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London Review of Books, 19 April 1999.
The Times Literary Supplement, April 1999.
The Times, 3 March 1999.
Bookforum, Spring 1999.
The Independent, 10.4.1999.
The Boston Review, March 1999.
San Francisco Chronicle, 9.5.1999.
The New York Review of Books, 5.10.2006.
The Guardian, 12.11.2005.
The Guardian and Private Eye.
Rain Taxi, Winter 1999.
Review of Contemporary Fiction, 1999.
Formules, Spring 2000.
San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 1999.
Terrible Work, 1999.
The Stranger, 4.3.1999
The Complete Review website, 2005.
http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/oulipo/ocompend.htm
Oulipo Compendium
edited by
Harry Mathews and Alastair Brotchie
From the Reviews:
- “(T)his unique anthology is a must for anyone interested in the outer reaches of experimental literature.” – Ian Pindar, The Guardian
- “(A) magnificent encyclopedia of their dizzying exercises and wondrous inventions” – Mark Ford, The New York Review of Books
- “(I)t should be noted that no single volume, in English or in French, gives as complete a picture of the Oulipo’s principles, its history, or its wonderfully curious literary ethos. (…) The editors’ choices are intelligent, judicious ones, and their own plundering of the vast Oulipian archives has produced a thoughtful, various, and consistently intriguing selection of texts. (…) There is an admirable balance of showing and telling in the Compendium.” – Warren Motte, Review of Contemporary Fiction
- “Here’s a dictionary where you’ll want to read every single entry at least once. Oulipo Compendium is a lexicon, arranged in alphabetical order, of the most deliciously eccentric literary enterprises ever devised.” – Carey Harrison, San Francisco Chronicle
- “The OuLiPo Compendium has been handsomely produced and thoughtfully edited. Since it is both a work of literature and a florilegium, it is richly illustrated with samples of prose and poetry as well as perplexing diagrams. Some entries are so complex and technical that they gave me a headache, yet others are perfectly accessible.” – Robert Irwin, Times Literary Supplement
The Complete Review‘s review:
It isn’t quite the long-hoped for Oulipian encyclopaedic dictionary, Le Petit Norbert, but the Oulipo Compendium is certainly all that English-speaking readers could wish for. An alphabetically-arranged survey of all things Oulipian (and, indeed, Ou-x-pian), brimming with examples, it is equally useful for those who have never encountered the work of the Oulipo and for those who are familiar with a great deal of it. It is an essential reference work. And it is actually also a great read.
Oulipo stands for Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle (generally translated as “Workshop for Potential Literature” — though, curiously, apparently never abbreviated as WoPoLi). It was founded “under the auspices of Raymond Queneau and François de Lionnais on 24 November 1960”. It was in some sense an outgrowth of the College of ‘Pataphysics (of which it is actually a “Co-commission”). The group focusses on all writing that is subjected to “severely restrictive methods” — conceiving of new restrictions, playing with familiar ones, finding historical examples that predate the Oulipo.
“Restrictive writing” may sound rather … restrictive. But most writing does obey certain rules, some of them quite arbitrary. The sonnet is a prominent example: its form and constraints are now taken for granted, but there is nothing natural or free about them. But the constraints of this form have made for some marvelous poetry. Indeed, many people find such constrained poetry more appealing than truly free verse.
Oulipo explores the possibility of other constraints — some of which seem, at first glance, very odd. Among the best-known Oulipian devices are:
- the lipogram: “a text that excludes one or more letters of the alphabet”. A lipogram in “z” is relatively easy, but if it is in one (or several) of the more popular letters it can get more challenging. The most famous lipogrammatic work is probably Georges Perec’s La disparition (translated by Gilbert Adair as A Void), which doesn’t contain the most frequently used letter of them all, “e”. (Note that Oulipo has come up with numerous variations on this restriction.)
- N + 7: in which a text is taken and every noun (N) is replaced “with the seventh following it in a dictionary”. This apparently bizarre game (and variations thereof) actually do lead to some interesting results.
More familiar restrictions are also employed in a variety of ways, including anagrams, palindromes, and rhyme. There are also many applications of mathematical methods and rules (most famously, perhaps, Mathews’s algorithm).
And there are many inventive and unusual other restrictions, including:
- Eye-rhyme: “a rhyme that satisfies the eye but not the ear, like through, though, and rough.”
- Homophonic translation: “reproduction of the sound rather than the meaning of the original”.
- Bilingual palindromes: having one meaning in one language read left to right, and another meaning in another language read right to left.
- Perverbs: crossing proverbs (explored in considerable detail in Harry Mathews’ Selected Declarations of Dependence).
Among the best known members of Oulipo are Italo Calvino, Georges Perec, Raymond Queneau, and Marcel Duchamp (though the latter was never really a very active member). Current members include Harry Mathews, Jacques Roubaud, and Ian Monk.
It remains a fairly small group that meets once a month. Apparently, no one can be expelled from the Oulipo and “conversely (you can’t have something for nothing), no one can resign from the Oulipo or stop belonging to it.”
Fascicles of the work of Oulipians are regularly published (in editions of 150): these make up the “Bibliothèque Oulipienne” (a summary of each of the first 92 volumes is included in the Oulipo Compendium). In addition, many of the apparently “mainstream” works of the Oulipians use a variety of constraints. The most famous of these is certainly Georges Perec’s Life A User’s Manual.
There are also many authors who are not affiliated with the Oulipo who have written works using similar constraints. Among the prominent examples cited in the Oulipo Compendium is Walter Abish’s Alphabetical Africa (“an Oulipian masterpiece” which has 52 chapters, the first (and last) of which uses only words beginning with the letter “a”, the second (and second to last) only words beginning with “a” or “b”, etc. all the way up and down the alphabet) and Doug Nufer’s Never Again, a 200-page novel in which no word appears more than once.
After a brief section outlining the Directions for Use, the Oulipo Compendium has as a Preface one of the most famous Oulipian texts: Raymond Queneau’s 100,000,000,000,000 Poems (as translated by Stanley Chapman). This is essentially the founding text of the Oulipo. It consists of ten sonnets with completely interchangeable lines (the first line of each of the ten sonnets can be followed by any of the ten second lines, each of which in turn can be followed by any of the ten third lines, etc.). There are thus literally 100,000,000,000,000 poems — or that many ways of reading this one poem
Queneau’s poem is usefully printed one sonnet to a page (blank on the back), with dotted lines where readers can cut so that they can easily flip from line to line, creating their own readings. (We suggest photocopying the pages and making your own text rather than chopping up the book itself.)
This is apparently the first English publication of this seminal work. Impressively rendered in English by Chapman, it is certainly one of the highlights of this volume — though there are pleasures to be found and discoveries to made on practically every page.
The bulk of the compendium is an alphabetical survey of all things Oulipian, itself prefaced by Jacques Roubaud’s amusing and informative piece, The Oulipo and Combinatorial Art.
The compendium then goes through all aspects of Oulipo, providing brief biographies of all the members, summaries of many of the most significant works, and explanations of all the Oulipian terminology. Peripheral figures and constraints (from Raymond Roussel to various cases of anticipatory plagiarism) are also covered.
The entries are concise and clear — providing even OED definitions where applicable. And there are a vast number of illustrative examples.
It is the often ingenious Oulipian excerpts that make for much of the entertainment. Whereas some of the exercises can, if presented in their entirety, be somewhat wearing, the many variations and excerpts constantly offer something new and different. And show how potentially rich constrained writing can be.
There are any number of examples, ranging from a few words or single lines to several that cover a few pages. Among those that are particularly noteworthy (though it is hard to winnow the examples) are Harry Mathews 35 Variations on a Theme from Shakespeare, which usefully demonstrates many constraints using the source-sentence: “To be or not to be: that is the question”, and Georges Perec’s epithalamium Lines read at Alix-Cléo Blanchette’s and Jacques Roubaud’s Bridal (using only the letters in the names of the bride and groom), impressively rendered in English by Harry Mathews.
The summaries of the volumes of the “Bibliothèque Oulipienne” are also useful — though they also make one quite eager to see the actual works themselves. Whether François Caradec’s Fromage ou desert ? (BO 37), written entirely in interrogative sentences (i.e. questions), or the collective Troll de Tram (BO 68), a set of texts for each of the sixteen street-level tram stops of a new streetcar line in Strasbourg using a variety of Oulipian conceits, the descriptions and samples in the Oulipo Compendium show the startling range of possibilities of constrained writing — and whet the readers appetite for more of it.
There are also examples of writing with Oulipian affinities by others, including Walter Abish and Gilbert Sorrentino. One highly entertaining example is a “translexical translation” of Hamlet by Richard Curtis, The Skinhead Hamlet, which indeed “carries the exploitation of a specific restricted vocabulary to wonderful extremes.”
The Oulipo is the best-known group, but the methods and approaches have also been adopted in other fields. (In fact, the Oulipo has direct precursor in the Bourbaki group, which tried to “perform an Oulipian rewriting of mathematics” (so Jacques Roubaud).) The off-shoots are discussed in the last sections of the Oulipo Compendium.
Among them is the Ouvroir de Littérature Policière Potentielle (Oulipopo), devoted to crime and detective fiction. A “potential criminology” is explored here by Jean de Porla using the example of Cain and Abel (and examining the 125 possible versions of this story). The perfect crime and the palindromic detective novel are just a few of the other subjects considered.
There is also the Ouvroir de Peinture Potentielle (Oupeinpo) which explores the possibilities of painting within constraints. The section is usefully illustrated: what sounds fairly far-fetched proves to also offer rich rewards.
The final section collects the diverse other Ou-x-po’s, including those for comic strips (Oubapo), cooking (Oucuipo), history (Ouhistpo), music (Oumupo), photography (Ouphopo), and tragi-comedy (Outrapo). The graphic work of the Oubapo is, of course, the most accessible here, and a number of examples (including ones by Killoffer and Art Spiegelman) show the great potential of applying rules and constraints to comics. Palindromic comic strips ! Overlapping ones ! And much more.
The Oulipo Compendium is a handy, comprehensive compendium of most everything to do with Oulipo. An essential reference work, it can actually also be read (and thoroughly enjoyed) front to back (or back to front (or using any constraints a reader might wish to impose)). It is a very entertaining work throughout — most of the information one could want can be found here, as can useful examples and tangential titbits. Nicely presented, neatly (and extensively) cross-referenced it is also easy to use.
A basic reference text, a must for anyone interested in the Oulipo, and highly recommended for anyone interested in literature. | https://atlaspress.co.uk/review/oulipo-compendium-reviews/ |
WRTG 3030 Writing on Science and Society
INSTRUCTOR CONTACT:
Dr. Matthew Henningsen
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: I am available to talk on the phone, or meet in person. Please email me and let me know if you need to discuss any assignments.
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
While scientists strive to relay their research in the most objective and factual terms, they must often use rhetoric to address their peers during conferences, presentations, through academic publications, and, especially, when addressing the public. In this class, rhetoric refers to purposeful language meant to influence or persuade an audience to think or behave in specific ways. The “purposeful” refers to how writing is often for a specific audience, context, purpose, and laden with specific constraints such as time, resources, technology, and decorum. Thinking of science rhetorically can be helpful for young professionals and academics as they advance in their career. Consider, for example, the knowledge gap between scientific experts and the general public. World-altering discoveries are often misunderstood by the general public (think: global warming, GMOs, stem cell research, etc.), sometimes even delaying or putting a halt to research that might benefit the public. Adding fuel to the fire, politicians and corporations capitalize on this knowledge gap, manufacturing and manipulating scientific controversies in service of partisan policies. At the very least, the knowledge gap points to opportunities for rhetoric to help improve the efficacy of scientific communication.
In this class, I assume you, the student, will continue your study of science at the graduate and professional level. Even if you do not plan on an academic career, learning to cater your writing to specific audiences is a skill that transfers outside of the university. At some point, your work or ideas will come in contact with the public. Therefore, this class is designed to help you make the best communicative choices based on the purpose of your communication, the audience you are addressing, and the genre that you engage.
We will begin the course by attempting to understand rhetoric and how rhetoric intersects with science. Course assignments will provide you with practice writing blogs, crafting arguments, composing academic writing and research, and translating your research into a mock grant proposal and a corresponding presentation (we will use TED talks to help us mimic an approach to science that is appealing to a non-academic audience). Throughout the semester, you will post blog-like responses to most class readings, TED talks, and other students’ posts.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
The objectives of the course, in addition to the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) requirements are:
– Gain Rhetorical Knowledge of the Composition Process
This goal refers to a) analyzing the occasion, audience, and purpose of a piece of writing; b) using voice, tone, and structure to weave form and content together successfully; c) writing and reading in several genres; d) sharpening skills of analysis, argument, and inquiry to engage knowledge of ourselves and others.
Writing done in the university and in the world around us uses rhetoric, or the art of adapting one’s language choices to meet the occasion, audience, purpose, and constraints of a piece of writing. Each occasion to compose is endowed with constraints, such as time, resources, professional decorum, and even professional or cultural politics, which influence the things we might write or say. This class will strengthen your rhetorical knowledge so you can succeed in all your writing endeavors.
– Write in Consideration of Audience
At the university, sometimes it feels like you are only writing for different teachers. But, most of the writing you do in your life is for much different audiences. In this class, we will often pretend to be writing for someone besides a teacher, such as a potential employer, a mock funding institution, and professional colleagues. To consider your audience means to “put yourself in the shoes” of the people for whom you will write. What would interest them? What would attract them to your work? How can you make your work easy for them to understand? Would you address a potential employer different than your best friend? Would you say the same things about your research to the National Science Foundation as you would colleagues at an academic conference? These are audience consideration questions.
– Consider Particular Genres When Composing
Genre refers to the kind of writing you will do. Each genre of writing has its own set of rules, expectations, and decorum. For instance, the content you would share in a personal statement differs greatly from the kind of content that is required for a grant proposal or a conference presentation or a blog post. In this class, we will study both what characterizes each of these genres, and how best to fulfill the often unspoken rules and expectations of each genre.
– Improve Upon Your Writing Process
The writing process refers to a) Generating ideas, writing and revising drafts of an essay, and editing and proofreading those drafts; b) Workshops and critiquing your own and your classmates’ work; c) Doing effective research; d) Using technology such as websites, Internet search engines, and electronic databases; e) Evaluating sources for accuracy, relevancy, credibility, and bias; and f) Reflecting on your writing in order to clarify the writing process. With each assignment, we will strive to demystify the writing process and practice writing as a manageable series of actions resulting in a document of which you can feel proud.
– Sharpen Critical Thinking Skills
Critical thinking refers to your ability to analyze issues, problems, or opportunities relevant to your field or profession; identify and evaluate information sources for relevance, validity, and credibility; apply advanced rhetorical knowledge in order to recognize the elements of sound reasoning; pose questions that lead to sustained inquiry and innovative thinking; frame an issue and develop a stance based on evidence and sound reasoning; recognize the elements and logical progression of persuasive arguments; and employ rhetorical strategies to produce a coherent and persuasive argument.
– Strengthen Your Writing Conventions
This means a) Sharpening your ability to issue claims, lines of reasoning and evidence, paragraph structure, and appropriate vocabulary and genre conventions; b) Master grammar, syntax, punctuation, and documenting sources. By discussing and analyzing, for example, the various conventions of a personal essay or a proposal for funding, you will gain an appreciation for how the different parts of these documents fit together and can be changed according to the circumstance in which you write them.
– Increase Your Capacity to Function in a Digital Environment
Digital literacy refers to the ability to find, navigate, evaluate, and participate in digital environments for a variety of purposes. This class will be conducted through Desire2Learn (D2L), and will require you to understand how to use the library and internet to glean research, and improve your understanding of how to use and access voicethread, powerpoint, prezi, and google drive.
If you struggle with grammar, you must purchase a reference guide. My personal preference is:
Troyka, Lynn Q and Hesse, Douglas. Quick Access. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2014.
REQUIRED TEXT:
- A gmail account
- All readings and homework assignments will be available on Desire2Learn (D2L) as a pdf. or URL
ASSIGNMENTS:
You will be responsible for the following assignments:
Contributions to the Class Discussion Board
The discussion board will serve 2 primary functions:
1) To explore and better understand the significance of the readings—I will regularly ask students to respond to a prompt that will probe your understanding of a reading and require you to express a viewpoint (similar to a blog post). Your posts should invite further conversation.
2) To provide an opportunity for interaction and a sense of community:
2a) You will provide a thoughtful response to at least 2 classmates’ posts each week.
2b) You will provide a thoughtful response or feedback to at least 4 final presentations.
Workshops
You will participate in three workshops using google drive. The workshops will serve 2 valuable functions. They will 1) improve your approach to the writing process and your actual writing, and 2) provide you with practice using google drive. Students often wait until the last minute to do their writing. The workshop process will give you a reason to start your writing in advance, and allow for a crucial moment of rest between the workshop and your due date that allows you to see your writing with a fresh eye. These moments of “marination” often improve writing. Moreover, in reading other students work, we gain opportunities to reflect and improve based on what we have learned from others. On an even more practical note, most employers expect their employees to be able to work and edit over google drive, so this will give you a great opportunity to practice. I will provide you with questions and pointers to help guide your feedback to other students.
Genre Analysis of Science Editorials
Genre refers to a specific form of communication, like an email, conference presentation, blog, editorial, or grant proposal. You probably know intuitively that you should not write an editorial like an email. But you may not know how to write an editorial so that your final text will be accepted by the community for whom you are writing. Therefore, the main goals of “genre” analyses are to help you 1) better understand and account for an authors’ purpose for composing; 2) unmask the rules or socially acceptable communicative practices that define a specific form of communication (editorial, grant proposal, conference presentation); 3) and to help you approach future writing with the understanding that your language choices are shaped by specific communities of people and rules. Moreover, the people who belong to these communities may or may not realize they have communicative rules until you break them!
Editorial
After a brief introduction to rhetoric, and how we can apply the concept of rhetoric and argument to science, you will select an editorial from a list I generated. The editorials I selected directly address scientific issues. Ironically, the controversial part of several of the editorials is often that someone has an opinion on an issue considered factual by scientific communities. Read and select this editorial very carefully.
Grant Proposal Needs Assessment
Teams of experts in their field will often spend a year doing the research necessary to propose a winning grant. You will not have the time to do that in this class, but you will need to demonstrate there is a need for your project. Before you begin working on the grant, please submit a 1-3 paragraph research essay demonstrating there is a need for your project. This essay will require you obtain academic research to demonstrate the need for your project.
