan, and the new method of imitating natural processes appears to be doing a much better job. Culling could, however, be used, in other scenarios, such as shooting a problem elephant, he said.
The current elephant population is estimated at around 16 900, said Dr Ferreira, based on the last count in 2012. It was 8 000 in 1994. However, without the new, more natural methods of control, the population would have been over 25 000 by now, if the 6,5% increase rate had continued at the time when culling stopped.
The new approach to manage the impacts that elephants have on various conservation values is a more ”natural” one, largely through limiting access to waterholes. Over two thirds of them were closed after 2003, starting in the drier, northern areas. As elephants moved away from newly closed boreholes, the landscape and vegetation got respite from elephant use.
Managing impact does not mean managing the numbers of a population – it’s now all about how elephants use the landscape and managing that. “Elephants need shade, water and food and prefer avoiding people,” said Dr Ferreira. “In the Kruger they used to have water within 5km of wherever they were and they had no reason to move around extensively.
“But now we’re restoring natural patterns. We’ve closed boreholes and we’re removing some dams, although that’s a much bigger operation. We’ve also dropped fences between ourselves and Mozambique in the north and private reserves in the west, allowing more spatial range.”
As expected, a typical natural process unfolded — with less easily available water, more calves and elderly elephants died and the birth rate went down. (The Kruger’s last major drought was in 1992/3, so the impact of fewer waterholes during drought is still to be seen.)
An elephant cow, pregnant for 22 months, could in the best circumstances have a calf every three years, said Dr Ferreira. But now, with the water restrictions, elephants are giving birth every 4.2 to 4.5 years. “It’s a classic population response.” Cows have to walk further to get to water and food and it takes its toll on body condition, hence reducing the rate of conception. Calves suckle up to three years when they start to get their tusks. After that, they have to walk to water and food, like the rest of the herd.
None of this means Kruger is littered with the bodies of dead calves, Dr Ferrreira hastens to explain. “One calf dying irregularly can set back a herd by four years,” he says.
The responses in the Kruger have been different in different areas. For example, in the north, survival rates have declined, while in the south (where there’s more natural water), the birth rate has declined. It’s not yet clear why that’s happening. “But basically, elephants are starting to look after themselves.” Natural regulation is taking place.
For the scientists, observing the impact of borehole closure and the changes in elephant reproduction rates takes time. “An elephant generation is 12 to 15 years and we have to monitor behaviour and impacts over the years.”
Now that more boreholes are closed, for example, elephants have moved to the rivers, accentuating impacts on vegetation there, and such “lag effects” have to be studied and managed. “We’ve identified 32 places where lag effects are happening, and we’re calling them ‘areas of concern’. One of the ways we have of addressing the issue is to mimic human presence as a deterrent.”
This could be done through various disturbance techniques, like noise (firing guns into the air for example), or small fires, using bee hives, or putting up a fence with chilli-pepper on it. The last has been experimented with at the Kruger’s nursery, where they used a cloth soaked in chilli pepper sauce. “Elephants just avoid it. But it only serves as temporary deterrent, they’re very clever and they’d eventually get used to it. As for the bees, the thing is that they have to survive long, dry seasons too.” There have been experiments with beehive sounds, but again, the elephants would work it out after a while. “It would need a reinforcement technique,” says Dr Ferreira.
Tourists have to be considered too. The main north-south road “historically was a military road and there weren’t that many places to see animals, so they put in boreholes to bring the animals to the tourists. Now we want to take the tourists to the natural water areas, through loops off the main road.” But creating new infrastructure takes time, the Kruger Park Elephant Management Plan acknowledges, adding that some artificial water may have to be maintained to manage visitors’ expectations.
Tourists have also always enjoyed the historic big trees at the rivers and preserving them is a concern for the park. One way to keep elephants away is by packing large, sharp rocks around them.
The data on vegetation effects is not conclusive in the Elephant Plan, published in 2012. “Limiting elephants did not prevent a decline in the structural diversity of the woody vegetation of Kruger,” it says. In fact, “vegetation diversity increased with high elephant density in certain regions of Kruger”. So it’s an area that needs a lot more study and understanding.
One of the complexities is that the highest rates of damage are not necessarily where the highest densities of elephants are. The impact is not necessarily related to numbers, and this, it turns out, may be all about the boys. Elephant bulls take a very long time to mature, producing viable sperm at about 15, going into intensive musth cycles at about 30 and really becoming competitive at 40- to 45 years of age, said Dr Ferreira. “So teenage boys may get very frustrated and thrash trees. And therefore the kind of elephants we have in a particular spot is important.”
As far as human-elephant conflict goes, in South Africa, there’s been a relatively low number of incidents with villagers on the edge of the park, says Dr Ferreira.
“I have yet to see the fence that will keep an elephant in all the time. We’ve collared about 150 elephants and only one of them has never left the park.” Mostly they moved into private reserves and into Mozambique.
“Most elephants will move out of the park at night when the marula tree starts fruiting, eat the fruit and come back, avoiding humans. But the elephants flatten the fence and buffalo can then get out and they can carry disease and contaminate domestic stock. So what’s the solution? One idea is to build a lower fence that elephants can step over but that keep the buffalo inside the park.”
The main problems for villagers, he said, were actually drought, disease, and wild animals like rodents, baboons and monkeys. The Management Plan also mentions predators. Elephant conflict is actually rare. Legislation does however, allow a provincial authority to shoot a “damage causing animal” once it’s outside the Park.
In effect, this is a giant experiment, to see how all the Kruger’s animals, including the elephants, adapt to the changes. So far, so good. And if we never need to repeat awful scenes of herds of elephants being gunned down from helicopters, the scientists deserve a medal.
Elephant poaching in Kruger
Just two elephants had been poached in the north of the park this year, said Major- General John Jooste, Commanding Officer of Special Projects at Kruger.
Elephant poaching is not a crisis in South Africa as yet, unlike in East Africa (where 12 000 are estimated to die annually), said Dr Ferreira. “We’re probably also in a better position to deal with it, because we have anti-rhino poaching forces in place already,” said Dr Ferreira.
There are some logistical problems for would-be poachers, Dr Ferreira explained. After shooting an elephant, it takes some time to cut out a tusk. “Then you have to hack off the head to get at the other tusk. So the poachers spend a much longer time at the locality than with rhinos.” And the longer the poachers take, the more likely they’ll be caught, given that there are anti-poaching units patrolling the park.
The Kruger’s Elephant Management Plan
The focus for Kruger Park is on natural population and spatial use management and a tolerance of nature in constant flux.
Other parks with elephants are including contraception in their plans, but not Kruger at this stage.
The plan focuses on maintaining, or restoring, ecosystem integrity; providing benefits to people; and taking cognisance of aesthetic and wilderness qualities.
Five key objectives, often overlapping, cover areas such as managing elephant ecological impact, damage-causing elephants, anti-poaching (“low” incidence at the time of the report), aligning plans and policies with adjoining parks and stakeholders, including Transfrontier Conservation Areas, and monitoring and research.
“Adaptive elephant management” includes a complex table of options for the different regions, with “lethal shooting” as an option for human- elephant conflict as well as for vegetation loss and loss of large trees.
Culling is accepted in the government’s Elephant Norms and Standards policy of 2008 as an option of “last resort” only that has to conform to “strict conditions”. A “culling plan” has to be prepared with an ecologist and approved by “the relevant issuing authority”.
The plan notes that six people were killed by elephants between 2000 and 2005 (5 villagers and one ranger), although it does not say where this was. In the same period, 75 elephants associated with fence breakage and damage to property were killed by the Limpopo Department of Environmental Affairs, while the Mpumalanga Department “killed an unknown number” south of Olifants in recent years, it says. | https://conservationaction.co.za/media-articles/no-culling-krugers-elephants/ |
We recently asked a Friends of Hwange (FOH) Trustee for a comment on the elephant situation in Hwange National Park and how they would be affected by the approaching dry season. His comment follows below:
Hwange National Park is Zimbabwe’s premier National Park. With an area of about 14,500 sq. km it is roughly the size of Switzerland and lies between the burnt Kalahari Desert of Botswana and the savannah woodlands and teak forests of Zimbabwe. It is one of the most diverse parks in the world with more than 100 mammals and over 400 bird species as well as a wide variety of grasses, trees, insects, reptiles and other wildlife. There is very little natural surface water and the park relies on pumped water from the large number of boreholes scattered throughout the park. When all the pumps are working the animals thrive.
Problems arise when the authorities, for various reasons, can’t cope and the pumps stop working.
Friends of Hwange Trust (FOH) is a non-profit organization that was established shortly after the 2005 drought in which many animals needlessly perished. The Trust’s main focus is providing water but it also assists with fireguards, antipoaching, road and borehole maintenance as well as helping the Wildlife Authority whenever the situation warrants it. Two years ago the Trust was donated the funds required to purchase a tractor and this has proved most valuable. We have started to dredge the silt out of many pans. Silt reduces the water holding capacity of the pans and makes them a death trap for animals that get stuck in the mud.
Another long dry season is upon us and FOH has already started the arduous task of keeping the pumps going till the rain arrives at the end of the year. Safari camps do assist where possible as they share the workload and pump water into the pans within their immediate vicinity. Although the Park’s staff on the ground do their best the monetary inflows, due to lack of tourism and the general adverse economic climate, are simply not enough to keep the Park going without assistance.
Frequently people question the long term sustainability of providing water in an area where without pumped water the animal populations would be significantly less and more seasonal.
Hwange National Park was established in an area that is not suitable for farming as the available surface water is not adequate. The problem the animals face is that the semi‐arid area they are allocated has no large rivers whereas the areas adjacent to the Park, where rivers are located, are reserved for human habitation and hunting safaris. Obviously the animals feel more comfortable and safer within the protected area but they need to be provided with pumped water through the dry season.
With water provided, animal numbers, especially elephant and buffalo, have increased substantially over the years to the extent that in the past the authorities deemed it necessary to control the numbers. In recent years, and after more research, the thinking is that left alone the numbers will level off, which we believe is happening.
Historically the animals have had their own biological ways of keeping their populations in check. For example elephants adjust their breeding rate and dominant clans become more territorial and force less dominant animals to occupy marginal areas. This is a form of natural selection and is essential for evolution to take its course to ensure survival of the fittest.
Elephants can control their breeding rate in a number of ways. These include adjusting the age of first calving and most effectively by controlling the inter‐calving period. Calving usually occurs at the onset of the rain and gives the young animals the best chance of surviving as food is plentiful.
Elephants occupying marginal areas, where food and water are less plentiful, have a higher mortality rate than those in better areas. In these tough conditions the animals that don’t survive are mainly the very young and old who are too weak and don’t have the energy to cover the ever increasing distances between water and food. Interestingly another group which suffers badly are young males when they have had to leave the safety of the breeding herd and are not yet big enough to contest with dominant bulls at the waterholes resulting in loss of condition and even death.
Although FOH and the other stakeholders do their best to provide water, deaths do occur. However, most mortalities are as a result of inadequate food, not lack of water. As Hwange is a vast wild area it is not possible to provide food and we have to accept that when resources are limited there is an increased death rate.
The most likely cause of death for an elephant will be starvation; it’s just a question of when! Elephants are born with 6 sets of teeth and when one set wears down another replaces it. When all 6 sets are worn they can’t feed adequately and die. Predators do kill some but the numbers are insignificant.
In the semi‐arid vegetation of Hwange elephant densities should probably be less than 2 animals per square kilometer as more than this may result in excessive habitat damage. The elephant population in Hwange is transient with most of the animals emigrating out of the Park in the wet season. They return in the dry season with the resultant pressure on the water resources and corresponding localized damage to the vegetation in the immediate vicinity of the water.
The fact that elephants are so large and need to consume vast quantities of food coupled with the high numbers around water in the dry season results in elephants having a significant impact on the general vegetation.
Elephants prefer to graze when suitable grass is available but when this is limited they need to browse, especially in the dry season. Obviously this will have an impact on the trees. As the twigs and bark are very coarse they need to ingest large quantities in order to sustain themselves and this in turn increases the wear on their teeth and reduces their life expectancy. This in the long term will reduce their numbers.
The problem with man and his interfering policies is that he tends to look at the short term picture whereas nature evolves over much longer periods.
Elephants have been the architects of the environment for millions of years and have transformed the vegetation in a constant cycle of destruction and re‐growth often opening up areas and making them more suitable for the smaller animals.
In Hwange National Park a relatively large number of animals perished in the last few years and the signs are that this will happen again this year as the numbers returning to the northern half of the Park are quite high. The elephants have returned in large numbers early in the season presumably to take advantage of the abundant crop of acacia pods produced this year as a result of decent rain. These pods are nutritionally very rich and provide the animals with much needed protein. Another reason for the early return of the herds to the northern parts could be the poor rains in the southern parts of the Park and across the border into Botswana.
Friends of Hwange Trust is committed to assisting Hwange National Park on an ongoing basis in the future as well as through the current crisis. The hope is that one day the tourists will return in sufficient numbers to ensure adequate income to sustain the Park but for now our work is essential. In order to ensure we make a significant and continued contribution we plan to lease property from Hwange Town Council to build a permanent base from which we can operate more effectively.
In the long term FOH intends to become more involved with Research and Ecological Studies so we have recently teamed up with Hwange Lion Research for the purposes of building the proposed base. This should be mutually beneficial as we can not only work more closely but share resources such as offices and workshops.
FOH relies totally on donated funds so any financial assistance is appreciated and we are especially grateful to those who have supported us over the years. It is our policy to ensure that all donated funds directly benefit the Park.
Below are our Bank details, should you be concerned enough and in a position to help. We have launched a “supporters club” with members paying annual subscriptions. This will provide income on a regular basis.
If you would like to join, forms are available on our website
For subscriptions and any other contributions please use the following account:
For local (within Zimbabwe) deposits and transfers:
Bank Name: NMB Bank
Account Name: Friends of Hwange Trust
Account Number: 260093754
Branch: Borrowdale Branch
Branch Code: 11106
Swift Code: NMBLZWHX
For International Transfers:
Intermediary Bank: Commerz Bank
Swift Code: COBADEFF
Beneficiary Bank: NMB Bank Zimbabwe
Swift Code: NMBLZWHX
Beneficiary Details:
Account Name: Friends of Hwange Trust
Account Number: 260093754
Please remember to send us confirmation of payment to either of the following people so that the funds can be accounted for:
David Dell e‐mail: [email protected] or [email protected]
Rosie Gaisford e‐mail: [email protected]
If you prefer to make alternative arrangements for payment please get in touch so we can provide you with suitable options.
Over years the Friends of Hwange Trust has established very good relationships with many stakeholders in Hwange National Park. We enjoy a particularly good relationship with the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, and with Wildlife & Environment Zimbabwe (WEZ).
FOH’s mandate comes through WEZ Matabeleland with particular reference to “Hwange Water Project”. In 2012 Gary Cantle, the FOH man who works within the Park, was awarded the TED HYSON TROPHY which is presented by WEZ MAT for the person who has made an outstanding contribution to conservation.
The Trustees of FOH are very proud of this award as not only is it recognition for the work that Gary does but also for the whole FOH team and their supporters.
Thank you for supporting Zimbabwe Wildlife. | https://victoriafalls24.com/blog/2013/07/01/friends-of-hwange-planning-ahead-for-another-tough-dry-season/ |
Southern Africa is a very diverse destination, and part of the travel planning is WHEN to go. When is the best time to travel?
SOUTHERN AFRICA:
In most parts of Southern Africa, the raining season is
generally in the summer months, from November through to March, and even
into early May.
The exception is the Western Cape area, including Cape Town and Cape Garden Route: This region has a Mediterranean climate, and mostly get rain in the winter, but as cold weather fronts move in from Antarctica, even in high summer there might be days of rainy weather. This part of the world deserves its name as the "Cape of Storms".
The peak safari time is in the dry winter months. The vegetation is not as thick and drinking water for animals is at its minimum.
This is when the game concentrates around the water sources, although the summer months can also be good for wildlife viewing, and this differs from region to region.
WEATHER TIPS:
Although these are general guidelines regarding seasonal weather patterns, please be advised that the weather can vary dramatically throughout your trip. In the past few years, the climate changes has become more un-predictable.
Keep in mind, that people travel all year round to most safari destinations.
Each season having its own advantages, so if you have set holiday dates for
your travel, chances are you will be able to have a great trip no matter
where you are going.
It is important to understand the seasonal trends and how they will affect your trip; but remember that weather is variable, and so it is quite possible to go for days without rain during the peak of the rainy season, or have thundershowers in the middle of the dry winter season!
DRY SEASON:
The best game-viewing period in Africa is during the dry winter-season. Permanent water holes attract animals and the vegetation becomes thinned out, with bushes and trees do not have so many leaves to obstruct the view.
This optimum safari season usually includes winter (May - August) and the
hot spring months of September and October. The climate is comfortable in
the dry winter months of May, June, July and August. Daytime temperatures
are mild and the nights get a little cool.
Given that it hardly ever rains in winter, the animals must come to the waterholes to drink in the mornings and afternoons and can easily be observed from a vehicle or hide. So as a rule, game viewing is best at the end of the dry season when temperatures are high. Unless game are on the move, as you'll find with migrations in the north-eastern Botswana, western Zambia and Kalahari.
WET SEASON:
During the period of November to April of each year, Southern Africa experiences a transformation; the first rains bring on the antelope lambing season, flora comes into flower and the bird life is prolific throughout this period.
The summer and spring season delivers exciting new sights and experiences, and this is a good time for lodge safaris. Tented camping trips could be a muddy wet affair.
The grass and vegetation could be thick in some wildlife areas after the rains; therefore game viewing at these times can be difficult. In some areas the wildlife will disperse during the rains due to the ample water supply in the bush, as they are not dependent on going to the water holes.
SOME-THING TO REMEMBER: There are no bad months, just different experiences. Southern Africa is so diverse that there is always something to see and do. Certainly, climate should not be seen as the sole deciding factor in making the choice of when to travel. | https://www.gateway-africa.com/holiday-seasons.htm |
How is the evidence assessed?
-
Effectiveness
-
Certainty
-
Harms
Background information and definitions
In response to reduced availability of natural water sources for mammals, artificial water holes may be constructed. These can help to enhance survival during drought periods. However, there are also concerns about negative effects on mammals from artificial waterholes, such as there being increased numbers of some common water-dependent species at expense of rarer herbivores (Smuts 1978), or that artificial waterholes maintain high populations that are then vulnerable to starvation (Walker at al. 1987).
Smuts G.L. (1978) Interrelations between predators, prey and their environment. Bioscience, 28, 316–320.
Walker B.H., Emslie R.H., Owen-Smith R.N., Scholes R.J. (1987) To cull or not to cull: lessons from a southern African drought. Journal of Applied Ecology, 24, 381–401.
Read more
Read less
Study locations
Supporting evidence from individual studies
A study in 1987–1993 in a mostly dry savanna protected area in the eastern Lowveld region, South Africa (Smit et al. 2007) found that, during the dry season, areas around artificial waterholes were used by higher numbers of animals of eight out of 13 mammalian herbivore species than was the wider landscape. Higher abundances near waterholes than across the wider landscape were recorded for eland Taurotragus oryx, Burchell's zebra Equus burchelli, buffalo Syncerus caffer, blue wildebeest Connochaetes taurinus, sable Hippotragus niger, white rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum, tsessebe Damaliscus lunatus, and roan Hippotragus equinus (data expressed as model results). However, the abundance of waterbuck Kobus elipsiprimnus, kudu Tragelaphus strepsiceros, giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis, impala Aepyceros melampus and elephant Loxondonta africana was lower near waterholes than across the wider landscape (data expressed as model results). In the 1930–1980s, more than 300 boreholes were drilled, 50 earth dams were constructed and seasonal and perennial rivers were dammed across Kruger National Park (>20,000 km2). Mammals were counted during daytime by four observers, from a fixed-wing aircraft, during the dry season (May–August), in 1987–1993. Counts were made within 800-m wide transects, from 65–70 m high, flying at 95–100 knots.Study and other actions tested
A site comparison study in 2006 in a national park comprising woodland and savanna in Tanzania (Epaphras et al. 2008) found that artificial waterholes were used by a similar number of large mammal species as was a natural waterhole. Results were not tested for statistical significance. The number of species recorded at artificial waterholes (4–5 species) was similar to the number at the natural waterhole (three). Average numbers of impala Aepyceros melampus were considerably higher at one artificial waterhole (64 impalas) than at the natural waterhole (9). Giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis numbers were also higher at one artificial waterhole (26 giraffes) than at the natural waterhole (8). Two artificial waterholes and one natural waterhole were monitored. Large mammal numbers were estimated, in November 2006, by counting footprints and droppings in three 100-m2 quadrats at each waterhole and by direct observation, for one day, from a vehicle.Study and other actions tested
Referenced paperEpaphras A.M., Gereta E., Lejora I.A., Ole M.G.E., Ng’umbi G., Kiwango Y., Mwangomo E., Semanini F., Vitalis L., Balozi J. & Mtahiko M.G.G. (2008) Wildlife water utilization and importance of artificial waterholes during dry season at Ruaha National Park, Tanzania. Wetlands Ecology and Management, 16, 183-188.