Mock Grant Proposal
You will apply for funding from a mock granting institution. Unless you are really lucky, at some point in your life most of you will have to ask for money from someone to work on a problem with a solution that requires your skill set. This paper will provide you with practice finding an audience for your ideas, and using rhetoric to make that idea exciting to them. If you are working on your own or with faculty to apply for an actual grant, you may use this class to get feedback on that proposal. Otherwise, we will pretend that we have a solution to a social problem, and we are asking a funding group for money for our idea.
Mock Conference Presentation
You will construct a 6-8 minute presentation based on the TED talk format using google presentation, video with voiceover, or you may choose your own medium. Your presentation should be targeted to an American audience, be visually captivating, and aim to persuade others of the importance and significance of your work—keeping in mind the difficulties Americans have interpreting scientific data. Obviously, you will have to make up some of the significance of your study since it is not within the realm of this course to complete your actual proposal. Here is your chance to think BIG and use your imagination for the sake of learning.
Self-Learning Assessment
You will write a short paper discussing what you learned in this class, and use the contents of this paper to fill out a short survey that will help us continue to improve online learning.
GRADING:
|Your Weekly Discussion Board Posts (7, 25 pts each—20 pts for the response, 5 pts for replying to 2 students’ posts)
|
Plus responses meant to provide feedback for students editorial, grant proposal, and final conference presentation (3, 8 pts each)
2 Workshops, 10 points each
Genre Analysis of Editorial
Editorial
Grant Proposal Needs Assessment
Grant Proposal
Conference Presentation
Self-Learning Assessment
Total:
|
|
175 pts
24 pts
20 pts
35 pts
50 pts
15 pts
100 pts
80 pts
25 pts
524 possible pts
You are required to check D2L and CU Link (email account) before and after class. I update D2L weekly and I often send out important information via email. | https://ce.colorado.edu/course-details/wrtg-3030-writing-on-science-and-society-topics-in-writing-section-583/ |
Successful candidates for this position will have:
B. Tech. / M. Tech. with 4-8 years of experience in Synthesis, STA
Expertise in synthesis of complex SoCs at block/top level and writing timing constraints for complex designs with multiple clocks and multiple voltage domains
Expertise on post layout timing closure for multiple tape outs, including timing ECOs and STA signoff
Expertise in I/O constraints developments.
Expertise in implementation of advance timing analysis techniques.
Hands-on experience of working on technology nodes like 28nm, 20nm, 14nm,10nm
Ability to understand advanced digital design architectures and clocking structures to help manage Functional/Scan/MBIST timing and physical design constraints
Ability to work with digital and analog circuit designers to analyze and explore timing challenges involved for complex designs integrating standard cell logic with high speed custom interface circuits
Good knowledge of EDA tools from RC, DC, PT, PTSI .
Experience in formal verification RTL-to-netlist and netlist-to-netlist with DFT constraints
Good knowledge of VLSI process and device characteristics
Good understanding of deep submicron parasitic effects, crosstalk effects etc.TCL, perl scripting" | https://www.naukri.com/job-listings-Synthesis-sta-Physical-Design-Engineer-Micron-Technology-Operations-India-LLP-Hyderabad-Secunderabad-4-to-8-years-271119903510 |
Music composition processes can be envisioned as complex systems involving a plurality of operating levels. Abstractions of musical ideas are manifested in myriad ways and degrees, one of which is of course their suitability for implementation as algorithms, enabling musicians to explore possibilities that would otherwise lie out of reach. However, the role of algorithms (finite computable functions, in Turing's sense) is not to be simply reified in a composition.
Composers use computers not only as "number-crunching" devices, but also as interactive partners to perform operations where the output depends on actual performance. Composers are concerned with the creation of musical situations emerging concretely out of a critical interaction with their materials, including their algorithms. This task cannot be exhausted by a linear (a priori, non-interactive) problem-solving approach. Interaction is here matching an important feature of musical composition processes, giving room for the emergence of irreducible situations through non-linear interaction.
Irreducibility is perhaps a key word in this context, as we are dealing with music's categories and ends. Music is not dependent on logical constructs unverified by physical experience. Composers, especially those using computers, have learned--sometimes painfully--that the formal rigor of a generative function does not guarantee by itself the musical coherence of a result. Music cannot be confused with (or reduced to) a formalized discipline: even if music actually uses knowledge and tools coming from formalized disciplines, formalization does not play a foundational role in regard to musical processes. I will refer in this article to a "realist" ontological principle relying on "commitment to action" which can shed light on the nature of musical compositional processes in regard to formal constructivism. Additionally, musical processes, at least from the composer's point of view, are not situations "out there" waiting to be discovered: they are rather to be composed (since they did not exist anywhere before being composed), and hence they cannot be considered properly as modeling activities, even if they use--and deeply absorb--models, knowledge, and tools coming from scientific domains (acoustic and psychoacoustic modeling, for example).
In fact, music transforms this knowledge and these tools into its own ontological concern: to create specific musical situations (musical "states of affairs"). To this end, a palette of diverse compositional instances is needed, including strategies for controlling and qualifying results and choices, according to a given musical project. These compositional instances, to reiterate, are not envisaged here in the frame of the traditional approach to algorithmic (automatic) composition: they are instead seen in the light of the ongoing paradigm shift from algorithmics to interaction (Wegner 1997, Bello 1997), where the general-purpose computer is regarded as one component of complex systems (Winograd 1979), and where the composer, being another component of these complex systems, is imbedded in a network within which he or she can act, design, and experience concrete tools and (meaningful) musical situations.
It is under this perspective, I believe, that the formal status of musical processes can be approached--in a certain way "revisited"--as I will try to do in this article, focusing on ontological questions. Computer music practice (computer-generated and computer-assisted composition) is of course the underlying frame of the discussion here offered, because these reflections have arisen from the author's daily exposure, as a composer, to a situation in which algorithms, choices, and "musical theses" are themselves confronted within an "action/perception feedback loop" which seems to constitute [End Page 54] definitively the pertinent instance of validation of musical processes.
Approaching Music's Ontology
Schönberg's Criticism of "External Calculus"
Schönberg states in his Style and Idea that "a purely external calculus system calls for a formal construction whose primitive nature is suitable only to primitive ideas" (Schönberg 1951). This remark points, in the particular language of its author, to the mismatches that may be caused by literal application of operations which may be successfully applied in other fields, but which are not guaranteed to function pertinently in a musical context, as long as they are not absorbed and transformed into elements proper to "music itself."
The Difficulty of Defining "Music Itself"
However, it can be argued here that the very idea of "music itself" encounters a major difficulty: nobody can say what music is, other than by means of a normative proposition, because "music itself" is in fact a non-demonstrable thing, and its practice is neither arbitrary nor based on physical or metaphysical foundations:
It is not because we know, in one manner or another (and without being able to say how), what music is that we also speak of atonal or concrete music as music. We use the word "music" according to certain rules, and these are neither very precise nor based on the "nature of things", even if they cannot be considered as arbitrary. (Bouveresse 1971, p. 318)
Certainly, we know that there is no necessity to define completely the concept of music in order to create, play, or listen to music. Furthermore, we know that the very existence of music, as a shared practice, would in fact be impossible if one should previously have to define completely the concept of music. This being the case, an ontology of music should refer to the music's status cautiously, taking care to not fall into reductionist traps.
"Universals" Are Not Needed
On one side, there is no necessity to affirm the existence of "universals" standing above musical practices, whatever these universals might be: a Platonic Idea, the dogmatics of proportion, a normative foundation of harmony, and so on. Of course, there are primitive principles underlying musical practices, but these should not be qualified as foundations of "music itself," for this would negate the possibility of developing other musical practices related to different assumptions. Schönberg's famous statement about the "liberation of the dissonance" can be seen in this light: "the expressions 'consonance' and 'dissonance', if referred to an antithesis, are erroneous; it depends only on the capacity of an analytic hearing to become familiarized with the higher harmonics" (Schönberg 1951, p. 16). Evidently, there are many musical practices (including functional tonality) that are based precisely on the antithesis that Schönberg does not accept, as he is looking here for another reference concerning musical relationships. But this does not invalidate his statement about analytic hearing: on the contrary, his statement affirms the possibility of "music" beyond the musical world based on a given functionality (tonality, in this case) by stressing the fact that there may be other equally conceivable musical assumptions and constraints to which the perceptions of a given musical world are to be related.
Music Reveals Its Own "Creation Principle"
On the other side, there is an ultra-relativist thesis affirming that "music is everything we call music"; but to follow this line would meant to fall into another reductionistic trap, analogous to the first one. The example just referred to, showing the relationship between hearing (lower or higher harmonics) and specific musical assumptions and [End Page 55] constraints (specific kinds of relationships and functionalities, such as consonance and dissonance), tells us why it is so. We can understand, then, that in spite of many attempts at reduction, music-making remains an activity revealing its own "creation principle" where, to paraphrase Finsler (1996), "consistency implies existence," taking the word "existence" to mean the presence of a given state of affairs. We continue to use the word "music" according to certain rules, which are "neither very precise nor based on the nature of things" (in the words of Bouveresse, quoted above), to refer to musical practices that cannot be considered arbitrary. We do this while focusing on certain operations, categories, facts and ends that we determine to be specific to music, or at least to musical "possible worlds."
Of course, this use of the word "music" does not bring up the ultimate argument about the nature of music, but only refers to its existence in ontological terms, referring to a given state of affairs. A complementary "anthropo-logistic" argument may also be considered here, as musical practices exist within a given "style of life," or "a culture of one period," as Wittgenstein (1953) would say. On another account, Goodman's nominalism (Goodman 1976) may be evoked as well. But I will not discuss these matters further, as the aim of this article is not to engage in a discussion about current philosophical approaches: the aforementioned "creation principle," I think, may be sufficient to assess music "as is," without falling into reductionism.
Formalization Versus Commitment to Action:
A Realist Ontology
As stated earlier, music uses knowledge from formal disciplines and creates a myriad of abstractions (operations encapsulating operations, etc.). However, we should assume that what falls under the heading of formal abstraction becomes, in music, part of the reality in which music develops its productive categories. A musical process includes a plurality of layers of operations of diverse kinds: it can certainly use formal tools as generative and transformative devices; however, other instances are needed, involving concrete actions and perceptions, in order to qualify results and choices according to a given musical project. Here, formalization is not foundational, but operational, local, and tactical (see Sinaceur 1991 and Granger 1994). A (musical) system of symbols can be formally structured (i.e., built as a system including functions manifesting diverse degrees of abstraction) without being completely formalized, the last case arising, strictly speaking, when all non-defined symbols present in the system are properly enumerated (or, if preferred, when nothing is hidden). As Wegner noted with respect to other domains, the key argument against complete formalization of such things as musical composition processes is "the inherent trade off between logical completeness and commitment to action," because "committed choice to the course of action is inherently incomplete" (Wegner 1997).
We can recall here Finsler's ideas expressed in the 1920s and cited by Wegner as pioneering a "realist ontology," where a "creation principle" is posited: "concepts exist independently of formalisms in which they are expressed" (Finsler 1996). Finsler "went beyond Hilbert's formalism in applying the principle 'consistency implies existence', accepting the existence of concepts independently of whether they are formalized" (Wegner and Goldin 1999). We can easily paraphrase Finsler, substituting "concepts" for "musical ideas" to reinforce a "realist ontology" affirming that musical ideas exist independently of their possible formalization or even "constructability" (since they can emerge from a plurality of interactive factors).
Algorithms, Interaction, and Complex Systems
Evidently, using computers (the most general symbolic processors that have ever existed) drives music activity to an expansion of its formal categories. Computer algorithms (whatever the paradigm on which they are based) can be considered as formal constructs where reasoning is embodied in machines. [End Page 56] Computer algorithms differ however from their pure logical (disembodied) ancestors by an important feature: they are dynamically oriented, involving networking with other machines as well as human interaction. Computer algorithms are embedded in complex (and heterogeneous) systems, within which they are used as processing tools.
As Winograd pointed out 20 years ago,
[C]omputers are not primarily used for solving well-structured problems, but instead are components in complex systems. . . . Programming in the future will depend more and more on specifying behavior. The systems we build will carry out real-time interactions with users, other computers, and physical systems (e.g. for process control). In understanding the interaction among independent components, we will be concerned with detailed aspects of their temporal behavior. The machine must be thought of as a mechanism with which we interact, not a mathematical abstraction which can be fully characterized in terms of its results. (Winograd 1979)
Computer music can be envisioned as one such complex system in which the processing power of computers deals with a variety of concrete actions involving multiple perspectives, in terms of time scales and levels of representation. This situation leads us to rethink basic issues related to composer-machine interaction, as Bello remarks:
Traditional approaches toward composer-machine interaction have been fundamentally based on the machine itself, with perhaps very little consideration placed on our external experiences in the world, particularly our interactive experiences. Many of the traditional approaches appeared to have been concentrating on a micro-world perspective, whereby well defined problems in composition and sound design have been explored. Such an approach ignores, or at least fails to acknowledge, the existence of an external interactive environment in which the composer is definitely a part. (Bello 1997, p. 30)
Constraints and the Composer's Posited Relationships
Composers build musical situations by creating constraints that act as "reflecting walls" inside which a tissue of specific relationships is spun (Vaggione 1997). I use the expression "constraint" in the sense of its etymology: limit, condition, force, and, by extension, definition of the degrees of freedom assumed by an actor in a given situation within self-imposed boundaries. In this broader sense, the composer's constraints are specific assumptions about musical relationships: multi-level assumptions that can be in some cases translated into finite computable functions (algorithms), and in other cases satisfied only by means of the composer's interaction (performance). Constraints are embedded at every level in the "world" posited in the musical work. We can also say, particularly à propos in this case, that a musical work presents, as Adorno has noted, a "thesis"--a musical thesis which encompasses all its dimensions, even the most elementary materials: "Everything that might appear in music as being immediate and natural . . . is, in reality, the result of a 'thesis'; the isolated sound cannot escape this rule" (Adorno 1963, p. 319).
Can we say, in this case, that this thesis (posited world) and constraints (embedded specific assumptions) are specifications? Surely, but we must consider carefully the kinds of things (the classes) that are specified: local computable functions are on one side, with the classical condition of consistency satisfying a specification. On the other side, we find global instances (actors) controlling the multiplicity of local computable functions through interaction, with the non-classical condition of consistency as a state of affairs, and the satisfaction of a specification as something that is not formally granted, but must be reached through action: consistency "performed" by the composer. So musical thesis, constraints, and specifications (referring to the same "reflecting walls" metaphor at different perspectives) are not categories encapsulating linearities, but vectors of posited relationships that may or may not become satisfied, [End Page 57] depending on a certain way of interactively matching inputs and outputs. The role of the composer here is not one of setting a mechanism and watching it run, but one of setting the conditions that will allow him or her to perform musical actions.
Being Cautious with "Rules"
Debussy's saying, "The work makes its own rules," summarizes well the situation of the composer's constraints alluded to above. However, it seems necessary to be cautious when using the word "rule" in an artistic domain:
To be considered rightly as such, a rule must necessarily be followed many times. A private rule is already in a certain sense a contradiction in adjecto (Bouveresse 1976, p. 429).
Computer algorithms (which compute outputs non-interactively from their inputs) are generally quite consistent in regard to rules, in the classical (Hilbertian, so to speak) sense--in any case, to an extent that musical works never show. Concerning the latter, we can recall Donald Byrd's statements on common music notation:
The point is that the supposed rules of common music notation are not independent; they interact, and when the situation makes them interact strongly enough, something has to give way. It is tempting to assume that the rules of such an elaborate and successful system as common music notation must be self-consistent. A problem with this idea is that so many of the "rules" are, necessarily, very nebulous. Every book on common music notation is full of vague statements illustrated by examples that often fail to make the rule clear, but if you try to make every rule as precise as possible, what you get is certainly not self-consistent. (Byrd 1994, p. 17)
Someone can perhaps argue that the above description applies to a system of notation, and not to musical processes themselves. This criticism can also point to the existence of non-notateable music processes (tape music, improvisation). Facing these arguments, I shall make the following remarks: (1) I consider that the intelligibility of music is always revealed in the hearing, and not in the score; and (2) if music were a "self-consistent formal system" in a Hilbertian sense, music notation would reflect this status, as, for example, Hilbertian notations (of logical reasoning systems) do.
Of course, another matter is considering musical notation from the point of view of Finsler's realist ontology, as referred to above, where consistency implies existence. Byrd acknowledges the necessity of vagueness or nebulosity of music notation "rules," as they articulate a complex system where heterogeneous referents (some discrete, some analogue) are strongly interacting. Even an operation which seems to be mechanical, such as orchestral part extraction, is difficult to realize with an algorithm of average complexity, owing to the superposition of information, some precisely quantified, some only globally qualified, some dependent on the simple graphical space of the page, some inscribed in a much more precise topological space. Only the musician who reads the score knows, for example, when it is time to turn the page--a function of the context conditioning his or her actions. This point is not irrelevant: it shows that music is constituted of actions and perceptions, and that these actions and perceptions are what is actually transmitted in the score and in the playing.
A Plurality of Representational Systems
There is no musical composition process (instrumental, electroacoustic, or otherwise) without representational systems at work--a plurality of representational systems, depending at which level or time scale we are operating. The problem that music composition gives rise to is the articulation of these representation systems, because the outputs of music's processes are interactively related to their (multi-level) inputs. A "note," for example (especially if we consider it from the perspective of an interaction between macro-time and micro-time scales allowed by computer means) can be seen as a chunk of multi-layered events covering many simultaneous temporal levels, [End Page 58] each one having its own morphological features that can be captured, composed, and described using adequate representational systems. We must take into account, however, the fact that some types of representation that are valid on one level cannot always retain their pertinence when transposed to another level (see Vaggione 1998 and Budon 2000). Composing music (creating musical morphologies) includes defining, articulating, and bringing into interaction these varieties of levels.
"Of What Use Is It To Know Before . . . "
Of course, every musical process contains "primitives" which derive from a specific common practice. One can say that "constraints" become "rules" if they exceed their use within a particular musical work to become part of a common practice. (In this sense I use the distinction, in order to avoid reference to "private rules," as discussed above.) The rules we learn at the conservatory are the result of a long historical effort of codification of evolving practices (each codification representing a vertical cut in this evolving body, freezing a given state in order to clarify its main characteristics). These rules (at least a good number of them) are pedagogical in nature. Their purpose lies in describing a certain musical practice so that we may imitate it to become "cultivated" musicians. As such, they must be collectively understood and validated. Often, the analyst-musicologist follows--albeit unconsciously--this approach, which lies at the root of much confusion concerning the role of musical analysis (to find the rules of a given work). Debussy's expression refers to this and was directed precisely against this amalgam, which reduces music to rules, thus ignoring the ontological status (the "creation principle") of a work.
With regard to artistic creation, an "insidious question," as Bouveresse would put it, comes to mind: "Of what use is it to know before, in whatever sense of the expression 'to know', what we will do later in a concrete case?" (Bouveresse 1971, p. 235). This is the kind of question often posed (to themselves) by young students who desire to become composers (this has been my personal case), as they struggle to gain musical craftsmanship without yet realizing its inherent heterogeneity, i.e., the fact that music's "primitives" can always be modified, that new significations may emerge during a compositional process, changing and "enriching" the sense of any chunk of musical knowledge.
Beyond an Exercise in Style
Here lies what seems to be one of the sources of confusion regarding the nature of music composition processes: on the one hand, we must make as careful a distinction as possible between the collective rules and the composer's own constraints; on the other, this distinction seems irrelevant because, according to the "creation principle," the terms can always be modified. That is to say, any primitive (coming from a common practice or postulated ad hoc) is to be considered as a part of what is to be composed, in order to produce a musical work affirming itself as a singularity, beyond an exercise in style. Adorno was of course conscious of this dialectic: his statement about sound material considered not as something "given" but as a "result" of a musical thesis clearly points to this fact.
Action and Perception
I must recall that I am considering an ontology of music where action and perception are principal components. In any case, I assume that such things as thesis, constraints, choices, and so on would not be musically pertinent if they were devoid of implications touching directly on questions of action and perception, i.e., revealing a commitment to action that relies on perception as a controlling instance, hence as an ontological feature of the interactive situation itself.
So thesis and constraints are revealed through perception. They are to be heard, first of all, by the composer who is also a listener. The composer as a listener is the correlate of the composer as a producer: in order to produce music, an act of hearing is necessary, whether it be the "inner hearing" (the silent writing situation) of pure instrumental [End Page 59] music composition, or the "concrete hearing" of electroacoustic music composition. These situations involve variants (there are many others) of an "action/perception feedback loop" which can be defined as an instance of validation proper to musical processes.
Multi-scale Processes Validated by Perception
We must now consider a new situation arising from the use of computers for building musical processes. By using an increasingly sophisticated palette of signal processing tools, composers are now intervening not only at the macro-time domain (which can be defined as the time domain standing above the level of the "note"), but they are also intervening at the micro-time domain (which can be defined as the time domain standing within the "note") (Vaggione 1998). The micro-time domain is manifest at levels where the duration of events is on the order of milliseconds (Roads forthcoming). Operations realized at some of these levels may of course not be perceived when working directly: in order to perceive (and therefore validate) the musical results, the composer should temporarily leave micro-time, "taking the elevator" to macro-time. As a painter who works directly on a canvas must step back some distance to perceive the result of his or her action, validating it in a variety of spatial perspectives, so must the composer dealing with different time scales. This being so, a new category must be added to the action/perception feedback loop, a kind of "shifting hearing" allowing the results of operations to be checked at many different time scales. Some of these time scales are not audible directly and need to be validated perceptually by their effects over other (higher) time scales.
Any computer program dealing with audio data includes some kind of zooming facility. This is not a trivial feature, though. Since the different time-levels present in a musical situation strongly interact, morphologies can circulate from one level to another. However, such circulation cannot take place, in many cases, except under non-linear conditions: as noted, some types of representation that are valid on one level cannot always retain their pertinence when transposed to another level. Thus, multi-level operations do not exclude fractures, distortions, and mismatches between the levels. To face these mismatches, a multi-syntactical strategy is "composed." Object-oriented programming strategies, as I have noted elsewhere, can help to encapsulate diverse syntactical layers into a multi-level entity (an object) able to integrate a given compositional network (Vaggione 1998). But this kind of situation needs to be constantly checked from a musical point of view. The action/perception feedback loop is here the pertinent instance where this situation can be musically controlled and validated.
Conclusion
What a composer wants comes from the "singularity" of his or her musical project--from the composer's manner of performing a critical act with relationships. Hence, composers can--at will--reduce or enlarge their operational categories or their field of control, producing and applying constraints as well as making the numerous choices necessary during the compositional process. In this article, I have stressed the fact that a musical process involves a plurality of layers of operations of diverse kinds. Musical processes can be produced using formal tools (algorithms) as generative and transformative devices, yet other compositional instances call for strategies relying on interaction in order to control and qualify results and choices. Using computers drives musical activity to an expansion of its formal categories. These categories are dynamic, precisely owing to the use of computers: vectorized, presupposing networking and interaction, including hidden terms, without which music creation would be reduced to the exploitation of a linear mechanism.
There is no musical process without representational systems at work--a plurality of representational systems, depending at which level or time scale we are operating. Algorithmic representations cover a substantial part of this plurality and are certainly pertinent, as they can match at least some of [End Page 60] the assumptions underlying a given music production system, especially when including the condition of interaction, revealing its many simultaneous levels of articulation as well as its direct anchoring in perception. This leads us to valorize what is perhaps the most important issue for an ontology of music: the fact that situations organized around the production of music would not be pertinent if they were devoid of implications touching directly on questions of action and perception. So the approach presented here presupposes a basic assumption, namely, that the meaning of any compositional technique, or any chunk of musical knowledge, arises from its function in support of a specific musical action, which in turn has a strong bearing on the question of how this action is perceived. Action and perception lie at the heart of musical processes, as these musical processes are created by successive operations of concretization having as a tuning tool--as a principle of reality--an action/perception feedback loop.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank Guy Garnett for carefully reviewing the draft of this article.
Université de Paris VIII, Département de Musique
2 rue de la liberté, 93526 Saint-Denis
Paris, France
[email protected]
References
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Wittgenstein, L. 1953. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Blackwell. | https://muse.jhu.edu/article/7799 |
The renaissance stimulated by the World Wide Web is generating multiple formats and channels of communication and creativity. These include blogs, wikis, instant messaging, and texting in the realm of writing, podcasting in audio, countless sites such as Flickr for distribution and sharing of images, and video shared via YouTube and other sites. The Pew Internet and American Life project reports that the majority of all teens are now engaged in active creation of online content. The rise of social media reflects new opportunities and outlets for creativity.
Video 1. Clay Shirky introduces the concept of the Cognitive Surplus at the 2008 Web 2.0 Expo.
This increase in creative expression, documented by the Pew Foundation, can be observed across a range of media – audio and video, as well as writing. For example, the Digital Ethnology group at the University of Kansas reports that the majority of video clips posted on YouTube are created by teenagers, and teenage students are typically more avid users of texting services than are their parents. This phenomenon is associated not only with students’ abilities to access and enjoy media and online content, but also to create, produce, publish, and maintain it in real time.
The Web has encouraged content creation through writing and media production. A corollary is that presentation of content on the Web is subtly changing the way people read, process information, and think. Print technology facilitates forms of concentrated and sustained attention and thought. Internet technology facilitates a more distributed and plastic form of thinking. This shift is more than merely a change in the way we read or a change in our behavior.
Sterling (2008) suggests that the energy and creativity emerging outside schools should be harnessed and linked to the academic enterprise within schools. Capitalizing on these tools for creative expression in schools is more difficult than it might appear. There are numerous constraints in school that present challenges.
School content must address specific learning objectives.
Many learning objectives are subject to time constraints.
Addition of technology can increase the complexity of classroom management.
Schools are heavily invested in print technologies and often constrain Internet access in ways that limit access to online media tools.
Teachers have limited models for effective integration of media in their teaching.
Only limited research is available to guide best practice.
Students’ energy and passion are lost, in part, because of the need to address specific learning objectives in a constrained amount of time. A teen who willingly writes at length in the process of identity formation may be less engaged by school topics. Although some teachers are able to bridge the gap, the added complexity introduced by technology combined with limited amounts of time available in school settings has proven to be a significant barrier to school use of these technologies.
The shift from a student-centered focus to a content-centered focus is an equally important factor. Students who place themselves in front of a microphone or camera to create media enable other users of media to view what they can do. Formal schooling shifts the center of attention to the teacher and to content. While content will always be of primary importance in school, it may possible to engage students in exploration of materials that other students helped create. This might allow a hybrid approach that offers the best of both worlds.
Informal learning experiences outside school offer a potential bridge between social media and academic content. The National Science Foundation (NSF) employs the term “informal learning” to describe learning and engagement that occurs outside formal school settings.
There are a variety of settings in which informal learning occurs – youth programs, after-school programs, museums, and online communities. These settings offer opportunities to consider ways to link student engagement to academic content without some of the constraints of time and the school curriculum.
Much of this work takes place at the grassroots level, but the NSF has an established grant program (the Informal Science Education program solicitation) to encourage this type of activity outside formal school settings. These settings offer environments in which emergent technologies can be adapted to learning objectives with fewer constraints than formal school settings.
However, relatively little communication takes place between those who work in formal school settings and their counterparts in informal settings. Consequently, lessons learned are not always translated into formats that can be employed within school settings.
The National Technology Leadership Coalition (NTLC), a consortium of a dozen teacher educator associations, was established to encourage dialog across subject area disciplines. In the normal course of events, science education faculty members may not interact with social studies education faculty members. The CITE Journal, established through a joint collaboration among teacher educator associations, offers one venue in which dialog across associations can occur.
Clearly, digital video is used much more dynamically in the context of social media outside of school. Video clips are often recontextualized, revised, edited, and reposted, serving as a springboard for conversation. There is limited empirical research on use of video in school, but evidence indicates that at present this type of use in school is more the exception than the rule. The gap between dynamic, interactive uses outside of school and more conventional uses in school offers an opportunity for examination of best practice.
In the forthcoming summit (NTLS X), participants will explore ways in which dynamic media used in informal settings outside school can be adapted for school use. By dynamic media we are referring to both technical characteristics – media that is interactive, multilayered, and mobile – as well as cultural characteristics – media that is remixable, sharable, and used as a springboard for social interactions.
Because of the diversity of informal learning settings, there is no single organization that represents these types of uses in the same way that the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (for example) represents mathematics educators. However, inclusion of some of the leaders from informal learning settings will provide an opportunity to begin a dialog with teacher educators representing core content areas.
A crucial element of this dialog will be a consideration of how communities of academics value the content of informal learning experiences and visa versa. Formal schooling has long functioned to introduce young people to academic disciplines and the structures of disciplines for creating and validating content. The content valued in school (e. g., Pythagorean theorem, Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, Huckleberry Finn, the Gettysburg Address) is often powerfully represented outside school in informal settings, particularly in social media. Despite these connections, academics sometimes view the technologies of informal learning as flimsy. Wikipedia is one example of the tension that exists between academic communities and informal learning communities. Dialog might lead to recognition on both sides that there is value to multiple forms of knowledge when that knowledge is considered in critical ways.
Digital video offers an excellent context for understanding the complexities of integrating informal and formal learning. The video media (digital and analog) favored in formal learning environments is typically well produced, often didactic, and almost always reflective of some content that has been agreed upon as important by educators and academicians. Informal video media is more often created in an anything-goes environment that favors low production, simplicity, superficiality, and entertainment. Finding ways that the qualities of both formal and informal media learning contexts can be harnessed in school is a challenge that educators should make a priority.
In order to translate informal use of communication technologies outside school into applied activities inside school, educators must consider content and the pedagogies best suited for bridging these in- and out-of-school uses of technology. Schools of education provide a natural entry point for considering possible approaches for accomplishing this.
The current generation of students entering college, sometimes termed Generation Y (Gen-Y), is the first to have lived their entire lives immersed in digital technologies. Almost all of the current Gen-Y students have computers and cell phones. They use communication technologies (instant messaging and texting) and social media (blogs, Facebook, etc.) extensively. Prenksy (2001) coined the term “digital natives” to describe this generation of students who are all “‘native speakers’ of the digital language of computers, video games and the Internet” (p. 1).
Gen-Y teacher education students who are developing pedagogical and content knowledge can serve as collaborators in determining methods for adapting emergent social media and communications technologies to classroom use.
This provides an opportunity for faculty members – typically “digital immigrants” (Prensky, 2001) with extensive content and pedagogical expertise – to work with teacher education students who are digital natives (Figure 1). (Ann Thompson has developed and written extensively about programs in which this type of student expertise can be joined with faculty members’ knowledge; see, e.g., Thompson, Chuang, & Sahin, 2006.) As teacher education students graduate and enter schools, they will bring knowledge and understanding of ways in which technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge can be combined. This will only occur if teacher education faculty members serve as effective mentors.
Figure 1. Teacher education faculty possess expertise in content and pedagogy, while many teacher education students are experienced in use of social media.
Gen-Y teacher education students’ uses of social media are often embedded in pop culture sensibilities that may not translate easily to academic contexts. Instead of rejecting these sensibilities, teacher educators must help their students transform their understandings and values regarding the content and processes used to create content. Thus, a crucial element of this partnership is the development of a critical consciousness and critical media literacy on the part of students about new and emerging technologies, social media, and communications technologies and how they can best be utilized to teach or support the teaching of content.
Again, digital video provides a good context for exploring how these relationships and interactions might play out. Gen-Y teacher education students are likely to understand and use video as a medium for informally expressing ideas in much the same way as we might informally use oral or written language. Transforming these uses will involve teacher educators helping Gen-Y students apply more rigorous structures such as digital storytelling and multigenre writing to their media use.
Social media are changing the world in ways not yet understood. The effects are rippling through news, business, entertainment, and the political arena. A new generation of students is significantly more active in the way that they create and interact with one another.
One effect on schools and schooling is apparent. The next generation will live in a world that is very different from the previous generation. The current generation of educators is not well equipped to serve as guides in this process – we are all learning together as new media technologies emerge. In fact, teens are often more experienced in use of these technologies than other demographic groups.
The informal learning that occurs in the context of participatory media offers significant opportunities for increased student engagement in formal learning settings. The experience with communication technologies that teenagers today possess must be tapped by educators and connected to pedagogy and content, however, in order to address learning objectives in schools. Teacher education faculty members are experienced in this arena. We are currently at a moment in time in which the current and next generation of educators each can make a genuine contribution by working together.
Thompson, A., Chuang, H., & Sahin, I.(Eds). (2006). Faculty mentoring: The power of students in developing expertise. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Press. | https://www.citejournal.org/volume-8/issue-2-08/editorial/connecting-informal-and-formal-learning-experiences-in-the-age-of-participatory-media/ |
Formal writing definition
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Formal writing definition
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Define formal: belonging to or constituting the form or essence of a thing — formal in a sentence. Formal definition: the definition of formal is something that follows rules, is a dressy or important occasion, or something that has official sanctioning or. Clichés, slang, informal, and formal english clichés clichés are words and phrases that tend to be overused and do not make for good writing. What is the difference between formal and informal language it is used when writing for professional or academic purposes like formal: improvements.
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In short, then, good academic writing follows the rules of good writing. Discourse community constraints[ edit ] Constraints are the discourse community's written and unwritten conventions about what a writer can say and how he or she can say it. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar.
Therefore, knowing the intended discourse community is a very important part of writing. Your professor has given you a subject, but she has not given you a topic. This means being a keen communicator who is culturally aware and understands that global problems require local solutions, and local solutions are best developed with a broad spectrum of voices.
What points seem less important? When you synthesize, you look for connections between ideas. Now would be the time to consider whether these disparate elements or observations might be reconciled, or synthesized.
The process of evaluation is an ongoing one. Writing a good conclusion is difficult. Be aware of discipline-specific differences. To what extent do you agree? It is the same for both GT and academic essays.
The hour grows late, you must depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. Starting from the winter, I started to user style checkers http: The statement provides an opening for a fictional narrative while simultaneously implying an ominous, foreboding setting.
Have you formed an intellectual question? Will your reader care about this question? Or they may provide you with different models for argument: Can you point to a moment in the film that is particularly successful in creating suspense?
This refers to using the appropriate tone and also purpose. Your stance on the topic depends on the many decisions you have made in the reading and thinking processes. At this juncture, you have two options: You will want to sum up, but you will want to do more than say what you have already said.
In fact, when a writer too often invokes himself in the first person, he may be doing so to avoid offering proof: When in doubt, ask.
Here is a good site wher you can check out the main topics of English grammar, including points not always dealt with in grammars, such as style and sentence-structure.
This generally occurs within a specific discourse community. Using the Official Writing Answer Sheet Students taking the general training or academic writing test, must select the right box to tick on the official writing answer sheet in the test.
Across most discourses communities, writers will: Different writing assignments require different degrees of knowing. In the process of really thinking about your topic, your aim is to come up with a fresh observation. Susie Bell I am writing stories for young people and adults. This is about using appropriate language, using collocations and the number of errors made.
Does my topic belong to any particular genre or category of topics? I want to follow my passion to become a writer.What Is “Academic” Writing?
by L. Lennie Irvin This essay is a chapter in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1, a peer-reviewed open textbook series for the writing classroom, and is published through Parlor Press.
Practical Academic Essay Writing Skills: An International ESL Students Essay Writing Guide was written with non-English speaking ESL students in mind. Learn how to write using academic English in preparation for university study. Academic writing can be very different from other types of written English.
This course has been developed to help you learn the basics of academic writing. Improve your academic writing skills and learn about different types of writing tasks. Do you want to know all about writing in academic contexts?
Then you're in the right place! Get it right with your academic writing on our Go The Distance course. Try out our Academic Writing. Academic writing is studied to enhance learning development or for use in assessing course comprehension. It is the mode of presentation of academic papers. | https://dixifue.calgaryrefugeehealth.com/learn-academic-writing-4279ms.html |
This paper presents three projects involving the design and fabrication of architectural structures through the use of different parametric software and digital manufacturing methods.
The first project is a flexible partition composed of interlocking elements shaped using a laser-cutter. The second project is a university exhibition unit made with various wooden panels manufactured through a computer numerical controlled (CNC) system.
The third project is a system of metal sheets folded by digital machines to create urban circulation spaces. The three works develop a parametric programming of geometry based on certain technical factors, enabling the recognition of patterns of interaction between formal and constructive issues involved in the definition of shapes through parametric controls.
Differences in materials and processes are contrasted by similarities of function and conditions involved, creating a system of local, global, productive and environmental parameters that produces a repertoire of self-similar dimensions and variations as well as multiple possibilities of initial setups and final configurations.