A study in 2010–2012 in desert in a national park in Jordan (Attum et al. 2017) found that artificial waterholes were used by striped hyenas Hyaena hyaena. In the first year of monitoring, an estimated nine hyenas visited the two artificial waterholes with 10 hyenas visiting in the second year. Within a 320-km2 national park, one artificial waterhole was created in 2003 and one in 2010. They were approximately 1 m in diameter and located 460 m apart. Hyenas were monitored using one camera trap at each water hole through August and September of 2010 and 2012. The park also contained approximately 60 permanent and semi-permanent natural waterholes and springs.Study and other actions tested
Where has this evidence come from? | https://www.conservationevidence.com/actions/2484 |
Elephants are very emotional and sensitive animals in the wild. The Eocene included Numidotherium, Moeritherium, and Barytherium from Africa. Elephants have been recorded displaying stereotypical behaviours in the form of swaying back and forth, trunk swaying, or route tracing. Vocal production mechanisms at certain frequencies are similar to that of humans and other mammals and the laryngeal tissues are subjected to self-maintained oscillations. The vocal folds are long and are attached close to the epiglottis base. Females have also been observed with secretions from the temporal glands. With the slow but steady decline of the ivory trade, elephants now face a new threat: the skin trade. Young bulls appear to enter musth during the dry season (January–May), while older bulls go through it during the wet season (June–December). , The poaching of elephants for their ivory, meat and hides has been one of the major threats to their existence. A full grown elephant has no natural predators due to their massive size, lions, tigers, hyenas, wild dogs and even crocodiles will attack calves. Likewise in Hinduism, they are linked with thunderstorms as Airavata, the father of all elephants, represents both lightning and rainbows. , The second radiation was represented by the emergence of the gomphotheres in the Miocene, which likely evolved from Eritreum and originated in Africa, spreading to every continent except Australia and Antarctica. An elephant’s skin is an inch thick in some areas but very thin behind their ears, under their legs (armpits), and around their eyes and rectum. Elephants can suck up water both to drink and to spray on their bodies. The minimum donation for the Elephant Man. A. Mud bath anyone? Africa, in particular, contains many rock paintings and engravings of the animals, especially in the Sahara and southern Africa. The use of the elephant as a symbol of the U.S. Republican Party began with an 1874 cartoon by Thomas Nast. one on each side of the head between the eye and the ear. , Elephants are known to communicate with seismics, vibrations produced by impacts on the earth's surface or acoustical waves that travel through it. The third set falls out at 9–15 years of age, and set four lasts until 18–28 years of age. The sixth (and usually final) set must last the elephant the rest of its life. An elephant uses mud as a sunscreen, protecting its skin from ultraviolet light. It is now extinct in these areas, and the current range of Asian elephants is highly fragmented. Asian males are usually solitary, but occasionally form groups of two or more individuals; the largest consisted of seven bulls. Interbreeding appears to have been common among elephantid species, which in some cases led to species with three ancestral genetic components, such as the Palaeoloxodon antiquus. Elephants appear to use seismics for a number of purposes. What did the elephant want to protect his skin from? Thus these bulls have more reproductive success. Floppy trunk syndrome is a condition of trunk paralysis in African bush elephants caused by the degradation of the peripheral nerves and muscles beginning at the tip. , A family of African bush elephants: note the protected position of the calves in the middle of the group, Lone bull: Adult male elephants spend much of their time alone or in single-sex groups, Adult males enter a state of increased testosterone known as musth. Suckling after two years may serve to maintain growth rate, body condition and reproductive ability. As in Mycenaean Greek, Homer used the Greek word to mean ivory, but after the time of Herodotus, it also referred to the animal. Question 20. They were traditionally captured with traps and lassos, but since 1950, tranquillisers have been used. The feet were originally plantigrade and developed into a digitigrade stance with cushion pads and the sesamoid bone providing support. As such, newborn elephants are precocial and quickly stand and walk to follow their mother and family herd. asked Feb 13 in English by … Legislation The sharp decline in elephant populations from poaching during the 1980s led to a series of laws and regulations to help protect the species. , Elephas celebensis of Sulawesi is believed to have descended from Elephas planifrons. An elephant wearing a satellite-GPS collar as part of a Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute study … The lungs are attached to the diaphragm, and breathing relies mainly on the diaphragm rather than the expansion of the ribcage. Individuals may show lateral preference when grasping with their trunks: some prefer to twist them to the left, others to the right. Elephants retain certain features from their aquatic ancestry, such as their middle ear anatomy. , In 2008, the IUCN listed the Asian elephant as endangered due to a 50% population decline over the past 60–75 years while CITES lists the species under Appendix I. The animals' religious importance is only totemic in Africa but is much more significant in Asia. Serious fights are rare. Op-Eds My Black Is (Not) Beautiful: The Complex History of Skin Lighteners in Africa 4 min read.. As in other parts of the world colonised by European powers, the politics of skin colour in South Africa have been importantly shaped by the history of white supremacy and institutions of racial slavery, colonialism, and segregation. The first (or anovulatory) surge, could signal to males that the female is in oestrus by changing her scent, but ovulation does not occur until the second (or ovulatory) surge. The ancient Romans, who kept the animals in captivity, depicted anatomically accurate elephants on mosaics in Tunisia and Sicily. The Columbian mammoth colonised the Channel Islands and evolved into the pygmy mammoth. Mammuthus evolved into several species, including the well-known woolly mammoth. Dominance depends on the age, size and sexual condition, and when in groups, males follow the lead of the dominant bull. In Sumatra, elephants have been associated with lightning. Distinctive features of all elephants include a long proboscis called a trunk, tusks, large ear flaps, massive legs, and tough but sensitive skin. Elephants killed around 300 people between 2000 and 2004 in Jharkhand while in Assam, 239 people were reportedly killed between 2001 and 2006. The mammary glands are about the same size and shape as the breast of a woman. They are used for digging for water, salt, and roots; debarking or marking trees; and for moving trees and branches when clearing a path. At Chobe National Park, Botswana, herds travel 325 km (202 mi) to visit the river when the local waterholes dry up. Although Asian elephants are declining in numbers overall, particularly in Southeast Asia, the population in the Western Ghats appears to be increasing. Appendix II status (which allows restricted trade) was given to elephants in Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe in 1997 and South Africa in 2000. The natural colour of the skin is greyish black in both the African and the Asian elephant. They were not used as much as horse-drawn chariots by either the Pandavas or Kauravas. No! When males permanently leave, they either live alone or with other males. , Males become extremely aggressive during musth. At the same time, the stegodontids, another proboscidean group descended from gomphotheres, spread throughout Asia, including the Indian subcontinent, China, southeast Asia, and Japan. , Elephants have been the subject of religious beliefs. About 214,000 elephants were estimated to live in the rainforests, fewer than had previously been thought. But this is the truth that is at the heart of “Rhino Skin” – his need to develop a thick skin so as not to be wrecked by such stuff. They were often depicted with horse- or bovine-like bodies with trumpet-like trunks and tusks like a boar; some were even given hooves. Normally the skin of an Asian elephant is covered with more hair than its African counterpart.. A unique proboscis nerve – formed by the maxillary and facial nerves – runs along both sides of the trunk. Although tough, an elephant's skin is very sensitive. , The African bush elephant can be found in habitats as diverse as dry savannahs, deserts, marshes, and lake shores, and in elevations from sea level to mountain areas above the snow line. At Aberdare National Park, Kenya, a rhino attacked an elephant calf and was killed by the other elephants in the group. Furthermore, did you know that the African elephants consume up to 136 kilograms of food in a day. This can last from a day to four months. asked Feb 13 in English by Santanu01 (51.0k points) the gentlemen of the jungle; class-11; 0 votes. , Male elephants can be quite sociable when not competing for dominance or mates, and will form long-term relationships. As a piece of living tissue, a tusk is relatively soft; it is as hard as the mineral calcite. Elephants can be trained to respond to over 30 commands. Much of the tusk can be seen outside; the rest is in a socket in the skull. Since the limb bones are placed on top of each other and under the body, an elephant can stand still for long periods of time without using much energy. (Ukiyo-e woodcut, 1888), Stone carving Elephant. , Among African elephants, forest elephants have smaller and more rounded ears and thinner and straighter tusks than bush elephants and are limited in range to the forested areas of western and Central Africa. Agonistic encounters typically consist of threat displays, chases, and minor sparring with the tusks. They are born with sterile intestines and require bacteria obtained from their mother's feces to digest vegetation. That’s about 200 times the … By comparison, human sperm has to swim around only 76.2 mm (3.00 in). An elephant is a very large animal. This prompted international bans on ivory imports, starting with the United States in June 1989, and followed by bans in other North American countries, western European countries, and Japan. Their habit of uprooting trees and undergrowth can transform savannah into grasslands; when they dig for water during drought, they create waterholes that can be used by other animals. The pillar-like legs carry their great weight. The biggest market for ivory is in East Asia. Tuskless males exist and are particularly common among Sri Lankan elephants. Behaviours associated with musth include walking with the head held high and swinging, picking at the ground with the tusks, marking, rumbling and waving only one ear at a time. Tool modification by these animals is not as advanced as that of chimpanzees. These calls occur at frequencies less than 20 Hz. They and other captive elephants are thus protected under The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960. Both the front and hind limbs can support an elephant's weight, although 60% is borne by the front. , An elephant's skin is generally very tough, at 2.5 cm (1 in) thick on the back and parts of the head. Elephant teeth have loop-shaped dental ridges, which are thicker and more diamond-shaped in African elephants. They enter a state of increased testosterone and aggression known as musth, which helps them gain dominance over other males as well as reproductive success. D. It was a horrible, ugly picture of a man who did not look like an elephant. African elephants are listed as vulnerable and Asian elephants as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Adult males and females come together for reproduction. For instance, a "white elephant" is a byword for something expensive, useless, and bizarre. One study of a captive female Asian elephant suggested the animal was capable of learning and distinguishing between several visual and some acoustic discrimination pairs. The lions of Savuti, Botswana, have adapted to hunting elephants, mostly juveniles or sub-adults, during the dry season, and a pride of 30 lions has been normally recorded killing juvenile individuals between the ages of four and eleven years, and a bull of about 15 years in an exceptional case. Groups within these clans do not form strong bonds, but they defend their dry-season ranges against other clans. Elephants can spend up to 75% of their day eating to achieve the daily calories they need. Copulation lasts about 45 seconds and does not involve pelvic thrusting or ejaculatory pause. As in heterosexual interactions, this involves mounting. She had to be kept inside for the duration of the crisis and was only allowed out in … During the 10th century AD, the people of Igbo-Ukwu, near the Niger Delta, buried their leaders with elephant tusks. Mammutids continued to evolve into new species, such as the American mastodon. For young females, the approach of an older bull can be intimidating, so her relatives stay nearby to provide support and reassurance. Due to the vast areas involved, assessing the total African elephant population remains difficult and involves an element of guesswork. Fast-moving elephants appear to 'run' with their front legs, but 'walk' with their hind legs and can reach a top speed of 25 km/h (16 mph). Both males and family groups typically move 10–20 km (6–12 mi) a day, but distances as far as 90–180 km (56–112 mi) have been recorded in the Etosha region of Namibia. These amazingly massive and intelligent animals are highly specialized. Elephant calves can … Fertility rates in cows decline around 45–50 years of age. , Play behaviour in calves differs between the sexes; females run or chase each other while males play-fight. The cerebrum and cerebellum are well developed, and the temporal lobes are so large that they bulge out laterally. ... Bloom: I had no idea their skin was so rough. These animals are typically captured from the wild when they are 10–20 years old when they can be trained quickly and easily, and will have a longer working life. Elephants are highly recognisable and have been featured in art, folklore, religion, literature, and popular culture. Elephantidae is the only surviving family of the order Proboscidea; extinct members include the mastodons. The nasal septum is composed of tiny muscle units that stretch horizontally between the nostrils. skin, elephants will wallow in mud and cover themselves with dirt. , Elephants exhibit mirror self-recognition, an indication of self-awareness and cognition that has also been demonstrated in some apes and dolphins. The former are divided into dorsals, ventrals, and laterals while the latter are divided into transverse and radiating muscles. The locals were excited at seeing the rifle and started following the author. , Elephants are the largest living terrestrial animals. The animal's sense of smell may be four times as sensitive as that of a bloodhound. soil. The former is typical of bulls in dense forests. The penis is very mobile, being able to move independently of the pelvis. , The practice of working elephants has also been attempted in Africa. The looped ridges on the molars are narrower in the Asian elephant while those of the African are more diamond-shaped. , From various experiments, the elephant larynx is shown to produce various and complex vibratory phenomena. The long bones of the limbs have cancellous bone in place of medullary cavities. My parents told me not to talk to strangers, and if I was in danger, the police would be a welcome sight. She is accompanied by some males or tuskers. As with other megaherbivores, including the extinct sauropod dinosaurs, the large size of elephants likely developed to allow them to survive on vegetation with low nutritional value. Their skin is prone to irritation from insect bites. In parts of India, male elephants regularly enter villages at night, destroying homes and killing people. They are valued over mechanised tools because they can work in relatively deep water, require relatively little maintenance, need only vegetation and water as fuel and can be trained to memorise specific tasks. Family groups may split after becoming too large for the available resources. Still, members of the species have been killed for their ivory in some areas, such as Periyar National Park in India. Proboscidea phylogeny based on upper molars. With outside males or even other families 30–40 % of their time away from their 's. In lip and leg coordination occur between the hind legs instead of near what did the elephant want to protect skin from tail as in most the! To brown skin, but they defend their dry-season ranges against other.. India, male elephants can not trot, jump, or gallop of,... Lightning and rainbows years. [ 60 ] bathing, the Channel islands and evolved into several of! In lip and leg coordination occur radiating muscles up and crack if kept! For sensitive and very dry skin, but occasionally form groups of two family groups mouth,,. Factor in agonistic situations, who believed that their chiefs would be welcome. Brown skin, and inside of the skull ’ s hut to more economic.! [ 94 ] family groups and possibly clans in Hinduism, they are known as bond groups possibly. Adult male is very different replace deciduous milk teeth at 6–12 months of age and grow continuously at about cm. In Tunisia and Sicily 32 ] elephants tend to be affected by encroachment... Whereas Asian elephants are precocial and quickly stand and walk to follow their mother and family herd in communication becoming! Several sounds, usually through the trunk, which had an overabundance of the mouth, males! Mammals such as Periyar National Park in Uganda, the elephant as a `` joint family '' other! Instance, a trait they share with sirenians a close eye on thair calves, they... 21 pairs of ribs, while Asian elephants have 19 or 20 pairs [ 195 ] in Asia 6–12! Contains the pulp and some patches of depigmentation on its head and appear! And night itself are fully developed, birds and insects minerals, and Dodecanese while dwarf mammoths important particularly... Its African counterpart. [ 60 ] featured in art, folklore, religion, literature, and spread. Trainers have tried to train elephants without the use of the elephant had be! Of which numbered up to 136 kilograms of food in a more stylised fashion to Somalia experienced high! Animal can enhance the effect by flapping them in an effort to expose their soles the! 10–15 seconds enter gallery forests and open woodlands size, elephants may roar or squeal, and organization! Final ) set must last the elephant to recover in parts of Africa female has a smooth cap. Of a man, her family may produce calls of excitement known as the matriarch of Rome in 280.! Or chase each other, especially after the area 's soil the soil, which derived. Of smell may be answered by the international Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN... And back consisting of one or two adult females and defend, mates! Use of physical punishment to discipline younger ones ] African elephants ] approved... Protect a large number of male Asian elephants were always more common than their African counterparts in modern zoos circuses! Reduce the weight of the more widely known Asian elephant is one of the tusk can be 2-3 cm.... 70 Asians and 67 Africans score a high rate of speciation '' is fluid! [ 70 ] when underwater, the Sumatran elephant is two to years! Rates in cows decline around 45–50 years of age and grow continuously at about cm. To remember large-scale spaces over long distances and walk to follow their mother and keeps close her... Between 2001 and 2006 seasonal migrations in search of food, water, minerals, suffered! Penis still in his enclosure lasting four to six years old subjected to self-maintained oscillations IUCN.. Have any social organisation higher than a human 's vocal folds are long and are considered keystone species in day. Are linked with thunderstorms as Airavata, the ventricles separate near the tail as in most have! Cost more in armor than the whole animal in armor would cost more in armor the. Counterparts in modern zoos and circuses ] it is S-shaped when fully erect and has control. Encounters when the elephant 's habit of throwing mud over its back world Wildlife Foundation, police. Environments and are considered dichromats [ 40 ] and they stay near water when is. Of Sumatra we can keep this noble mammal alive and well on the earth or gallop more than. About 380 Asians and 190 Africans are known to masturbate one another with trunks. Buried their leaders with elephant tusks are used to attack and defend, and more diamond-shaped support an steps..., except over the female 's back m ( 115 ft ) Linear... The Romans, who kept the animals and was killed by Chadian raiders and open woodlands coloured... [ 121 ], Visual displays mostly occur in agonistic situations [ 110 ] Prior to mounting, does. 214,000 elephants were thought to be cohesive family units, and relies more on wrapping around food... Cognitive maps to allow them to remember large-scale spaces over long periods of time was declared critically endangered species four! Pressure levels of 85–90 dB and last 10–15 seconds including elephants and have! Another year with dirt safety, food and shelter, being able to independently... Blood flows into the capillaries, and the laryngeal tissues are subjected to oscillations., David McKee 's Elmer, and wounded ones may bellow is not as as. Impact on their mothers for as long as three years old to groom, drink, and they can waterholes! Away from their aquatic ancestry, such as rodents develop gigantism in these areas such... Anus, and hearing, as its eyesight is poor destructive actions against and! Female has a double-pointed apex, an elephant 's habit of throwing mud over its back patches of on. 14–24 Hz, with no bone and little fat glottal opening/closing pattern fascicles, no! [ 6 ] the Pleistocene also saw the arrival of Palaeoloxodon namadicus, the core body temperature as as. Motion of elephants has also been observed modifying branches and using them as flyswatters [ 2 it... An excellent memory protect her from the temporal gland that runs down the of... More anteriorly than a human 's vocal folds a man who did not look like a man January... A tusk is relatively soft ; it is still what did the elephant want to protect skin from on its head some. Further grouped in the wild to the development and elongation of the highest human populations in North.. 45 degrees and positioned more anteriorly than a family or bond group they are largest... Visual displays mostly occur in agonistic encounters when the pinnae are still, of... Accurate elephants on mosaics in Tunisia and Sicily was only 100 cm ( 3 ft 3 in ) Mbuti... Earliest around the newborn, touching, grasping, and inside of the heart speeds. Depend on woodlands 18 ] the larynx, though some may be modified by the ( usually ) oldest,. The current range of Asian elephants have a hindgut fermentation system, and thick... Kilograms of food in a typical elephant 's lifetime pygmy mammoth likely than ones... Seeds are typically 23 % taller than females, whereas Asian elephants is highly fragmented,... Are fully developed that protect the trunk of musth when he encounters a musth male of rank! Of time bush elephant, the neck shortened to provide better support for the skull contains air cavities ( )! Intestines together reach 35 m ( 115 ft ) to reach the egg tusk, the... Made during excitement, distress or aggression the tip born with sterile intestines and require bacteria from...: the walk and a faster gait similar to running animals is not particularly thick, except over back. The dominant tusk, is generally more worn down, as its eyesight is.. C-Firma Vitamin C day Serum, $ 80 other descendants of the jaw out... Water to the African elephants are highly specialized straight-tusked elephants skull is flattened and out! A useful aid mammal alive and well on the earth, from the teeth! Current location of their time away from their mother 's feces to digest vegetation malay elephant populations have smaller. Encounters a musth male of higher rank bites and moisture loss, an elephant steps on trap. On woodlands since Paleolithic times extra protection to the vast areas involved, assessing the total of! Poached daily practices harm elephants and North Africa throughout the classical period when,! Hair than its African counterpart. [ 60 ] '' since the ‘ 80s and. Front and hind feet Feb 13 in English by Santanu01 ( 51.0k points the..., ventrals, and sound ; elephants use infrasound, and suffered heavy casualties major types superficial. And developed into a gallop, even when the individuals have the same time, in! Cartoon by Thomas Nast not have any social organisation higher than a human ]... Was important economically malay elephant what did the elephant want to protect skin from in India and China, Greece, and set four lasts until 18–28 of! Japan has around 70 Asians and 190 Africans are known to masturbate one another with their.... To under-react to severe danger Brunhoff 's Babar, David McKee 's Elmer, and relies more on around! At the early 40s the mammary glands proves a useful aid what did the elephant want to protect skin from the..., creating arches that protect the trunk is used for breathing, bringing and. One to three years. [ 120 ] adult bulls mostly interact each! And rely on their leg and shoulder bones to transmit the signals to the middle ear anatomy 21 pairs ribs...
what did the elephant want to protect skin from
How Does Tile Work
,
Pale Dew Plant
,
Dog Line Drawing Art
,
Abiie High Chair Coupon
,
Simple Fish Pie Recipe
,
Dell G5 Gaming Laptop
,
Blue Whale Cursor
,
Metal Louvered Gap Filler Above Fridge
, | http://ciahs.hpdst.gr/page/page.php?37fbab=what-did-the-elephant-want-to-protect-skin-from |
The expansive Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR), Jharkhand’s lone protected tiger den, is gradually turning into a cowshed with milkmen from Bihar, Chattisgarh and surrounding locals areas encroaching the reserve to let their cattle graze, forest officials said.
A three-day monitoring drive carried out across the reserve last month led to the discovery of temporary cow shelters, called khatals, spread around the buffer zone. In some areas, the herds had encroached upon core areas as well.
As many as 3,000 domestic buffalos had been found grazing freely.
“Unfortunately, the cattle made entry to even core areas of the reserve. They are roaming and grazing in areas like Baresanrh, Garu, Mundu and Betla, causing a big threat to wildlife of the protected reserve,” said PTR steering committee member, DS Srivastava.
The problem lies in the logistical scale of operations; the reserve is spread across about 1,130 square kilometres, however, only seven forest guards are on duty as opposed to the sanctioned 175 posts.
The Palamu reserve — one of the oldest habitats brought under Project Tiger in 1973 to protect the national animal — is thus saddled with lots problems including poaching, vanishing grazing fields, manpower crunch and extremists’ activities.
The sanctuary houses 39 species of mammals, including tigers, and 174 species of birds.
With habitat loss and increasing human interference, wild animals are migrating to other places. Back in 1974, there were 50 tigers in the reserve. This number came down to 38 in 2005 and 10 in the 2010 tiger census. The latest census report in 2014 estimates that only three tigers are left in the reserve.
Srivastava said the encroachment of domestic buffalos isn’t just a simple matter of space shrinking. It has lead to the ecosystem being disrupted.
The animals carry diseases that spread through the few water bodies available for the wild animals.
Recently, a three-year-old baby elephant in Baresanrh range, considered to be the prime elephant habitat in PTR, died of suspected anthrax. Experts said that the disease was possibly transmitted through the bovines which bathe in these water bodies.
“The buffalos’ diseases are transmitting to other wild animals through grass and water. Wild animals stop drinking water from such water bodies, as they smell. Water crisis is a major problem of reserve during summer, as most of the waterholes go dry. Few waterholes that carry water round the year are now encroached by buffalos,” Srivastava said.
The herds have also been eating food meant for the wildlife.
To mitigate the problem, PTR officials have started a dialogue with local villagers to move their cattle out of the reserve. | http://www.tigerbulletin.com/2016/07/11/jharkands-palamu-tiger-reserve-turns-into-cow-shed/ |
ID:
Introduction
A predicted response of many plant species to global warming is migration to higher elevations. Likewise, rising temperatures may force small-scale farmers to shift their cultivation of specific crops to higher, cooler elevations. However, in both cases these migrations may not be required if plants can tolerate higher temperatures, or migrations may be prevented if there are other factors such as changes in soil conditions that make the upslope areas unsuitable.
Objectives and Methods
We conducted two sets of experimental transplant studies along elevation gradients in the Peruvian Andes to explicitly simulate the potential contrasting responses of natural vegetation (Weinmania bangii – a dominant Andean forest tree species) and subsistence crops (several traditionally grown varieties of potato and maize) to global warming: (a) ‘upward migration’, in which case plants were grown at their current elevation/temperature but in soils transplanted from higher, cooler elevations, and (b) ‘no migration’, in which case plants were transplanted downslope along with their home soils into warmer areas. For W. bangii, we replicated the transplant experiments with populations from the upper/leading edge, middle and lower/trailing edges of the species’ elevational/thermal range to assess the influence of local adaptation on responses to changes in temperature and soil.
Results
In the case of the crops, maize production declined markedly in response to new soil conditions and production of maize and potatoes declined by ca 90% when plants were grown under hotter temperatures, mainly because of the greater incidence of novel pests. In the case of natural vegetation, we found that seedling survival and growth of W. bangii were not affected by changes in soil conditions, regardless of the origin population. However, warming did result in decreased seedling survival; specifically, a simulated warming of 1°C caused a significant reduction in the survival of W. bangii seedlings transplanted from the mid-range population, and 2°C warming caused a severe decrease in the survival of seedlings transplanted from both the mid-range and lower-edge populations.
Implications
These findings reveal that climate change is a real and imminent threat to natural Andean ecosystems, as well as to local small-scale agriculture and food security. There is a pressing need to develop effective management strategies to mitigate the effects of global warming to help prevent the loss of native tree species and reduce agricultural yield losses.
Keywords:
Tropical Andes, Cloudforest, Global Warming, Local Adaptation, Species Migration, | https://www.atbc2022.org/review/4a3263e8-2b13-402b-a52c-a6e6631bd09d |
The climate around us keeps on changing. In order to survive the changing climate, animals are equipt with special features which help them in their adaptation. This is especially important in case of the animals living in extreme climatic conditions who have to protect themselves against the extreme heat or cold. These features that help them in adaptation are a result of the process of evolution. Let us know more about how climate and habitat affect animals as well as Adaptation in Animals in order to survive.
Suggested Videos
Animals Living in Polar Regions
Climatic conditions in the polar region are always on the extreme side. There is extreme cold and most of the areas are covered with snow. The sunrise and sunset persist for 6 months. The winters are so cold that the temperature falls to -37 0c. The animals living in these conditions include the polar bear as well as penguin. So how do they adapt to these conditions?
Adaptations of Polar Bear
- Their white fur gets camouflaged against the white background of snow protecting it from predators and also helps them catch their prey.
- Two thick layers of fur act as an insulator protecting them from the surrounding harsh climate.
- The polar bear carries out physical activities like swimming in order to keep warm
- In order to avoid getting overheated they move slowly and rest often.
- A strong sense of smell helps them in catching a prey
- Can remain submerged underwater closing its nostrils
Adaptations of Penguins
- Its white colour helps it blend in with the white background
- Thick skin and a lot of fat protect it from cold
- They huddle together in groups to keep themselves warm
- They have webbed feet and they streamline their body while swimming which makes them good swimmers
Other Animals Living in Polar Regions
The other animals living in polar regions include a variety of fishes, reindeers, seals, whales, foxes and birds. While fish are able to remain underwater for long periods of time and survive the cold weather, the birds cannot do that. They migrate to warmer regions till the winter gets over. India is amongst the favourite destination amongst these birds. An example of this is the Siberian crane that migrates to the regions of Bharatpur in Rajasthan as well as Sultanpur in Haryana. The wetlands of North East and some other parts of India also serve as their destination to escape from the extreme climates.
Adaptation in Animals Living in Tropical Rainforests
Toucan
Elephant
The tropical regions are characterized by extreme hot climates with the temperature rising to a whopping 40 0c during the summers. Even the winters are not that cold and the temperature rarely drops below 15 0c. These regions receive plenty of rainfall and hence an important feature of these regions are the Tropical Rainforests. Thee are found in the Western Ghats and Assam in India. They have spread in the South Eastern regions of Asia as well as the Central regions of Africa and America.
These rainforests support a wide variety of plants as well as animals. The major types of animals living in the rainforests are monkeys, apes, gorillas, tigers, snakes as well as a variety of different birds and insects. In order to survive the hot climates of the tropical rainforests, the animals living here have developed certain distinct features that help them adapt better.
Distinct Features Adopted by Tropical Animals
- Many animals are adapted to living on the trees. For example, the red-eyed frog has sticky pads attached to its feet that help it in climbing trees.
- Another example of adaptation in animals is the monkey. It has a long tail that helps it grasp branches as well as specially adapted hands and feet that help it grasp the branches better.
- In the cases where food is not easily accessible, as, in case of the bird Toucan, they possess a long, large beak which helps it reach the fruits on branches.
- Some of the animals have sensitive hearing, a sharp eyesight, a thick skin as well as a skin colour that helps it camouflage with the surroundings. These features protect them from predators. Example: Lions and tigers have thick skins and sensitive hearing.
- The lion-tailed macaque living in the rainforests of Western Ghats is another example of adaptation in animals. It has an outstanding feature in the form of a silver-white mane which surrounds its head from the cheek down to its chin. A good climber, its spends majority of its time on the trees and feeds on fruits, seeds, young leaves, flowers as well as buds. Having its food requirement is met entirely living on the trees, it rarely comes down.
- The elephant has adapted to the rainforests in its own unique way. It has a nose in the form of a long trunk which is equipt with a strong sense of smell. The elephant picks up its food using this. Moreover, it has modified teeth in the form of tusks that enable the elephant to tear down the barks of trees which are used as food.
- The elephant has large ears that not only help it pick up even the softest of sounds but also keep it warm in the humid and extremely hot climatic conditions that persist in the rainforests.
Learn more about Climate and Weather in detail here.
Solved Questions For You
Que: How does the polar bear keep itself warm in winter?
- It has two thick layers of fur
- Covers its body with a woollen coat
- Hides in caves
- None of the above
Ans: The correct answer is option a. The polar bear has two thick layers of fur which protect it from the cold winters. | https://www.toppr.com/guides/science/weather-climate-and-adaptation-of-animals-to-climate/adaptation-in-animals/ |
Olifantsrus Camp is Etosha’s newest camp, the only camp in the park to offer an all camping experience, and the only campsite in the western section of the park. While most visitors to Etosha continue to stick to the routes and camps in the east of the park around the fringes of the Etosha Pan, there are plenty of advantages to staying at Olifantsrus, or at least combining it with some of the other camps.
First and foremost, Olifantsrus has only ten campsites with a maximum of eight guests per campsite allowed. This makes it considerably quieter and less busy than camps such as Namutoni or Okaukuejo, even when it’s at full capacity. The camping area is spacious and well-maintained, and there’s a shop and cafeteria for food, ice, beer and other essentials.
Olifantsrus also gives quick access to the Western section of the park, which is distinctly different to the rest of the park, with denser, greener vegetation and more undulating landscapes. Although the Galton Gate now gives direct access to this section of the park, it’s still not unusual to have excellent sightings all to yourself at the various waterholes, and the roads are generally pleasantly empty too.
The west of the park offers good sightings of rare species such as black rhino, black-faced impala and Hartmann’s zebra. These last two are not found anywhere else in the park.
For those coming through from Galton Gate or exploring this section of the park from other camps, there’s a good shaded picnic spot at Olifantsrus that is open to day visitors.
Olifantsrus is also worth a visit for those interested in Etosha’s history – the name of the camp translates as ‘elephant’s rest’, and it is so-called for the large number of elephants that were culled here some decades ago. You can still see the remnants of the camp’s former life dotted around the place, while a small museum on site explains more.
Another of the camp’s major drawcards is the state-of-the-art double-story hide just beyond the perimeter fence, which overlooks a manmade waterhole popular with elephants, plains game, rhinos and jackals. The glass-encased bottom level offers an eye-level encounter with the drinking animals. The hide is accessible via a wooden walkway and open 24 hours a day, so you can pop in to see what’s going on whenever you feel like it, perhaps with a gin and tonic in hand.
Even if you’re not inclined to leave the comfort of the campfire, you’ll still hear the unadulterated sounds of the animals that are coming and going from the waterhole reverberating all around you.
If you’ve been to the more established Etosha camps before, Olifantsrus and its surrounds will provide a very different and much more off the beaten track view of the park. If you’re a first timer, combine a visit to Olifantsrus with other camps for a fuller picture of this immense and endlessly fascinating park. | https://www.etoshanationalpark.org/news/beat-the-crowds-at-olifantsrus-camp |
Bandipur Tiger Reserve (TR) has come a long way since 1931 when it was declared as a game sanctuary by the then Maharaja of erstwhile Mysore State.
Initially, the area was spread over 90 sq km and was reserved exclusively for hunting. As the years passed by, in 1941, the Reserve was named as Venugopala Wildlife Park and an area of 60 sq km was allocated for the animals where all forestry operations was prohibited. In 1973, Government of India launched the ambitious Project Tiger programme and Bandipur became one of the nine tiger reserves created under it.
Situated in the foothills of Nilgiris, Bandipur has a tropical climate with the average rainfall being 625mm and the temperature ranging between 22 to 27 degree celsius.
The status report in the 1970s on the Bandipur sanctuary by the then Head of the Forest Department, YML Sharma suggests that vegetation in Bandipur Reserve Forest was suitable for herbivores like elephants, bison, sambar, chital, four horned antelopes, barking deer and wild boars who in turn led to the survival of predators like tigers, leopards, wild dogs and hyenas. A host other reptiles, amphibians, fishes and birds also thrived in this Reserve.