It suggests a specific field of design exploration focusing on the development of differentiated components and variable architectural configurations, in a kind of open parametric system.
The consideration of technical aspects early on in the process of architectural design has traditionally been considered a necessity for developing proper solutions, but also represents the possibility for promoting creative alternatives.
Works by Antoni Gaudí, Frei Otto, Eladio Dieste and Santiago Calatrava are frequently cited as key examples where architectural forms have been conceived through innovative structural and constructive considerations.
Nowadays the management and performance of building construction has become substantially more detailed, influencing the constraints, products and complexity of buildings. This necessitates a closer relationship between technical conditions and architectural shape, through design strategies that combine them to support creative explorations.
Parametric design software makes it possible to control numerical aspects of the definition of shapes, establishing mathematical relationships between geometry and varying conditions.
Several examples of architectural designs have shown the use of parametric software for the integration of different requirements or specific evaluation criteria.
The application of this technology during the initial stages of architectural design permits the exploration of multiple possible solutions within determined constrains. Nevertheless, no overall design strategy based on these technologies has been fully defined with regard to the relationship between different factors involved or their specific architectural possibilities.
This paper presents three projects carried out by the authors in the design and definition of architectural structures through the use of different parametric design software and digital fabrication methods, reviewing similar conditions in order to identify common design processes and technical aspects involved.
Design parameters can be considered on diverse levels of a project to define particular elements, to control overall form, to control production constraints of elements and design features, and to respond to site conditions that are determinant for several aspects. | https://parametrichouse.com/parametric-construction/ |
A modeling language is any artificial language that can be used to express information or knowledge or systems in a structure that is defined by a consistent set of rules. The rules are used for interpretation of the meaning of components in the structure.
Artificial languages are languages of a typically very limited size which emerge either in computer simulations between artificial agents, robot interactions or controlled psychological experiments with humans. They are different from both constructed languages and formal languages in that they have not been consciously devised by an individual or group but are the result of (distributed) conventionalisation processes, much like natural languages. Opposed to the idea of a central designer, the field of artificial language evolution in which artificial languages are studied can be regarded as a sub-part of the more general cultural evolution studies.
Information can be thought of as the resolution of uncertainty; it is that which answers the question of "what an entity is" and thus defines both its essence and nature of its characteristics. It is associated with data, as data represents values attributed to parameters, and information is data in context and with meaning attached. Information relates also to knowledge, as knowledge signifies understanding of an abstract or concrete concept.
Knowledge is a familiarity, awareness, or understanding of someone or something, such as facts, information, descriptions, or skills, which is acquired through experience or education by perceiving, discovering, or learning.
A modeling language can be graphical or textual.
An example of a graphical modeling language and a corresponding textual modeling language is EXPRESS.
EXPRESS is a standard data modeling language for product data. EXPRESS is formalized in the ISO Standard for the Exchange of Product model STEP, and standardized as ISO 10303-11.
Not all modeling languages are executable, and for those that are, the use of them doesn't necessarily mean that programmers are no longer required. On the contrary, executable modeling languages are intended to amplify the productivity of skilled programmers, so that they can address more challenging problems, such as parallel computing and distributed systems.
Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or the execution of processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different forms of parallel computing: bit-level, instruction-level, data, and task parallelism. Parallelism has long been employed in high-performance computing, but it's gaining broader interest due to the physical constraints preventing frequency scaling. As power consumption by computers has become a concern in recent years, parallel computing has become the dominant paradigm in computer architecture, mainly in the form of multi-core processors.
A large number of modeling languages appear in the literature.
Example of graphical modeling languages in the field of computer science, project management and systems engineering:
Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design and manage complex systems over their life cycles. At its core, systems engineering utilizes systems thinking principles to organize this body of knowledge. The individual outcome of such efforts, an engineered system, can be defined as a combination of components that work in synergy to collectively perform a useful function.
Software engineering is the application of engineering to the development of software in a systematic method.
In neuropsychology, linguistics, and the philosophy of language, a natural language or ordinary language is any language that has evolved naturally in humans through use and repetition without conscious planning or premeditation. Natural languages can take different forms, such as speech or signing. They are distinguished from constructed and formal languages such as those used to program computers or to study logic.
Examples of graphical modeling languages in other fields of science.
Information models can also be expressed in formalized natural languages, such as Gellish. Gellish has natural language variants such as Gellish Formal English and Gellish Formal Dutch (Gellish Formeel Nederlands), etc. Gellish Formal English is an information representation language or semantic modeling language that is defined in the Gellish English Dictionary-Taxonomy, which has the form of a Taxonomy-Ontology (similarly for Dutch). Gellish Formal English is not only suitable to express knowledge, requirements and dictionaries, taxonomies and ontologies, but also information about individual things. All that information is expressed in one language and therefore it can all be integrated, independent of the question whether it is stored in central or distributed or in federated databases. Information models in Gellish Formal English consists of collections of Gellish Formal English expressions, that use natural language terms and formalized phrases. For example, a geographic information model might consist of a number of Gellish Formal English expressions, such as:
- the Eiffel tower <is located in> Paris - Paris <is classified as a> city
whereas information requirements and knowledge can be expressed for example as follows:
- tower <shall be located in a> geographical area - city <is a kind of> geographical area
Such Gellish Formal English expressions use names of concepts (such as 'city') and phrases that represent relation types (such as <is located in> and <is classified as a>) that should be selected from the Gellish English Dictionary-Taxonomy (or of your own domain dictionary). The Gellish English Dictionary-Taxonomy enables the creation of semantically rich information models, because the dictionary contains more than 600 standard relation types and contains definitions of more than 40000 concepts. An information model in Gellish can express facts or make statements, queries and answers.
In the field of computer science recently more specific types of modeling languages have emerged.
Algebraic Modeling Languages (AML) are high-level programming languages for describing and solving high complexity problems for large scale mathematical computation (i.e. large scale optimization type problems). One particular advantage of AMLs like AIMMS, AMPL, GAMS, LPL, Mosel, MiniZinc, MPL, OPL and OptimJ is the similarity of its syntax to the mathematical notation of optimization problems. This allows for a very concise and readable definition of problems in the domain of optimization, which is supported by certain language elements like sets, indices, algebraic expressions, powerful sparse index and data handling variables, constraints with arbitrary names. The algebraic formulation of a model does not contain any hints how to process it.
Behavioral languages are designed to describe the observable behavior of complex systems consisting of components that execute concurrently. These languages focus on the description of key concepts such as: concurrency, nondeterminism, synchronization, and communication. The semantic foundations of Behavioral languages are process calculus or process algebra.
A discipline-specific modeling (DspM) language is focused on deliverables affiliated with a specific software development life cycle stage. Therefore, such language offers a distinct vocabulary, syntax, and notation for each stage, such as discovery, analysis, design, architecture, contraction, etc. For example, for the analysis phase of a project, the modeler employs specific analysis notation to deliver an analysis proposition diagram. During the design phase, however, logical design notation is used to depict relationship between software entities. In addition, the discipline-specific modeling language best practices does not preclude practitioners from combining the various notations in a single diagram.
Domain-specific modeling (DSM) is a software engineering methodology for designing and developing systems, most often IT systems such as computer software. It involves systematic use of a graphical domain-specific language (DSL) to represent the various facets of a system. DSM languages tend to support higher-level abstractions than General-purpose modeling languages, so they require less effort and fewer low-level details to specify a given system.
A framework-specific modeling language (FSML) is a kind of domain-specific modeling language which is designed for an object-oriented application framework. FSMLs define framework-provided abstractions as FSML concepts and decompose the abstractions into features. The features represent implementation steps or choices.
A FSML concept can be configured by selecting features and providing values for features. Such a concept configuration represents how the concept should be implemented in the code. In other words, concept configuration describes how the framework should be completed in order to create the implementation of the concept.
Linked data and ontology engineering require 'host languages' to represent entities and the relations between them, constraints between the properties of entities and relations, and metadata attributes. JSON-LD and RDF are two major (and semantically almost equivalent) languages in this context, primarily because they support statement reification and contextualisation which are essential properties to support the higher-order logic needed to reason about models. Model transformation is a common example of such reasoning.
Object modeling language are modeling languages based on a standardized set of symbols and ways of arranging them to model (part of) an object oriented software design or system design.
Some organizations use them extensively in combination with a software development methodology to progress from initial specification to an implementation plan and to communicate that plan to an entire team of developers and stakeholders. Because a modeling language is visual and at a higher-level of abstraction than code, using models encourages the generation of a shared vision that may prevent problems of differing interpretation later in development. Often software modeling tools are used to construct these models, which may then be capable of automatic translation to code.
Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), before 1995 known as the Virtual Reality Markup Language is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional (3D) interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind.
Various kinds of modeling languages are applied in different disciplines, including computer science, information management, business process modeling, software engineering, and systems engineering. Modeling languages can be used to specify:
Modeling languages are intended to be used to precisely specify systems so that stakeholders (e.g., customers, operators, analysts, designers) can better understand the system being modeled.
The more mature modeling languages are precise, consistent and executable. Informal diagramming techniques applied with drawing tools are expected to produce useful pictorial representations of system requirements, structures and behaviors, but not much else. Executable modeling languages applied with proper tool support, however, are expected to automate system verification and validation, simulation and code generation from the same representations.
A review of modelling languages is essential to be able to assign which languages are appropriate for different modelling settings. In the term settings we include stakeholders, domain and the knowledge connected. Assessing the language quality is a means that aims to achieve better models.
Here language quality is stated in accordance with the SEQUAL framework for quality of models developed by Krogstie, Sindre and Lindland (2003), since this is a framework that connects the language quality to a framework for general model quality. Five areas are used in this framework to describe language quality and these are supposed to express both the conceptual as well as the visual notation of the language. We will not go into a thoroughly explanation of the underlying quality framework of models but concentrate on the areas used to explain the language quality framework.
The framework states the ability to represent the domain as domain appropriateness. The statement appropriateness can be a bit vague, but in this particular context it means able to express. You should ideally only be able to express things that are in the domain but be powerful enough to include everything that is in the domain. This requirement might seem a bit strict, but the aim is to get a visually expressed model which includes everything relevant to the domain and excludes everything not appropriate for the domain. To achieve this, the language has to have a good distinction of which notations and syntaxes that are advantageous to present.
To evaluate the participant appropriateness we try to identify how well the language expresses the knowledge held by the stakeholders. This involves challenges since a stakeholder's knowledge is subjective. The knowledge of the stakeholder is both tacit and explicit. Both types of knowledge are of dynamic character. In this framework only the explicit type of knowledge is taken into account. The language should to a large extent express all the explicit knowledge of the stakeholders relevant to the domain.
Last paragraph stated that knowledge of the stakeholders should be presented in a good way. In addition it is imperative that the language should be able to express all possible explicit knowledge of the stakeholders. No knowledge should be left unexpressed due to lacks in the language.
Comprehensibility appropriateness makes sure that the social actors understand the model due to a consistent use of the language. To achieve this the framework includes a set of criteria. The general importance that these express is that the language should be flexible, easy to organize and easy to distinguish different parts of the language internally as well as from other languages. In addition to this, the goal should be as simple as possible and that each symbol in the language has a unique representation.
To ensure that the domain actually modelled is usable for analyzing and further processing, the language has to ensure that it is possible to reason in an automatic way. To achieve this it has to include formal syntax and semantics. Another advantage by formalizing is the ability to discover errors in an early stage. It is not always that the language best fitted for the technical actors is the same as for the social actors.
The language used is appropriate for the organizational context, e.g. that the language is standardized within the organization, or that it is supported by tools that are chosen as standard in the organization.
Software architecture refers to the fundamental structures of a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements and relations. The architecture of a software system is a metaphor, analogous to the architecture of a building. It functions as a blueprint for the system and the developing project, laying out the tasks not necessary to be executed by the design teams.
In computer science and information science, an ontology encompasses a representation, formal naming and definition of the categories, properties and relations between the concepts, data and entities that substantiate one, many or all domains of discourse.
The term data model is used in two distinct but closely related senses. Sometimes it refers to an abstract formalization of the objects and relationships found in a particular application domain, for example the customers, products, and orders found in a manufacturing organization. At other times it refers to a set of concepts used in defining such formalizations: for example concepts such as entities, attributes, relations, or tables. So the "data model" of a banking application may be defined using the entity-relationship "data model". This article uses the term in both senses.
Software design is the process by which an agent creates a specification of a software artifact, intended to accomplish goals, using a set of primitive components and subject to constraints. Software design may refer to either "all the activity involved in conceptualizing, framing, implementing, commissioning, and ultimately modifying complex systems" or "the activity following requirements specification and before programming, as ... [in] a stylized software engineering process."
Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Software development is a process of writing and maintaining the source code, but in a broader sense, it includes all that is involved between the conception of the desired software through to the final manifestation of the software, sometimes in a planned and structured process. Therefore, software development may include research, new development, prototyping, modification, reuse, re-engineering, maintenance, or any other activities that result in software products.
IDEF, initially abbreviation of ICAM Definition, renamed in 1999 as Integration DEFinition, refers to a family of modeling languages in the field of systems and software engineering. They cover a wide range of uses, from functional modeling to data, simulation, object-oriented analysis/design and knowledge acquisition. These "definition languages" were developed under funding from U.S. Air Force and although still most commonly used by them, as well as other military and United States Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, are in the public domain.
The term process model is used in various contexts. For example, in business process modeling the enterprise process model is often referred to as the business process model.
An information model in software engineering is a representation of concepts and the relationships, constraints, rules, and operations to specify data semantics for a chosen domain of discourse. Typically it specifies relations between kinds of things, but may also include relations with individual things. It can provide sharable, stable, and organized structure of information requirements or knowledge for the domain context.
The SEQUAL framework is systems modelling reference model for evaluating the quality of models. The SEQUAL framework, which stands for "semiotic quality framework" is developed by John Krogstie and others since the 1990s.
Model-driven engineering (MDE) is a software development methodology that focuses on creating and exploiting domain models, which are conceptual models of all the topics related to a specific problem. Hence, it highlights and aims at abstract representations of the knowledge and activities that govern a particular application domain, rather than the computing concepts.
Gellish is an ontology language for data storage and communication, designed and developed by Andries van Renssen since mid-1990s. It started out as an engineering modeling language but evolved into a universal and extendable conceptual data modeling language with general applications. Because it includes domain-specific terminology and definitions, it is also a semantic data modelling language and the Gellish modeling methodology is a member of the family of semantic modeling methodologies.
Enterprise modelling is the abstract representation, description and definition of the structure, processes, information and resources of an identifiable business, government body, or other large organization.
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010Systems and software engineering — Architecture description is an international standard for architecture descriptions of systems and software.
Semantic data model(SDM) is a high-level semantics-based database description and structuring formalism for databases. This database model is designed to capture more of the meaning of an application environment than is possible with contemporary database models. An SDM specification describes a database in terms of the kinds of entities that exist in the application environment, the classifications and groupings of those entities, and the structural interconnections among them. SDM provides a collection of high-level modeling primitives to capture the semantics of an application environment. By accommodating derived information in a database structural specification, SDM allows the same information to be viewed in several ways; this makes it possible to directly accommodate the variety of needs and processing requirements typically present in database applications. The design of the present SDM is based on our experience in using a preliminary version of it. SDM is designed to enhance the effectiveness and usability of database systems. An SDM database description can serve as a formal specification and documentation tool for a database; it can provide a basis for supporting a variety of powerful user interface facilities, it can serve as a conceptual database model in the database design process; and, it can be used as the database model for a new kind of database management system.
IDEF5 is a software engineering method to develop and maintain usable, accurate domain ontologies. This standard is part of the IDEF family of modeling languages in the field of software engineering.
Enterprise engineering is defined as the body of knowledge, principles, and practices to design all or part of an enterprise. An enterprise is a complex, socio-technical system that comprises interdependent resources of people, information, and technology that must interact with each other and their environment in support of a common mission. According to Kosanke, Vernadat and Zelm, enterprise engineering is an enterprise life-cycle oriented discipline for the identification, design, and implementation of enterprises and their continuous evolution, supported by enterprise modelling. Enterprise engineering is a subdiscipline of industrial engineering / systems engineering. The discipline examines each aspect of the enterprise, including business processes, information flows, material flows, and organizational structure. Enterprise engineering may focus on the design of the enterprise as a whole, or on the design and integration of certain business components.
IDEF3 or Integrated DEFinition for Process Description Capture Method is a business process modelling method complementary to IDEF0. The IDEF3 method is a scenario-driven process flow description capture method intended to capture the knowledge about how a particular system works.
John Krogstie is a Norwegian computer scientist, professor in information systems at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway, and an expert in the field of enterprise modelling.
Systems modeling or system modeling is the interdisciplinary study of the use of models to conceptualize and construct systems in business and IT development.
Method engineering in the "field of information systems is the discipline to construct new methods from existing methods". It focuses on "the design, construction and evaluation of methods, techniques and support tools for information systems development". | https://wikimili.com/en/Modeling_language |
Hello Guys! Eduwriters is your writing help community group. Here we specially provide any type of writing tips and advise.
Many students find it difficult to write a quality essay, especially if the topic does not interest them. Even when the student likes the subject of the essay, there may still be difficulties. For example, too busy social life, time constraints or lack of experience in writing an essay can make the process of creating the text difficult.
Even the abundance of information available on the subject can be an obstacle, since it will take more time and effort to process all the data related to the subject of the document. Take a look at some general tips that can make writing an essay easier and, hopefully, even enjoyable.
If you write a formal essay, this is the time to list the facts and examples. In the first paragraphs, you should present the data that supports the main problem. After that, the key statement must be investigated from the opposite side. At the end of the main part of the essay, you should compare the supporting arguments and the opposing arguments to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.
In case you use a narrative style, the rules of the essay structure are less strict. The language may not be as formal and the dialogues can be used for that purpose. History needs to make your essay come alive and visual for your readers. Drama and suspense can help make this essay stand out.
In a formal style essay, a brief and concise summary will be required to delineate the results of the research that was discussed in the essay body. You can emphasize how important the topic of the discussion is, and it is best to avoid expressing your personal point of view. It is also good if you can get the reader to continue reflecting on the subject and make him think about his own solutions.