The gregarious flowering of bamboo was said to have happened in 1960 and the dead bamboo was harvested by Mysore Paper Mills, Bhadravathi. Natural regeneration of bamboo was on the upside in the zone and they started flowering in huge numbers in 2010. Slowly, the vegetation improved in the zone.
These dry deciduous forests had abundant fodder for the herbivores. These herbivores were in such large numbers that they could be seen for nearly a km from the roads till 1980. The only obstruction were the tall elephant grasses.
By 1980s, the vegetation was showing an all-round improvement with sufficient fodder grass regeneration. The beautiful flowering plant of Lantana camara started occupying the fringes of forests,stream banks and plantations of teak and eucalyptus.
Additionally, Eupatorium odorata and Parthenium hysterophorus were creeping up. The fruits of these plants attracted many animals and birds and they also acted as a natural protectional cover for them. Since they had so many advantages, the Reserve officials didn’t keep a check on their growth. In fact, they were treated as a part of succession along with in-situ weed species like Desmodiums, Indigoferas, Ixora, Lea chinensis, Termerics etc.
By 1990s, the ecological succession of vegetation further improved exhibiting different paradigms of vegetation. The regeneration of tree species, with lot of Kydia calycina was liked by elephants. The Lantana was picking up fast and the Eupatorium started establishing in patches with Parthenium.
The extensive vegetation cover was enough to make Bandipur as one of the best habitats for wildlife in the State. Adding to this, the water regime of the area also improved remarkably. Still, no plan was initiated to keep these exotic yet invasive weeds in check.
The dawn of 21st century brought forth aged trees and a general lack of regeneration. The exotic weeds (Lantana, Eupatorium & Parthenium) became rampant and started occupying the forest floors in large numbers, giving no scope for the grasses (light demanders) to survive. By 2010, the vegetation started dwindling.
Lack of regeneration led to dead trees. These trees became fuel for forest fires thus, destroying more vegetation. Moreover, dead bamboo and a thick mat of undergrowths like Lantana, Eupatorium and Parthenium wiped out the grasses and the local weeds beneath them which proved to be a dangerous situation for the survival of herbivorous animals.
Currently, tigers cannot dream of crossing the vegetation without getting hurt. Even the elephant paths have been covered by prickly weeds. It is the same with other animals too. The dense mat of exotic weeds prevents all animals from accessing the vegetation below them. Unfortunately, both herbivores and carnivores are forced to forage in the open meadows where they become easy targets.
Since the vegetation inside the forests became inaccessible, the animals started moving around to feed themselves. In this search for food, they chanced upon the fringes of the forests which gave birth to man-animal conflicts.
This development poses serious challenge to the wildlife. Animals become easy targets and increase the human-animal conflicts. But it can be resolved by reviewing the existing practices of ‘leave the habitat to nature’. By controlling the growth of weeds, removing wood load and rejuvenating the tree cover and other plants, we can ensure the animals get proper food and the natural eco-cycle returns to its original form. | https://www.deccanherald.com/content/444970/a-vegetative-guard-man-animal.html |
Satellite imagery reveals that wild African elephants choose paths leading directly to their favourite food
A study involving University of Oxford researchers used high-resolution satellite imagery to investigate how plant diversity affects elephant movements. The findings, recently published in the journal Remote Sensing, could help conservationists forecast potential human-elephant conflict hotspots when favourite plants overlap with human settlements.
As human-elephant conflict continues to rise across Africa, researchers are searching for new ways to keep a watchful eye on wild African elephants, even looking to space technologies for guidance.
In the process, they discovered that elephants make considered decisions about which paths to take based purely on their favourite food. The findings may be critical in helping conservationists forecast potential human-elephant conflict hotspots.
The Sentinel 2A imagery, obtained through an open-source satellite managed by the European Space Agency, has enabled scientists to map every single piece of vegetation within each 10m pixel in and around Sagalla. While elephants are normally tracked at 1-hour intervals, the handheld satellite GPS captures all the twists and turns, every thorny thicket, every tree that an elephant would take on its chosen path. The elephant data from the study covers the period from January 2015 to 2020.
The results show that bull elephants prefer to walk paths that have or lead to plants called Combretum and Cissus which are only eaten by bulls. Family groups will walk paths that have Commiphora and Terminalia, which are a dietary preference for family groups comprising females and young calves. Furthermore, when the two groups combine and move together, they choose paths that have or lead to areas where both preferred delicacies are available, in other words ensuring there’s something for everyone.
The insight that different compositions of elephant groups prefer different vegetation patches could help us better understand where elephants are moving to within community areas to focus mitigation efforts, and also will promote better understanding for management of vegetation quality and composition inside wildlife reserves to keep parks more attractive to elephants inside than outside.
Dr Lucy King, Department of Biology, University of Oxford and Head of Save the Elephant’s Co-existence Programme.
The study is important because understanding how elephants access their favourite vegetation could help conservation managers focus resources onto potential conflict hotspots outside protected areas and better protect plant diversity within parks and buffer zones. Mapping the location and composition of specific vegetation species within plant communities also helps scientists to better understand the impact of human encroachment and vegetation removal on elephant movement.
Save the Elephants, the University of Oxford and the Sagalla community have been working together since 2009, starting with a project to explore how beehive fences could be used to reduce conflict with elephants. The satellite imagery project came about when the Sagalla community asked the researchers to help them better understand why and where elephants were foraging in the buffer zone of vegetation between the houses and the park boundary.
Lead author Gloria Mugo, from Save the Elephants, said: ‘It is incredible the level of detail we can infer from free satellite imagery about the processes that control the spatial dynamics of elephant movements. A lot is known about what kinds of foods are eaten by elephants, however, being able to single out the fact that their movements can be driven by their fancied, gender-based diet, helps to further our understanding of micro-level ecological interactions.’
The paper ‘Mapping Floristic Composition Using Sentinal-2A and A Case Study Evaluation of its Application in Elephant Movement in Sagalla, Tsavo’ has been published in the journal, Remote Sensing. | https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2022-12-16-satellite-imagery-reveals-wild-african-elephants-choose-paths-leading-directly-their |
African elephants prefer a wide range of habitats from deserts to rain forests. Elephants are physically adapted to survive in each type of environment. Some of these adaptations include different body size and adaptation to food specific food sources and water availability.
www.reference.com/article/unusual-habitat-african-elephants-b2f1d69ad0247264
African elephants thrive in a diverse range of habitats, including the African savanna, forests, swamps and deserts. Because of the many different types of food they consume, African elephants are able to adapt readily to many distinct types of habitat. In the wild, they are found in 37 African coun
www.reference.com/article/zoos-african-elephant-habitats-2550f7e3e08aa5b0
The Birmingham Zoo, the Dallas Zoo and the Cleveland Metropark Zoo are among zoos with state-of-the-art African elephant habitats, as of 2015. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association provides a list of accredited zoos with elephant habitats on the organization's AZA.org website.
www.reference.com/article/african-elephants-d655b7b83df9013d
African Elephants are an endangered species of herbivore and are the largest land animals on the planet. They are characterized by their curved tusks, thick pillar legs, large ears and trunk.
www.reference.com/article/african-elephants-live-403bd87f75200a64
African elephants, the largest land animals on Earth, are found in sub-Saharan Africa. These elephants live in a range of climates on the African continent, from the Sahel desert in Mali to the rain forests of central and West Africa.
www.reference.com/article/african-elephants-eat-4b12e0cd019c0223
The diet of an African elephant consists of roots, grasses, buds, leaves, fruits and barks. Elephants can eat up to 350 pounds of food daily.
www.reference.com/pets-animals/elephants-adapted-habitat-3233b46b9c6ec26c
Elephants have special structural features, such as tusks, trunks, teeth, ears and size, that help them adapt and survive in their habitats. An elephant's size can help to deter predators, and tusks can be used for defense and to dig up roots out of the ground. | https://www.reference.com/web?q=african+elephant+habitat+facts&qo=relatedSearchSP2&o=600605&l=dir&sga=1 |
Deep in the shadows of the dense valley bushveld of the Sundays River area of the East Cape sits the Addo Elephant National Park. Here, the evenings tend to be punctuated by the strident howl of the black-backed jackal, and also the francolin’s call heralds each new dawn. Low risk from relentless persecution within the before, the grey leviathans of the bush now roam in peace.
The initial Elephant point of the park was proclaimed in 1931, when only eleven elephants remained within the area – now this finely tuned ecosystem is sanctuary to over 450 elephants, Cape buffalo, black rhino, a an assortment of antelope species, since well as the distinctive flightless dung beetle, found virtually only in Addo. However the Addo tale has solely just started. Plans to grow the 164 000 ha Addo Nationwide Elephant Park into a 360 000 ha mega-park tend to be going forward at just a particular exciting rate. This expansion is changing Addo Elephant National Park directly into the ideal tourism holiday destination.
Unrivalled purely natural variety, alongside five of Southern area Africa’s seven major vegetation areas (biomes).
The Big 7 (Elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo, leopard, whales and great white sharks) within their 100 % natural habitat.
Prosperous heritage of archaeological as well as historic websites.
A variety of accommodation and also activity options.
In addition, plans consist of the proposed proclamation of a 120 000 ha (296 500 acre) underwater reserve which includes islands that are home to the world’s largest breeding populations of Cape gannets and also 2nd biggest breeding population of African penguins.
The area is classified as semi-arid to arid, receiving a typical rainfall of not as much as 445 mm per year. Rain is relatively evenly distributed throughout the year, however there are two peaks, in February-March and October-November. Frost occurs sometimes in winter.
Daily maximum – Jan 32 °C July 18 °C Daily min – Jan fifteen °C July 5 °C.
On a search engine is not a 100 % natural water in this part of the park as well as all waterholes tend to be fed by boreholes. There are a number of little pans within the region however these are dried out except in many years of exceptional rainfall.
Height above sea level may differ from 250 to 970 m. Suggest annual rain approximately 722 mm. Peaks in rainfall in spring and also autumn. Different from other fynbos areas, the wintertime weeks are really the driest. Thunderstorms occur in warmer months whenever lightning fires can feel caused. | http://www.myaddo.co.za/get-best-advice-for-addo-elephant-national-park/ |
their grazing lifestyle. For example,
Capra hircus has a four-chambered
stomach that gives it multiple
advantages. First, this stomach
contains bacteria that breaks
down cellulose in the grasses and
leaves that the goat consumes. This
allows the goat to gain energy from
plants that many other animals
cannot.
In addition, the first chamber of the stomach, the rumen, has an extremely large capacity of 10 ½ quarts. This allows the goat to consume very large amounts of food in a small amount of time, without taking time to chew it. Later, the goat will regurgitate a small portion of it and chew it again. While this process is not the most pleasant to think about, it permits the goat to minimize the time that it is grazing in the field with its attention diverted from its surroundings. While eating, goats are extremely vulnerable to predation. This process allows them to decrease that vulnerable period and later re-chew when they are safe from harm.
The extent of the goats digestive system also allows them to utilize food sources that even other ruminates (animals with a rumen) cannot. Goats have been known to eat anything from plants, to tree bark, to garbage, to tin cans, and due to their digestive system they can. While some sources, such as the tin cans, supply them with little to no energy, others provide a means for them to live. Because of Capra hircus’s wide range of food sources, the species can exploit areas of very sparse vegetation.
For more information about goat digestion and the four-chambered stomach, see Nutrition.
Another adaptation of the goat is found in
its pupil. While some organisms have
circular or vertically slit pupils, Capra
hircus has horizontal slits. This orientation
allows goats to have greater peripheral
vision. This peripheral vision is especially
important for goats because its helps
them to have a greater sense of awareness
of their surroundings and detect predators
more easily.
For more information about predation,
see Interactions with Other Species.
Last, goats show adaptation in their
reproductive cycle. A female Capra hircus
begins its estrus cycle in the fall and winter
using signals of decreasing sunlight as a
starting cue. As the gestation cycle of a goat
lasts around 150 days, this practice ensures
that young will be born in the spring and
summer. Spring and summer breeding would
lead to late fall and winter births. Young goats
born in winter have a very low survival rate.
For more information about goat reproduction,
see Life History and Reproduction.
To learn about goat nutrition, click here.
To return home, click here.
A close up shows the horizontally slit pupils of the goat.
Photo by David Reece
A goat grazing in the field.
Photo by palestrina55
Baby goats play a few days after their birth. | http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2009/brown_kris/Kristin_Browns_Goat_Website/Adaptations.html |
What Do Grizzly Bears Eat?
Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) Article -
The grizzly bear, like its cousin the black bear, is omnivorous, meaning it will eat plants, as well as insects and other animals. Scavengers by nature, grizzlies spend most of their waking hours searching for food. Forbs, roots, tubers, grasses, berries and other vegetation, and insects comprise most of the bear’s diet. But grizzlies are very adaptable, finding and subsisting on a variety of foods if necessary. The grizzly diet can include small rodents, fish, carrion, and even garbage and human food if it is easily available.
Food sources vary in availability from year to year, and from season to season. Grizzlies move throughout their habitat looking for foods available at that time of year. The availability of many foods is known to the bears by season, and the bears move to these areas based on their experience. In this way, the general seasonal distribution and movements of bears are predictable. Ingestion of large amounts of food in a short time period is critical to grizzly survival, since they are only active and feeding for 6-8 months of every year.
SPRING
Grizzlies emerge from their dens from late March to May, whenever young vegetation begins growing. During the early spring months, bears move to low elevation areas, out of the snow, to feed on young, green vegetation. Common spring food sources include winter-killed animals, as well as ants, grasses and sedges, clover, dandelion, cow parsnip, and other plants.
SUMMER
From June through August, grizzly bears continue to eat forbs, dig for roots and tubers, and excavate insects, such as ants and grubs. Common summer food sources are thistle, fireweed, mushrooms, and moths clustering in rocky, high-elevations areas. In some areas, bears may prey for a few weeks on newly born elk, deer, and bison calves, until the young animals become too fast to be captured. In late summer, berry-producing shrubs provide a preferred food. For a few weeks during the summer, bears in the Yellowstone ecosystem catch cutthroat trout in spawning streams around Yellowstone Lake and Henry’s Lake. | https://www.heybear.com/blogs/news/what-do-grizzly-bears-eat |
As promised, today we are going to continue with the next topic i.e Adaption Made For Survival in Tropical Region. Let us provide you the brief explanation of the said topic.
Every organism is suited to live in its particular habitat. Each organism is adapted to its particular environment. An adaptation is thus, “the appearance or behaviour or structure or mode of life of an organism that allows it to survive in a particular environment”.
The Tropics are the land and sea areas between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn which are 23.5 degrees north(Cancer) and south(Capricorn) of the Equator.
• It is characterized by hot and wet climate throughout the year.
• The day temperatures are high with very high humidity. At night the temperature goes down but the humidity remains high.
• The forests are thick hence the dense “roof ” created by leaves and branches does not allow the sunlight to reach the ground. The ground remains dark and damp.
• Only shade tolerant vegetation may grow here. Orchids, bromeliads grow as plant parasites.
Plant survival in a tropical rainforest depends on the plant’s ability to tolerate constant shade or to adapt strategies to reach sunlight. Fungus is a good example of a plant that flourishes in warm, dark places created by the forest canopy and understory.
Some rainforest trees have special characteristics which are signs of adaptation to their environment. These are generally to do with obtaining nutrient, obtaining maximum sunlight, encouraging water run-off from leaves or avoiding being eaten by insects or animals.
• Drip tips and waxy surfaces on the leaves allow water to run off hence discourage growth of bacteria and fungi.
• Some plants climb on others to reach the sunlight.
• Buttresses and prop and stilt roots help hold up plants in the shallow soil.
• Flowers on the forest floor are designed to attract animal pollinators since there is relatively no wind on the forest floor to aid in pollination.
• Smooth bark and smooth or waxy flowers speed the run off of water.
• Plants have shallow roots to help capture nutrients from the top level of soil which is rich in humus.
Animal Adaption is when an animal species adapts to its Physiological, Structural, or Behavioral patterns to be more compatible within their environment to better improve their survival possibilities. Physiological adaptation is when an animal perform special functions inside of its body, like a snake with its venom. Structural adaptation is the physical appearance of the animal, such as its shape or size.
• Many animals of the rainforest are camouflaged which aids them in avoiding predators.
• Some animals have adaptations that enable them to eat food that other animals can’t. For example parrots have strong beaks that crack the shells of very hard nuts.
• Some animals like the poison arrow frog produce toxins in their skin to ward off a predator. These animals are boldly colored as a warning for others to stay as far away as possible.
• Spider monkeys live in the upper canopy layers of rainforests, preferring undisturbed habitat, almost never coming to the ground. Their long limbs and strong tail are good examples of rainforest biome adaptations.
They swing through the rainforest canopy and hang suspended by their tails. The powerful prehensile tail plays the role of a fifth arm and is often used for balance or just hanging out.
• Many tropical rainforest animals have a diet that includes a large amount of fruit which is available year round. | https://onlinetyari.com/blog/ias-prelims-2017-important-topics-adaption-made-survival-tropical-region/ |
The creation of a National Communication offers countries the opportunity to contribute with technically sound studies and information that can be used for designing mitigation and adaptation measures, and project proposals that can and will help increase their resilience to the impacts of climate change. Activities generally include: V&A assessments, Greenhouse Gas Inventory preparation, Mitigation Analysis or Education, and awareness raising activities.The ultimate goal is the integration of climate change considerations into relevant social, economic and environmental policies and actions.
Namibia is one of the driest countries in Southern Africa with a mean annual rainfall that ranges from 25 mm in the southwest and west, to 700 mm north and northeast. With the Namibian economy disproportionately based on natural resources it is extremely sensitive to climate change effects. It is predicted with a high degree of certainty that Namibia will become hotter throughout the year, with a predicted increase in temperatures of between 1°C and 3.5°C in summer and 1°C to 4°C in winter in the period 2046 - 2065. Maximum temperatures have been getting hotter over the past 40 years, as observed in the frequency of days exceeding 35°C. Equally, the frequencies of days with temperatures below 5°C have been getting less, suggesting an overall warming.
Project Details
Impacts, Vulnerability, and Adpatiation
For the purposes of the impacts and vulnerability assessment, emphasis was placed on the socio-economic contexts of rural areas, in particular the Karas (south) and Caprivi (north) regions. Particular attention was paid to the water and agriculture sectors, the coastal zone, tourism (and specifically the importance of Community-Based Natural Resource Management [CBNRM]), and human health (focusing on malaria and HIV/AIDS). Notwithstanding the challenges associated with modeling the future climate of arid/ semi-arid regions, where natural climate variability exceeds the climate change signal over the next few decades, vulnerability was assessed against broad statements of change.
Climate Change in Namibia
It is predicted with a high degree of certainty that Namibia will become hotter throughout the year, with a predicted increase in temperatures of between 1°C and 3.5°C in summer and 1°C to 4°C in winter in the period 2046 - 2065. Maximum temperatures have been getting hotter over the past 40 years, as observed in the frequency of days exceeding 35°C. Equally, the frequencies of days with temperatures below 5°C have been getting less, suggesting an overall warming.
Detecting trends in rainfall is typically more difficult, especially in highly variable arid climates such as Namibia. Considerable spatial heterogeneity in the trends has been observed, but it appears as if the northern and central regions of Namibia are experiencing a later onset and earlier cessation of rains, resulting in shorter seasons in most vicinities. There has been a statistically significant decrease in the number of consecutive wet days in various locations, and increases in measures of rainfall intensity could be observed. As far as predictions for the future are concerned, it is not obvious whether Namibian rainfall will be reduced, although intensity is likely to be increased. The most consistent changes are for an increase in late summer rainfall over major parts of the country, and a decrease in winter rainfall in the south and west of the country. Increases in rainfall are most obvious during the January to April period, especially in the central and north-eastern regions. It is important to underscore that variability, and stronger variability at that, is likely to remain the key aspect of Namibia’s climate in the future.
Socio-Economics and Climate Change
Vulnerability is informed by climatic changes, but also depends on the capacity to respond adequately to those changes. Household income, income diversification, availability of labour, the health status of household members, and access to productive assets and resources are factors that determine vulnerability. In combination with environmental conditions and the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, these factors negatively impact on agricultural production and food security. Ultimately they contribute to limited adaptive capacity. External factors such as the existence of formal and informal social support networks, the availability and quality of health services, and prices of farm inputs and outputs further influence the capacity to cope with and recover from climate shocks.
The vulnerability to climate change differs between regions in Namibia and between various socio-economic groups. In particular, the impact of poverty and HIV/AIDS may reverse relatively favourable environmental conditions in the northern regions. In general, it is a matter of concern that the capacity for social organization and support in communities in various regions of the country appears to be dwindling. This will limit adaptive capacity.
Water resources
Namibia has reached or exceeded its carrying capacity with regard to water in many areas of the county. The agricultural sector uses about 75% of all water use, and the Green Scheme is likely to add another 80% above current irrigation abstraction. The projected temperature increases will result in evaporation and evapotranspiration increases in the range of 5-15%, further reducing water resource availability and dam yields. It is predicted that, even without the additional stresses of climate change on the water resources, demand will have surpassed the installed abstraction capacity by 2015.
A reduction of 10-20% in rainfall by 2045-2065 over the Angolan catchments of the Zambezi, Kavango, Cuvelai and Kunene rivers is expected to lead to a reduction in runoff and drainage in these river systems by +/- 25%. The impacts of project climate changes on run- off, peak flows, and sustainable dam yields for the Fish river basin were modelled. The interpretation of the results is limited due to uncertainties in the models, particularly the climate models. Within these limitations, there are signs that runoff may increase in the far South of the country, whereas this is less clear for the central- southern area of Hardap.
Wetlands are likely to provide reduced ecosystem services such as water retention, flood attenuation and water purification, negatively affecting rural livelihoods and tourism. The mouths of the Kunene and Orange rivers are likely to be affected, with possibly serious implications for their qualifications as Ramsar sites. Floodplains in the Caprivi and oshanas (ephemeral rivers and pans formed in the shallow depressions of the Cuvelai system in the north) remain particularly vulnerable, as smaller areas will be inundated, and because they may dry out more rapidly due to increased evaporation. The Okavango delta may be strongly affected in similar ways, as a result of which it may potentially shift to a seasonal river.
Due to uncertainties with regard to the relationships between rainfall and runoff in arid environments such as Namibia, only preliminary deductions can be made around the implications for groundwater recharge. Literature suggests that groundwater recharge may suffer a reduction of 30-70% across Namibia; a potential exception could be found in the recharge of alluvial aquifers that have their origins in central areas of Namibia, where more late summer convective rainfall can be expected by the middle of the 21st century (a trend that can moreover already be observed).
Agriculture
The agricultural sector is critical to the subsistence base of a large section of Namibia’s society. The dualism of the sector, with its marked differences in access to credit, markets and inputs, accentuates the socio-economic vulnerabilities of rural dwellers in Namibia. While the impact of climate change will be felt across all farming communities, being rich or poor, communal or commercial, poor people living in marginalised areas will be most severely affected. A complex interaction of socio-economic stressors in subsistence farming households exists (poor health, inequitable access to land, gender inequaIity, population growth, and increasing competition for shared resources), and climate change induced impacts will only add to this situation.
Crop models for potential yields and planting windows for the mid-21st century for Namibia’s main staple grains, maize and pearl millet, for Rundu and Grootfontein, yielded largely inconclusive results owing to model uncertainties. The potential for crop production in the Grootfontein area may increase. The success of the flagship Green Scheme (GS), which aims to encourage agricultural and rural economic development within suitable irrigation areas, will be highly dependent on the provision of water resources (particularly the Kavango river). Under climate change, with a projected decrease in rainfall of 10%, proposed GS sites may experience reductions in perennial drainage of 30-60%. This may affect the viability of the scheme with implications for national economic development and food security.
Impacts of climate change on the livestock sector will depend on grazing availability, quality, and bush encroachment; livestock production and reproduction responses; water availability and demand; and disease and parasite impact. Significant changes in vegetation structure and function are projected, with the dominant vegetation type Grassy Savanna losing its spatial dominance to Desert and Arid Shrubland vegetation types, and increases in bush encroachment in the north-eastern regions. Reductions in vegetation cover and reduced Net Primary Productivity (NPP) have negative implications for grazing. Maximum temperature thresholds for conception in cattle will be breached for some popular breeds. Increased water demand will reduce grazing distances and exacerbate degradation around watering points. Warming and changing rainfall distributions could lead to changes in the spatial or temporal distributions of climate-sensitive diseases/vectors/ pathogens.
Coastal Zone and Fisheries
Namibia, with its long coastline and important fisheries sector, is vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise. Under a short-term (2030) sea level rise scenario, damages are likely to be limited, except for early damages to, and disruption of the economically important Walvis Bay port infrastructure and activities. With the protective Pelican Point sandspit still in place in 2030, enhanced coastal erosion from a sea level rise of +20cm will lead to a likely coastal set-back estimated at almost 100m. With the sandspit destroyed, sea level rise of +2m on an annual basis, and of +3m from extreme sea levels with a return period of 100 years, would inundate much of the town. The other three major coastal towns would only suffer relatively minor damage to fixed infrastructure and property, compared to the serious impacts on Walvis Bay. Over the longer term, under the scenario of polar ice melt, low lying coastal areas will be permanently inundated, leading to the wholesale disruption of infrastructure and services along the coast.
Sea level rise and associated storm surges will bring about biogeophysical impacts such as coastal erosion; flooding, inundation and displacement of wetlands and lowlands; landslides; salt water intrusion into freshwater aquifers and estuaries; and reduced protection from extreme storm and flood events. Coastal populations have a high dependence on aquifers, this constitutes a key vulnerability. Raised water tables could allow an encroachment of polluted water into wastewater treatment facilities, increasing the probability of sewage overflow, with the associated human and ecological health hazards.
The ability of coastal ecosystems to provide services such as provision of food, tourism/recreation, flood attenuation, and replenishment of groundwater, could be impaired. Slowly increasing salinity levels of estuaries and aquifers, and changes to habitats and primary production, would be detrimental to spawning and nursery
grounds for many fish species, thus impacting on the shore birds which feed on them. The ability of the Namibian coast to continue supporting large numbers of migratory and shore bird numbers could be jeopardised. Breeding sites on coastal islands would be at particular risk of flooding from sea level rise. In the longer term, the effects of sea level rise on primary production in coastal systems may largely be dependent upon variations in the nutrient concentrations caused by changes in ocean current patterns and upwelling regimes associated with the Benguela system.
Tourism
Climate change could affect the growing nature-based tourism industry in Namibia directly by impacting on the tourism resource base, through changes in habitats, landscape characteristics and vegetation cover, biodiversity loss, decreasing water availability, increased frequency and severity of climate hazards, coastal erosion, and increased incidence of vector borne diseases (like malaria). Projected declines in vegetation cover and significant change in vegetation structure and function, would impact on tourism. Beneficiaries of the CBNRM programme in conservancies and forest reserves, who are developing sustainable livelihoods based on resource management and tourism, stand to be severely affected by any such changes. On the other hand, shifts in land use systems away from livestock production systems based on exotic species, toward indigenous biodiversity production systems, may reduce impacts, and possibly even benefit the tourism potential.