If your essay is written in a narrative style, the conclusion should capture the emotions of the reader and make him connect with his feelings expressed in the body of his text. In addition, you should give the reader the feeling that the essay is complete. The ending may be unexpected and very surprising, but, most importantly, it should leave the reader satisfied. | http://eduwriters.booklikes.com/ |
Make certain that each sentence conforms to current rules of grammar and style. Use Chicago Book of Style or another appropriate stylebook for reference. Rules change over time, and your credibility as a writer depends on your remaining current.
A classic example is the ongoing battle of the commas, which is all about when and where to use them and when and where to not. Other such conflicts have been raging for some time, while new ones are constantly erupting. To illustrate: We have always been taught that a properly constructed sentence must have a subject and an object. Not anymore.
Writing right is not as clearly defined as it once seemed to be. The general trend seems to favor the loosening up of certain old constraints, while refusing to budge on others.
The kind of writing you do will dictate the type of authority you choose for reference. In general, while journalism generally adheres to one particular style, creative writing refers to another.
Determine the type of manuscript you are writing and the category of outlet you are targeting for submission. This will help you choose the best stylebook for your needs.
You can also access publishers’ guidelines by visiting them online. To be taken seriously, it is essential you comply with their requirements. | http://www.wordsalamode.com/blog/?p=126 |
An article is, in general, a written piece that provide the writer’s argument, but the specific definition is very vague, encompassing most of those of a newspaper, a book, an article, a short story, and even some fictional pieces. Essays are traditionally consistently appropriate, even though they can be informal in some specific scenarios. A current tendency is to”style” essays that actually almost always end up being rather informal.
Among the most popular essay writing formats is called a descriptive article. A descriptive article refers to a topic or issue and then explores the characteristics of that topic or issue. The essay won’t concentrate on any single aspect of the topic or individual, but will rather examine many different aspects in order to ascertain how they relate to this subject. A fantastic example of a descriptive essay might be that of a student writing about his/her studies of doctrine. The essay may explore different philosophical theories and arguments and discuss how those theories and arguments relate to the subject available.
Another kind of article writing is referred to as a college essay writing. A school essay is usually required for college admission, although a few high schools may also require a write essays pupil to write essays for college credit. While most high school students spend their first couple of decades of school writing essays, many will opt to continue their education by writing college level essays. Many college admissions officials prefer to view this continuity from how a student has spent their academic career, and the completion of college-level essays may further demonstrate an applicant is a good match for their school.
Many young essayists begin their careers by writing introductory essays. These principal essays typically outline the key points of this essay, but do not research any of those other issues that are covered in higher level courses such as theorems and recursion. These essays are written to help a reader become familiar with the fundamentals of the subject, as well as supply information that is relevant to the major article. One of the most common formats for an introductory essay is the Montaigne format, which is named after the essayist who first used it in 18th century French courses.
A story writing style is quite effective for young writers. Young writers who have not yet mastered the usage of formal grammar frequently prefer this style of essay writing because it allows them the opportunity to develop their writing skills without the constraints of grammatical correctness. The structure of a story essay follows the exact same basic rules of construction used in more formal academic writing, with the introduction providing a thorough background to the major topic, the body a in depth outline of the principal subject, along with the completion offering an opinion or prediction concerning the main topic. This arrangement is especially effective for young authors who wish to develop their capacity to describe a particular event, thought, or person, and also need to share their opinions on this topic.
An argumentative essay is similar to a thesis statement in that the essay’s focus would be that the debate presented in the body of this essay. However, unlike a thesis statement, there’s absolutely no requirement to encourage or acknowledge the existence of some facts or evidence about the argument. Rather, the attention of the argumentative essay is to convince the reader that the decision he/she has formed is the correct conclusion. There’s no need to show the purpose of the debate or perhaps provide any real proof to do so. This type of article requires the writer to just present his/her arguments and convince the reader of the validity of his/her position. | http://irsandwichpanel.com/essay-writing-types-of-essay-writing/ |
Complementarity constraints require that at most one of two variables is nonzero. In discrete optimization, complementarity constraints have an important significance for the modeling of logical relations. With their help one can express that from a set of possible events not more than one is allowed to occur. The applications of such relations are abundant, e.g., in machine learning, communication systems, capital budgeting or scheduling. The aim of this project, is to develop a branch-and-cut algorithm for complementarity constrained optimization problems, including presolving techniques, branching rules, primal heuristics and cutting planes. The implemented software has to deal with problem instances involving large data in a robust manner. Furthermore, it should recognize and exploit special structures of a given problem instance automatically. As a tool, we use the software SCIP which provides a framework for solving discrete and combinatorial optimization problems. The purpose is to include further components to SCIP and to make them freely available for academic use.
We extend the adaptive multilevel SQP-method for control-constrained optimal control problems of Ziems and Ulbrich to state-constrained optimal control problems. To this end, we combine the Moreau Yosida regularization with the adaptive SQP method. The refinement conditions and the penalty parameter update are modified specifically. Based on the convergence theory for the Moreau Yosida regularization and the adaptive SQP method we deliver new convergence results for the output of the multilevel SQP method for state constraints. In order to reduce the computational effort we include a reduced-order model based on POD. We apply this theory to flow control problems.
The aim of this research project is to explore the possibility of developing POD-based reduced-order models for active control of fluid flows governed by the Navier-Stokes equations. In particular, we consider the cancellation of Tollmien-Schlichting waves in the boundary layer of a flat plate by plasma actuators. By optimal control of the plasma actuator parameters it is possible to reduce or even cancel the Tollmien-Schlichting waves. The optimization is performed within the reduced system with a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach.
Adaptronics is an interdisciplinary science dealing with mechanical structures which adjust autonomously to changing conditions. In order to realize such adaptive structures, actuator and sensor systems as well as real-time-capable controllers are developed. Adaptive structures have many possible fields of application among them active vibration control.
In this project we explore the utilization of mixed-integer optimization in wireless telecommunication networks. Typical for problems occurring in this context is the simultaneous consideration of continuous optimization variables, e.g., like beamforming vectors and combinatorial aspects, e.g., like the assignment of base stations to mobile users. Mathematical models are derived that account both for the requirements of the application and the solvability. Usually one has to deal with NP-hard problems in this context that cannot be solved by standard software. We investigate convex approximations as well as heuristics to derive reasonable good solutions. We use these approximations as well as techniques like cutting plane generation aiming to solve the mixed integer nonlinear model of the original problem. The global optimal solution can then also be used to evaluate heuristic and approximation approaches.
ForNe is an industry coorperation project concerned with long-term planning of gas networks.
This research project deals with the problem to recover a sparse solution of an underdetermined linear (equality) system. This topic has many applications and is a very active research area. It is located at the border between analysis and combinatorial optimization. The main goal of our project is to obtain a better understanding of the conditions under which (efficiently) finding such a sparse solution, i.e., recovery, is possible. Our project is characterized by both theoretical and computational aspects as well as the interplay of continuous and discrete methods.
This project is part of the BMWi project “Investigation of the technical capacities of gas networks”, in which six research partners and one gas transportation company are involved. The technical capacities determine the upper bounds on the amount of gas that can be charged into or discharged from a gas network, which limit the revenue of a gas transportation company. Therefore, a central aspect is to compute the technical capacities.
In our sub-project, we want to determine so-called certificates for the infeasibility of certain gas nominations. For the analysis of technical capacities one has to decide which requests can be handled by the network. If a certain nomination cannot be transported, one wants to know the reason why this nomination is infeasible. Thus a justification is required, i.e., a certificate that is easy to understand. This should be possible without the need for involved simulations or computations. We will concentrate on the development of methods to find such certificates and apply them to the analysis of technical capacities.
The goal of this project is the development, analysis, and implementation of robust and efficient optimization algorithms for the optimal design and control of a racing yacht competing in the America's Cup. The project focuses on the optimization of the hull-keel-winglet configuration toward drag minimization. This involves optimization problems including very complex and highly coupled systems of PDE constraints.
Multilevel optimization methods based on inexact trust-region SQP techniques using a hierarchy of adaptive discretizations or models.
Semismooth Newton and interior point methods to handle inequality constraints for design and state variables.
Adaptivity in time and space based on the goal oriented approach and including the issue of inequality constraints.
Parallel processing for the optimization schemes via space and time domain decomposition.
The aim of this project is the analytical study of optimal control problems for networks of nonlinear hyperbolic conservation laws under modal switching. Networks of this type arise for example in traffic flow models where the switching is considered in the coupling conditions at the nodes. Since entropy solutions of conservation laws may develop shocks, the analysis quite is difficult. Switching, for example introduced by traffic lights, may lead to additional discontinuities in the solution.
The aim of this project is to develop, analyze and apply highly efficient optimization methods for optimal control problems with control- and state-constraints governed by time-dependent PDAEs. We combine in a modular way modern space-time adaptive multilevel finite elements methods with linearly implicit time integrators of higher order for time-dependent PDAEs and modern multilevel optimization techniques. The aim is to reduce the computational costs for the optimization process to the costs of only a few state solves. This can only be achieved by controlling the accuracy of the PDAE state solver and adjoint solver adaptively in such a way that most of the optimization iterations are performed on comparably cheap discretizations of the PDAE. We will focus on two exemplary applications.
In modern gas turbine combustion chambers, there are still many different aspects that are not fully understood.
The CRC 568 was founded to make fundamental progress in this field of research. The main focus lies on the simulation of the flow and combustion that are important for the understanding of the different phenomena.
Even though the simulation itself is a challenging task, in this project we aim for the optimization of the combustion chamber with respect to various variables including the geometry. To match this purpose, we try to apply and develop mathematical techniques that make optimization applicable.
The Collaborative Research Centre 666 develops methods, processes and facilities with the aid of which branched structures in integral sheet metal construction can be optimized with regard to their function and stress. The research activities are aimed at new methods of developing multifunctional products and completely new manufacturing possibilities. In the area of product development, new methods of algorithmic product development involving mathematical optimization and graph theory are being developed.
The aim of subproject A02 is to combine experience-based product development and mathematical optimization techniques with regard to automated product development of branched sheet metal structures in order to increase the degree of automation within product development and to offer the designer a decision-making aid. For this purpose, the descriptions of the constructive components are to be formulated as optimization problems and efficient solution methods for automated product development are to be designed.
In this subproject, numerical methods for the optimization of the deep drawing processes of sheet stringers are developed. Based on a finite element simulation of the deep drawing process, selected process parameters, such as blank holder forces and fluid pressure in hydroforming, locking forces in the flange area, shall be optimized subject to constraints of strains and buckling stresses with respect to a given objective function, e.g., maximal material flow or position of sheet stringer.
The aim of this subproject is to control uncertainty in process chains using mathematical models and to develop optimization procedures in order to maximize the value of process chains. Uncertainty in the production of components emerges from random variations in the raw material, from unpredictable process behavior or because the customer's use can only be vaguely predicted. The optimization procedures are based on quantified (mixed-integer) linear programs. | https://www.mathematik.tu-darmstadt.de/optimierung/arbeitsgruppe_optimierung/projects/former_projects.en.jsp |
D1 Development of Circular Economy indicators at national scale and for key economic sectors and value chains:
This action aims at providing the necessary indicators for monitoring the implementation of the National Circular Economy Strategy, and particularly aims at the development of an Observatory for Circular Economy to continuously monitor policy processes and their outcome in terms of transforming the dominant linear production and consumption paradigm to a circular economy.
D2 Monitoring of Circular Economy Indicators at national level and for key economic sectors and value chains:
This action is a follow-up of Action D1 and will focus on the application of the methodologies and indicators established in the project, to effectively monitor how circular economy tools and principles propagate in the Greek economy and provide the relevant feedback to policy makers, through benchmarking with other EU countries.
D3 Monitoring the impact of the pilot and demonstration project actions:
This action aims to monitor and assess the performance of the pilot and demonstration actions and how the strategies for their replication and transfer are being applied.
D4 Socio-economic impact assessment:
This action focuses on monitoring the socio-economic impact of the project’s actions in the local economy and population. For this purpose, an appropriate system of indicators will be implemented, which will be designed along with its methodology during this action.
D5 Environmental impact assessment, including assessment of enhancement of ecosystem services:
The action is dedicated to the monitoring of the environmental impact of the pilot actions using quantitative and qualitative indicators that address multiple categories, such as air pollution reduction, GHG emissions reduction, Renewable energy use, Impacts on the marine environment and Impacts on surface/groundwater quality. | https://circulargreece.gr/d-monitoring-of-the-impact-of-the-project-actions/ |
The Atacora mountain chain is a highly diversified ecosystem in Benin. It harbours many rare and threatened plant species including the few species endemics to the country: Thunbergia atacorensis, Cissus kouandeensis, Kyllinga beninensis and Ipomoea beninensis. During decades, anthropogenic activities, adverse effects of climate change, and the rapid growth of population in the region (>3%/ year) has led to the destruction of plant communities and dramatically threated the integrity of this exceptional ecosystem. Although many conservation projects have recently been conducted in the region, no action has been taken for Thunbergia atacorensis yet, while it is undergoing extinct.
This project seeks to combine ethnobotanical knowledge and molecular methods to develop optimal strategies for sustainable management and conservation of T. atacorensis in Benin. The project consists in four main actions.
First, an ethnobotanical survey will be conducted in the villages located on the mountain and its surrounding. This will help assess and document the use values, perception of abundance, threat factors, and the strategies locally developed by the communities for the conservation of the species.
Second, a study will be conducted to assess the molecular genetic variation in the species. This is necessary to understand the intra population genetic diversity within the species’ population and the differentiation between the populations as well. The genetic study will also inform on the populations from which germplasm will be collected for ex situ conservation actions and the populations to be conserved in situ.
Third, a joint germplasm collection mission will be organised with the conservationists from the Botanic garden of the University of Abomey-Calavi. This will help to monitor and assess for a long period, eco-physiological and ecological parameters related to the species. Finally, the species will be conserved in the Botanic garden of the University and seed stored in seed banks. | https://www.rufford.org/projects/konoutan_m%C3%A9dard_kafoutchoni |
Goal:
It aims to reinforce the easternmost population of the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) in Europe by delivering urgent conservation measures towards eliminating major known threats in the breeding grounds and along the flyway. The project objectives are in line with the aims of most recent strategic document outlining the conservation tactic to save the species: the Flyway Action Plan for the Conservation of the Balkan and Central Asian Populations of the Egyptian Vulture Neophron percnopterus (EVFAP), as an integrated key component of the Vulture MsAP. Hence the specific objectives set are to three overarching goals:
1. Reduce adult mortality through:
• Minimizing loss of adults due to deliberate or accidental poisoning and electrocution and collisions with energy infrastructures in the breeding grounds;
• Еliminating safe food availability as a limiting factor in the breeding grounds;
• Mitigating threats – reducing losses due to poisoning, direct persecution, electrocution at bottleneck and congregation sites along the flyway;
2. Reinforce the breeding population on the Balkans by deploying a targeted pilot restocking programme to boost population recovery
3. Increase awareness of and support for Egyptian vulture conservation through relevant stakeholders’ engagement
Period of implementation:
5.5 years (1.7.2017-31.12.2022)
Range states:
• Balkans: Bulgaria, Greece, FYR of Macedonia and Albania
• Middle East: Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt
• Africa: Ethiopia, Niger, Nigeria and Chad
Partners:
Coordinating beneficiary: Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds / BirdLife Bulgaria (BSPB)
Associated beneficiaries:
- Hellenic Ornithological Society / Birdlife Greece (HOS)
- WWF Greece
- Royal Society for the Protection of Birds / BirdLife UK (RSPB)
- Doğa Derneği / BirdLife Turkey (DD)
- BirdLife Middle East
- BirdLife Africa
- A.P. Leventis Ornithological and Research Institute (APLORI)
- CMS Raptors MoU
- Green Balkans
Actions
The first overarching goal dealing with adult mortality reduction involves a suite of actions that could be summarized as follows:
- Investigate the impact of agriculture chemicals and Identify as poisoning agents and evaluate the use of veterinary drugs to inform response strategy;
- Lobbying to secure appropriate changes of legislation regarding the use of dangerous pesticides and vet medicine products;
- Develop local action plans against wildlife poisoning;
- Test of alternative methods to reduce human-wildlife conflict that trigger Egyptian vulture persecution;
- Establish a pan-Balkan network of stakeholders against wildlife poisoning;
- Evaluate the magnitude of damages to Egyptian vulture due to poisoning, electrocution and illegal killing along the flyway;
- Establish controlled local carcass dumps to support non-territorial birds at key sites;
- Test alternatives to use of strychnine or other poisons to control rabies at key congregation sites in the wintering grounds in Africa;
- Reduce loss of individuals due to power generation and power supply (wind turbine collision and electrocution) along the flyway;
- Develop local capacity to combat illegal killing and trafficking of birds along the flyway.
The second major goal shall establish the basis for the recovery of the Balkan breeding population, through tailored restocking strategy. It will be deploited through the following key actions:
- Establish Balkan Egyptian vulture captive breeding pool to reinforce the breeding population in Bulgaria and Greece;
- Develop and pilot a restocking strategy for the Balkans
The third and probably most appealing suite of actions are intended to increase awareness of and support for Egyptian vulture conservation through relevant stakeholders’ engagement. They will be informed by an ethnographic study and guided by a communication strategy and public awareness campaigns. The knowledge and attitudes of key stakeholders in representative areas to Egyptian vultures will be initially registered and carefully monitored. Two major international campaigns are planned:
- A Mile for the Egyptian vulture: campaign to communicate main threats to the species to local communities and general public in key countries along the flyway; and
- Fly with the Vulture: campaign to engage with prospective supporters.
Additional communication effort will be invested to:
- Develop community understanding and involvement by creating local caretaker groups;
- Ensure effective national and international media coverage of the project;
- Networking and cooperation with experts along the flyway to disseminate the conservation needs of the species;
- Traditional communication tools will be engaged, including interactive website, attractive (to local tastes) information boards and specific communication printed materials.
Serious effort will be involved to secure adequate project management, monitoring and reporting. The activities envisaged include:
- Establish a Project Steering Group and a Project Team and making them operational;
- Secure the technical & financial reporting;
- Monitor the impact of the project activities on the target species and the conservation status of the SPAs and other project sites;
- Assess the socio-economic impact of the project actions on the local economy and population;
- Assess the project's impact on the ecosystem functions.
Expected impact
- Wildlife species: 15% increase of the EV target population; benefit also other raptor populations outside of the EU (Turkey, Central Asia and Africa).
- Employment: positions created (20% increase at level of beneficiaries) and capacity built in stakeholders.
- Communication: Awareness raised of 140,000,000 people over three continents.