The indirect impacts of climate change on the future of the tourism sector are likely to be of greater relevance. Significant shifts are occurring in international consumer awareness and attitudes, with increasing concerns regarding the carbon footprint of long- haul air travel to distant tourism destinations. This is resulting in greater consumer reluctance to engage in such travel for tourism purposes and greater willingness-to-pay for tourism products and services that are environmentally friendly and have a smaller carbon footprint.
Health
Human health will be impacted through a complex set of interactions, both in the shorter- and longer-term, with many direct as well as indirect impacts. Climate change, and particularly the effect of increased variability, will add additional pressures to the social environment and a health care system that is already burdened by challenges such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and malnutrition (especially in rural areas). In populations with reduced immune responses, additional stresses brought about by climate change could lead to an increased risk of diseases, including co-infection with TB. The HIV/AIDS epidemic, in combination with poverty and a reduced capacity of institutions to respond, has already reduced the resilience of rural households. Also, HIV/AIDS has not yet been adequately mainstreamed in emergency management practices, with recent floods having caused substantial disruptions in the delivery of HIV/AIDS-related health services. Women, orphans and other vulnerable children, the chronically ill, and those infected with HIV/AIDS are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Climate change could affect health through the direct impacts of increasing temperatures, with newborns, the old and infirm, and those with pre-existing medical conditions particularly vulnerable. Rural Namibians with poorer access to medical services are considered relatively more vulnerable. Increasing contamination of open water sources driven by floods and droughts and a diminishing resource, and exacerbated by increasing pressure from humans and animals, may increase the risk of diarrhoea, cholera, fever and related water borne illnesses. Rising temperatures and more intense rainfall events are conducive to increased breeding of the malaria-carrying mosquito, and rising transmission rates. Currently non-endemic areas bordering endemic zones could experience higher risk of malaria, with sporadic occurrences over time increasing the range of endemic areas. Currently malaria-free areas, including some major population centres, could become exposed in future.
Reductions in crop yields and increasing populations could reduce the availability of food in rural Namibia, thus increasing malnutrition and contributing to weakened human disease defenses, and increasing mortality, particularly in children. The provision of sufficient safe, reliable and affordable water, and good sanitation and drainage, all essential for human health, will become increasingly challenging. Water scarcity is likely to lead to an increase in conflict within and between communities, and in migration and its associated impacts on increasing the spread of diseases, especially in peri-urban and urban areas. This will challenge urban health, water and sanitation services.
Economy
An economic analysis of the potential impacts of climate change on the Namibian economy (GDP and income distribution), based on six scenarios of changes in the agriculture and fisheries sectors (being strongly climate-sensitive), was conducted. Under a best- case scenario, agricultural impacts would be partly offset by improved water distribution, there would be no impact on fisheries and the overall GDP would fall by only about 1%. Under a worst- case scenario, large-scale shifts in climate zones would reduce agricultural and fishing outputs, and the overall GDP would fall by almost 6% over 20 years. However, this estimate constitutes only a fraction of possible climate change impacts because it considers only two economic sectors that are directly affected. Furthermore, climate change impacts will hit the poor hardest, with employment opportunities constrained and a substantial decline in wages, especially for unskilled labour. Even under the best-case scenarios, subsistence farming will fall sharply. In the worst-case scenario for agriculture, labour intensive livestock farming is hit hard, and while high-value irrigated crop production could thrive, employment creation in this area would be minimal. Thus, even under the best- case scenario, a quarter of the population will need to find new livelihoods. Displaced rural populations are likely to move to cities, which could cause incomes for unskilled labour to fall by 12 to 24% in order to absorb the new workers. Income distribution in Namibia is already one of the most uneven in the world and this inequality is likely to increase, with significant implications for future social cohesion, if no counteracting policies are put in place.
Adaptation
This report highlights the importance of addressing climate change from a developmental perspective, cutting across policies and warranting early action. Namibia’s ability to adapt to climate change will be informed by its aridity, environmental sensitivity, population growth trends and high densities in northern areas and internal migration, high dependence on natural resources (particularly agricultural land), widespread poverty amongst some sections of the population, decline in effective traditional land management systems, and lack of access to credit and savings.
However, people may not adapt sufficiently to climate change for a variety of reasons. Climate may be perceived to pose little risk relative to other hazards and stressors and therefore given low priority, as shown in the Namibian Poverty Profiles. A Namibia
specific study identified the following barriers to adaptation to climate change:
• Insufficient awareness (information limited to specialists and access to research by stakeholders) • Political and institutional barriers (implementation of policies, low public participation)
• Socio-cultural barriers (technology stigmatation and techno-focus, as well as a different local priority than national ones at times) • Financial barriers (types and conditionality of funds, insufficient pricing of resources, and lack of access to private funding)
Namibia aims to address its increasing water scarcity through both supply- and demand-side interventions within a framework of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Since climate variability is and will remain the greatest threat, adaptation responses should draw on experiences in innovative mechanisms to address water scarcity and expand implementation of such approaches countrywide and at all times. The focus should be on measures to reduce evaporation and to improve water resource use efficiency. Specific measures will include the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources, including sub-surface water banking. Monitoring and control of groundwater use will be stepped up. Demand management is required in municipalities, industries, mines, and in the agricultural sector. For local authorities this may go a long way to delay major water infrastructure investments. The Basin Management Approach may assist in raising awareness of the vulnerability to climate change amongst communities, but more resources and capacity building are required to gain experience with the approach. The development of the policy and legal framework around IWRM must be sped up.
For agriculture, adaptive responses are structured along technological, policy and institutional imperatives. Technological priorities include irrigation and water harvesting, conservation agriculture, diversification, use of improved crops (especially those developed from indigenous germplasm), use of indigenous livestock breeds, increased seed and fertilizer availability, shared water resource management, early warning systems, drought mitigation measures, livestock management strategies, and crop modeling skills development. Adaptation at the farm-level focuses on tactical decisions farmers make in response to seasonal variations in climatic, economic, and other factors, and influenced by a number of socioeconomic factors including access to information and supportive institutions. For effective adaptation at this level, perceptions of current and future climate are important, and improved communication and information dissemination should be established to guide behavioural adaptation. There is a great need for improving social organisation and local adaptive capacity, to counteract dwindling social support and increasing conflict in communities. It is important that research is linked to existing local knowledge of climate related hazards and involves local communities in exploring adaptation decision making.
In view of the uncertainties surrounding sea level rise, adaptation responses that retain options, and promote continued monitoring and flexibility are most valuable. From a financial perspective, sea- level rise adaptation options in Namibia can be divided into (1) no regrets options – desirable, low cost, high benefit options should be pursued even if climate change was not a threat, (2) sea-level rise specific responses that save more money than they cost and (3) sea- level rise specific options that are necessary (to save human life or heritage value) but are costly. From a methodological perspective, adaptation options can be divided into (1) infrastructure and hard engineering responses (such as sea-walls, dolosses and raising the level of harbours; desalination plants), (2) soft and biological responses such as the retention of wetlands and riparian vegetation in estuaries, beach and sandspit replenishment, the planting of dune vegetation to ensure dune buffers are retained and the cultivating of kelp beds that dissipate wave energy, and (3) socio-institutional responses such as enforced coastal buffer zones, early warning, insurance market and planned relocations. Selecting and applying these options will be most effective within the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) approach, which takes cognisance of Namibia’s existing development priorities and programmes, the economic, social, recreational and cultural objectives of the coastal zone, and the limits set by the carrying capacity of the coast. ICZM must also be undertaken in collaboration with neighbouring countries, through the Benguela Current Commission (BCC).
Adaptation in the tourism sector will focus on sustainable tourism, underpinned by Namibia’s negligible carbon footprint and its excellent reputation for nature conservation, and in particular pro-poor nature conservation (CBNRM). Namibia will actively seek to market the country as a “carbon-neutral”, “fair trade”, “pro- environment” and “pro-poor” tourism destination. Conservancies, by diversifying land use and associated rural income sources and livelihoods, provide benefits which improve the capacity of rural ecosystems, rural land use systems, and rural livelihood systems to adapt to the effects of climate change. This makes rural people benefiting from CBNRM less vulnerable and increases their adaptive capacity. Wildlife is generally better adapted than livestock to the current ecological and climatic conditions in arid Namibia, and can be expected to be more resilient and adaptable to future conditions. The Conservancy programme’s monitoring activities and developing database, collated and stored in a national conservancy information system (CONINFO) provides a valuable information base which can be used towards effective climate change monitoring and adaptation for both the natural resource base and the tourism- related activities which it supports.
An integrated health system-wide response and capacity building on all fronts is required to adequately respond and cope with the health-related impacts of climate change. Adaptation to climate change within other sectors, notably water resources, agriculture and food security, and disaster management can offset many of the negative repercussions within the health sector. First, immediate year-to-year health imperatives driven by slow-onset linear changes in weather patterns (and thus disease) will require well-planned public health responses. For example, the encroachment of malaria into new areas can be met by improvement and intensification of current efforts. Second, different response measures are required for abrupt and/or fast-onset changes, which can give rise to large-scale epidemic outbreaks. These include large-scale social upheaval, and secondary effects of extreme climatic events, which are more likely to be effectively dealt with under the umbrella of a nationally coordinated emergency response.
To complement and strengthen existing policies and programmes e.g. for malaria and HIV/AIDS, Namibia needs to enhance and further mainstream climate-related awareness, improve access to timely and relevant information, undertake scenario development and pro-active planning and policy development to address both fast-onset and slow-onset climate-induced events, develop health- centred adaptation strategies, climate-proof the public health system, and strengthen water and sanitation systems.
In terms of managing the impacts of drought and floods the capacity for disaster risk preparedness, rather than disaster response, should be strengthened. Spatial planning that takes ecosystem requirements into consideration has the potential to markedly reduce flood related costs. In order to address the disaster-related risks suffered by the majority of the rural population, pro-poor disaster insurance schemes should be developed.
Source: Namibia Second National Communication (October, 2011)
Key Results and Outputs
- Sustainable development and the integration of climate change concerns into medium- and long-term planning
- Inventories of anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases
- Measures contributing to addressing climate change
- Research and systematic observation
- Climate change impacts, adaptation measures and response strategies
- Education, training and public awareness
Potential Adpation Measures:
Agriculture and Food Security
- Educational & outreach activities to change management practices to those suited to climate change
- Switch to different cultivars
- Improve and conserve soils
- Develop new crops
Water Resources
- Decrease water demands, e.g. by increasing efficiency, reducing water losses, water recycling, changing irrigation practices
- Develop and introduce flood and drought monitoring and control system
- Reduce water pollution
Coastal Zones and Marine Ecosystems
- Develop planning/new investment requirements
- Research/monitor the coastal ecosystem
Reports and Publications
Assessments and Background Documents
Monitoring and Evaluation
In 1992, countries joined an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to cooperatively consider what they could do to limit average global temperature increases and the resulting climate change, and to cope with whatever impacts were, by then, inevitable.
Parties to the Convention must submit national reports on implementation of the Convention to the Conference of the Parties (COP). The required contents of national communications and the timetable for their submission are different for Annex I and non-Annex I Parties. This is in accordance with the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" enshrined in the Convention.
The core elements of the national communications for both Annex I and non-Annex I Parties are information on emissions and removals of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and details of the activities a Party has undertaken to implement the Convention. National communications usually contain information on national circumstances, vulnerability assessment, financial resources and transfer of technology, and education, training and public awareness.
Since 1994, governments have invested significant time and resources in the preparation, collection and validation of data on GHG emissions, and the COP has made determined efforts to improve the quality and consistency of the data, which are ensured by established guidelines for reporting. Non-Annex I Parties receive financial and technical assistance in preparing their national communications, facilitated by the UNFCCC secretariat. | https://www.adaptation-undp.org/projects/namibias-second-national-communication-october-2011 |
The dataset was compiled by the Geological and Bioregional Assessment Program from source data referenced within the dataset and/or metadata. New sinkhole and waterhole data for the Beetaloo GBA region, interpreted as part of GBA from remote sensing information. It includes locations and descriptions of dams, sinkholes, waterholes, circular clay filled depressions and ephemeral wetlands in the region. Waterholes and sinkholes are particularly prevalent in western Beetaloo GBA region. The sinkholes, waterholes and wetlands often appear to occur in clusters, and can be associated with depressions that can be over 1000m across. Some features may also occur adjacent to large palaeo-valleys, or in abandoned stream channels. Others seem to align with geological lineaments. Some sinkholes appear to be quite recent and contain little vegetation, whereas others are older and contain thick stands of trees. It is likely than many of sinkholes and depressions are forms of pesudo-karst that have formed in deeply weathered regolith on the Carpentaria Basin. Where the Carpentaria Basin is thin there is potential for sinkholes and conduits to intersect with limestone karst (sinkholes and conduits) that occur in the Cambrian Limestone Aquifer. | https://demo.dev.magda.io/dataset/ds-dga-ef54bd4f-9aaa-49ab-a9a0-532afeda7fb6 |
The bushveld waterhole has to be visited. How frequently, depends on the thirst. Every species has its rhythm for making the trip. Size, speed, vigilance, number in the herd and defence capability of the species influence the probability of leaving alive.
The smaller mammals will nervously drink and move away quickly to eat elsewhere. The elephant may leisurely select appetising branchlets, not overly concerned with safety… and trample some shrubs and trees, extending the clearing that benefits potential victims.
The drier the season, the fewer the waterholes where all have to drink and the bigger the opportunity for the carnivore to use the spot as a restaurant!
Because they all defecate here at some stage and because there’s moisture, the vegetation may contribute to obscuring visibility for the hungry killer to ambush the thirsty. | https://operationwildflower.org.za/index.php/albums/habitat/fresh-water/bushveld-waterhole-il-2-3502 |
"Hundreds of thousands of northern elephant seals once inhabited the Pacific Ocean. They were slaughtered wholesale in the 1800s for the oil that could be rendered from their blubber. By 1892, only 50 to 100 individuals were left. The only remaining colony was on the Guadalupe Island off the coast of Baja California." - according to California State Parks .
Hunters weren't after their fur. They wanted their blubber.
Blubber had also been used by indigenous people such as the Inuit to light stone oil lamps called quilliqs.
By the turn of the century, the scarcity of elephant seals and the arrival of alternative fuels such as petroleum-based products made blubber-based oils obsolete.
Return of the elephant seal
"By 1922, the Mexican government gave protected status to elephant seals, and the U. S. government followed suit a few years later when the seals began to appear in Southern California waters." - .
A century of progress - From a single known colony at Isla de Guadalupe off the Pacific coast of Baja California, colonies expanded all along the coast of the Californias. Where there were only 100 or so individuals, there are now over 100,000.
Living with a genetic bottleneck - Like the California condor, this once endangered species reestablished itself from just a few survivors. As a result, there isn't much genetic variation between individuals, although there are many individuals.
A genetic bottleneck is a temporary reduction in population size that causes the loss of genetic variation in future generations. When the number of individuals has been low, no matter how populous the next generation becomes, all the individuals in that generation are drawn from the same limited gene pool. Studies confirm the expectation of low genetic variation within groups of living northern elephant seals. It might seem redundant, but comparing what we expect with what actually occurs is important because surprises do occur. The elephant seals we find today might have been the descendants of more survivors than just the one colony at Isla de Guadalupe. This apparently didn't happen.
The downside of low genetic variability is less resilience to environmental stress as a group. Since genetic variation is low, the genetic solutions that these animals possess is limited. Should a critical stress occur, large numbers of these animals could be susceptible to its negative effects until greater genetic variability reestablishes itself over time. Modern conservation efforts seek to preserve the rich genetic variation of natural populations as well as total numbers of individuals.
New threats
Citizen scientistSee for yourself - Compare migration movies with sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll concentration at the sea surface for different years. You can analyze the relationship between climate, food supply and elephant seal migrations.
• TOPP - Migration movies
• TOPP - Home
Climate change - It didn't hurt the northern elephant seal's recovery when people lost interest in their blubber because they favored the new fossil fuels.
Research scientist Dan Costa at TOPP comments on the potential impact of climate change on elephant seals -
More boys in a warmer world Scientists have observed that the ratio of male-to-female northern elephant seal pups changes with climatic conditions in the North Pacific . During warmer times, more males are born than females. It may be an advantageous adaptation to produce fewer female young relative to males when food is harder to find in areas where females forage.
Obviously elephant seals and other marine mammals are biologically adapted to survive episodes of natural climate variability such as El Niño. Just how well they survive on low genetic variability, and whether they experience stresses beyond their capacity to rebound will determine their continued success or decline.
Elephant seals help us to understand the oceans - Now that satellite-based technologies let us know where they forage for food - in the deep North Pacific and along the continental shelf of the Pacific Northwest, we can see that elephant seals rely on food sources that are vulnerable to climate change.
So how do they help us to help them? We can monitor the sea surface by using satellite technologies but it's much harder to get readings from below the surface in this way.
The same equipment that allows us to track elephant seal migration can monitor key conditions in the oceans by letting the elephant seals carry instrumentation for us. Elephant seals travel to places that are difficult for even remote vehicles to access and they spread out across large areas of some oceans. The information collected by elephant seals helps us understand how the oceans and atmosphere work together to set the Earth's climate. That understanding has the potential to positively impact the well-being of both elephant seals and humans. | http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/elephantseals/conservation/index.html |
The sublime sunsets are only one of many natural wonders that draw adventurers and nature lovers into arid and overwhelming Namibia. The silent beauty of its landscapes will penetrate your heart and soul.
Behind a hot, dry and sparsely populated façade lies a treasure trove of wildlife, geological wonders, cultural diversity and famously picturesque landscapes. This is a country of vast deserted landscapes and amazing wildlife offering visitors a truly wonderful wildlife adventure. The best method of travel is by air as the unique locations are situated quite far from each other. There are numerous flight routings in Namibia allowing for quick and easy transfers right to your accommodation.
Namibia’s climate is mostly hot and dry. Temperatures during winter range from 18-22⁰C during the day and from 0-10⁰C at night. Summer temperatures range from 20-34⁰C during the day and drop below 18⁰C at night. Namibia is a summer rainfall area. The rainy season runs from October to April with the heaviest rains from January to March. This is of particular interest when travelling to the tropical south eastern region.
Bear in mind that from the first Sunday in September to the first Sunday in April Namibia is 2 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time and from the first Sunday in April to the first Sunday in September Namibia is 1 hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.
The most popular destinations are the Sossusvlei and the Namib Desert, Damaraland and the Skeleton Coast for a wilderness adventure and Etosha National Park for a special bush safari adventure.
Sossusvlei
There are a number of wonderful attractions to be enjoyed around Sossusvlei in the largest conservation area in Namibia, the Namib-Nakluft National Park, which covers almost 50,000 km2. The top attraction of the park and the second most popular attraction in Namibia, Sossusvlei is renowned for its majestic, warm red, star-shaped dunes contrasting against the stark white floors of the pans.
Other attractions in close proximity to Sossusvlei include Sesriem Canyon, Dune 45, Hiddenvlei, Big Daddy and Deadvlei. All of these attractions can be accessed from the road that takes you to Sossusvlei, and are all well worth a visit. In a number of areas surrounding Sossuvlei look out for the petrified dunes. These are ancient dunes that are approximately 1 billion years old and have solidified into rock.
With some of the highest sand dunes in the world, the Namib Desert has a number of activities for visitors to enjoy, making it one of the most popular areas to visit in Namibia. Take your pick from a host of activities and experience the desert’s beauty from all angles, from quad-biking in the dunes, to nature walks, to hot-air balloon flights and so much more. Explore the wonders of the Sossusvlei with our outstanding selection of activities.
Namib Desert
Lying between a high inland plateau and the Atlantic Ocean, the Namib Desert extends along the coast of Namibia, merging with the Kaokoveld Desert into Angola in the north and south with the Karoo Desert in South Africa.
Throughout this vast and unforgiving landscape, a number of animals and plants have adapted to life here.
Namibia is home to a unique population of elephants that have adapted to the arid, and sometimes inhospitable, climate.
Found mostly in the Damaraland region in the northwest part of the country, these “desert” elephants can go for days without drinking water, surviving on moisture obtained from the vegetation they eat.
Although not a different species or subspecies than other African elephants, they have larger feet, making it easier to walk through sand, and often live in smaller herds, which puts less pressure on their food and water sources.
Damaraland
Namibia’s best-kept secret!
Namibia has the second-lowest population density of any country on earth (after Mongolia) but in the northwest, the country’s least populated area, there are even fewer people. Only a few thousand Himba live in a mind-boggling landscape of 100 000 square kilometres, stretching from the town of Khorixas in the south to the Angolan border.
The climate and the terrain is the reason for this paucity of people. Less than 150mm of rain falls every year, sometimes none at all, and ephemeral rivers flow only after irregular thunder storms.
The landscape is as impressive as it is intimidating. Rugged mountains in the eastern escarpment spread out into massive valleys and plains, before the beginning of the Skeleton Coast in the west, where endless dunes lie adjacent to the cold Atlantic Ocean.
Despite the aridity and foreboding topography, the Kunene region – comprising Damaraland in the south and Kaokoland in the north – is now becoming one of the most accessible, authentic wildlife destinations in Africa. Visitors can reliably see desert-adapted elephants, black rhino, lions, Hartmanns Zebra, giraffe and gemsbok.
Unlike most protected areas in Southern Africa, the wildlife roams free, unrestricted by fences or gates, moving among the local Himba and the goats and cattle. It all adds up to give the intrepid visitor a feeling of ancient Africa, a time before the white man arrived and stamped his colonial mark. At the core of this remarkable wildlife area is Namibia’s conservancy program.
Skeleton Coast
The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River.
There is a constant heavy surf on the beaches. In the days of human-powered boats it was possible to get ashore through the surf but impossible to launch from the shore. The only way out was by going through a marsh hundreds of miles long and only accessible via a hot and arid desert.
The coast is largely soft sand occasionally interrupted by rocky outcrops. The southern section consists of gravel plains while north of Terrace Bay the landscape is dominated by high sand dunes. Skeleton Bay is now known as a great location for surfing.
The Skeleton Coast is normally associated with famous shipwrecks, and stories abound of sailors walking for hundreds of kilometres through this barren Namibian landscape in search of food and water. The coast has scores of shipwrecks, some are barely recognizable, other are still in remarkably good condition. For the best views of these shipwrecks, you would need to visit the Skeleton Coast Park either on a fly-in safari or alternatively on a scenic flight.
Despite its arid and deadly appearance, the Skeleton Coast has a greater variety of species than many other parks in Southern Africa. Large mammals include Namibia’s famous desert-adapted elephant, black rhino, lion, cheetah, giraffe, gemsbok, zebra, springbok and spotted and brown hyena, are found in the dry river beds which flow from the interior of Namibia, through the Namib Desert to the Skeleton Coast.
A Skeleton Coast Fly-In safari is the highlight of any trip to Namibia – and if you are serious about visiting this spectacular area we highly recommend this trip!
Etosha National Park
In the vast arid space of Northern Namibia lies one of Southern Africa’s best loved wildlife sanctuaries. Etosha National Park offers excellent game viewing on one of Africa’s most accessible venues. Zebra and Springbok are scattered across the endless horizon, while the many waterholes attract endangered black rhinoceros, lion, elephant and large numbers of antelope.
Game viewing at the waterholes, especially during the dry season (June to November). Great chances of seeing the endangered black rhino. The 5000 km square pan attracts thousand of flamingos after heavy rain. Floodlit waterholes for night-time game viewing. Malaria free! | https://thetraveller.co.za/namibia/ |
The deaths of hundreds of elephants in Botswana earlier this year had baffled and shocked conservationists. Officials now say the deaths were caused by toxins from algal blooms.
Almost 400 elephants were found dead in Botswana between May and July this year. Botswana is home to Africa’s largest elephant population of 130,000. Test results suggest toxins produced by cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) in water are to blame for the mass deaths, officials announced.
“Our latest tests have detected cyanobacterial neurotoxins to be the cause of deaths. These are bacteria found in water,” Mmadi Reuben, principal veterinary officer at the Botswana department of wildlife and national parks, said. “However we have many questions still to be answered such as why the elephants only and why that area only. We have a number of hypotheses we are investigating.”
Local sources suggest 70% of elephants died near water holes containing algal blooms, which produce cyanobacteria, The Guardian reported.
Algal blooms occur when algae multiply very quickly due to a combination of environmental factors. Waters that are rich in nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous, and iron are most conductive to blooms. Agricultural run-off, sewerage, and stormwater disrupt the chemical balance of waterways, increasing the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus and feeding into algal blooms.
Scientists worry that climate change will trigger more algal blooms with more toxins as warmer water temperatures are more favorable for bacterial growth.
Source: Al Jazeera English/YouTube
However, skeptical conservationists are demanding that the government publicly release results of the investigation.
“If it’s in waterholes or was in waterholes, why was it only elephants that were affected?,” Keith Lindsay, a conservation biologist, told CNN. Lindsay argues the evidence presented doesn’t fully rule out human involvement.
Africa’s overall elephant population is declining due to poaching. In 2019, Botswana lifted a five-year hunting ban, drawing great scrutiny from conservationists.
Read more about elephants in Africa:
- More than 300 Elephants Found Dead Under Mysterious Circumstances in Botswana
- 200 Elephants Died From Drought in Zimbabwe
- 10 Stories Highlighting the Horrors of the Trophy Hunting Industry
- Zimbabwe Bans Mining in National Parks
Sign this petition to end the ivory trade to protect Africa’s elephants.
For more Animal, Earth, Life, Vegan Food, Health, and Recipe content published daily, subscribe to the One Green Planet Newsletter! Lastly, being publicly-funded gives us a greater chance to continue providing you with high-quality content. Please consider supporting us by donating! | https://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/toxic-algal-blooms-to-blame-for-mass-elephant-deaths-in-botswana/ |
© A Skimmer in the hot October sky.
The dry season in Botswana begins to tighten its grip a few months after the last rains have fallen in March or April and by the time October arrives, the vice-like hold the season has on the wilderness is at breaking point.
October is the hottest month in Botswana with temperatures reaching the mid forties in the middle of the day. But it can also be said that October in Botswana is the time of the last throes of the dry season and although very hot the
game viewing is at its peak
as the animals concentrate around permanent water.
Devastation of the Great Drying
The water in the vast interior of the Botswana wilderness has all but dried up and the vegetation around the dried up water sources has been
ravaged by the animals
that utilised the waterholes - hence the concentration around the permanent water.
The rivers of Botswana are the lifelines for the huge numbers of animals that arrive in search of water during the
harsh dry season
. However, with so many animals concentrating around these water sources the vegetation is slowly decimated making it
easier to view the wildlife
at this time of the year.
With the food source non-existent on the floodplains the animals have to walk great distances every day between feeding grounds and drinking sources and there is nothing more poignant than the sight of a herd of
animals heading to the water
through the damaged vegetation.
Highlights of October
Africa's largest concentrations of elephants are found on the Chobe River at this time of the year as they gather along the permanent water source.
In the Okavango at this time of the year the water levels are dropping rapidly which in turn
opens up floodplains
to a great many animals to graze - which in turn attracts predators in numbers.
With the drying in the Okavango pools are left which attract large numbers of birds and other predators to feast on the fish and crustaceans trapped in the pools.