Budget: overall 5,848,458 € (maximum EU contribution 4,386,343 €)
Project website: www.LifeNeophron.eu
Information about the LIFE project "The Return of the Neophron" find here. | https://old.lifeneophron.eu/en/about-the-project.html |
Habitat modifications of anthropogenic origin and some intrinsic threats are the main causes of the extinction risk that the 29 plant species are facing.
The specific threats are innumerable and can vary from species to species and from site to site for the same species. Therefore, it is essential to understand the specific threat, or combination of threats, for each of the 29 species and for each of the 139 translocation sites.
A detailed and specific assessment has already been carried out and SEEDFORCE has planned specific actions for site and species to remove or mitigate the threats.
Find below the main threats that apply across translocation sites, with a brief explanation of how they can be removed or mitigated.
Change in land use – including change of traditional land management practices such as grazing, regular haymaking and periodical clearing of trees and shrubs
In the last 50 years there has been a progressive abandonment of traditional agricultural/ land-use practices – such as coppicing, haymaking in wild habitats and limiting the number of grazing cattle – because they are no longer economically profitable for farmers and breeders.
The change in land-use mainly affects species occurring in secondary grassland habitats on both wet and dry soil and occasionally species growing in rocky outcrops shaded by trees and shrubs. Grazing could negatively impact all habitats, but is naturally more common in secondary habitats and grasslands in particular. Except for grazing, this threat cannot usually be removed, but can be mitigated with:
• regular haymaking, cutting and removing the grass, preferably late in the season after seed dispersal;
• clearing and removing shrubs and trees in varying degree depending on the specific requirements.
Grazing can be mitigated with fences or completely removed from the affected area with specific agreements with regulatory bodies and land managers.
This threat affects 25 sites in different ways.
Habitat destruction by means of building, infrastructure development, land reclamation for farming or tourism, drainage
All SEEDFORCE translocation sites are of Community Importance (SCI) or Special Conservation Areas (SACs) of the Natura 2000 network. However, some actions can be subtle and could lead to the habitat destruction without being evident, such as footfall caused by high impact recreational or tourism activities, drainage or disturbance of the hydrology of an entire area that could affect wetland sites.
As natural vegetation dynamics naturally lead to long-term drought conditions, subtle drainage actions might go unnoticed. For wetland sites, particular recommendations will be issued to managing authorities, requesting special site surveillance to ensure no draining or hydrology disturbances occurs in or close to the site.
Increased nutrient input
Modern agriculture uses large quantities of mineral nutrients – which are usually concentrated at lower altitudes due to the draining action of the soil – and disperses them into the environment. On the other hand, many target species thrive precisely in nutrient-poor soil.
This threat affects species whose growing site is close to farmed land and at low altitude in accumulation sites, and can be mitigated by planting shrubs and trees in an external buffer zone, acting as a barrier to nutrient spread.
This threat affects 7 sites and 4 species: E. carniolica, L. loeselii, G. palustris and M. quadrifolia.
Habitat fragmentation, isolation and small population size
This threat is an intrinsic one – related to small, fragmented and often declining populations – and affects all translocation sites.
This inner threat can be addressed increasing population size by plants translocation to establish a larger and more viable population. Depending on the population dynamics and on the outcome of the genetic diversity assessment, there might be different strategies to mix the propagation material.
However, in all cases, a given percentage of the mix will include different genotypes, other than the one present in the local population: this will mimic natural gene flow which, in small and fragmented populations, is usually blocked by isolation.
This threat affects all sites.
Invasive alien species
Invasive alien species (IAS) can completely destroy a pre-existing ecosystem replacing the original components. This is one of the most dangerous threats and one of the most difficult to control: eradication is not always possible and, in many cases, only mitigation with the regular IAS removal can be put into practice.
This threat affects 6 species: C. sabatia, L. nicaense, S. hicesiae, K. pentacarpos, L. strictissimum and L. flava in 8 SACs.
Uncontrolled plants collection
In the past, a severe threat to rare and endemic species was the uncontrolled collection by botanists for herbarium specimens and for nursery cultivation. This risk is much less significant today, thanks to the widespread conservation concern in botanists, education, and the many plant protection regulations issued in Italy on a regional basis.
Picking flowers and removing plants of the target species is not permitted in all translocation sites and is enforced by forestry surveillance.
This threat affects 21 sites and 9 species: A. liliifolia, C. pusilla, E. alpinum, G. ligustica, G. palustris, H. adriaticum, P. palinuri, S. tombeanensis, W. radicans.
Climate change
This threat is probably the less significant at the moment, but is likely to play an increasingly important role in the future years and affects all sites. With the action A2 SEEDFORCE will assess the climatic requirements of each species and define their bioclimatic envelope, taking into account the extent of the climatic variation tolerated by the species.
Once this data is adjusted and integrated with the information delivered by the genetic analysis (A3) and the bio-dependence analysis (A4), it will give a valuable indication of the suitable climatic conditions and habitats wherw the species could still thrive now and in future years.
Conservation action, therefore, could adopt predictive sourcing to anticipate climate change, including propagation material from lower altitude populations, collecting (C1) and preparing the best propagation mix (C2) to maximize the chances of success to the plant translocations carried out in action C5.
This threat affects all sites. | https://lifeseedforce.eu/en/threats/ |
Coaching Evaluation is a systematic way to determine the outcome and merit of effective coaching.
Coaching is a dynamic and individual process. Our clients’ plans and goals are never static because development and change are never linear. Goals will and should change and evolve during a coaching relationship.
To manage the upcoming deviations it’s important to monitor and evaluate the ongoing process continuously. This helps to easily determine whether adaptive action and additional guidance are required.
This article will introduce you to the key steps and approaches of monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness and success of your coaching. It shows you ways to let your clients document their experiences, progress and thoughts. You as a coach can use this information to measure the effectiveness of the coaching. Before we can evaluate we have to monitor the process.
Step 1: Coaching and Monitoring – How to measure coaching effectiveness
What is monitoring in Coaching?
Monitoring is a process for systematically and continuously collecting information during the coaching process. It includes the ongoing documentation (done by the client) and the tracking of experiences when implementing the action steps the client agreed to take.
Monitoring in coaching includes collecting information to assess the coaching’s performance and the progress toward intended changes and goals. Measuring coaching effectiveness through the help of monitoring makes it very easy to find out to find out whether circumstances during the process have changed or evolved.
Monitoring enables a continuous assessment of all the single steps the client has taken. When done on a regular basis it will help you answer questions evaluating the effectiveness of the coaching.
Adjusting the next steps to the client’s needs becomes. Monitoring a client’s progress can significantly improve the long-term success rate of your clients and the quality of your coaching.
It is important that this information is collected in a planned, organized and routine way (daily/weekly) and in a shared space where both the coach and the client have access at any time. Monitoring or process tracking in coaching can answer questions such as:
- How well is the client doing? (performance, action, implementation)
- Are we doing the right things/steps? (any deviation, roadblock, something that doesn’t work as expected)
- What impact has the coaching? (client will see her progress and get a clear picture of the process)
Monitoring in coaching reviews and shows
- whether the client’s resources are utilized and mobilized
- whether actions and plans are being undertaken and
- whether the intended changes, outcomes and goals are being achieved
Effective coaching: How to implement monitoring in your coaching
As mentioned before it is important that your clients share thoughts, experiences and progress with you in an organized way and on a regular basis. It is enough if you share tools like a weekly coaching evaluation form or coaching effectiveness questionnaire.
Your clients should answer and share them with you before the next session. This might be new to some of your clients, but after a few times it becomes a routine which trains and improves their awareness and focus on their real-life experiences. Consciousness is the key to a successful process.
A performance monitoring and coaching form sample could be:
- A weekly review
- A pre-session questionnaire
- Journal entries with questions that get clients to reflect
- A shared to-do list
CleverMemo comes with some sample evaluation forms and questionnaires like the ones just mentioned. You can assign them with just one click (including due date and automatic reminders). Your clients share their answers in their coaching stream where the entire communication is automatically streamlined and organized. It is real-time progress tracking and monitoring on autopilot.
If all these information is easily accessible for you as a coach, evaluating the effectiveness of coaching becomes a matter of minutes.
Step 2: Coaching evaluation made easy – Measuring the success of coaching
When thinking of ways to evaluate the effectiveness of the coaching it’s good to start with it at the beginning of a coaching relationship and not when it’s almost over.
While monitoring is routine and ongoing, evaluation is a systematic and objective assessment of the implementation and outcome of an on-going or completed intervention. Monitoring allows you to continuously evaluate the steps of your coaching, react to your client’s situation and needs and to easily adjust the next steps.
What is Coaching evaluation?
Evaluation is used to measure the expected changes and impact of the coaching over time. Evaluation is important to determine if your coaching is on track to meet the clients desired outcome, to understand “what works” and to identify if the coaching is meeting the expected changes and impacts.
A good coach depends on being able to help the client achieve set goals and outcomes during the coaching process. But every client is individual and it’s in the nature of coaching that different clients get different things out of our service. This has a really big impact on evaluation, in that no set absolute criteria for results can be established across all our coachees. This fact makes the combination of monitoring and evaluation such a powerful tool for offering high-quality coaching.
When evaluating the effectiveness of coaching the following key points should be considered:
- Efficiency: How are the sessions and inputs converted into actions and results?
- Effectiveness: How far are the single steps taken contributing to achieving the desired outcomes?
- Relevance: How are the experiences and results in line with the needs, priorities and aspirations of the client?
- Impact: How significant is/was the change towards the accomplishment of the overall goal?
- Benefit: How does the coaching’s impact compare with the wishes and needs of the client?
- Sustainability: To what extent can the positive changes be expected to last after the coaching has been finished? Does a follow-up coaching make sense?
You can use these questions as a sample coaching evaluation form.
Bonus-Tip:
A quick session review is a mid-way between monitoring the process and coaching self-evaluation. Every session offers the chance to improve your coaching skills and to become a better coach. This review only takes 5 minutes and could include questions like:
- How did the session go? (Tip: Give yourself a rating from 1-10 – 10 being the best)
- Which methods, tools or questions have worked exceptionally well?
- What would you do differently if you could repeat the session?
(You can find the complete session review tool already integrated into CleverMemo)
Conclusion: Effective Coaching – Monitoring and Coaching Evaluation for a thriving business
Monitoring a client’s progress can significantly improve the long-term success rate of your clients as well as the quality and effectiveness of your coaching. You can share questionnaires and tools to let your clients track and trace their experiences and thoughts on a regular basis. Doing this it becomes very easy and effective to evaluate the single steps during a coaching process.
It also helps your clients to realize the progress they make with every session and to stay focused on their goals. They train their self-awareness and share their experiences in real-time with you. The understanding of their process, habits, challenges is the key to a long-term and sustainable change and development. And successful clients are your key to word of mouth, referrals and a thriving coaching business. | https://clevermemo.com/blog/en/effective-coaching-evaluation/ |
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) is an essential component of all integrated disease control programme. The primary objective of this department is to monitor progress towards the attainment of the programme goals and objectives and evaluate the outcomes and impact of the Indoor Residual Spraying interventions through the systematic collation of information on the input, process, output, outcome and impact indicators and by tracking progress towards set targets.
The AGAMal M&E system covers four areas including:
- Supervision of IRS field operations
- Entomological and insecticide resistance surveillance among Anopheles vector population
- Epidemiological surveillance of both sick and non-sick human population
- Medical surveillance of spray operators to assess insecticide safety to humans.
- IRS Data Management and Storage
There are two sections under the M&E Department
- Data Management
This department is primarily responsible for collecting, validating, processing and storing all IRS and related data in manner that is reliable, accessible and on time so as to satisfy the needs of the data users and also to track and monitor the progress of IRS.
- Entomology
The responsibility of the AGAMal M&E Unit is to provide data on vector transmission dynamics, insecticide resistance profiles, insecticide batch potencies, effectiveness of spray applications, efficacy of insecticides used for the IRS operations on sprayed surfaces and the elucidation of mechanisms of insecticide resistance and its impact on the vector control. The staff consists of an Entomologist, Entomological Technologists and Insectary Technicians who coordinate all activities in a well-equipped insectary and molecular laboratory. | https://agamal.org/monitoring-and-evaluation/ |
In the forest, mushrooms feel at home, because for their development there are many necessary factors that, to put it mildly, are difficult to recreate on your site. Therefore, do not take the cultivation of mushrooms in the garden too seriously. Perhaps you will not receive the coveted harvest. But, as they say, the attempt is not torture. At the same time, owners of plots partially located in the forest or adjacent to it are more likely to succeed.
Most often in the garden plot it is possible to grow champignons, raincoats and variegated umbrellas. Less often – butterflies, boletus, boletus, boletus and chanterelles: they are more demanding on habitat conditions.
Some summer residents go the simple way: they dig a layer of earth around the found mushroom and transfer it to their site. We deliberately do not describe this method in detail, because we respect nature. Digging something in the forest means interfering with its ecosystem, and the consequences of such actions can be unpredictable and harmful to plants, insects and animals.
Instead, you can use two simple and eco-friendly ways to grow mushrooms in your garden. But first things first.
When to plant mushrooms
Optimally – from May to September. At this time, the soil is already warm enough and there will be no threat of frost, which can ruin all efforts. If you “sow” mushrooms using a solution from old specimens, you can do this many times throughout the season. Indeed, in the forest, different species appear at different times from summer to autumn.
How to choose a place to grow mushrooms
Mycelium lives in symbiosis with tree roots. Scientifically, this phenomenon is called mycorrhiza. Therefore, it is important to organize the right neighborhood on your site. At least one or two types of forest trees should grow in the garden – for example, pine, birch, oak, aspen or hornbeam. But trying to grow mushrooms under fruit trees will be a waste of time, because they will not be able to enter into the necessary symbiosis.
Choose shady places for mushrooms, where there is no direct sunlight. A suitable “bed” will be plots within a radius of at least 0.5 m from tree trunks. Their roots grow far in breadth, so the mushrooms will grow along the entire diameter of the root system.
How to grow mushrooms with mortar
Go to the forest and look for old, overripe mushrooms – the necessary spores have already begun to ripen in them. For a seedling solution, you will need at least 5 pieces. But the more oldies you find, the better.
Mushroom caps – it is in them that spores are located – chop in a meat grinder or blender. Put the resulting slurry in a 10-liter bucket and fill to the top with water. Let the mixture sit overnight. With the resulting solution, generously pour the ground under the trees. From above, the plot can be covered with rotted foliage.
How to grow mushrooms from mycelium
It is not at all necessary to go to the forest for planting material. In stores – usually in the departments with seeds – there are bags with the mycelium of various mushrooms.
Arm yourself with a shovel and remove the top layer of soil 10–15 cm in a radius of 0.5–1 m around the tree. Pour 2-3 cm of compost into this plot. Spread the mycelium on top of it and cover it with the previously removed soil.
After that, dilute 50 g of sugar in a 10-liter bucket and pour over the “bed”. Under one tree, you need to pour 20–30 liters of such a sweet solution. It is better to use a watering can with a diffuser nozzle so as not to blur the soil.
How to care for a mushroom plot
“Bed” does not require much attention. The main thing is to monitor the soil moisture and prevent it from drying out. Therefore, water the plot regularly and abundantly, even when the mushrooms begin to grow. In hot weather, it is better to do this twice, or even three times a day.
In autumn, when the air temperature begins to drop below 10 degrees Celsius, cover the mushroom meadow with spruce branches, fallen leaves or sawdust with a layer of 10 cm. | https://forbes.pw/2022/08/12/how-to-grow-mushrooms-in-the-garden/ |
The fish program at IISD-ELA is responsible for monitoring the general health and well-being of fish species, including natural variability and responses to experimental manipulation. Fish do not always respond immediately to external influences, so there is a strong need for long-term monitoring to see how effects of whole ecosystem experiments cascade through the food web and ultimately affect fish feeding at specific trophic levels. We monitor all fish species present in lakes at IISD-ELA, including sport fish such as lake trout, northern pike, yellow perch, and lake whitefish, benthic feeding fish such as white sucker, and forage and minnow species, including fathead minnows and a variety of dace.
During the spring and fall seasons we use mark-recapture techniques to estimate population abundance and structure in many of the IISD-ELA lakes. These estimates are used as background information for experiments and as baseline information for future studies. These data illustrate natural variability in fish populations, and provide the backbone for fish research at IISD-ELA.
We also study the effects of a wide-range of environmental perturbations on fish, including effects on growth, survival, condition, and behaviour. Contaminants, physical changes to the ecosystem, introduction of competing species, and other impacts are all studied at IISD-ELA. However, our lakes and their resident fish populations are small, so it is essential that we treat the animals with care. We use non-lethal methods to assess things like contaminant concentrations, stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen, stress markers, and diet preferences, among others and we set a strong focus on using and developing new non-lethal sampling procedures.
Some of our work, like populations monitoring, involves directly handling fish. However, for more than a decade, researchers at IISD-ELA have also been able to employ a more hands-off approach by tracking fish remotely using acoustic telemetry systems. Acoustic transmitters are implanted in the gut cavity of fish with a brief surgical procedure (see a video here). These transmitters allow us to continuously monitor individual fish locations in a number of IISD-ELA lakes, providing answers to important questions like habitat requirements, space use, activity levels, and winter behaviour.
Types of data collected in this program:
- Biological, morphometric and general health measurements (such as length, weight and condition)
- Population abundance estimates (based on mark-recapture) and catch per unit effort
- Age data and aging structures
- Acoustic telemetry (spatial, depth, activity, temperature)
- Food web carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes
- Diet/gut contents
- Mercury concentrations
- Other contaminants (related to specific experiments)
- Hydroacoustic surveys
See our data request page for more information. | https://www.iisd.org/ela/our-data/metadata/fish-program/ |
As the coronavirus outbreak spreads rapidly and exceeds the SARS outbreak in 2003, supply chain leaders must mitigate instant disruption and plan for future incidents.On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) learned of several cases of severe pneumonia in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The pneumonia, now known to be a strain of coronavirus, has since spread through China and into other countries. As global leaders and health officials track the strain and make decisions regarding containment, supply chain leaders need to assess and plan for how the virus will impact global supply chains.
The full impact of coronavirus on supply chains might not become obvious until sometime in the next few months and beyond.
“The consequences of a pandemic event are hard to predict,” says Koray Köse, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner. “However, the risks always exist and are augmented with further globalization and integration of supply chains. It is not a matter of if it will happen but to change the focus to be prepared when it happens. That is a shift of mindset in risk management and business continuity.”
The challenge of globalization
Although the outbreak is being compared to the 2003 SARS outbreak, China is now much more developed and integrated with the global economy, and the country has significantly improved its transportation networks. This means the supply chain implications go beyond regional concerns. Travel restrictions, shortages in labor and materials, as well as logistical challenges through tightened controls, and hub and border closures will cascade and augment the impact much further today than it did 17 years ago. Indeed, the coronavirus outbreak has already eclipsed SARS.
How coronavirus could impact supply chain
Though it is difficult to predict the exact consequences of coronavirus, organizations might begin to see impacts across the supply chain, including:
- Materials: Supply shortages of materials or finished goods coming from or routed through logistical hubs in impacted areas.
- Labor: White- and blue-collar labor may not be available due to quarantine guidelines or illness.
- Sourcing: Travel may be restricted to certain areas, limiting the ability to discover, qualify and certify new business or programs and to transact business.
- Logistics: Established hubs and supply networks may experience limitations in capacity and availability so that even if materials are available, they would be stuck elsewhere. Finding alternative routes and means of transportation will become difficult.
- Consumers: Consumers may be more cautious in their purchasing habits due to fears about being in public and potential exposure to the virus. Many may turn to online sales, challenging logistics networks.
Preparing supply chains for disruption
Disruptions happen. Leading supply chain organizations utilize enhanced risk management processes. They include a framework to continuously measure key risk indicators and to prepare scenarios for controllable and foreseeable uncertainties such as compliance, labor, material, capacity and financial issues.
Epidemics and pandemics present a different scenario. The main impact is a lack of access to staff, decreased productivity and a change in public behavior in terms of shopping practices and spending. “The full impact of coronavirus on supply chains might not become obvious until sometime in the next few months and beyond,” Köse says. “However, supply chain leaders should take initial steps now to monitor and prepare for the impact on their value chain.”
Short-term actions: Do it now
Develop a high risk for supply chain disruption monitoring and response programs for countries impacted by the virus and potential supply chain exposure from tier 1 and below. If lower tier transparency is missing, start building up the program and prioritize discovery to get a full picture rapidly. It’s also important to assess how customer spending might be affected.
Learn more: Sourcing Strategy for Procurement Leaders
The next step is to make sure all inventory is within reach and outside impacted areas and logistical hubs. Additionally, supply chain leaders should work with their legal and HR departments to understand any financial implications of not being able to deliver supply to customers and provide guidance to employees located in the impacted areas.
Midterm actions: Do it this quarter
In the midterm, the focus should be on balancing supply and demand as well as building buffer stock. Assess opportunities to diversify the supplier ecosystem and review or create the organization’s overall risk management approach. Work with internal stakeholders and strategic and critical suppliers to establish a congruent risk management approach to monitor and prepare for potential material and manufacturing capacity shortages.
Read more: Outside-In: A New Mindset for Supply Chain Planning
Long-term actions: Do it this year
Once the initial impacts of the crisis are mitigated, it’s all about foreseeing the next “when.” Supply chain leaders and their teams can, for example, conduct a scenario planning exercise and develop action plans. This is the time to discover or develop alternative sources and diversify value chains.
Tackle strategic and concentrated supplies with high value at risk where internal risk capacities to absorb, such as alternative sources, routes, inventory and cash reserves, aren’t sufficient enough to mitigate any major disruption. Being better prepared than the competition might even open new opportunities when the next disruption comes around.
This article is based on insights that are part of an in-depth collection of reseach and articles from Gartner - Supply Chain Leaders. | https://nevi.nl/en/nieuws/coronavirus-how-to-secure-your-supply-chain |
I joined the CDT in 2017 after graduating from Newcastle University with an MComp in Computer Science with a Year Abroad. Outside of my studies I am the Social Secretary for the University Maths Society.
PhD title
Photo Identification of Marine Cetaceans Using Convolutional Neural Networks
Modelling cetacean (whale, dolphin, and porpoise) population dynamics and behaviour is paramount to effective population management and conservation. Robust data is required for the design and implementation of conservation strategies and to assess the risks presented by anthropogenic activity such as offshore wind turbines and commercial fishing. Moreover, cetaceans make prime candidates for modelling ecosystem change under the ecosystem sentinel concept as they reflect the current state of the ecosystem and respond to change across different spatial and temporal scale.
As the global climate changes and urbanisation of coastal areas intensifies, it is imperative to develop methodologies for quick and effective assessment of the biological and ecological impact of rising sea temperatures, pollution, and habitat degradation. This can be achieved through modelling the population, behaviour, and health of large marine species such as dolphins.
Methodologies of cetacean research includes photo identification (photo-id). Photo-id involves collecting photographic data and identifying individuals based on unique permanent markings, and has been used for more than 40 years for modelling cetacean population dynamics and ecology. Current identification techniques for cetaceans rely heavily on experts manually identifying individuals. This can often be costly due to the number of person-hours required for identification, as well as the large potential for error due to issues such as observer fatigue. Further, individual identification of dolphins within a species is time consuming due to the nature of the task. With progressively more data being collected during fieldwork through increased use of technology, there is an urgent need for an automatic system for quick identification with reduced error rates.
This project addresses these limitations by applying the methodologies, techniques, and computational power of deep learning to the field of marine biology by bringing together a multidisciplinary team from the School of Engineering, the School of Computing, and the School of Natural and Environmental Science’s Marine MEGAfauna Lab.
Deep learning models, specifically Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), are trained on high-end computer clusters using the Microsoft Azure Cloud. Once trained, the models can be ran on field deployable computers to perform image analysis in real time from multiple data sources (underwater and above water images, and aerial drone footage). Methodologies incorporating these models will be designed to quickly identify individuals, assess health, analyse behaviour and incorporate remote sensing techniques.
Unlike traditional Computing Science PhDs, my research topic necessitates biological field work. It helps correlate sensor readings with marine life behaviour. This would be hard to achieve without the support of the CDT. | https://www.ncl.ac.uk/bigdata/people/people/trottercameron.html |
Fisheries management draws on fisheries science in order to find ways to protect fishery resources so that sustainable exploitation is possible. Fisheries science is the academic discipline of managing and understanding fisheries. It is a multidisciplinary science, which draws on the disciplines of oceanography, marine biology, marine conservation, ecology, population dynamics, economics and management in an attempt to provide an integrated picture of fisheries.
The traditional approach to fisheries science and management has been to focus on a single species, using a stock-recruitment relationship. A more modern fisheries model is the ecosystem-based approach.
Stock Recruitment Model
The stock-recruitment (S/R) relationship is fundamental to the management of natural resources, especially fish and shellfish stocks. The nature of this relationship is used to determine to what extent a population may be harvested by either commercial or sport fisheries.
Female fish and shellfish produce astounding numbers of eggs, giving any population the capacity to increase its density rapidly after a perturbation if conditions are right for the survival of the young. This rapid reproductive rate (r-selected species) allows humans to harvest fish populations and anticipate their recovery. The degree to which a stock may be harvested has historically been determined by the form of the S/R relationship.
The S/R relationship is normally presented graphically as a scatter plot with the number of females in the spawning stock on the abscissa (x-axis) and the number of recruits on the ordinate (y-axis). The spawning stock is defined, normally, as the number of female organisms in the population of reproductive age and able to reproduce in any one year. The recruits are defined as those young who survive to either maturity, or to be captured by the fishery.
The S/R relationship is normally dome-shaped, facing down. This means that we expect zero or very few recruits when the spawning stock is very low (in other words, the relationship passes through the origin), that we have maximal recruitment for a middling number of spawners, and that recruitment is badly reduced if there are too many mature adults. This latter point is best understood if we realize that adult and immature fish often compete for food, with the larger adults winning this competition. Thus, if there are many adults, survival rates of the young and immature fish will be very low, leading to low recruitment rates.
The replacement line is where stock = recruits. Any recruits above this line are considered to be “in excess” of that required to maintain the population, and can therefore be harvested without impact to the population.
There are two classical mathematical models used to describe the relationship between the stock and the number of recruits. The first is called the Beverton-Holt model, which states that R=E/(E+g*Rmax)*Rmax, where g is a parameter, R is the number of recruits, E is the egg production (number of females * average egg production). Shortly thereafter, Ricker suggested the following model (now called the Ricker curve): R=R1*E-R2*E where R1 and R2 are parameters. More recently, Deriso and Schnute have proposed a more general model, which reduces to either of the former models when certain parameters attain some value. Their model is: R=R1*E*(1-R2*R3*3)1/R3.
These models, and some variants, have been used to manage fish stocks for the past fifty years. In recent years they have come under criticism for a number of reasons, both theoretical and practical. On the theoretical side, they do not account for systematically changing environmental conditions, changes in the water currents or immigration/emigration. The practical problems are that, despite a good theoretical foundation, they have a remarkably poor track record. Many enormous fish stocks have been carefully managed into near-extinction by the use of these models (eg. Atlantic cod, the anchovy, the salmon). Modern management approaches still consider the S/R relationship when formulating their harvesting recommendations, but they are only one of many different approaches used in an integrative manner.
An example of some integrative stock assessment tools is the NOAA Fisheries Toolbox.
Ecosystem-based Model
Ecosystem-based management is an environmental management approach that recognizes the full array of interactions within an ecosystem, including humans, rather than considering single issues, species, or ecosystem services in isolation.
Ecosystem-based fishery concepts have existed for some years and have been implemented in a few regions. Some of the guiding principles in ecosystem-based fisheries management are:
- Keep a perspective that is holistic, risk-adverse and adaptive.
- Maintain an “old growth” structure in fish populations, since big, old and fat female fish have been shown to be the best spawners, but are also susceptible to overfishing.
- Characterize and maintain the natural spatial structure of fish stocks, so that management boundaries match natural boundaries in the sea.
- Monitor and maintain seafloor habitats to make sure fish have food and shelter.
- Maintain resilient ecosystems that are able to withstand occasional shocks.
- Identify and maintain critical food-web connections, including predators and forage species.
- Adapt to ecosystem changes through time, both short-term and on longer cycles of decades or centuries, including global climate change.
- Account for evolutionary changes caused by fishing, which tends to remove large, older fish.
- Include the actions of humans and their social and economic systems in all ecological equations.
Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE), is an ecosystem modelling software suite. It was initially a NOAA initiative, but now primarily development takes place at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia.
EwE has three main components:
- Ecopath – a static, mass-balanced snapshot of the system
- Ecosim – a time dynamic simulation module for policy exploration
- Ecospace – a spatial and temporal dynamic module primarily designed for exploring impact and placement of protected areas
The Ecopath software package can be used to:
- Address ecological questions.
- Evaluate ecosystem effects of fishing.
- Explore management policy options.
- Analyze impact and placement of marine protected areas.
- Predict movement and accumulation of contaminants and tracers (Ecotracer).
- Model effect of environmental changes.
Fisheries Scale Analysis
Fish scales can be analyzed to determine the age of the fish from which they were taken. Since the scales can be taken from live specimens, scale analysis is a non-destructive way of determining the age structure of a population of fish. The population age structure (e.g., the number of fish in each age group) can be useful in assessing the health of the population, the impacts of stressors such as fishing or pollution, and the suitability of the habitat for specific fish species.
Ocean Ecology has studied dried scale samples taken from a variety of fish species. These samples were soaked in water to soften them, cleaned, and then mounted between microscope slides for viewing with a microscope. The individual scales were photographed and their growth patterns carefully examined to determine the age of the fish. | https://oceanecology.ca/wp/2015/09/08/fisheries-science/ |
Mushrooms & Other Fungi of North America
For amateur collectors or professional mycologists working in the field, this guidebook is quite simply the best North American mushroom reference ever published. Each of the 1,000 specimens is shown in full color on a neutral background to eliminate distractions, and specimens are arranged to show the cap, stem, gills, spines and a cross section, usually in various stages of growth.
Roger Phillips identifies all regional varieties of Basidiomycetes, which include chanterelles, puffballs and fungi, and Ascomycetes, which include morels and cup fungi. Detailed descriptive information on each mushroom variety includes:
- Dimensions of cap, gills and stem
- Color and texture of flesh
- Odor and taste
- Habitat and growing season
- Distribution and appearance of spores
- Edibility and poison warnings
There is also helpful advice on collecting specimens plus an illustrated beginner identification key and a generic key for the more advanced collector.
This is an ideal introduction to mycology and an essential reference for the experienced collector -- THE definitive book in the category. | https://www.ashevillefungi.com/products/mushrooms-other-fungi-of-north-america |
01.09.2013. – 30.04.2018.
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Latvian Fund for Nature
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Engure Nature Park Fondation, Pasaules Dabas fonds
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European Union LIFE+ program, Latvian Environmental Protection Fund
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Latvia
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Ģirts Strazdiņš
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+371 67830999
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Vilandes st. 3-7 Riga, LV-1010, Latvia
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Project long term objective: to improve the conservation status of the Bittern Botaurus stellaris in Latvia and EU according to the framework for species conservation set by EU Species Action plan.
Project short term objectives:
- To improve the conservation status of Bittern and improve ecosystem functions in two most important coastal lakes for the species – Lake Engure Natura 2000 site and Lake Pape Natura 2000 site.
- To reduce the impact of direct and indirect threats on Bittern population by securing sustainable lake habitat management including improvements to existing and restoring of currently degraded breeding and feeding sites for Bittern.
- To monitor and evaluate the effects of the proposed lake habitat restoration measures on the species during the project and to feed this information into future site management plans and species management recommendations (guidelines).
- To establish the demonstration area for species conservation in Lake Engure in order to eliminate gaps in knowledge about the habitat requirements for Bittern among the nature conservationists. To provide the information about the species requirements, to generate the widely applicable and regionally tested habitat restoration methods and thus set the scene for further Bittern conservation actions in Latvia and Boreal region.
- To enhance the public understanding of the ecological, economic and social values of the coastal wetlands via explaining the ecosystem functions and services concept and raise support for the conservation of wetland dependent species such as Bittern. To support the integration of nature conservation concerns into the business sector.
Project Activities:
A. Preparatory actions, elaboration of management plans and/or of action plans
C. Concrete conservation actions
D. Monitoring of the impact of the project actions
E. Public awareness and dissemination of results
E.4. Websites
E.5. Notice boards
E.6. Layman's report
F. Overall project operation and monitoring of the project progress
F.1. Project management
F.2. After LIFE conservation plan
F.3. Audit
F.4. Networking with other LIFE+ or non LIFE projects
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Preparatory actions, elaboration of management plans and/or of action plans
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Psathyrella cystidiosa is rare mushroom endemic to Minnesota. It was first reported in Minneapolis in 1912, but was not collected again until 1998 when it was found as part of a DNR-sponsored mushroom survey (McLaughlin 1998). So far, collections have been made in Rice and Washington counties, although specimens have only been found once in each county and only in small groups. Psathyrellas are associated with the cycling of organic matter, such as wood, leaf litter or dung, and may occur in or outside woods. Psathyrella cystidiosa was listed as an endangered species in Minnesota in 1996.
Description
Psathyrella cystidiosa is difficult to recognize in the field. The cap can grow up to 30 mm (1.2 in.) broad. It has concentric zones of color from light yellowish brown at the center to deep yellowish brown towards the edge. The white stalk is 16-50 mm (0.63-2.0 in.) long and 1-3 mm (0.04-0.12 in.) wide. It has a dark grayish brown spore print. Microscopically this species can be distinguished from other similar looking species by its thick-walled cystidia, a sterile structure found on the face of the gills. Psathyrella cystidiosa is most similar to P. olympiana both microscopically and macroscopically, but can be separated statistically by measuring the apical wall of the cystidia: the wall at the apex of the cystidia is thicker in P. cystidiosa (Padamsee 2001).
Habitat
The original description of P. cystidiosa mentioned only that it had been found with a ball of soil attached to the base. The two recent collections were found on the ground and also scattered along a dead branch on the ground. Both were found in deciduous forests. The mushroom occurs in shade and may have a preference for thoroughly moistened areas prior to fruiting.
Biology / Life History
Not much is known about the biology of P. cystidiosa. It is a saprotroph and is usually found in small groups or scattered. The species is found in moist soil or attached to dead branches of deciduous trees. A search for this mushroom in the same location conducted one year after the specimens were found (McLaughlin 1999) did not find this species, but it was discovered at a different location during that same year, indicating that P. cystidiosa may not fruit every year. This species is likely dispersed in the form of mycelia (thread-like structures that make up the body of a fungus) and spores. Low nutrient availability probably triggers the growth of the mushroom in this species. The earliest documentation of this species is the 12th of June and the latest is the 12th of August. Because this species has only been reported three times, it is difficult to specify its life history. Further studies about P. cystidiosa should reveal more information about its biology.
Conservation / Management
Psathyrella cystidiosa seems to prefer moist soil, but the soil does not need to be continuously wet. It is found in soil or attached to dead branches, thus removal of dead wood from the forest floor would likely threaten this species. This species was also found among relatively immature trees.
Conservation Efforts in Minnesota
Twenty collecting trips have resulted in two collections of P. cystidiosa. Four counties have been examined with focused searches in Nerstrand Woods State Park, Afton State Park, Wolsfeld Woods Scientific and Natural Area, Belwyn Educational Center, and the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Extensive research has been conducted on the separation of P. cystidiosa from P. olympiana (Padamsee 2001; Padamsee et al. 2008).
References and Additional Information
McLaughlin, D. J. 1998. A search for three rare, endemic Minnesota mushroom species. Final report submitted to the Natural Heritage and Nongame Research Program, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. 5 pp.
McLaughlin, D. J. 1999. A search for two rare, endemic Minnesota mushroom species. Final report submitted to the Natural Heritage and Nongame Research Program, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. 3 pp.
Padamsee, M. 2001. A biogeographic and systematic study of certain Minnesotan Psathyrella species. Thesis, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota. 74 pp.
Padamsee, M., Matheny, P. B., Dentinger, B. T. M., and D. J.McLaughlin. 2008. The mushroom family Psathyrellaceae: Evidence for large-scale polyphyly of the genus Psathyrella. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 46:415-429.
Smith, A. H. 1972. The North American species of Psathyrella. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden 24:1-633. | https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/rsg/profile.html?action=elementDetail&selectedElement=NFFUN03030 |
Journal of Aging and Health, Ahead of Print.