Great dramas play out each moment of the day as the water dries and animals become desperate. | https://www.botswana.co.za/Botswana_Seasons-travel/hottest-time-botswana.html |
ElephantAn Online Encyclopedia Entry
Either of two species, Elephas maximus (the Indian elephant), and Loxodonta africana (the African elephant), of the family Elephantidae (order Proboscidea), characterized by their large size, long trunk (elongated nose), columnar legs, large ears (especially L. africana), and huge head.
|
|
Asian Elephant
|
|
African Elephant
Elephants are grayish to brown in colour, and their body hair is sparse and coarse. Both species have two upper incisors that grow into tusks, but these are usually absent in the female Indian elephant. The nostrils are located at the end of the dexterous muscular, which is used for breathing, eating, and drinking. Elephants drink by sucking water up into the trunk and then squirting it into the mouth. They eat by detaching grasses, leaves, and fruit with the tip of the trunk and using it to place this vegetation in the mouth. By means of a small, fingerlike projection on the tip of the trunk--African elephants have two of these extremities and Indian elephants have one--they are able to pick up small objects.
The African elephant is the largest living land animal, weighing up to 7,500 kg (8 tons) and standing 3 to 4 m (10 to 13 feet) at the shoulder. The Indian elephant weighs about 5,500 kg with a shoulder height of 3 m; its ears are considerably smaller than those of the African elephant. The molar teeth of elephants do not erupt all at once; rather, a new one grows forward as the existing tooth wears down. The sixth and final pair of molars is worn down at about 60 years (L. africana), so few elephants live beyond this age.
E. maximus is native to the Indian subcontinent and southeastern Asia; L. africana is found in sub-Saharan Africa. Both species live in habitats ranging from thick jungle to savanna. They live in small family groups led by old cows; where food is plentiful the groups join in larger herds. Most bulls live in bachelor herds apart from the cows. Elephants migrate seasonally, according to the availability of food and water. They spend many hours eating and may consume more than 225 kg (500 pounds) of grasses and other vegetation in a day. Gestation averages 22 months. Mature male elephants annually enter a condition known as musth, which is marked by secretions from the musth glands behind the eye, an increase in aggression, and association with females that usually leads to mating.
For many centuries the Indian elephant has been important as a ceremonial and draft animal. Commanded by its handler (or mahout), the elephant has been basic to Southeast Asian logging operations. African elephants are also used as draft animals, but not as extensively.
Elephants are in great danger from habitat destruction and human exploitation. The Indian elephant is considered an endangered species, and the African elephant is classified as threatened. African elephants suffer particularly from poaching for the ivory trade. Overpopulation often occurs in wildlife reserves, resulting in further habitat loss and the need for controlled culling of their numbers. Conservation measures include protection from poaching and the creation of large reserves, including corridor areas to protect major migratory routes. | http://drnissani.net/mnissani/elephant/Britanic.htm |
For years in the course of the Achaemenid Period, Persepolis used to function as the administrative capital of Iranian Empire. By 330 BC, Alexander, the Macedonian, the Greek commander, attacked Iran and set Persepolis on fire. A major portion of the Achaemenid cultural and artistic heritage, including books, was destroyed. The remains of the site were, nevertheless, preserved to the present time, and are observed in the neighborhood of Shiraz, the Central City of Fars Province (south-west of Iran), in Marvdasht. Inscribed in 1979, the site constitutes one of the Iranian World Heritage properties.
Meydan-e Naqsh-e Jahan (Meidan-e Emam), Isfahan
Located in the City of Isfahan (Central Iran), Meidan-e Emam manifests as a vast rectangular square surrounded by architectural structures of the Safavid Period. Also known as Meydān-e Naqsh-e Jahān, the square used to constitute one of the greatest squares of the 17th century, to the extent that, by the time of ShāhAbbās, the Safavid, and his successors it functioned as the field for polo competitions, martial marches, festive events, and artistic performances. The balanced coexistence of trade spaces with administrative and religious buildings as well as the existence of the oldest polo gate of the world in the center, define it with part of its architectural features. The historical architectural structures of the site include Āliqāpu, AbbāsiJāme’ (“grand”) Mosque, SheykhLotfollāh Mosque, and the Gate to Qeysariyye. To these must be added the 200 traditional shops, circling round the square in two storeys, where the handicrafts of Isfahan are presented for sale.
TchoghaZanbil
Tchoghazanbil is the regional name for a majestic ancient mud-brick ziggurat, established in 1250 BC in fulfillment of an order by UntāshGāl, the great king of Ancient Elam, to praise Inshushināk, the God. The site constitutes the only remnant of DurUntāsh, the great ancient city which was ruined by ĀshurBānipāl. Excavated following thousands of years of remaining buried under ground, the site, a construction in two and a half storeys, and 25 meters high, proved as part of an originally five-storey structure of 52 meters of height. Thousands of unused bricks found scattered in the area pointed to the fact that the construction plans were on their way to their completion.
Takht-e Soleyman
A vast historical site near the city of Tekāb, and by Takht-e Soleymān village of West Azarbāyjān Province (north-west of Iran), Takht-e Soleyman comprises a collection of historical constructions around a natural lake. The ancient site was inhabited in a number of historical periods, including the Median, Achaemenid, Parthian, Sassanid, and Mongol eras, when it continued to keep its majesty as a civilization center. The four-vault fire-temple and the ritualistically regarded structures therein, and the Ānāhitā Temple, as well as the Sassanid and Ilkhanid period palaces represent the site with its unique architectural remains.
Bam and its Cultural Landscape
The ancient citadel of Bam (Kerman Province, south-east of Iran) enjoys plenty of architectural and urban design features; covering a 200,000-square-meter area, it manifests as one of the magnificent mud-brick complexes of the world, and encompasses various types of historical buildings and residential places, linked and mingled with one another based on a unique pattern on the slope of a hill, and leading, finally, to the exceptionally majestic Chāhār-fasl (roughly, “four-season”) building on top, toward the peak. The sites, also, enjoys the existence of various residential layers of a two-thousand-year period, and this feature adds to its archaeological values. Following the devastating earthquake in the area, the ancient citadel, a major part of the World Heritage Property was transferred, in 2004, to the Endangered World Heritage List of UNESCO.
Pasargadae
A collection of ancient remains of the Achaemenid Period (6th Century BC), Pasargadae is located to the north of Shiraz, to a distance of 135 kilometers, in Pāsārgād area (Fars Province, south-west of Iran). The most prominent among the historical subsets of the site, Cyrus the Greate’s Resting Place, Cambyses the King’s Resting Place, the Gate Palace, the Bridge, the Public Reception Palace, the Private Palace, two Royal Mansions, the Royal Garden Water-views, the Defensive Constructions, Tol-e Takht, the Mozaffari Caravanserai, the Holy Area, and TangeBolāqi. Pasargadae used to function as the capital of the first multi-cultural empire of West Asia. The varied architectural designs point to the country’s diverse cultures, with its elements, each representing a different cultural style.
Soltaniyeh
The greatest brick dome of the world, and the first two-layered dome of Iran, the majestic Soltaniyeh Dome was constructed according to an order by Soltān Mohammad Khodābande, the Ilkhanid King of Iran, in the period between the years 703-713 AH. The site proves as a prominent achievement by Iranian architects, and functions as a key to the development of the Islamic Period architecture. The Dome manifests as an octagonal building, surrounded by eight minarets. Fifty meters high, and 27 meters wide, the Soltaniyeh Dome stands on top.
Bisotun
The most magnificent ancient site of Bisotun area (Kermanshah Province, west of Iran) is Darius I’s Bas Relief and Inscription, carved around the year 520 BC. The site recites the Darius the Great’s victory over Geomata the Clergy and nine other rebels. Twenty meters long and eight meters high, the property includes an inscription of 1119 lines in Old Persian, Elamite, and Akkadian (Babylonian). In addition to its historical value, the inscription of Bisotun is one of the oldest encyclopedia of proper names in Iranian languages to the extent that it functions as a valuable treasure to investigate historical changes in the words of the languages of the various periods; such words include proper human names, as well as the names referring to cities, rivers, and mountains. It also plays the role of an ancient source of information on writing, calendar, ideologies, and the thinking traditions of the period.
Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran
The collection of Armenian Monastic Ensembles of Iran encompasses three Armenian Christian churches, namely Saint. Tadeus (QaraKelisā: “black church”), Saint Stepanus, and Zurzur. Tadeus, a founder of Armenian churches, was killed in 66 BC, due to his belief in Jesus Christ. His resting place is located in QaraKelesā, and functions as a prominent pilgrimage attraction for Armenians. Enjoying Armenian architectural features, QaraKelisā is among the most valuable historical properties of Iran, due to its space and architectural techniques. The site is well-known internationally, to the extent that every year it attracts Armenians of the world.
Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System
The Shustar Historical Hydraulic System (Khuzestan Province, south-west of Iran) were established during the reign of Darius the Great, the Achaemenid king of the 5th Century BC. The system included in itself 10 water-mills: the world’s greatest industrial complex before the Industrial Revolution. Utilizing the available water resources by guiding them through a network of underground canals beneath the ancient city of Shushtar, which follows the climatic conditions prevailing throughout the region, the technique proves as a most thoughtful manifestation of urban-hydraulic architectural form.
Sheikh Safi al-Din Khānegāh and Shrine Ensemble in Ardabil
Encompassing architectural remains of the period between the years 735 and 1038 AH, the Sheikh Safi al-Din Ensemble comprises tens of masterpieces of various artistic branches, including Mo’arraq and Moqarnas tile-work, plaster arts, delicate and great inscriptions, masterpieces of Iranian calligraphy, valuable fret-work, silver carvings, makeup arts on books, and paintings, among others. The site presents a majestic architectural design, prominent among Iranian historical ensembles due to the existence of the valuable artistic features mentioned above. In addition to its beauty and historical value, the site is, also, prominent due to its functioning as a gathering place for performing Gnostic and Sufi ritualistic practice.
Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex
The greatest roofed bazaar of the world, and enjoying a history of nine centuries, the ancient Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex continues to function as a prominent trade center. Previously, the Complex used to manifest as a main trade center on the Silk Road, and an important place for cultural exchanges, too. Architecturally, the Tabriz Historic Bazaar Complex comprises a mixture of mud-brick structures, roofed bazaars, and closed spaces classifiable for various categories of activities. The complex constitutes a complete sample of the Iranian traditional trade and cultural systems.
The Persian Garden
Having satisfied five of the inscription criteria, the collection of Pasargadae and Eram gardens in Fars Province (south-west of Iran), Pahlevānpur and Dowlatābād gardens in Yazd (Central Iran), Fin garden of Kashan (Central Iran), ChehelSotun garden of Isfahan (Central Iran), Akbariyye garden (southern Khorassan, east of Iran), Abbāsābād garden of Mazandaran (Northern Iran), and Māhān garden of Kerman (south-east Iran) was inscribed as Iran’s 13th Iranian cultural property on the World Heritage List, and by the World Heritage Committee. Having been constructed in various historical periods, starting as of the 6th Century BC, prove as compatible with the varied climatic conditions prevailing throughout Iran. The textures and structures behave similarly in that they all include, as their shared features, surrounding high walls, constructed spaces and mansions, as well as complexes of delicately planned irrigation systems. A predecessor in the field, the Persian Garden has influenced garden designs on the whole territory stretched between the Indian Subcontinent and Spain.
Jameh Mosque of Isfahan
Jameh Mosque of Isfahan is the oldest monument in Isfahan and an outstanding instance to show the course of changes in the Iranian Architecture. Having been damaged due to various incidents such as fire, earthquake, as well as bombing during the war, the mosque is still indefeasible. Jameh Mosque of Isfahan is one of the most important and oldest Iranian religious edifices. Archeological studies have demonstrated that even before Islam, this place has been an important religious center in the town. Different parts of the Mosque have been formed within two millenniums and they have been subjected to continuous rebuilding. The present appearance of the mosque is mostly the result of the measures taken in the era of Seljuk Empire. However, the restorations and additions were made in later eras especially during the Safavid Dynasty.
Gonbad-e Qabus Tower
Gonbad-e Qabus Tower is a fourteenth-century monument located in the Northeast of Iran, City of Gonbad-e Kavus, Golestan Province. As one of the most valuable antiquities belonging to the Islamic Era architecture, the monument is amongst the highest brick-built edifices in the world. Qabus Tower has been standing over a hill for more than a thousand years. It was erected in 996 during the reign of the Ziyarid Amir Shams ol-Ma’āliQabusibnWushmgir in the city of Jorjan. Qabus Tower has a star-shaped base and including the height of the platform hill (15 m), it reaches 70 m.
Golestan Palace
The Glorious Golestan Palace is an impressive example of Qajari Art Style. Having been a source of inspiration for many Iranian artists since the Eighteenth Century, and an origin for a number of modern architectural movements, the palace is a combination of architecture and all manners of ornaments and traditional crafts. Located in the historical kernel of the city, the palace was originally founded in the Safavid Era to experience its climax in the Qajar Era. After Naser al-Din Shah Qajar had journeys to Europe, the ornaments and patterns of the palace were influenced by the European art. Golestan Palace is therefore an art gallery from the ancient to modern time. It is also a place for the confluence of Eastern and Western Arts. Apart from artistic values, it is also one of the most important “Place of Events” as it has witnessed many important historical events such as the Persian Constitutional Revolution.
Shahr-e Sukhteh (The Burnt City)
Shahr-e Sukhteh was founded around 3200 B.C. in a green area, which is now a dry desert. Until 1800 B.C., the city was abandoned and rebuilt for four times. The site is a rich source of information about the emergence of advanced societies and the relationships between them in the millennium B.C. This archeological site demonstrates an outstanding example of primitive urban planning. Dividing the city into definite zones is the evidence of an important phase in the development of urban planning in this part of the world. It is the evidence that shows a transition of a rural society to an urban one; a transition from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age. Shahr-e Sukhteh is an excellent example of ancient cultures and civilizations, which had extensive cultural and commercial relationships with the peoples living in the valley of Send, Southern shores of Persian Gulf, Oman Sea, the Southwest of Iran as well as the Central Asia. The archeological findings reveal the key role of this city in manufacture and trading of metals, gems, ceramics and stone-made dishes on a large scale. Discovery of artificial eye belonging to a young woman and a skull undergone surgery is an indication of complex remedy methods more than 5000 years ago.
Cultural Landscape of Maymand
Carved out of a rock mountain, the village of Maymand is amongst the first human habitats in Iran where people still live in it. Based on the discovered evidence, the experts enumerate a history of three thousand years for it. However, the ceramics and inscriptions found in the region indicate a 12000-year history. Located in the Central District of Shahr-e Babak County, Maymand Village has 406 houses with 2560 rooms. The village is the seventh Cultural-Natural Landscape in the world to win the Melina Mercouri International Prize. According to UNESCO, this village has been able to maintain a dialog between the humans and the nature in many aspects of life while keeping its authenticity.
Shoosh (Sūsa)
Shush is amongst the most ancient and important habitats known in the world. While it has been under scrutiny for about a century, still many parts of this site remain to be explored. The City of Shoosh contains antiquities from the prehistoric, historic and Islamic eras. The remains of these civilizations can be found from the Fifth Millennium B.C. through the Thirteenth Century. The city has been the capital of Elam, Assyrian, Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Babylonian, and Sassanid kings. For geographical reasons, such as being located in the north of Persian Gulf and being near to the Mesopotamia, Shoosh has been a place of confluence of two great ancient civilizations i.e. Elam and Mesopotamian. The file of the cultural heritage of Shoosh includes Shaur Palace, Apadana, the Eastern Gate, Hadish Palace, the Fifteenth Palace, Jameh Mosque of Shoosh, and a collection of Islamic Era monuments, Acropol Hills, and the French Castle. As the objects discovered in Shoosh have been plundered for decades by archeological groups and western researchers, they can be found in most of the prestigious museums in the world.
The Iranian Qanats (Underground Canals)
Most of the dry lands in Iran are water supplied by a system of Qanats. A qanat is an underground canal, which with a mild slope transfers the underground water to the lower grounds. Depending on the slope of the ground, a qanat length can vary and it may be as long as tens of kilometers. The file includes eleven selected qanats each of which being unique in its architecture, depth, length, water content and other technical specs. The longest qanat in Iran is 63 km with 2115 wells in its path. The deepest well in the path of a qanat is 350 m, which has survived for centuries in spite of earthquakes and other natural disasters. The most surprising qanat in Iran is the Moon qanat, which was made 800 years ago in two floors.
The Lut Desert
The Lut Desert is an exceptional instance of continuous geological processes. Apart from its aesthetic aspects, it is amongst the special natural phenomena and an outstanding example of a major phase in the geological history of the region. With a total area of 175000 sq. km, the desert makes up about 10% of the total area of the country. In years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009 the highest temperatures in the world were registered in this region with 70.7 degree centigrade as the hottest in 2005. Apart from being a natural landscape, it has a long civil history. Discovery of several thousand antiquities such as castles, caravanserais, and water reservoirs proves this.
Historical City of Yazd
The Historical City of Yazd has been inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage because of its vastness, adobe-made tissue, cohesiveness, keeping its historical authenticity, using local materials in construction, consumption of the least amount of energy in construction of adobe buildings, and perfect conformity with the tough climate of the desert. One of the first adobe cities in the world, Yazd is located in the centre of the Iranian Plateau, near the Silk Road. Yazd has managed to avoid modernization, which has been a main cause for the destruction of many old cities in the world. It has been able to preserve its water supply system of qanats, houses, bazaar, and traditional baths. Features such as the city landscape, wind towers, domes, passages, sunshades, religious centers, water reservoirs altogether make this city a unique collection. Having a number of Zoroastrian temples, the Muslim city of Yazd is considered as city of tolerance and indulgence. | http://web.irankultur.com/irans-heritage-at-unesco/ |
During the past few decades, evidence for the ancient smelting of copper has been discovered in areas isolated from one another. In most of them, the beginning of metallurgy had no substantial social and cultural consequences. Accordingly, the diffusionist theory (assuming the existence of a single homeland for metallurgy and its central importance in cultural development) has been replaced by a localizationist theory, in which the emergence of metallurgy is simply a continuation of the working of native copper. But neither of these theories is able either to correlate similarities observed among disparate Bronze Age civilizations or to explain the status of the smelter as civilizing hero in ancient mythologies. The problem, I argue, arises because previous scholars did not distinguish properly between two modes of copper production: crucible metallurgy and furnace smelting. According to the localizationist theory, crucible metallurgy appears as a spontaneous extension of the melting of native copper but does not result in any substantial cultural change, whereas the general principles of a diffusionist theory would regard the emergence of furnace metallurgy as a unique event that spread rapidly and spurred on vast cultural changes (if diffusionists had ever actually understood the difference between the two production methods). I propose instead a synthetic theory in which the spread of furnace metallurgy—which was fundamentally different from crucible metallurgy and depended on complex technical knowledge—from the southern Levant generated a wide network linking Bronze Age societies. This has important implications for our understanding of the international network of exchanges in technology, artifacts, and ideas during the Bronze Age. | https://www.ajaonline.org/article/300 |
According to researchers like Dr Van Sertima, The Olmecs were the Black Africans who built ancient Mesoamerica.
The Olmec Civilization was a pre-Columbian Kingdom in the Americas with a Kingdom extending as far as Mexico, portions of the United States and Canada, and it existed before the Maya, Toltec, and Aztec civilizations.
Its been speculated that this Mesoamerican Civilization was built by a Race of Black Africans known as the Olmecs:
‘Of all the lost civilizations of Mesoamerica, that of the Olmec is the oldest and the most mystifying. We know very little about the Olmec – a mysterious culture considered by many as the Mother Civilization of Mesoamerica, that laid the foundation for the Mesoamerican cultural traditions.’ (Zechariah Sitchin)
BLACK AFRICANS IN ANCIENT MESOAMERICA
The early research of Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, as set out in his book They Came Before Columbus, suggests that the Olmec may have been African Nubians that settled In Mesoamerica.
Many of the remaining Stone Heads suggest that the Olmec were Black Nubians from Africa sailing from the Nile valley to the Americas to create the Olmec Civilization in Mesoamerica.
Dr. Ivan Van Sertima argues that there is also the possibility that the Olmecs were Africans from the Mandinka region of West Africa because of the Mende script that has been unearthed from the period of the Olmec presence in Ancient Mesoamerica.
One of the most important connections made to show that the Olmecs were Black Africans is the very strong similarities in Racial facial features between the Olmecs, West Africans and Ancient Nubians.
In addition, Olmec artwork has been found to comprise Motifs appearing in ancient West African art.
The Olmec Basalt Rock Figures that have been found demonstrate clear Black African features and cultural traits like cornrow hairstyles, braids and kinky hair connecting the Olmecs to West Africa and the Egypt/Sudan region.
In support of the view that the Olmecs were a race of Black Africans, Graham Hancock states in ‘Fingerprints Of The Gods’:
‘My own view is that the Olmec heads present us with physiologically accurate images of real individuals of negroid stock,charismatic and powerful African men whose presence in Central America 3000 years ago has not yet been explained by scholars.’
The idea that Olmecs were Black Africans, continues to be investigated, and whilst its not settled, there certainly seems to be some evidence in support of the idea that Olmecs were Black Africans which requires consideration and explanation. | https://www.afrikaiswoke.com/olmecs-mandinka-africans-in-mesoamerica/ |
ZHENGZHOU, 21 December (BelTA - Xinhua). - Archaeologists conducting excavations at the Suyang relics site in Henan Province, central China, have found evidence of exchanges between different cultures in remote antiquity.
During the course of six months, relics were unearthed showing that Yangshao Culture was dominant at the site, but the Qujialing Culture and Hongshan Culture were also present, illustrating their interaction in the central plains region thousands of years ago.
The Suyang site, which spans more than 600,000 square meters in Zhangwu Township in the city of Luoyang, has relics including painted pottery pieces and stone tools, scattered in the fields and roads in Suyang Village.
Ren Guang, director of the prehistory research office of Luoyang City Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, described the site as a large settlement with a natural moat on its eastern and western sides, and a man-made one inside. It mainly belongs to the Yangshao Culture, which dates back between 5,000 and 7,000 years, and originated around the middle course of the Yellow River.
However, archaeologists have also discovered artifacts with strong characteristics of Qujialing Culture, which existed between 3300 B.C. and 2600 B.C. in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and a stone sculpture of an animal head featuring elements of Hongshan Culture dating back between 5,000 and 6,500 years in northeast China.
Experts believe that the finds provide valuable materials for studying the influence that Qujialing Culture's northward advance exerted on the central plains region, and reflect the exchanges and integration of the civilizations cradled in the Yellow River and Yangtze River regions.
Zhang Hai, vice director of the School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University, said that several well-preserved housing sites dating back to the middle Yangshao Culture period provide important materials for research into the architectural techniques and culture of the middle and late Neolithic Age in the area surrounding Luoyang.
So far, archaeologists have cleared 11 housing sites, 126 pits and caves, and one moat. The unearthed relics are mainly pottery, stoneware and bone objects.
"What is most surprising about the Suyang site is the convergence of different civilization elements at the same site," Zhang said, adding that such a phenomenon is a significant feature of the emergence of early Chinese cities.
The professor noted that among the artifacts found in the pits, the majority consists of pottery with the hallmarks of Qujiangling Culture, including tripod basins and pots, as well as painted pottery spinning wheels.
These items indicate that China's central plains area in the late Yangshao Culture period witnessed cultural communication between Qujialing Culture and Yangshao Culture, he said.
A stone sculpture resembling a tiger's head shows many similarities with a "yue" axe-shaped weapon unearthed at a Hongshan Culture relics site in the northeastern province of Liaoning. The weapon was of a type used for rituals in ancient China.
"It basically proves that there existed close communication between Yangshao Culture and Hongshan Culture, and it likely happened in the upper classes," Zhang said.
The Suyang relics site is located on a track along the ancient Silk Road. Archaeologists initiated the excavation work in June and dug 800 square meters in the preliminary stage. | https://eng.belta.by/partner_news/view/archaeologists-unearth-evidence-of-cultural-exchange-5000-years-ago-146425-2021/ |
Since they were gatherers and planted their own crops, southeast Native Americans did not have to move their
The Ancient River Valley Civilizations created many things that affect us today. Each place has affected us differently. Those civilizations created technology, writing, government, trade, farming calendars and many other important things we use today. In ancient Egypt they used hieroglyphics as communication. Hieroglyphics are a system of writing based on pictures which were carved into clay or stone but could also be written on papyrus.
There were many amazing
The Aztec Empire 's agriculture was very developed and religion played a huge role in it. The Aztec people worshiped a God of corn and put a lot of thought into how to neatly organize their fields. Some farmers used chinampas to grow their crops while others used the terracing method. Farmers who used the chinampas method built boxes for crops in shallow lake waters and built the area inside the box up with mud and sediment to make it above the water level, then watered their plants using the lake water surrounding the box. However, the farmers who used the terrance method built walls of stone on the hillsides and made the land level.
1, Introduction In the modern society, many organizations are multicultural. It is crucial that new generation of labor force should focus on improving some international social skills which directly affect their work performance. Some of those are cultural intelligence and emotional intelligence. Both of these have been an extremely popular topic for many researchers over the last few decades.
Egypt and Greece are two of the oldest civilizations in our history and many similarities and differences exist between the two civilizations. They were located in two different areas and were subject to different kinds of exposure such as various types of cultures and contact with other civilizations. Their geography is the main reason these two civilizations are so diverse. Each had access to things the other might not have had access to or vice versa. A few differences include their religious beliefs, how they organized their governments, and their cultural contributions to later societies.
In the ancient architectural structures, the civilization incorporated their own respective religious beliefs, political views and the socioeconomic factor in the construction. Moreover, these civilizations may have similarities and differences. To begin with, the Ziggurat of Ur and the Great pyramids of Giza are completely from different civilization, however they have similarities in some way. The ziggurat of Ur was built by the Sumerians.
Life in the ancient river valley civilizations was different for each region. A perfect example would be the Egyptians river and the Yellow river both are river valley civilizations but each have different geography, social structures, beliefs, gender roles, literature, weapons and technology. In the Egyptian river valley geography is very important, they relied on the Nile rivers floodings that lasted about 4 months providing them with fresh waste free soil the many seas surrounding this civilization acted as a barrier aiding them in war and fighting off diseases. As for the Yellow river civilization geography affected them negatively its surroundings make it difficult to trade crops and livestock so they have to dedicate themselves greatly to producing their own food.
Throughout history there has been an extensive number of amazing leaders, not only in The United States, but around the world. There are many different types of government and each requires a different type of leader. One might ask, what constitutes a world leader? Well, a world leader, by definition, is “someone who is the leader of a country, especially an economically powerful country” (Advanced English Dictionary). Although this definition is technically correct, leaders are not just someone in charge of a country, they are a person who has specific qualities that have helped to improve their country.
It has great significance in today’s business world. It is an innovative activity of the mind. Effective written communication is essential for preparing worthy promotional materials for business development. Speech came before writing. But writing is more unique and formal than speech.
The 177.028 kilometers of the Haw River extends over six counties, including Alamance, Chatham, Forsyth, Guilford, and Orange (Lucier, 1982). The River acquires runoff and wastewater from multiple areas such as Chapel Hill, Durham, local farms, and Pittsboro. Among other areas, Pittsboro contains several local farms. The nutrients that is found in our food, originally comes from the soil. Farmers needed to create healthy crops full of nutrients, so farmers needed to come up with a way to have the healthy soil, and fast.
They also had a sophisticated system of agriculture and a powerful military that enable them to structure a successful state then later empire. The Aztecs civilization was highly developed socially, intellectually, and artistically.
They lived in the rain forest of the Yucatan peninsula. They began living in villages and then developed city states. The Mayans came to rule over part of Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Mayan people were mostly farmers. They grew corn, beans and squash.
They developed an agriculturally intensive, city-centered empire comprising numerous independent city-states. The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was formerly believed that slash and burn agriculture provided most of their food.
Even though there is a connotation of the Medieval Times as a primitive era, there were significant advances in technology. One of the most revolutionary and major inventions in the Medieval Times is the printing press. It was significant, because the written word could be accessed by all, due to mass production. Another, major historical invention, is the discovery of eyeglasses, weighing scales, and artesian wells. Besides the general inventions mentioned above, other advances were developed such as, weaponry, nautical enterprises, farming, and timekeeping. | https://www.ipl.org/essay/Compare-And-Contrast-Ancient-River-Valley-Civilizations-PJJHKSKTZT |
Ancient Greece stressed Realism. Ancient Rome’s contributions helped the Western Society today. The Civil Service System was reforms that Caesar created. Some of the reforms are that jobs were created, land was given to the poor, citizenship was given to more people, the government was changed, a new calendar created and the Public Works Program. Even though Ancient Rome adapted to Ancient Greece laws and rules, Ancient Rome wrote in Latin to create their own literature.
Both civilizations of ancient Greece and Rome established very well-ordered political practices that significantly influenced the way later governments, such as the ones in Europe and the United States, were organized. The structure of political parties, the formation of divisions within the government, and even politically used words like democracy, monarchy and tyranny all stem from the Romans and Greeks. Even though the Romans adopted several of their political principles from Greece, the number of dissimilarities between the two civilizations were vast. The Greeks and Romans both had political structures that mirrored those of a city-state. Although conversely, the very dissimilar landscape between the two swayed their political growth.
A Spartan's life was centered on the state, because they lived and died to serve the state. Although the competing city-states of Sparta and Athens were individually different as well as governmentally diverse, they both managed to become dominating powers in Ancient Greece. The political power of Athens is based on economic power. Democracy is based on middle class economic power. In slow evolution towards democracy, as their trade increased, Athenian craftsmen and merchants had enough money to purchase their own weapons.
The major difference being that Athens council of five hundred men were chosen by lottery. Regardless of Athenians reputation of being highly educated, they very well could have been a few Athenians who were not quite suited for the job because of their lack of education. Sparta’s council was composed of the two kings, and 28 citizens over the age of 60. They did not debate, unlike Athens, but with having less people on their council and assembly, they had a more uncomplicated and less confusing way of running their government. Sparta certainly did not give its citizens as much freedom as Athenian government but the fact that they had less people in not only their city, but on their council and assembly, made it an easier and more effective way to run their government in a smaller amount of time.
Compare and Contrast: Greece and Rome Throughout history many civilizations have had successful attempts at unique culture and society. Greece and Rome included, they have differences, yet many similarities. The geographic, political, cultural, and economic aspects of both of these societies are comparable yet unique. Furthermore, global interaction has influenced both Roman and Greek societies. The geography of these two societies was a large influence.
To be a male citizen you had to have citizen parents, be free-born and be over 18 years old. The social classes applied to men only, as women all took their social and legal status from their husband or their male partner. Male citizens in Athens could vote on all the decisions that affected the city and serve on juries in the Polis. After a compulsory service in the war there were obligatory duties, such as service on juries as councillors and officials. This brought the people dependant on the state their income.
HIS103: World Civilizations Instructor Stuart Collins December 5, 2011 In the Mediterranean society there are two societies that we associate with, they are the Greek society and the Roman society. Many people believe that these two societies are the same when in fact they are different in more ways than they are alike. Roman society was greatly impacted by the Greek society; taking from them their governing methods, religions and architectural skills elaborating on them and incorporating them into their society. Through all the differences and similarities, the western world has been greatly influenced by both of these societies and without their influences things, in today’s world, may not be the same. The Greeks and Romans were two strong societies that brought great things to the Mediterranean.
With her marring a Roman (Julius Caesar), she regained power over Egypt after they both had fallen previously to her brother/husband Ptolemy XIII. With combining Egypt and the Roman Empire together, this showed people that Cleopatra was using Julius to regain her throne only, not because she loved him. Here this too also demonstrated how she used to use herself with men to get her way to help her
Legal status marked fundamental boundaries in the life of a Roman man or woman such as whether a person was a senator or a slave, and arguably it was at these extremes that legal status mattered the most to the Roman people (Hope). The social structure of ancient Rome was based on heredity, property, wealth, citizenship and freedom (Donegan). The Romans used clothing to show the separation of the classes. Admission into a class usually depended on birth, but unlike other civilizations of its time, the Roman class structure did allow for some movement from one class to another (Pagán 32). Slaves could be moved into higher classes and senators could be moved into lower classes.
In Talcott Parsons functionalist model of the family there is a clear division of labour between the two spouse, ‘Instrumental’ and ‘Expressive’ roles.. Talcott Parsons states that the husband has an instrumental role, geared towards achieving success at work so that he can provide for the family financial, he is the breadwinner. The wife however has an expressive role, geared towards primary socialisation of the children and meeting the family’s emotional needs. The wife is seen as the homemaker, full time housewife rather than a wage earner. Although some politicians and the New right share this view with Talcott Parsons, others have criticised Parsons for e.g. Michael Young and Peter Wilmott (1962) who argue that men are now taking a greater share of domestic tasks and more wives are becoming wage earners. | https://www.antiessays.com/free-essays/Greco-Roman-Influence-On-The-Mediterranean-412359.html |
In this piece of work, it is essential to compare the two buildings while systematically considering their similarities and differences that have memorialized their existence until now. Similarities between Parthenon and Pantheon The Parthenon building in Athens was built and dedicated to the goddess Athena while the Pantheon was also built and similarly dedicated to all the gods of the Romans; hence they are referred to as temples. Furthermore, both buildings were used for public events when such need arises. The Parthenon and Pantheon are both ancient buildings and have strong big columns holding the building as well as serving as decorative pillars.
What is a good person, and how does one achieve the good life? These were the questions asked by the ancient Greeks. Arete, or excellence, was what the Greeks strove for in everything. In a quest for excellence, the Greeks experimented with new types of politics. Greece was divided into individual city-states that each had their own form of government.
The cultural values of Athens relate to architecture and their religion, while Sparta exemplified warrior values in their cultural values, but both societies shared cultural background rooted in myths and legends. The Athenian Parthenon was built by architects Iktinos and Kallikrates under the supervision of Pericles. It was a large and expensive project dedicated to the Greek god “Athena.” The Parthenon was also built on a hill or the Acropolis of Athens, highest point of Athens (Doc #2).The money used to build this Parthenon was originally meant to make Athens’ navy stronger and bigger, but Pericles used this fortune to build the Parthenon showing the power and wealth of Athens.
Under Minos’ rule, Knossos flourished through maritime trade as well as overland commerce with the other great cities of Crete, Kato Sakro (Phaestos) and Mallia. Knossos was destroyed and re-built at least twice. The first palace identified in modern times was built c. 1900 BCE on the ruins of a much older settlement. Based upon excavations done at the site, the first palace seems to have been massive in size with very thick walls. Ancient pottery found throughout Crete, at various sites, indicate that the island was not unified under a central culture at this time and so the walls of the palace were most likely constructed to their size and thickness for defensive purposes.
Many of the roots of modern intellectual ideas and philosophies have stemmed from the ideas and philosophies of the ancient Greeks. While many other cultures had some impact, the Greeks most definitely had the most influence on modern math and science. Most notably, “the three Athenians that would come to dominate philosophy for the next 2000 years: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle”(p8). These three philosophers, along with many others from in or around ancient Greece set the foundation for Western intellect today. The communication abilities and location of ancient Greece allowed them to not only gather information about the ideas of diverse cultures around the world but also to have skepticism about the information and determine what was true.
In the ancient architectural structures, the civilization incorporated their own respective religious beliefs, political views and the socioeconomic factor in the construction. Moreover, these civilizations may have similarities and differences. To begin with, the Ziggurat of Ur and the Great pyramids of Giza are completely from different civilization, however they have similarities in some way. The ziggurat of Ur was built by the Sumerians.
Ancient Greek and ancient Rome are often confused with one another even though there are great differences between the two. Both countries are Mediterranean but have social class differences, different mythology, different life values and different architectural concepts. It is said that much of what Rome used in everyday life was taken from the ancient Greek civilization as the ancient Greek civilization started 5th century BC. And it was not till hundreds of years later that the roman civilization started. Cities in Ancient Greece were differentiated by hills.
Instead, he uses Classical Greek art features, where the idealized youthful
However, Roman culture developed a new ideology and the creation of a different political, social and economic organization that provided own ways. In fact, the works of Roman art, as a whole, have a different appearance and Greek art when interpreted from the point of view that his intention is different from the Greek, Roman art is seen in a different light. Roman culture was very tolerant of the traditions of the conquered peoples, provided no attempt on the security of the Empire. Assimilative capacity was so intense that even absorbed the gods and other beliefs that helped shape a varied and syncretic religion. Roman art and culture assimilated both Greek heritage as the Etruscan and Hellenistic Middle East and Egypt.
Even before their violent encounter with the Persians, the Greeks had a haphazard sense of common culture. For example, language was a significant cultural similarity between the different Greek states. Although there were several different dialects used in the Greek states during the Classical Period, for example the Doric and Attic dialects, the ‘Greek language’ essentially all originated from the Linear B script used during the Mycenaean times. Due to this common origin, there were several ‘essential features’ that the different dialects shared. For example, greater emphasis was placed on the root of a word as opposed to the accent of the word.
One example of this is the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. In order to create this temple, Kallikrates and Iktinos included several subtle optical
The contributions of Greek and Roman society have heavily influenced the formation of Western Civilization, including the United States. These influences include the invention of democracy, medicine, and architecture - which all play a role in modern society. One of the greatest accomplishments in Greco-Roman politics was the invention of democracy; the idea that all people reserve the right to have a voice in the government. In addition, the Romans invented republics - a society where citizens vote for representatives to control the government.
Peter Stearns. World Civilizations, the Global Experience. Greece and Rome featured an important variety of political forms. Both tended to emphasize aristocratic rule. | https://www.ipl.org/essay/How-Did-Architecture-Influence-Greek-Architecture-P33ZSJ6H4ACP6 |
The picture below is of a pyramid in Egypt, and it captures beautifully the magic and mystery of the ancient world. The picture perfectly illustrates an almost paradoxical truth about the pyramids: namely, that the stones are weathered and ancient, confirming their age, but the construction and straightness of the pyramid’s slope is almost futuristic in its perfection.
Above: On the one hand the stones look ancient, archaic, and showing signs of age. On the other, the pyramid’s straight line underscores a wisdom and power far in advance than anything we have at present.
In 1996, while living in Egypt, I was studying the pyramids when it occurred to me that the straightness of the slope of the pyramid that you see in the picture above was amazing.
How can this be? After thousands of years?
The moment I took that photograph was a turning point in my studies; it was the evidence that made me certain that the ancients were far superior to modern civilizations in their abilities, skills, wisdom, and understanding. I have failed to understand how the Egyptians and other ancient cultures, such as the Mayans, are now thought of as primitive: civilizations that are devoid of advanced science, relevant long ago but no longer useful to modern societies. The opposite, in fact, is clear to me: the evidence of the pyramids suggests to me that these ancient civilizations were, in the most important respects, far more advanced than ourselves.
This impossible structure helped me to study the philosophies and spiritual traditions of the ancients from a different perspective, a perspective that approached them as cultures with wisdom to give instead of cultures who have nothing to offer. Through this new lens, I came to realize a guiding principle behind these ancient cultures is a doctrine of immortality, the idea that human beings are of a divine origin and capable of recognizing our true eternal powers through our own efforts. The focus of my work since then has been to recover this common idea from the ancient cultures and return their serious study to academia.
The straightness of the pyramid’s line is an analogue to a mysterious phenomenon in nature: the straightness of the horizon on the ocean, pictured below. It seems almost as if the pyramid builders harnessed a force of gravity in such a way as to incorporate it into the pyramid’s construction so that the pyramid perpetually renews itself in a self-leveling manner:
Above: The ocean’s horizon is probably the straightest line in Nature (or, rather,
it appears to be to the human eye). Compare its line to the pyramid’s slope.
The thorny problem that faces modern Egyptology is this: they have lost touch with the mysteries of Egypt, unwilling to accept the fact that the true Egypt does not make much logical sense with the currently established academic model. Unfortunately, they pretend that it does in order to avoid losing face instead of looking into the ancient wisdom that exists in the culture itself.
If you are interested in studying mysteries, Egypt, and other phenomena of this sort, don’t be dismayed: current academic scholars have thus far shown a distinct distaste of the study of these alternative mysteries, and it is only through our own efforts that we shall change this outlook.
The pyramids seem to have been designed to last for millions of years. Is it possible, then, that the pyramids are millions of years old?
Stone is not flesh and blood; the Gothic cathedrals, delicate though they might be, have lasted already a thousand years upon their carefully balanced stones.
With this in mind, one thousand years is not much time at all for something as massive and high—as an Egyptian pyramid. Indeed, the construction of the pyramids is so remarkable that the apex of the pyramid of Khafre looks almost new (the damage done was done by man; Egyptians used to strip stones from the pyramids to build homes in Cairo):
Left: Pyramid of Khafre, casing stones. Right: Bent Pyramid, casing stones. In both cases, the stones look brand new, except for the damage done by the hand of man.
The pyramids are dated to about five thousand years ago, and as we can see in the casing stones above that time has done virtually no harm to the pyramids. It is not an unreasonable assumption that ten thousand years could pass with little harm done as well; depending on many other factors, it’s even possible the pyramids could endure well over one hundred thousand years.
Where the stones are exposed and not protected by the outer casing, some weathering has unfortunately occurred. Areas with the casing stones, however, have protected the pyramid incredibly well; stones thus protected seem to have little to no wear.
Yes, I have no doubt, the pyramids of Egypt were designed to last for millions of years. The ancient Arabian proverb “All things fear time, but time fears the pyramids” is no exaggeration.
Learn about it. Live it. Feel it. Wake up to it. Earth is a very strange place, and Egypt is even more strange.
“I am Horus, and I traverse millions of years.”
—Egyptian Book of the Dead
I shall have more to say about this in the future.
Richard Cassaro’s new book, The Missing Link, explores the meaning, transformations and propagation of the ancient world’s most important religious icon. His first book, Written in Stone, is a wide-ranging exploration of hitherto-unknown connections among Freemasons, medieval cathedral builders and the creators of important ancient monuments, in support of his theory that a spiritually advanced mother culture, lost to history, is behind many of the world’s architectural and artistic traditions.
Prior to the publication of Written in Stone, Cassaro enjoyed a successful career as a U.S. correspondent, professional journalist, and photo researcher for Rizzoli Publications, one of the world’s leading media organizations. Cassaro, who is a graduate of Pace University in New York City, has examined first-hand the ancient ruins and mystical traditions of Egypt, Mexico, Greece, Italy, Sicily, France, England, India, Peru and Spain; he has lectured on his theories to great acclaim in the United States, Egypt, Italy, Spain and Peru.
Richard Cassaro © Copyright, All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.RichardCassaro.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. | https://www.richardcassaro.com/must-see-pyramid-photo/ |
Li, the Neighbourhood Unit in Canton Prefecture during the Ming and Qing DynastiesAbstract: During the Ming and Qing dynasties, li was widely used as the name for the neighbourhood unit in Canton Prefecture. Many of these neighbourhoods are now considered official heritage sites at different levels. In contrast to the lilong and lifen (i.e., lanes and alleys, respectively) with Western decorative elements that appeared in Shanghai and other cities since the 1870s, li in Canton Prefecture was treated more as a kind of traditional neighbourhood unit. Taking three representative cases, Donghuali walking street in Foshan Town, Nanhai County, Seventeen Neighbourhoods (Yiju-sanfang-shisanli) in Shawan Village, Panyu County and Huagaili in Daliang Town, Shunde County, this study discusses the typology, characteristics and spatial organisation mechanisms of li in the hierarchical system of Canton Prefecture during the Ming and Qing dynasties through a typo-morphological study. Furthermore, the relevance of li in the lijia system (a community self-monitoring system) was explored through an analysis of the relationship between cadastre and household registration. The results show no direct correlation between the naming of li and the lijia system. Rather, the li was gradually developed from the term indicating the neighbourhood units into the name of lanes and alleys in these neighbourhoods.
|
Keywords: li, neighbourhood unit, Canton Prefecture, morphological structure, cadastral model, lijia system
|Feng Jiang, Xie Zhonghui, Huang Lidan|
|012||
Classification and Characteristics of Vernacular Architecture Pedigree in the Cantonese Dialect AreaAbstract: This paper reviews the existing studies on vernacular architecture in the Cantonese dialect area, analysing the relationships between vernacular architectural pedigrees in the Cantonese dialect area and surrounding areas as well as their international influences. Using the classification of dialect sub-areas as a reference and combining related factors, such as cultural geography, historical administrative boundaries and basic architectural characteristics, the vernacular architecture of the Cantonese dialect area was divided into four architectural sub-areas: Guangfu (Khanfu), Siyi (Sze-yap), Gaoyang–Wuhua–Qinlian and Yongxun–Goulou. This study analyses each sub-area using five basic characteristics: settlement morphology, courtyard forms, structural typology, decoration techniques and construction taboos. In general, the distribution of vernacular architectural pedigree shows that the Hakka tend to occupy mountainous areas, the Cantonese spread along rivers, while the Min live along the coastline. Under the combined influence of these three groups, the vernacular settlements and buildings in the Cantonese dialect area show distinctive forms with abundant variations.
|
Keywords: Cantonese dialect area; vernacular architectural pedigree; settlements; buildings; basic characteristics; classification
|Xu Yue, Lin Guojing|
|024||
Location Preferences and Landscape Patterns of Traditional Han Settlements in Guangdong Province from the Perspective of Environmental SelectionAbstract: During the process of human migration, immigrants choose a new environment that is as similar as possible to their native environment but also providing a greater chance of survival. This article describes the migration and formation history of the three Han sub-ethnic groups in Guangdong. The Guangfu sub-ethnic group migrated along the water, the Chaoshan subgroup migrated along the coast and the Hakkas migrated through the mountains. A quantitative and statistical analysis is then presented of the site selection and landscape patterns of the settlements of these three subgroups, using measures such as remote sensing information extraction and GIS data analysis. Different site selection preferences form different settlement landscape patterns, from the macroscale distribution characteristics, scales and densities of settlements, to the mesoscale settlement land patterns, farmland textures and settlement layout modes, and the microscale architectural forms and styles, decorations and materials, etc. The differences in landscape patterns and ecological wisdom of the traditional settlements of Han subgroups in Guangdong are analysed from these three perspectives. The findings provide a theoretical basis for the future protection of and research into traditional settlements.
|
Keywords: environmental selection, traditional settlements of Han sub-ethnic groups, settlement distribution, settlement landscape pattern, Guangdong region
|Pan Ying, Duan Jiahui, Shi Ying|
|032||
Construction Techniques of Vernacular Architecture in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province: A Preliminary StudyAbstract: This article synthesises factors in geography, dialects, sub-ethnic groups, and administrative divisions in Zhongshan City and infers the likely existence of divisions of different cultures and their respective methods of construction. Through on-site surveys and investigations of selected samples and comparisons with construction methods described by craftsmen, it identifies three prototypes of traditional houses in the city—two-walls-one-room, three-walls-two-rooms, and four-walls-three-rooms—as well as eight derivatives of these three prototypes. In addition, construction terms described by craftsmen are classified, and construction techniques, such as standard rulers, scale control, masonry, tiling, and joinery work, are analysed. Moreover, construction customs, such as the heights of buildings, taboos on the axis of buildings, the space for ancestral worship, and taboos on numbers, are reorganised and summarised. As a result of these investigations and analyses, typical types of vernacular dwellings and their distribution in Zhongshan are clarified, and an attempt is made to form a basic framework of constructional technologies, customs and taboos in the area. The findings from this research offer a reference for the protection and restoration of traditional architecture as well as for future studies of ancestral halls and diaolous (blockhouses) of Zhongshan.
|
Liu Junrui, Wang Bin, Mo Lisheng
|Keywords: traditional dwelling in Zhongshan; construction term; type; construction technique; construction convention|
|Theory and History|
|043||
Reflections Arising from a Study of Folk Houses in the Canton AreaAbstract: Since the 1980s, research into Chinese traditional folk houses has seen the expansion of ancient Chinese architectural history from official building research to vernacular architecture research, embodying a kind of academic evolution from the centre to the margins. This article points out that the zoning of traditional Chinese folk houses, which draws on the method of dialect geography, features a research process that has developed from studies of the centre to those of the edge. Taking the study of folk houses in the Canton area as an example, the article uses two local historical documents on house forms to reflect on research methods, arguing for a kind of local knowledge that is closer to historical subjectivity. Through an analysis of a series of topics mentioned in the two documents, such as unit and entity, form and concept, details and materials, and Canton and South China, the article points out the limitations of the existing theoretical discourse, proposing a more flexible, open-ended approach based on specific research problems.
|
Keywords: folk house; dialect; Canton; locality; house form
|Xiao Min|
|050||
Passion for Tong Lau: Research and Adaptive Reuse Designs of the Dwelling Blocks in Early 20th Century Hong KongAbstract: In the late 19th century, the mass influx of peoples from Lingnan immigrated to Hong Kong and built dwellings of Lingnan characters, which soon evolved into dense and poor living environment under immense population and economic pressure. The outburst of bubonic plague in the dense Chinese labourers’ district in 1984 prompted the Hong Kong government to enact the first modern Public Health and Buildings Ordinance in 1903 which on the one hand, introduced the then modern concepts of structural fire protection and sanitary building standards from Britain, while on the other hand, these concepts were cleverly integrated with the traditional Chinese construction techniques and living patterns in Lingnan vernacular architecture, evolving into a dwelling architectural form unique to early 20th century Hong Kong, tong lau. Tong lau buildings are considered by both public and professionals of Hong Kong today to be processing heritage values and to be conserved. Using several recent successful cases of tong lau conservation, this study shows how tong lau buildings can be adapted for modern communities and commercial uses through innovative spatial design, meticulous use of materials and adventurous technical upgrades, while still expressing its unique characteristics integrating Chinese and Western of vernacular architectural aspects. It argues that the focus for the conservation of tong lau buildings should not be the mere restoration of their visual features, but the representation of their design concepts and notions of modernisation of Lingnan vernacular architectures in early 20th century.
|
Keywords: Hong Kong; tong lau; adaptive reuse; Lingnan vernacular architecture; Chinese–Western integration; modern structural and sanitary building standards
|Leung Yee-Wah Edward, Cheng Hung|
|059||
The Fragrance of Grass Overruns the Ancient Road and Its Greenness Invades Desolate Towns: Heritage Values, Conservation and Re-use of the Xijing Ancient Postal RoadAbstract: An ancient road to the Western Capital, as Xi’an was once known, the Xijing Ancient Postal Road used to be the main road connecting the Central Plains with the Lingnan area south of the Five Ridges. A section of the Xijing Ancient Postal Road still exists in Ruyuan County in Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province and has been listed as a provisional-level cultural heritage protection area. The history of the ancient road and the composition of its cultural heritage sites, such as pavilions, stone bridges and steps, steles and related conventions, are briefly reviewed to indicate the natural, historical and cultural values of this linear heritage site. Furthermore, the conservation and re-use of ancient roads should consider their integrity in the mountainous natural environment by adopting the principle of moderation and implementing minimum interventions to restore the villagers’ folk custom of ‘repaving roads with stone’. The target of the conservation and re-use is to ensure the routine repair and maintenance of the Xijing Ancient Postal Road and find the balance between conservation and display, and connect the ancient road with modern urban and rural life.
|
Keywords: Ruyuan County; Xijing Ancient Postal Road; linear heritage; heritage value; conservation; re-use
|Cao Jin|
|065||
Xiangzhoubu and Zhongshangang: Conservation of Vernacular Built Heritage Influenced by Historical EventsAbstract: Xiangshan County (alternative spelling, Hsiang-shan) was a pioneering area during China’s opening to the West. Because of its advantageous location adjacent to Hong Kong and Macao, the area experienced two new town experiments during the early 20th century: Xiangzhoubu and Zhongshangang. Xiangzhoubu was supported by the Qing Government and in 1908, the overseas Chinese industrialists Wang Shen and Wu Yuzheng invested in the town. In 1929, Zhongshangang was established in Zhongshan County by a senior Kuomintang statesman, Tang Shaoyi, to continue the work started by the Prime Minister, Sun Yat-sen. Using related historical materials and historical–geographical information as well as architectural remains of these two sites, this study compares these two new trial towns over two decades during China’s declining national fortune and drastic political changes. These changes had different backgrounds, leaders and approaches, yet similar aims, locations and outcomes, and both ended up in failure. Even so, they were valuable explorations of modernisation that were based on the hopes of the future development of the country. Xiangzhoubu is today a modernised downtown district of Zhuhai, while Zhongshangang remains a village, yet their vernacular buildings carry heritage values which are different from other towns due to the historical events.
|
Keywords: Xiangzhoubu; Zhongshangang; modernisation; vernacular built heritage conservation
|Pu Zexuan, Feng Yuchan|
|Heritage Illustration|
|072||WARFIELD COLUMN XIV The Cohabitation and Derivation of Architecture: A Re-observation of Shanghai’s Longtangs||Liu Gang / Translated by Lui Tam / Proofread by Li Yingchun|
|Project Analysis|
|088||
Connecting Heritage to Everyday Life: Conservation and Regeneration of Prague’s Letná Water Tower Abstract: This article explores the design process of the conservation and regeneration for the Letná Water Tower in Prague, the Czech Republic. Historical changes to the UNESCO world heritage site, i.e., the historic centre of Prague and its Letná Water Tower, in the past century are described briefly. The conservation and regeneration of the Letná Water Tower, which was completed in 2018, including its space, function and architectural details were analysed in detail. The architect, Petr Hájek’s design concept for the protection and adaptive reuse of this historic building is discussed further, featured with the different strategies adopted in the repair and renovation parts of the water tower and its annexe, retaining the function of a youth centre after the regeneration of the building. The value evaluation, authenticity, reversibility and functional transformations in the conservation design of heritage architecture are also analysed.
|
Keywords: Prague; Letná Water Tower; regeneration; authenticity; reversibility; Petr Hájek
|Pu Yijun|
|098||
Repair and Elements Integration of Cultural Landscape Surrounding a Historic Site: Design of the Sacred Fire Square in XihouduAbstract: After analysing the land and environment surrounding the Sacred Fire Square at Xihoudu Historic Site, the land was considered a part of the cultural landscape around the historic site. The characteristics of this cultural landscape include three aspects: (1) archaeological sites and valuable archaeological strata, which determine the land-use function of the project site; (2) the loess hilly landform; and (3) other related landscape elements. Under this condition, the major design strategies are the repair and elements integration of cultural landscape. Design concepts for each part of the Sacred Fire Square were discussed, and the successful repair of the cultural landscape was found in response to the surrounding natural scale from the human scale of the square design, while the elements integration of surrounding landscape shapes the project’s characteristics in the location.
|
Keywords: Xihoudu Historic Site; Sacred Fire Square; cultural landscape; repair; elements integration
|Liu Diyu|
|108||
Heritage of the Vault: Rethinking Kimbell Art Museum through Structural AnalysisAbstract: In an analysis of the structure of Kimbell Art Museum, this article rethinks the strategy of interpreting the building as a classic example of Louis I. Kahn’s works by combining the clues in the design of structure and form, building plans and spaces. Research and thinking about architectural heritage is currently returning to the design process instead of only unfolding from perceptual cognitions and the interpretation of design clues. Kimbell Art Museum became one of Kahn’s most representative works and a classic of modern architecture because Kahn integrated various architectural elements and balanced the opinions of multiple participants in this project. As the principal architect of this project, Kahn was able to maintain his original concept all the way through the design process.
|
Keywords: Louis I. Kahn; Kimbell Art Museum; vault; cylindrical shell
|Yuan Ye, Zhang Ziyue|
|Commentary|
|116||
‘Historic’ versus ‘in History’: Reflections on the Regeneration and Conservation Plan of the En’ning Road Historic District in GuangzhouAbstract: This paper focuses on the different stages of the renovation of the En’ning Road historic district in Guangzhou, giving a preliminary analysis and offering references for the appropriate conservation interventions in the follow-up second phase of the renovation plan. First, the paper provides a retrospective of the history of this historic district, the compilation of its preservation plan and the regeneration plan of Yongqingfang Community. Second, it points out the problems in the first phase of the En’ning Road renovation and the potential difficulties faced in the second phase. Third, international conservation principles, such as the Valletta Principles, and the theoretical discourses related to the treatment of the large number of vernacular buildings are reviewed to provided inspiration for the second phase of the En’ning Road renovation. The paper concludes with the correlations and contradictions in the conservation of ‘historic’ heritage and the requirements of people ‘in history’. It argues for a strategic balance between conservation and development by complying with and stimulating the moral standards of the local community, which can truly realise sustainable intervention.
|
Keywords: historic district; En’ning Road; Valletta Principles; historic; in history
|Pan Yue|
|124||
Cultural Heritage Examination and (Re)-evaluation Mechanism in Guangzhou: Practice and ReflectionAbstract: Since 2013, the Guangzhou Municipal Government has been pushing a mechanism for built heritage examination and (re)evaluation, commonly referred to as wenping (Cultural Heritage Examination & (Re)-evaluation, or CHEE), at the first stage of urban development programmes. The intention is for CHEE to function as a revisionary and compensatory mechanism for existing conservation plans for the National Historical and Cultural City of Guangzhou. By analysing typical cases, this article tries to trace the origin of the mechanism in Guangzhou, rethinking its contents, social attitudes and system construction according to the criteria of the relationship between heritage conservation and sustainable development. It concludes that the mechanism could exploit its advantages as a regulatory mechanism to the full only when it can be constantly improved. Since the Heritage Impact Assessment is becoming increasingly popular as a heritage conservation tool, its dynamic, interactive and involved approach to cultural heritage management may improve the CHEE mechanism in the near future.
|
Keywords: Cultural Heritage Examination & (Re)-evaluation; Guangzhou; historic environment; conservation mechanism; Heritage Impact Assessment
|Yang Wenjun, Wu Jianchi|
|131||News in Brief|
Cantonese is also known as Guangdong dialect; however, many areas in Guangdong Province do not speak Cantonese, and the areas where people do speak Cantonese are far beyond Guangdong Province. This geographic clue plays a key role in the transmission of the language. Compared with Hakka speakers living in mountainous areas and Teochew-dialect speakers living along the coastline, Cantonese speakers in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces are mainly distributed along rivers. Thus, people living at the junction areas of rivers, mountains and the sea are often bilingual. In ancient times, South China (Lingnan) was a borderland far away from the political centre of China, while in early modern times it became the front of international communications. The Cantonese-dialect area thereafter was transformed from the frontier to the forefront of China. The delicate relationship between the world, state, and local levels shapes the society, technology and cultures of this area. As the carrier of Cantonese culture bred by the Pearl River, the Cantonese language has spread down from the river to the sea and travelled across the oceans to become a language spoken by about 120 million people worldwide.
Like Cantonese integrates yayan (ancient official language) of central China, ancient Baiyue dialects and some borrowed words, the architecture of the Cantonese-dialect area is influenced by cultures from different regions. Many vernacular buildings preserved to date not only embody regional adaptability, but also retain some ancient architectural types from the north because of the governance and immigration during the Chinese dynasties. Impacts from India, southeast Asia, Arabia, Europe and North America have also left traces on the vernacular architecture. This complex bilingualism (e.g., official–folk, native–exotic, local–international, traditional–modern), and even multilingual integrations and mutual learning have emerged in the architectural styles. The various architectural sources differ from each other in morphology and technology, but permeate and cooperate with each other simultaneously.
Architecture is influenced by geography, language and society, and contributes to the constructions of landscapes, languages and societies. Folk clans have been highly developed in Guangdong Province since the Ming Dynasty. Lineage villages with core families as the basic unit and ancestral halls dominating the morphological structure of the villages have spread across the countryside. Cantonese people believe in witches and ghosts; their local beliefs are so developed that ancestral halls and temples for gods and Buddhist icons can be found everywhere. Because of the highly developed rural social organisations and their cultural inheritance, most of the villages here are in regular forms with high density. Strong isomorphic characteristics can be observed between vernacular architecture and settlements in the Cantonese- dialect area.
The study of vernacular architecture and built heritage in the Cantonese-dialect area is a significant academic field in architectural history. The research and writings of scholars, such as Long Qingzhong (Feiliao), Lu Yuanding and Wu Qingzhou, have formed strong academic traditions from the perspectives of regional architecture, sub-ethnic groups, cultures, etc. A historical-anthropological study of South China also provides an important inspiration for the reflection of today’s architectural historiography. The articles in this special column are new reflections and explorations based on the earlier foundation. Moreover, the practice of heritage preservation in Cantonese-dialect areas has aroused great concerns and controversies in recent years. This column also invites the discussion of conservation cases and heritage management policies to establish synchronous concerns for both historical research and practice in the built heritage of China. | http://en.jianzhuyichan.cn/product/30.html |
The picture below is of a pyramid in Egypt, and it captures beautifully the magic and mystery of the ancient world. The picture perfectly illustrates an almost paradoxical truth about the pyramids:
Namely, that the stones are weathered and ancient, confirming their age, but the construction and straightness of the pyramid’s slope is almost futuristic in its perfection.
In 1996, while living in Egypt, I was studying the pyramids when it occurred to me that the straightness of the slope of the pyramid that you see in the picture above was amazing.
How can this be? After thousands of years?
The moment I took that photograph was a turning point in my studies; it was the evidence that made me certain that the ancients were far superior to modern civilizations in their abilities, skills, wisdom, and understanding.
I have failed to understand how the Egyptians and other ancient cultures, such as the Mayans, are now thought of as primitive: civilizations that are devoid of advanced science, relevant long ago but no longer useful to modern societies.
The opposite, in fact, is clear to me: the evidence of the pyramids suggests to me that these ancient civilizations were, in the most important respects, far more advanced than ourselves.
This impossible structure helped me to study the philosophies and spiritual traditions of the ancients from a different perspective, a perspective that approached them as cultures with wisdom to give instead of cultures who have nothing to offer.
Through this new lens, I came to realize a guiding principle behind these ancient cultures is a doctrine of immortality, the idea that human beings are of a divine origin and capable of recognizing our true eternal powers through our own efforts. The focus of my work since then has been to recover this common idea from the ancient cultures and return their serious study to academia.
The straightness of the pyramid’s line is an analogue to a mysterious phenomenon in nature: the straightness of the horizon on the ocean, pictured below. It seems almost as if the pyramid builders harnessed a force of gravity in such a way as to incorporate it into the pyramid’s construction so that the pyramid perpetually renews itself in a self-leveling manner:
The thorny problem that faces modern Egyptology is this: they have lost touch with the mysteries of Egypt, unwilling to accept the fact that the true Egypt does not make much logical sense with the currently established academic model.
Unfortunately, they pretend that it does in order to avoid losing face instead of looking into the ancient wisdom that exists in the culture itself.
If you are interested in studying mysteries, Egypt, and other phenomena of this sort, don’t be dismayed: current academic scholars have thus far shown a distinct distaste of the study of these alternative mysteries, and it is only through our own efforts that we shall change this outlook.
The pyramids seem to have been designed to last for millions of years. Is it possible, then, that the pyramids are millions of years old?
Stone is not flesh and blood; the Gothic cathedrals, delicate though they might be, have lasted already a thousand years upon their carefully balanced stones.
With this in mind, one thousand years is not much time at all for something as massive and high—as an Egyptian pyramid. Indeed, the construction of the pyramids is so remarkable that the apex of the pyramid of Khafre looks almost new (the damage done was done by man; Egyptians used to strip stones from the pyramids to build homes in Cairo):
The pyramids are dated to about five thousand years ago, and as we can see in the casing stones above that time has done virtually no harm to the pyramids. It is not an unreasonable assumption that ten thousand years could pass with little harm done as well; depending on many other factors, it’s even possible the pyramids could endure well over one hundred thousand years.
Where the stones are exposed and not protected by the outer casing, some weathering has unfortunately occurred. Areas with the casing stones, however, have protected the pyramid incredibly well; stones thus protected seem to have little to no wear.
Yes, I have no doubt, the pyramids of Egypt were designed to last for millions of years. The ancient Arabian proverb “All things fear time, but time fears the pyramids” is no exaggeration.
Learn about it. Live it. Feel it. Wake up to it. Earth is a very strange place, and Egypt is even more strange. | https://humansbefree.com/2014/05/youve-never-seen-this-the-perfectly-straight-slopes-of-the-egyptian-pyramids.html |
Is a long-vanished mother civilization similar to Atlantis the forerunner of all ancient cultures
(ORDO NEWS) — Is it possible that on Earth tens of thousands of years ago there was a long-lost mother civilization similar to Atlantis, which preceded all other ancient civilizations?
According to the conventional wisdom, we are all used to it, the answer is a categorical “no”, and there is nothing to discuss here.
However, I believe that there is, and we should make more efforts to study the time when there were no great civilizations like Sumer or Egypt, a time that is not in the history books.
I believe that thousands of years ago, long before the emergence of such great civilizations as the ancient Sumerians or the Egyptians, there was a powerful, developed culture on Earth.
According to leading scientists, who these mysterious people were remains a mystery and a subject unworthy of scientific consideration.
I also believe that the evidence for their existence is scattered all over the world, and fragments regarding the existence of this lost “mother civilization” (a mater cultura) can be collected and found by studying the much later historical civilizations that came into being.
More often than not, when I bring up the topic of Atlantis in a conversation and start talking thoughtfully about it, I get strange looks and responses like: “Well, Atlantis is just a myth” or “If it existed, then where is the evidence”?
I’ve been fascinated by the stories of Atlantis ever since I was a boy and was first introduced to Plato’s theory and his writings about a long-vanished civilization that existed thousands – perhaps tens of thousands of years ago.
But the truth is that Atlantis can be traced back to Plato writing about a mythical civilization in his Timaeus and Critias.
Plato describes the “Atlanteans” as a powerful culture that existed before more popular civilizations such as the ancient Egyptians. He even names the approximate location: behind the Pillars of Hercules.
This location is not very specific and could refer to any land across the Straits of Gibraltar where the Pillars of Hercules are located.
But let’s take a moment and look at where the story of Atlantis really came from. Digging through the history books, we find that it was not Plato who first introduced the “concept” of an advanced civilization – Atlantis, which preceded all other ancient cultures.
To trace the origins of Atlantis, we must turn to a man named Solon, a respected statesman who lived in Greece around 630 BC. Known for his writings and poetry, Solon was a man who enjoyed traveling around the known world of the day.
His travels inevitably led him to Egypt, where the priests of the country of the pharaohs introduced him to a very ancient civilization that existed long before Ancient Egypt.
Describing his journey through the land of golden sands, Solon said that he was introduced to a city-continent called Atlantis, an ancient empire said to have existed long before the civilization of Egypt.
Therefore, it was not Solon who “introduced” us to Atlantis, but the man who passed on the knowledge to Solon, a man named Sonchis of Sais – Sonchis of Sais or Sait – who was a priest in the Egyptian city of Sais in the western part of the Nile Delta.
The priest told Solon that more than 9,000 years ago, an ancient civilization was destroyed as a result of a series of cataclysmic natural disasters.
The priest’s tale – the source of the Atlantean story – is a source of much controversy among leading experts. Many refuse to acknowledge his existence, mainly because Pluto does not mention the priest’s name in his account of Atlantis.
However, despite the fact that Plato’s dialogue does not mention the priest’s name, Plutarch identified him in his Life of Solon. Below is a small snippet of what Plutarch wrote.
“Near the mouth of the Nile, near the fair banks of Canopus, and spent some time studying with Psenophis of Heliopolis and Sonhis Sait, the most learned of all the priests; from them, as Plato says, having received knowledge of the history of the Atlantic, he expounded it in a poem and offered to bring it to the attention of the Greeks,” wrote Plutarch.
Solon spent a lot of time traveling around Egypt, which allowed him to collect a lot of information about the history of this powerful ancient civilization, which was mysteriously destroyed by natural disasters.
Sonhis told Solon that Atlantis was unlike anything that existed on Earth at that time. Civilization at its core was powerful, extremely developed, possessing part of the knowledge that had already disappeared by the time of Solon’s tie and became the property of myths.
Atlantis was built with great care and knowledge of the sciences, which are a mystery to us today. It is believed that the city-continent had great temples and palaces, decorated with precious metals and covered with bright colors.
Protected by massive walls, the interior of the capital of the ancient Atlanteans was built on a series of round islands, each of which protected what was in the center.
It is believed that this story was later picked up by Plato, who, in the voice of Critias, described how, in his travels in Egypt, Solon met an old priest who owned long-gone knowledge.
This empire, writes Pluto, was allegedly at war with the ancient Athenians. However, we can trace the history of Athens no more than a few thousand years in advance. Athens has been inhabited since Neolithic times, possibly as early as the fourth millennium BC.
Atlantis, if it existed, had long since disappeared. This means that if it existed, then Atlantis was not accurately described by Plato, who may have perverted the idea of Atlantis, adapting it to a certain time scale that allowed both Athenians and Atlanteans to coexist.
But despite the “perverted” idea that Plato wrote about, I don’t think he was far from the truth. I think that this civilization – which I call the “mother civilization” – probably existed and flourished until the last cataclysm that shook humanity during the last ice age, or about 13,000 years ago.
I believe that long before some of the most powerful civilizations on Earth emerged, there was a mother civilization on Earth. You can call it Atlantis. You can call it Lemuria or any other name for that matter.
The existence of this civilization may explain many of the mysteries that plague our understanding of ancient civilizations.
The existence of this civilization – this mother civilization – could explain what has fascinated me over the years: why there are so many cultural and architectural similarities between ancient civilizations that apparently were never connected to each other in ancient times.
The existence of such a mother civilization can also help explain why so many ancient pyramids are similar in design.
The existence of a mother civilization that predates all “modern” civilizations may, in my opinion, help us understand how ancient civilizations were able to mine, transport, and erect incredible, history-changing monuments over 12,000 years ago.
I believe that at this time, approximately 12,000-15,000 years ago, the knowledge of this ancient mother culture was still relatively fresh and carried by “survivors” and migratory groups to all corners of the world.
However, I also believe that over time, after millennia, the knowledge of this civilization was erased from history, so everything related to their existence is now regarded as pseudoscience and nothing more than a myth.
While I have to disagree with the conventional wisdom, I also believe that experts are looking directly at the remnants of this civilization by studying cultures that appeared recently, about 5,000 years ago.
However, people sometimes don’t see what’s right in front of their eyes, so I find it unsurprising that mainstream scientists disagree with the idea that there is a civilization, and an advanced civilization that predates all modern cultures.
We should only look at those places that have already rewritten history and continue to do so. Two examples – my favorites – are Göbekli Tepe and the location of the Cherutti mastodons in the USA.
Göbekli Tepe is considered the oldest megalithic temple – or astronomical laboratory – on Earth. It was built at least 12,000 years ago, effectively predating all ancient civilizations on Earth.
Its construction includes the extraction, transportation and installation of megalithic stones weighing more than ten tons. Göbekli Tepe’s design is otherworldly, using geometric principles long before they were “invented”.
The location of the Cerutti mastodon offers strong evidence that the history of the population of America is completely wrong and the history books are out of date.
The find, located in California, testifies to the presence of man on the continent more than 130,000 years ago. Who these people were, where they came from and where they went remains one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of our time.
Both Göbekli Tepe and the mastodon site at Cerutti – and there are many other places on Earth – tell us that the basic version that we have followed for decades is wrong, and that humanity was much more advanced thousands of years ago than what we are made to believe.
I believe that history as we know it is incomplete. Most of the missing fragments relate to a long-vanished, unknown culture that existed long before the advent of such great civilizations as Egypt or Sumer.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected] | https://ordonews.com/is-a-long-vanished-mother-civilization-similar-to-atlantis-the-forerunner-of-all-ancient-cultures/ |
The Roman Empire and Ryan Dynasty both have many similarities and differences. The Roman Empire lasted from twenty seven BC – 476 CE. The Ryan Dynasty held up from 206 – 220 BCE. The Roman Empire included areas of northern The european union, North Africa, and the Central East. Throughout ancient history, this was referred to as largest disposition ever. Alternatively, the Han Dynasty included only the southeastern and northeastern parts of present-day China. Although both Rome and Han were resolved in different areas at different times, we were holding very similar in the manner they decided to go with their federal government officials & their duties and architectural accomplishments, nonetheless they had diverse thoughts on religious beliefs.
Both cultures have been proven to have many comparison, whether it absolutely was politically, architecturally, or carefully.
First of all, the 2 civilizations had been both very similar in the way all their government was run. The Han Empire and Roman Empire were both reigned over by Emperors. They were both equally a bureaucratic government. The two societies were patriarchal-based and class-based in how they elected their representatives.
In order for the Ryan Dynasty’s potential candidates to become elected, that were there to take a civil service exam. The civil services exam was used as an ideal way of assessment and eventually admitting the men in the bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is actually a group of nonelected officials within a government whom sets the functions, laws, and rules of that society. In the Both roman Empire’s governmental system, the elected officials were designated and would not need to take a great exam, like the Han Dynasty. In the time of the Ryan and Both roman Empires, it absolutely was very difficult to govern the vast amounts of land and individuals that were underneath rule.
Secondly, both civilizations had architectural accomplishments. The fantastic Wall of China was built during the Han Dynasty and took very much effort and power from the people at the moment. This was created as a immune system from outdoors invaders. Emperor Qin’s serious was present in 1974 with an army of terracotta troops, horses, and chariots surrounding his tomb intended for protection in the afterlife. The Romans constructed the aqueducts at the time of the Roman Disposition. This system required water via rivers and brought all of them into the cities and householder’s homes. It can purpose was for personal health. It was major major manure systems in the world.
Another Both roman accomplishment was your Coliseum. It absolutely was used for entertainment. People might watch men, known as gladiators, fight pets and also one another. Sometimes, the Coliseum was flooded to get reenactments of old fights. Statues and monuments were also made for elected officials that impacted the Empire dramatically, Roman and Han. Ancient rome had this sort of a complex approach to roads, like the Silk Highway, which an integral part of it originated inside the Roman Disposition. This is where they get the expression “All tracks lead to The italian capital. “
Lastly, the Han and Roman civilizations had been noticeably several in their religious beliefs. The Han Empire were simply alike for the Roman Empire in that they both worshipped the makes of characteristics, practiced surrender, and developed shrines to their many gods. The Roman Empire constantly supported no matter what official religion was at the time. Diversity in religion was tolerated. Christianity was frowned upon because the Christians put “Jesus as the King” and did not position the state of Rome or maybe the current emperor first.
However, the Ryan Dynasty believed in the theories of Confucius, Taoism, Buddhism, and analyzed the art of Feng Shui. Confucius taught individuals who they all had a place and responsibility within the family hierarchy. Taoism is called living in serenity with the Tao. Feng Shui is known as the “Earth divination” or seeking the positive middle of both equally Heaven and Earth.
Even though both Ancient rome and Ryan were completed in different areas at diverse times, we were holding very similar in how they selected their govt officials & their obligations and new accomplishments, nonetheless they had several thoughts on faith. Both civilizations have been shown to have many similarities and differences, whether it had been politically, architecturally, or carefully. | https://bclforge.com/ap-world-background-comparison-han-china/ |
The Story of the Atlantis
One of the most interesting characteristics of the human mind is that it is not only fascinated by scientific advancement but also by fiction and myth. Hence it is in this spirit that men have over the centuries invested a lot of time, effort and money in studying fiction and myth by using scientific and unscientific methods. The lost city or continent of Atlantis has for more than 23 centuries been at the center of attention for philosophers, geographers, historians, and more recently, for geologists and other scientists who have not yet been able to come to an agreement on any of the numerous theories on this mystery.
Basically, every human civilization has its treasures of myths telling about the disappearance of cities or islands and peoples due to some divine or natural disaster. Even the bible and the Koran have mentioned almost similar stories of this kind, and the same applies to ancient transcripts as old as The Epic of Gilgamesh. What makes the story of Atlantis so different, however, is the fact that it was related to us by Plato, the great Greek philosopher who gave a very extensive geographic description of Atlantis, an account of its civilization, how its people organized their lives, and how this civilization finally ceased to exist all of a sudden. All these descriptive accounts were made by Plato in his books Critias and Timaeus, but these accounts were not innovations by Plato in as much as they were translations from ancient Egyptian works to which he was exposed. Numerous theories were based on the accounts made by Plato over the years, many of which were mere speculations by amateurs and some of which were hypothesized by scientists who applied the methods of modern science in an attempt to reveal the theories of Atlantis (Luce 13). Of course, this is not to mention the other numerous theories that argue that the civilization of Atlantis had its alien contacts in outer space, theories that I have chosen to discard because of the lack of any scientific evidence related to them.
The Atlantis/Bermuda Triangle Theory
Charles Berlitz, the author of Atlantis: The Eighth Continent (1984), argues that Atlantis is nowhere else but in the seabed in the area known as the Bermuda Triangle in Central America and that it was destroyed by some natural disaster, probably a huge volcanic eruption accompanied by severe earthquakes that brought this civilization to an end (95).
Berlitz based his theory on a number of findings that were made during the 19th and 20th centuries by numerous explorers who were interested in the subject. Facing the shores of Bimini in that area, Berlitz argues that there exist roads and walls underwater. Satellite photographs show that these walls and roads reflect patterns that could only be man-made and hence are very likely to be the ruins of a civilization that no longer exists (95). Berlitz argues that this hypothesis is in congruence with the story related by Plato in which he states that Atlantis was located to the west of the ancient lands of what we know today as the African and European tribes, and to the east of the ancient pre-Columbian tribes (14). The massive ruins, Berlitz argues, are very similar in structure and form to other ruins that were found underwater on both sides of the Atlantic, and hence, only denote that there existed some kind of territorial continuity between the two sides of the Atlantic (42).
Berlitz further argues that the continent of Atlantis was quite massive in area, perhaps covering vast areas of the Atlantic ocean and even connecting Africa and Europe with the Americas. Several evidences are used to support this theory. To start with, Berlitz points out that the fishermen of the Azores islands in the area navigate the Atlantic Ocean without water supplies because they know the locations of freshwater springs in the middle of the ocean. These freshwater springs, he debates are uniquely found in the Atlantic Ocean, and that they are not only evidence of previously existing land in those areas, but also evidence that the ancient Azorean populations were familiar with these locations and have maintained such knowledge for thousands of years as a need for survival (40).
Berlitz has gone as far as embracing the idea that the people who built the massive ruins underwater were the same people who built the big spheres in Central America, the Stonehenge in England, the stone heads of Tehuantepec and the platforms of Baalbek in Lebanon (97).
Berlitz’s theory is very interesting, but it certainly suffers a large number of flaws. To start with, the massive underwater ruins that he argues are man-made, have not proven to be so. The resemblance of patters that he based his theory on are very controversial and many geologists have refused to condone his point of view. In addition to this, if the size of Atlantis was as large as Berlitz argued, the sudden disappearance of Atlantis underwater would have created an unimaginable change in the geography of Europe and Africa. Nothing of this kind has been scientifically traced or suspected, at least not in the past ten to twenty thousand years. Moreover, if the Atlantis people had actually dominated almost the entire world from east to west, to the extent that they left such remnants in the ancient world as in England, Lebanon, and other parts, one can only wonder about the kind of civilization that has brought Atlantis to an end as mentioned in Plato’s writings. One has to use Plato as a reference when assessing Berlitz’s theory since this theory was in many ways based on the way in which Plato described the geography and civilization of Atlantis. By and large, the theory of Berlitz, regardless how popular is may be seen, is actually based on mere speculation rather than on scientific evidence.
The Andes Civilization Theory
- M. Allen presented another theory that was based on Plato’s writings, namely that Atlantis was nothing but a civilization in the middle of the Andes Plain in South America. Like many others who believed the South American location to be the homeland of Atlantis, vocabulary and semantics common to Greek and South American languages were used. For example, Allen points out that the word Atl means water while Antis means copper, a name that was given to the Andes mountains (10). Interestingly, Allen’s theory is based on Francis Bacon’s belief that Atlantis had existed in North or South America, also based on linguistic and semantic similarities. However, the difference between the two ideas is that Bacon had argued that Atlantis was not lost underwater (12).
Hence, according to Allen, Plato’s description of the vast rectangular plain can be nothing but the Bolivian Altiplain. At the same time, Allen argues that Plato must have made errors in his translation from the ancient Egyptian scripts. And thus, instead of an island continent, the scripts must have been mentioning the story of an island city. This, Allen argues, is in congruence with the Sea Lake of Poopo that due to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, flooded an ancient island city. Following the disaster, the lake became shallow and navigation became impossible, just as was mentioned in Plato’s works. According to Allen, this could by no means have been the Atlantic Ocean or the Mediterranean Sea, both which remained navigable at the time and continue to be so till this day (13).
To support his theory, Allen further brings common features between the civilization that existed in the Sea Lake of Poopo and Plato’s account. The gold and silver used on the walls is explained, for example, on the basis that these ores were abundant since close to the lake, existed a rich mining area that still stands today. The sophisticated irrigation systems are also similar to those depicted in Plato’s account, especially due to the rain shortage in that region most of the year.
Allen’s theory is also based on the fact that Plato made an error in translation from the Egyptian scripts. Hence, Plato was not accurate when he said that Atlantis had ceased to exist 9000 years before his time. Rather, it had ceased to exist 9000 lunar months before his time, and this would bring the time in which Atlantis existed to around 1100 BC. Between 1220 and 1186 BC, Egypt was suffering massive invasions by a confederation of civilizations that navigated the seas on ships that had no rows. These were eventually defeated by King Ramses III who took thousands of prisoners as slaves. Allen argues that these invaders were from the South American island city civilization, and that they had related the story of their homeland accurately to the priests of the Egyptian temples whose works Plato later on translated (13).
While other theories have been based on exaggeration or on overestimation of the Atlantis as a civilization, Allen’s theory is one based on more simplicity. Thus, instead of a vast continent, we have a small island city in a sea lake in South America, probably part of the ancient Incas civilization. However, Allen’s theory is not scientifically supported. Mere linguistic similarities between civilizations does not rise to the level of scientific evidence. Moreover, if Atlantis was a mere city in the middle of a sea lake, one is left to wonder about its strength and resources that enabled it to threaten and invade Egypt for decades. Even if such strength existed, one would still wonder how these invaders could travel such long distances and constitute a threat to the strong civilizations of the Mediterranean when they did not have any established central locations that would enable them to maintain such a long and continuous invasion for decades. This particularly threatens Allen’s theory since no such central locations had been discovered anywhere around Africa or Europe.
Atlantis on Thera Theory
Another simplistic theory based on and interpreting Plato’s account of Atlantis was that Atlantis was located on Thera, an island of the Greek Cyclades north of Crete in the Aegean Sea. This theory was advocated by Dr. Spiridou Marinatos and Dr. Angelos Galanopoulos, both who argued that the civilization of Atlantis disappeared due to a volcanic eruption around 1,500 BC (Galanopoulos & Bacon 16).
The two scientists argue that Plato made a mistake in translation or calculation and hence, Atlantis existed 950 years before his time, rather than 9500 years. Accordingly, the two theorists believe that Atlantis was part or a member of the ancient Minoan civilization that was of and on at war with the ancient Greeks (16).
This theory has been criticized to be too convenient to be believed. To start with, when this theory was first announced in the 1960s, it turned Crete and other Greek islands in the Aegean Sea into a tourist attraction, a fact sufficient to undermine the authenticity and intentions of the theory. Yet, more importantly, if the theory is true, then one must wonder why Plato had dedicated so much effort and time to translating or accounting for the story of this civilization. If Atlantis existed on Thera, it could not have constituted a continent as Plato wrote. And even if Plato was wrong, it still is not possible that this civilization could have had the massive armies that conquered the world east and west, let alone to threatened the Greek city states, Egypt and other ancient civilizations. The theory just does not add up since Thera’s area is relatively very small, even if one is to take for granted that a large sector of the island was drowned underwater due to the volcanic eruption.
The Antediluvian Theory
In 1882, Ignatius Donnelly published his book The Antediluvian World in which he offered a popular theory on the Atlantis civilization. In short, Donnelly argued that Atlantis existed on a vast stretch of land that covered massive areas between Africa and the Americas, a theory that is very close to that voiced by Charles Berlitz. However, Donnelly’s theory is based on what is known among sociologists and historians as the diffusionist theory of culture, that is, the diffusion of culture from one civilization to another due to communication or geographic proximity. Furthermore, Donnelly argued that Atlantis was the cradle of all civilizations on earth and that it was the mightiest of all, strong and powerful enough to threaten other civilizations of the ancient world (Castleden 182).
Donnelly’s theory was based on four pillars. First of all, Donnelly based his theory on the new discovery at the time of the mid-ocean ridge. Donnelly hence argued that even if Atlantis was not large enough to stretch across the Atlantic Ocean, there were connecting ridges similar to the mid-ocean ridge that enabled the people of Atlantis to communicate easily through naval paths with other civilizations (183). The second pillar of this theory is the parallel ecological development of species on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean which strongly suggests a physical geographic link, namely Atlantis. For example, Donnelly points out that it is a proven fact that different species of birds migrating across the Atlantic Ocean fly in circles over certain areas that must have been resting areas thousands of years ago before these areas vanished under the sea. The third pillar of Donnelly’s theory is parallel cultural development, that is, the similarity in cultural development among civilizations due to continuous communication between them. Finally, cultural diffusion, argued Donnelly resulted in similarities between Atlantis and other cultures as they copied from the Atlantis civilization (183-184).
Like other theories, Donnelly’s theory suffered many serious flaws. First of all, the theory of cultural diffusion has long proved to be unreliable, especially that scientists no longer consider civilizations to be homogeneous. Secondly, the connecting ridges whose existence was argued by Donnelly proved to be non-existed as they turned out to be movements in the crust of the earth at seabed. These movements occur so slowly that scientifically, they cannot result in a massive destruction the size described by Plato. Secondly, if such a destruction had taken place, perhaps as a result of a huge meteor hitting the earth as other theories argue, or due to whatever reason there may be, it is impossible that the geography of the ancient world did not change dramatically. Donnelly argues that the destruction of Atlantis was complete, together with its records. However, this does not explain for example why records or ruins of other civilizations that co-existed at the same time were never found. After all, Atlantis was at war with other civilizations at the time it was destroyed, and hence it is not understandable how the destruction of Atlantis could have been so devastating and yet no record of such an impact was left elsewhere except in Plato’s works.
Conclusion
So many theories have been formulated in an attempt to interpret the lost civilization of Atlantis. Many of these theories are nothing more than mere speculations. Only a few have enjoyed some credibility, but nonetheless, still remain far from reality in the absence of scientific evidence or support. The lost civilization of Atlantis has inspired the imagination of ancient and modern peoples, and perhaps every single civilization on earth relates to some lost ancient ancestral city or homeland. Many of these myths and legends have been related to Atlantis, a civilization that in some theories is as large as the ancient world itself, and according to some theories, is not larger than a small or medium-sized city in the middle of oblivion. Regardless what these theories show or prove, it is to be taken for granted that research will continue and that scientists and excitement seekers alike will continue to explore and speculate even if the potentials of real discovery are non-existent. After all, it is such a spirit that has carried humanity to the unknown worlds of scientific discovery and fantasy alike.
Works Cited
Allen, J. M. Atlantis: The Andes Solution. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
Berlitz, Charles. Atlantis: The Eighth Continent. New York: G. P.
Putnam’s Sons, 1984.
Castleden, Rodney. Atlantis Destroyed. London: Routledge, 1998.
Galanopoulos, A. G. & Bacon, Edward. Atlantis. New York: The Bobbs-
Merrill Company. 1969.
Luce, J. V. The End of Atlantis. London: Thames & Hudson, 1969.
Mavor, James W. Jr. Voyage to Atlantis. New York: G. P. Putnam’s
Sons,1969. | https://www.theuniversitypapers.com/the-story-of-the-atlantis/ |
Long-nosed Potoroo -- Marsupial Tiller of the SoilThe long-nosed potoroo (Potorous tridactylus) is a small marsupial that performs a big job for the Australian environment. This small, peculiar-looking marsupial constantly digs at the ground looking for food. In this way, it acts as an earthworm to help till the soil. Australia does not have any earthworms but does have termites and the long-nosed potoroo, which is a lot more physically attractive than a termite.
There are four different species of potoroo in Australia. The name is similar to “kangaroo” and the two types of “roos” share many similarities. They both grow their babies or joeys in pouches rather than in a womb. They both hop. But unlike the kangaroo species, potoroos are all in danger of extinction because of habitat loss and falling prey for cats and foxes. These formidable predators were introduced to Australia with the first European colonists. Long-nosed potoroos need areas of thick undergrowth to grow the food they need. These areas are rapidly disappearing.
Physical Description
The long-nosed potoroo looks like a cross between an elephant shrew and a kangaroo. It has wide forehead that tapers to a long, pointed nose. The tip of the nose is hairless and pink. The body is covered in short fur colored in shades of brown and gray. The forelegs are much shorter than the hind legs but are muscular enough for digging. The long, slim tail is mostly furred. Males and females are hard to tell apart.
Males and females grow to a similar size and weight. Adults weigh up to 2.86 pounds (1.3 kilograms.) From nose to rump, adult long-nosed potoroos grow to a length of 14.17 inches (36 centimeters.) This is about as large as a rabbit. The long tail can grow up to 9.05 inches (23 centimeters.) Long-nosed potoroos can use the tail to help balance when they sit up to use their forelegs for eating, digging or hopping.
Life Cycle and Behavior
Long-nosed potoroos are mostly active at night, although sometimes they come out from their burrows during the day. They prefer to move under cover of long grasses or plants. They create escape routes to underground burrows in these grasses, meticulously removing any debris from these paths that may trip them up as they race away from predators. They feed mostly on fungus, but also on bulbs, roots, seeds and occasionally insects.
Males become sexually mature when they about 11 months old. Females need to be between one and 2 years old. They breed year round. After a 38 day gestation, the female gives birth to one or two embryos, which crawl into her pouch, find a teat and remain there for the next four months. Mom turns them out of the pouch when they are 6 months old. In captivity, long-nosed potoroos live up to 7 years.
Picture of the long-nosed potoroo by Peripitus, licensed under GFDL and the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
Tags used in this posting
Other entries about 'australia'
Add your thoughts about this animal: | https://thewebsiteofeverything.com/weblog/pivot/entry.php?id=1073 |
this year on December 3, The diet of the cottonmouth snake usually consists of aquatic and terrestrial prey, sluggish snake that’s rarely found far from water, mammals, The news reporter tells that the weight of the snake is 87 pound, The snakes are thick and dark colored, and it weighs three to four pounds, Males, and I’ve even seen up to five feet, Water moccasins’ l…Habitat
Cottonmouths mate in the early summer at which time male-to-male combat occurs in competition for females, most often in the swamps and other bodies of water of Florida, aquatic, so just leave them alone if you encounter one.
Cottonmouth Snake Information & Facts
Cottonmouth Appearance: Cottonmouth snakes, The younger snakes have lighter color and more distinct patterns.
Size and Weight: The typical mature adult cottonmouth measures two to four feet in length, one can quickly go to a hospital and get an anti-venom serum injection, due to their venom glands, occasionally exceeding six feet in
<img src="http://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/d2lCB5h.jpg" alt="Cottonmouth in my backyard, baby turtles, individuals may exceed 180 centimetres in length,How long can cottonmouth snakes get? Adult cottonmouths usually go over 80 centimeters in length, Because the cottonmouth snake is a good swimmer, fish, wading birds, grow larger compared to the females, Females have litters of 1-20 live young every 2-3 years,_ the western water moccasin and the eastern water moccasin grow to an adult size from 8 to 48 inches long, which can be helpful in identifying features, particularly those in the Eastern part of the country, It feeds on frogs and other amphibians, other snakes, often ranging from 2 to 4 feet (61 to 122 centimeters) long, according to the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, Luckily, venomous snakes.
Galapagos Snakes
Cottonmouth Snake Feeding, smaller snakes, If you see a cottonmouth your first instinct may be to take a picture.
, and \”cat-eye\” pupils, Males are bigger than females, Because of this, The male is somewhat larger than the female, birds, Cottonmouths are not aggressive, How to Avoid Being Bitten if You See a Cottonmouth, otherwise known as water moccasins, it eats aquatic life such s frogs, lizards, Cottonmouth Snakes are large, and fish, 2019; it is a global generosity movement unleashing the power of people…
Luckily, with males growing larger than females, Most
Cottonmouth Snakes
Adult Cottonmouth Snakes commonly exceed 80 centimetres in length, Louisiana and Mississippi, Water moccasins have dark stripes by each nostril and pale snouts, and other small animals found
Cottonmouth Snake – What does it look like? Cottonmouths are comparatively big and can grow anywhere between 2 to 4 feet in length, some snakes exceed 180 centimeters in length, that is not realistic for a cottonmouth, In certain occasions, It can grow about three feet long and is a heavy-bodied, are a medium sized snake, The young are large (20-33 cm) and have bright yellow tail tips, it can submerge itself fully underwater to get its prey.
The cottonmouth was 7 foot long, The size of a Cottonmouth litter ranges from 6-12 juvenile snakes that can be anywhere from 8-10 inches long (10-25 cm) and 0.75 inches (2 cm) in diameter, especially in the eastern part of their range, The venom glands are located in large jowls; they have cat-like elliptical pupils with a dark line across the eye, In some cases, They usually have a heavy body with a long tail, The cottonmouth receives its name from the whiteness of the interior of its mouth that it exposes as a defensive display.
The eggs of a cottonmouth mature inside the female’s body and hatch within the female before birth, Cottonmouth Snakes have a heavy body with a moderately long tail, however,
Facts About Water Moccasin (Cottonmouth) Snakes
Water moccasins are relatively large, Occasionally, : NorthCarolina”>
The Florida water moccasin_, with a heavy body, and big triangular heads.
“GivingTuesday is held annually the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, with the neck smaller than the body and with the tail tip long and thin. | https://www.ibsaram100.me/how-long-does-a-cottonmouth-get/ |
Veiled Chameleons are one of the many species of Chameleons, and they’re also the largest. So, how big do Veiled Chameleons get? In this article, after giving a brief overview of what a Veiled Chameleon is, we’ll discuss a Veiled Chameleon size as they grow from hatchling to adult. In addition to sharing the Veiled Chameleon full size, we’ll discuss a Veiled Chameleon tank size, their lifespan, and how fast they grow.
Contents
- 1 Table of Contents
- 2 What Is A Veiled Chameleon?
- 3 How Big Do Veiled Chameleons Get?
- 4 How Fast Do Veiled Chameleons Grow?
- 5 Veiled Chameleon Growth Chart
- 6 What Veiled Chameleon Cage Size Do You Need?
- 7 How Long Do Veiled Chameleons Live?
- 8 Conclusion
Table of Contents
What Is A Veiled Chameleon?
Did you know there are 160 species of Chameleons? Veiled Chameleons are one of them, and they are commonly found on coastal plains, mountains, and high deserts in Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
This Chameleon got its name because of the veil on top of its head, which helps them survive the harsh hot weather of these climates. In addition to staying cool, dew drops can collect on the veil and trickle down to the mouth and hydrate them.
If you get a Veiled Chameleon for a pet, you’ll need a large enclosure that’s well-ventilated. Glass or plastic won’t do. You’ll need a cage that’s screen-sided all the way around. Also, it needs to be tall enough for them to climb high.
Inside their enclosure, you’ll want to add hiding spots, but most of all, plenty of areas to climb. For example, you can add tree branches, logs, or artificial vines. Of course, they’ll also need plenty of synthetic or natural plants within their enclosure to mimic their habitat as best as possible.
In addition, Veiled Chameleons need humid and dry temperatures. To help them digest their food, lights and heat with a basking spot through the use of a UVB bulb will help. The basking spot should be about 95 to 100 degrees F.
Also, this Chameleon has a varied diet from insects to dark leafy greens. They might even enjoy vegetables and fruit once in a while. Overall, Veiled Chameleons are calm and quiet. They make excellent pets, but they prefer to be alone. They’ll become stressed and possibly aggressive if they’re handled too much.
However, did you know that Veiled Chameleons are one of the largest species of Chameleon? So, how big does a Veiled Chameleon get? First, let’s talk about their size and growth chart.
How Big Do Veiled Chameleons Get?
So, how big is a full size Veiled Chameleon? When it comes to deciding which Veiled Chameleon you want to get, you’ll want to consider their gender. For instance, males grow to be larger than females.
So, if you have a larger setup for their enclosure, you can get away with getting a male or female. On the other hand, getting a female Veiled Chameleon might be a better option if you have a smaller space for their enclosure.
Watch this video:
With that said, male Veiled Chameleons can grow to be about 20 inches in length. This means from the tip of their nose to the tip of their tail. However, there have been some cases where a male Veiled Chameleon has grown to be up to 24 inches long.
In addition, aside from the length, male Veiled Chameleons naturally look larger because they are bulkier than females. Being bulkier is good to chase away predators and protect their territory. Males will also puff up and appear bulkier to females for mating.
The veil on top of a male Veiled Chameleon’s head is typically larger than a female’s.
How Big Do Female Veiled Chameleons Get?
How big do Veiled Chameleons grow as females?
Female Veiled Chameleons aren’t too far behind the males. For instance, measuring them from nose tip to tail tip, full-grown female Veiled Chameleons can be up to 18 inches long. Unlike males, females won’t grow bulky or appear bigger for any reason. The only time they’ll seem larger than usual is when they’re pregnant.
How Big Are Baby Veiled Chameleons?
Remember that this species of Chameleon is one of the largest. So, when you have a baby Veiled Chameleon, you can expect them to already be about four inches long upon hatching. They won’t stay that size for long though. In fact, Chameleons grow quickly and they grow the most when they are young.
How Fast Do Veiled Chameleons Grow?
Veiled Chameleons will grow the fastest when they’re young. As babies, you can expect them to grow about one inch per week.
As they reach juvenile age, which is about six months old, then their growth rate will begin to slow down. However, they’ll still grow at a good pace.
Once they reach adulthood at 12 months, then your Veiled Chameleon’s growth will slow down significantly. However, depending on their gender and care, they might already be their full size by this age.
As babies and juveniles, you’ll notice that your Veiled Chameleon eats a lot. They have a varied diet and it’s essential to them to get the nutrients they need to properly grow to their full size.
You can learn more about a Veiled Chameleon’s diet here.
When Do Veiled Chameleons Hit Their Adult Size?
The time it takes for them to reach their full size also varies depending on the gender. For example, males grow faster than females.
So, a male Veiled Chameleon will reach their full adult size by the time they are 12 months old. On the other hand, females may be their full adult size anytime between 12 months and 18 months old. In most cases, they won’t be fully grown until they’re about 18 months old.
However, even as adults, Veiled Chameleons will continue to grow. The Veiled Chameleon adult size is about 18 to 20 inches, but they won’t grow longer than that. However, they will continue to put on weight.
In fact, Veiled Chameleons are constantly growing throughout their life. However, it’s not significant enough for you to notice a difference.
If you see your Veiled Chameleon shedding their skin, don’t fret. This simply means that they’re putting on weight, and their skin is becoming too tight for them.
Veiled Chameleon Growth Chart
To visualize how big (and how fast) Veiled Chameleons grow to their full size, take a look at the chart below. In addition, you can see how big your Veiled Chameleon should be based on their age. If you’re unsure if they’re growing well, then you can always consult your veterinarian.
What Veiled Chameleon Cage Size Do You Need?
Any species of Chameleon needs an enclosure that allows them plenty of space and ventilation. However, with Veiled Chameleons being the largest, you’ll want a cage that’s no smaller than 24x24x48 inches.
Also, the cage needs to be taller instead of wider. Chameleons are typically found climbing trees, so it is ideal to allow them plenty of space to climb high.
Can A Small Enclosure Stunt A Veiled Chameleon’s Growth?
No, a small enclosure cannot directly affect the growth of your Veiled Chameleon. However, what it will do is cause your Veiled Chameleon to be stressed and anxious.
If your Veiled Chameleon is too stressed all the time, then it could very well stunt their growth. They won’t feel healthy enough to grow, so they won’t.
If your Veiled Chameleon doesn’t (or can’t) grow to its proper size, then it can decrease its lifespan.
How Long Do Veiled Chameleons Live?
Believe it or not, the lifespan of a male and female Veiled Chameleon is different. Males can live longer than females.
For instance, the average lifespan of a male Veiled Chameleon is between six and eight years. On the other hand, the average lifespan of a female is about four to six years.
In some cases, a female can live as long as seven years. However, it’s not common for them to live that long.
Conclusion
Overall, Veiled Chameleons are large reptiles. In fact, they’re part of the iguana subspecies, so you can expect to have a large lizard at home.
If you have an enclosure big enough for them to grow and roam within their screened walls, you’ll have a healthy, happy Veiled Chameleon for a long time.
Learn more about Veiled Chameleons here. You can also click here to learn how long Veiled Chameleons live and here to learn how fast Chameleons grow.As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. | https://allourcreatures.com/how-big-do-veiled-chameleons-get/ |
walrus, marine mammal, Odobenus rosmarus, found in Arctic seas. Largest of the fin-footed mammals, or pinnipeds (see seal ), the walrus is also distinguished by its long tusks and by cheek pads bearing quill-like bristles. Adult males are 10 ft (3 m) long or more, and weigh up to 3,000 lb (1,400 kg); females weigh about two thirds as much as males. The tusks, which are elongated upper canine teeth, may reach a length of 3 ft (90 cm) in large males and weigh over 10 lb (4.5 kg). The hide is very thick and wrinkled, and is light brown and nearly hairless. Beneath the hide is a layer of fat several inches thick. Like sea lions, walruses can turn their hind flippers forward for walking on land; their foreflippers are weaker than those of sea lions and they are not as strong swimmers. They live in shallow water and spend much of the time on ice floes and beaches, where they congregate in herds of about 100 animals of both sexes. They can dive to a depth of 240 ft (70 m) to find food, relying primarily on touch; their diet consists chiefly of shellfish, especially mollusks. The cheek teeth are rounded and are used for crushing shells. Walruses use their tusks for prying shellfish from the ocean floor, as well as for pulling themselves up onto ice floes. The herds tend to follow the ice line, moving south in winter and north in summer. Walruses have been very important in the economy of the Eskimo, who hunt them for food and clothing; the introduction of firearms greatly increased the size of the kill. Commercial hunting of walruses for blubber, hides, and ivory has been extensive since the 16th cent. and has greatly reduced the walrus population. Several nations now have protective laws; Canada and Russia prohibit walrus hunting except by peoples for whom it is a traditional part of the economy. There are two walrus races, the Atlantic and the Pacific. The Atlantic race, formerly found as far S as Nova Scotia and occasionally Massachusetts, is now considered endangered. The walrus's nearest living relatives are the fur seals, with which it evolved from bearlike ancestors, the Enaliarctidae, in the N Pacific Ocean about 20 million years ago. Walruses are classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Carnivora, suborder Pinnipedia, family Odobenidae.
See R. Perry, The World of the Walrus (1968). | https://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/ecology/animals/vertebrates/walrus |
FOR AGES 3 YEARS TO 18 YEARS
Needlefish belong to the family of Belonidae and consist of up to 35 species of silver needlefish. Some of them are found in freshwater, while the others in brackish or coastal waters. They are classified into ten different genera. Some of the famous species are Garfish, giant needlefish, flat needlefish (Ablennes hians), super strike needlefish, and the Atlantic needlefish (Strongylura marina). Needlefish are widely spread creatures, with several of their species found in the Pacific Ocean, the western Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. Needlefish usually swim near the surface of the coastal waters. Their slender and streamlined bodies help them swim and move quickly just below the surface. Needlefish catch live food that comes near the surface of the water. Needlefish are caught by fishing and consumed by humans with the help of needlefish lures. Needlefish have elongated and thin bodies.
They have a single vertical fin, and the vertical fin is located at the extreme edge of their back. Needlefish have elongated precise-toothed jaws with sharp teeth. Needlefish are oviparous. Their reproduction occurs during May and June. As the larvae grow, their lower jaws grow longer, but their upper jaw and lower jaw become equal in length as they attain maturity. Needlefish grow up to 37 in (94 cm) long and are identified by their slender, long, sharp teeth.
To know more about these fascinating animals, read on. You can also check out the scorpionfish and the Moray eel.
Needlefish, also known as long tom, is a type of fish belonging to the family of Belonidae.
Needlefish belong to the class of Actinopterygii.
Needlefish are widespread, but their exact number is not known.
They are distributed widely and are primarily found in the Pacific Ocean, the western Atlantic Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea. Their preferred habitats are the subtropical regions, but some may also be found in temperate waters.
Needlefish are widely spread creatures, with several species found as freshwater needlefish and others in shallow waters. Needlefish live in coral reefs, freshwater, open ocean, coastal waters, and shallow seas. They are marine creatures that usually swim near the water's surface to catch live food. Needlefish are mainly found in the waters near estuaries, rivers, and islands. Needlefish move away from the shore and the coast during the colder months and return again in the spring and the summer seasons when the temperature is high or moderate.
Needlefish are a social species, and they live in schools. Needlefish live with other peaceful creatures and other needlefish as well.
Needlefish have a life expectancy of three to four years.
Needlefish are oviparous, which means that they lay their eggs with embryonic development. Their reproduction occurs during May and June; they breed in the coastal waters and release their eggs in the water. They prefer shallow waters to breed and lay their eggs, as there is a large existence of algae and seaweeds, which helps them stick and get entangled in these thread-like structures. As soon as the larvae hatch, it becomes capable and independent of feeding itself. The eggs take 10 to 15 days or around two weeks to hatch. The larvae have short jaws which are of equal length. With maturity, their lower jaws grow longer. Ultimately, their lower jaws grow equal to the length of the upper jaws; thus, both the upper and lower jaws' length becomes equal.
Most of the needlefish species are not extinct or endangered, but there is no information available as a whole for their genus. The garfish, flat needlefish (Ablennes hians), and the Atlantic needlefish (Strongylura marina) are confirmed as of Least Concern by the IUCN, International Union for Conservation Nature.
Needlefish have an elongated and thin body. They are also known as long tom. Their mouth looks similar to a needle. They have their nostrils situated on the inner side of the eyes. The needlefish have small pectoral fins when compared to other fish's anal and dorsal fins. Their dorsal fin is located at the extreme side of their back. They have a single dorsal fin and elongated precise-toothed jaws. Needlefish have a slender body with silver edges and greenish-blue colored backs. Needle fish are usually blue or green, with silvery bellies and their dorsal fin is green colored with the lower part being silvery and golden. Their fin helps them move swiftly. They grow up to 37 inches in length and are identified by their long sharp teeth that are equipped with several needle-like structures called a beak. Their eyesight and the sense of vision help them hunt and catch their prey. Their streamlined, long slender body helps them achieve great velocities while swimming.
Needlefish are kind of cute, but they are not really adorable. They are hunted or caught during fishing only because of their delicacy and taste.
They communicate through tactile and physical channels. For instance, all the male species search for their respective females and compete with each other.
Needlefish are long slender species that can grow up to 37 inches long in length. Their length ranges from 1.2-37.4 in (3-95 cm). They are around two times bigger than brown bullhead.
Needlefish can swim or move at a speed of 37.2 mph (60 kph).
Needle fish can weigh up to 10.5 lb (4.7 kg)
There are no distinct names for males and females.
There are no specific names for baby needlefish, but they are called larvae.
Needlefish consume small fish, planktons, crustaceans, krill, and shrimps. Their diet mainly consists of live food, rather than frozen food. Some freshwater needlefish also eat some small insects, frogs, and tadpoles. The perfect answer to what do needlefish eat would be small fish and crustaceans. They are carnivores, and so they have excellent hunting skills. They are known as a predatory species, and so they catch young anchovies, small fish, and sardines very often.
Yes, they are predatory fishes, and so they are quite aggressive.
Yes, they would make a good pet. They are sometimes kept in aquariums. As they are social creatures, they need to be kept in small schools or with some peaceful creatures that are not aggressive but are docile.
Needlefish do not have a stomach or gut; rather, an enzyme called trypsin is released by their digestive system that further helps in breaking down the food they ingest.
Needlefish have blue or green colored flesh and bones.
No, needlefish are not endangered or threatened.
No, they do not generally attack, but they may be harmful. They have been reported to kill two humans accidentally, but otherwise, they are not harmful to humans. They are dangerous when startled or disturbed.
Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly animal facts for everyone to discover! Learn more about some other fish, including lobsters and tetras.
You can even occupy yourself at home by drawing one of our Indonesian needlefish coloring pages.
https://a-z-animals.com/animals/needlefish/
https://www.britannica.com/animal/needlefish
Read The Disclaimer
Was this article helpful? | https://kidadl.com/facts/animals/needlefish-facts |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.