Objectives: Earlier studies suggest that being married in later life protects against dementia, and that being single in old age increases the risk of dementia. In this study, we examine midlife marital status trajectories and their association with dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at ages 70 plus using a large population based sample from Norway. Methods: Based on a general population sample linked to population registries (N = 8706), we used multinomial logistic regression to examine the associations between six types of marital trajectories (unmarried, continuously divorced, intermittently divorced, widowed, continuously married, intermittently married) between age 44 and 68 years from national registries and a clinical dementia or a MCI diagnosis after age 70. We estimated relative risk ratios (RRR) and used mediation analyses adjusting for education, number of children, smoking, hypertension, obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes, mental distress, and having no close friends in midlife. Inverse probability weighting and multiple imputations were applied. The population attributable fraction was estimated to assess the potential reduction in dementia cases due to marital histories. Results: Overall, 11.6% of the participants were diagnosed with dementia and 35.3% with MCI. Dementia prevalence was lowest among the continuously married (11.2%). Adjusting for confounders, the risk of dementia was higher for the unmarried (RRR = 1.73; 95% CI: 1.24, 2.40), continuously divorced (RRR = 1.66; 95% CI: 1.14, 2.43), and intermittently divorced (RRR = 1.50; 95% CI: 1.09, 2.06) compared to the continuously married. In general, marital trajectory was less associated with MCI than with dementia. In the counterfactual scenario, where all participants had the same risk of receiving a dementia diagnosis as the continuously married group, there would be 6.0% fewer dementia cases. Discussion: Our data confirm that staying married in midlife is associated with a lower risk of dementia and that divorced people account for a substantial share of dementia cases.
Marital Histories and Associations With Later-Life Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment Risk in the HUNT4 70+ Study in Norway
Journal of Aging and Health, Ahead of Print. | https://ifp.nyu.edu/2022/journal-article-abstracts/08982643221131926/ |
The objectives of this project are to conclude host-specificity testing of promising exotic natural enemies of BMSB on high-priority native pentatomids, and apply for release permits for those species that are specific to BMSB. Under the authority of 7 USC 3319a, ARS desires to acquire goods and personnel services from one of the Cooperators to further agricultural research supporting the independent interests of both parties. A subagreement will serve as an order for services to be funded on an annual basis.
Participate cooperatively with scientists at selected locations in the U.S. to assess exotic natural enemies for biological control of BMSB by: developing host test lists, establishing protocols for the evaluations, initiating colonies of native stink bugs to support host-specificity testing; providing biological control agents from USDA-ARS-BIIR cultures to cooperators, developing methods for conclusively identifying the agents including coordinating with taxonomists, and conducting host-specificity testing of candidate biological control agents to support petitions for filed release. (1) Coordinate cooperative research with project partners to assess host specificity and impact of exotic Asian natural enemies for biological control of BMSB on non-target species. (2) Collect NE regional native stink bugs from the field to supplement and maintain colonies for use in host-specificity testing, maintain quarantine cultures of Trissolcus species and deliver candidate biological control agents to cooperators for research in their regions. (3) Conclude physiological host-specificity testing and continue environmental and behavioral selectivity research for Trissolcus japonicus (Beijing population) and for Trissolcus cultratus. (4) Purity of research cultures will be monitored and newly-collected specimens from adventive field populations of Asian Trissolcus will be characterized. (5) Collect data on native natural enemies attacking BMSB as background information for petitions to release new exotic agents, and to document eventual impact of Asian parasitoids. Surveys will include wild egg masses and placement of colony-reared sentinel egg masses. (6) Prepare release petition for Trissolcus japonicus for submission to APHIS if the adventive population in the eastern states does not spread rapidly. (7) Field collections in Asia will document the natural host range of candidate Trissolcus species and levels of parasitism of non-target species in the native range of BMSB. (8) Field surveys in the mid-Atlantic States where adventive T. japonicus has been found will determine its current distribution and monitor its spread; and evaluation of its impact on BMSB and native pentatomids under field conditions will commence. | https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/project/?accnNo=432945 |
Jurrius, Lobke H.; Rozemeijer, Marcel J.C.
Samenvatting
Homarus gammarus (European lobster) is a commercially valuable lobster species that is distributed around the European continent and appears to be a viable target species for passive fisheries. In the Win-Wind project, possibilities for passive fishing on H. gammarus in offshore wind farms are being investigated. Since H. gammarus occurrence at offshore wind farms on the Dutch continental shelf appears uncertain, with few to no specimens found in previous monitoring activities, stocking of lobsters will likely be required to achieve harvestable populations. Accordingly, a demand arose to further investigate the role of H. gammarus within its ecosystem to better understand the implications of adding the species to the environment. Hence, a literature review of both the ecology of H. gammarus and the (benthic) ecosystem of the North Sea is presented, followed by a comparison of H. gammarus with other decapod species for which more work is available, through principal component analysis (PCA). It appears that H. gammarus progresses up the food web as it develops from opportunistic larva, to a scavenging juvenile, to an active predator as an adult. Although H. gammarus larvae and early benthic settlers are vulnerable to predation, adult H. gammarus is not a target species for predators. It is suggested that H. gammarus inhabits top-down control on the benthic ecosystem by predation and is controlled bottom-up by food availability. Albeit dependent on the presence of prey and competing species as well as the frequency and intensity of restocking activities, it appears that a sudden increase in H. gammarus may have at least temporary inhibitory effects on the benthos population through predation and consequently indirectly on ecologically related species, such as the brown crab. Further investigation is however required as robust data on the dietary diversity of H. gammarus as well as comprehensive population monitoring programmes in OWFs on the DCS are currently lacking. | https://www.wur.nl/nl/publicatie-details.htm?publicationId=publication-way-363034383636 |
Biases in natural history collections may arise around certain climates and in remote areas, which in turn may impact the results of scientific studies based on data from such collections. This can be especially pronounced in time-sensitive phenological studies.
This study examines 29,000 herbarium specimens from Nunavut—the largest and most northerly territory of Canada—deposited at the National Herbarium of Canada (available through GBIF) to assess biases across time, space, and phenology, among others.
The limited access to the region as well as very short snow-free periods are apparent in the results of the study, showing 85 per cent of specimens collected in July and August. In terms of spatial distribution, only 0.63 per cent of the region contained one or more specimens—with the highest density of records found near the capital, Iqaluit.
The study also finds a preference towards collecting flowering plants in peak flower, as more than two-thirds of specimens fall into these categories when assessing phenological phase and flowering stage, respectively. | https://www.gbif.org/data-use/15AfG7aDhw7gPnPlOTgjlu/spatiotemporal-biases-in-arctic-herbarium-specimen-collections |
If you’re curious about the mushrooms emerging on your lawn, in the woods and on local boulevards, here’s your chance to learn more.
The South Vancouver Island Mycological Association hosts its annual mushroom show at the Swan Lake Nature Centre on Sunday, Oct. 30, between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Typically, more than 200 species are on display, with mycologists available throughout the day to identify specimens brought to the centre.
“The mushroom show is an ideal opportunity to learn more about the mushrooms in our area. Not only about edibility or what might be growing in your backyard but also how they are an important part of our ecosystem,” said Jean Johnson, South Vancouver Island Mycological Association president. “Mushrooms are an important part of a healthy environment and they have a fundamental role in maintaining balance.”
People are invited to learn the basics of mushroom identification as well as see examples of common edible, non-edible and poisonous mushrooms. Club members will also be cooking wild mushrooms for the public to taste, including chanterelle and pine mushrooms. A dissecting microscope will be set up for a closer look at some species.
Mushroom growing demonstrations will take place through the day and mushroom growing kits will be available for sale.
The Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary is located at 3873 Swan Lake. Admission is by donation. See www.svims.ca for more information about the South Vancouver Island Mycological Association. | https://www.vicnews.com/community/annual-mushroom-show-set-for-sunday/ |
It’s been 186 years since Charles Darwin collected the species samples from the Galapagos Islands that led him to explain how the diversity of life on Earth evolved and forever changed the way we understand the world.
During his five-week stay on the islands, Darwin collected dozens of specimens, including a small light brownish-gray snake on Floreana Island. This specimen, now in the Natural History Museum in London, served as the basis for the description of a new species, the Galapagos racer (Floreana).
The species has disappeared from Floreana but can still be found on two satellite islands. Now UC Merced’s Evolutionary Biology and Conservation Genetics Professor Danielle Edwards and his research group are the first scientists to propose the genetic sequencing of Darwin’s original Galapagos racer sample. Edwards recently obtained a 2020-2021 Research Publication Grant in Engineering, Medicine, and Science through the American Association of University Women (AAUW) to study Galapagos snakes.
“We want to perform ecosystem restoration on Floreana Island by finding an evolutionary replacement in the ecosystem for this species. populations on other islands. We can then use the closest genetic relative to repopulate Floreana Island with this key predator,” Edwards said. “We will also use this dataset to understand the extent of diversity of species in the archipelago with the most extensive sampling to date.”
Anecdotally, Racers have fallen prey to cats and other invasive species across the islands. Edwards and his team will use genetic data collected from samples collected by Galapagos National Park and numerous international collaborators, as well as museum specimens, to assess changes in population size in racer populations and see if populations are declining or stable, informing future conservation management efforts by Galápagos National Park.
“It’s a huge effort, involving an international team of collaborators, and we don’t know yet if we’ll be able to get the DNA from the specimen that Darwin collected,” Edwards said. “But we won’t know unless we try, and results from other similar studies in museum specimens have shown promising results.”
The Galapagos is a prime location to undertake conservation and reseeding research, as the park has a long history of integrating rigorous science into practices with many partner organizations, she said.
Edwards will lead a team – including colleagues from the US, UK, Ecuador and New Zealand, as well as Galapagos National Park and Islands Conservation – to develop the project. They have collected samples over the past five years to try to identify new species on the islands and expand the sampling to include all known islands and islets where the snakes occur.
“The results of this research will provide a detailed picture of how snakes evolved across the islands. Snakes are the latest group of reptiles to have their historical movements across the islands studied. They are thought to be the most mobile of terrestrial vertebrates and therefore more likely to provide information about connections between islands,” Edwards said. “This project will also provide a source population for Floreana regeneration and a detailed assessment of the genetic health of snake populations across the islands.”
Edwards, who joined the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences in the School of Natural Sciences as of 2015, focuses most of his research on the impact of the environment on the evolution of the ecological niche, phenotype and behavior of reptiles, primarily in the context of how these changes lead to the development of new species . She applies this research to inform conservation management strategies for endangered and vulnerable reptiles and amphibians.
But this is not his first genetic project in the Galapagos. In 2015, a team she was part of revealed that they had identified a new species of giant Galapagos tortoise. Edwards carried out much of the genetic analysis of the populations, using repeated fingerprint markers like those used in forensic research, which allowed the team to distinguish between two closely related species. She has been involved in projects in the Galapagos and Australia applying genomic techniques to understand biodiversity and implement conservation management for the past 20 years. | https://whyevolution.com/edwards-eager-to-expand-the-work-of-the-father-of-evolution/ |
The Arizona Sky Island Arthropod Project (ASAP) is a collaborative multi-disciplinary research program at the University of Arizona that combines systematics, biogeography, ecology, and population genetics to study origins and patterns of arthropod diversity among mountain ranges and along elevation gradients in the Madrean Sky Island Region. Arthropods represent taxonomically and ecologically diverse organisms that drive key ecosystem processes in this mountain archipelago. Using data from museum specimens and specimens we obtain during long-term collecting and monitoring programs, ASAP will document arthropod species across Arizona’s Sky Islands to address a number of fundamental questions about arthropods of this region. Baseline data will be used to determine climatic boundaries for target species, which will then be integrated with climatological models to predict future changes in arthropod communities and distributions in the wake of rapid climate change. ASAP also makes use of the natural laboratory provided by the Sky Islands to investigate ecological and genetic factors that influence diversification and patterns of community assembly.
Read more!
Moore et al. 2013. Introduction to the Arizona Sky Island Arthropod Project (ASAP): systematics, biogeography, ecology and population genetics of arthropods of the Madrean Sky Islands. In: Merging science and management in a rapidly changing world: biodiversity and management of the Madrean Archipelago III. 2012 May 1-5, Tucson, AZ. (G.J. Gottfried, P.F. Ffolliott, B.S. Gebow, L.G. Eskew, compilers). Proceedings RMRS-P-67. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.
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Brusca, R.C., J.F. Wiens, W.M. Meyer, J. Eble, K. Franklin, J. T. Overpeck, W. Moore. 2013. Dramatic Response to Climate Change in the Southwest: Robert Whittaker’s 1963 Arizona Mountain Plant Transect Revisited. Ecology and Evolution 3(10): 3307–3319. | https://www.moorearthropods.com/asap1.html |
As the coronavirus pandemic causes unprecedented disruption, what do businesses need to be aware of when compiling financial statements?
What has happened over the past few weeks and what will follow in the coming months has been unexpected and is still not completely understood.
The coronavirus crisis is first and foremost a human tragedy, of course, but it has upturned every aspect of the modern world, including causing untold disruption to business.
As the effects of the pandemic continue to unfold, health, business and government policies are changing rapidly in response, and this is creating a minefield for companies when it comes to preparing financial statements.
Revisit, reconsider, reshape
Most organisations are likely to have everything in place to close 2019 accounts, but they should still assess the impact of the coronavirus crisis on their business and think about any risks or uncertainties, as well as any mitigating actions that may need to be included as disclosures.
Companies should consider taking the following steps.
- Assess whether C19 is an adjusting or non-adjusting event in the 2019 financial statements.
- Assess the impact of C19 on estimates and judgements inherent in the financial reporting.
- Assess whether accounts still need to be prepared on a going-concern basis.
- Prepare adequate disclosures in case you assess that C19 is a non-adjusting, material event. The disclosures should include the nature of the event, the estimate of the financial effect, impact on carrying amount of assets and liabilities, impact on revenues, impact on debt covenants.
- Assess whether the audit will be completed in time for filing the financial statements.
2020 is when the biggest impact will be felt in accounting terms, and policies will need to be reconsidered in light of C19. A host of actions will need to be taken.
- Inventory valuation: this will need a rethink if traditional purchasing arrangements are no longer valid and companies need to find new ways of getting the goods they need. What effect will these new arrangements have?
- Impairment: it's highly likely assets could be worth less than in the past, so it is important to assess the necessary provisions in relation to this.
- Revenue recognition: will the revenue recognition principles need to be revisited because of the collectability issues?
- Foreign exchange volatility: ask how this will look in the accounts. Will additional hedging instruments be needed to mitigate this risk?
- Discontinued operations: will the closure of any part of the business affect accounting statements?
- Loan covenants: will any decrease in operations impact financial ratios and call upon covenants in agreements?
Robust planning
The above list is not exhaustive, and it will be necessary to take steps to foresee these and many other problems.
If they haven't yet done so, businesses should create a taskforce to identify areas most affected by the situation. This team must be multidiscipline, as this is not just about accounting policies but incorporates a legal element, involving contracts and clauses too.
These taskforces must continue to monitor affected parts of the organisation and map their findings against accounting policies, which could be crucial in planning for future 'black swan' events. It's also important to think about access to documents – any business that doesn't already have document management systems or electronic documentation in all of the locations in which it operates, must consider how this will be addressed.
The scale of this crisis is unprecedented, at least in our lifetime, and the full impact and consequences remains unknown. However, robust planning and staying up to date with developments give you the best chance of getting on the front foot.
Keep up to date on COVID-19 government support schemes for businesses – click here to read more.
If you need clarification on what support is available for your operations, and help making the applications, get in touch with our local experts.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances. | https://webiis05.mondaq.com/accounting-standards/910316/covid-19-preparing-accounting-statements-during-the-crisis |
History — Evaluation always begins with obtaining a detailed history of any sleep related issues as described by the patient, in addition to their general health. A sleep questionnaire and Epworth Scale are completed by the patient. An Epworth Scale is a brief, one page questionnaire in which the patient rates their propensity for falling asleep during certain everyday activities, such as reading, or watching the TV. After treatment the patient will usually be asked to repeat the Epworth Scale questionnaire to subjectively monitor for improvement.
Physical Exam — A physical exam is performed not only to assess general health, but especially to ascertain whether any structural abnormalities exist in the nose, face, jaw, throat, or neck. Certain anatomical variations may be associated with obstructive apnea.
Polysomnogram — A polysomnogram, more commonly known as a sleep study will be ordered if any possibility of sleep apnea exists. This may be accomplished by sleeping overnight at a testing laboratory, or at home using a simple device loaned to you by our staff who will also instruct you on its use. If you have a preexisting heart or lung condition a sleepover at the testing lab is usually necessary. Other reasons requiring the same include obtaining videos to aid us in diagnosing REM behavior disorder, or recordings aiding us in diagnosing movement disorders. Both studies involve sleeping while attached to sensors which monitor parameters such as snoring and breathing. A laboratory study is usually considered to be more accurate and measures more parameters, such as brain wave patterns.
Multiple Sleep Latency Testing (MSLT) — This test is only done in the lab and always follows a polysomnogram done the previous night in the same lab. An MSLT is necessary to aid in the diagnosis of narcolepsy, as well as hypersomnias. It involves a series of morning naps and measures your propensity for falling asleep while sensors are attached to monitor brain wave patterns (EEG).
Multiple Wakefulness Testing (MWT) — This is also only performed in the lab. It is less commonly ordered and measures your propensity to stay awake. This is sometimes required of commercial truck drivers who are being treated for apnea.
Sleep Diary — Most patients are given a Sleep Diary to complete on a daily basis for at least two weeks in order to assess sleep and wake patterns, as well as any activities or behaviors which might affect sleep.
Actigraphy Study — An actigraphy study may also be ordered. This involves wearing a small monitor, usually on the wrist, continuously for at least two weeks. It gives us information about sleep and wake patterns.
Lab Specimens — Occasionally, laboratory specimens will be ordered. Serum ferritin is usually ordered when a diagnosis of restless legs or periodic limb movements is noted. Thyroid and female hormone levels are also sometimes useful. Ascertaining when melatonin levels peak in a 24 hour cycle may be helpful in diagnosing and treating circadian rhythm disorders. Certain genetic markers have been linked to some sleep disorders, however, they are generally not useful in clinical practice and not routinely ordered. | https://womenzzzsleephealth.com/evalutation.php |
Freshwater ecosystems are currently amongst the most threatened habitats due to high levels of anthropogenic stress and increasing efforts are required to monitor their status and assess aquatic biodiversity. Biomonitoring, which is the systematic measurement of the responses of aquatic biota to environmental stressors, is used to evaluate ecosystem status. Macroinvertebrates are commonly used organisms for ecosystem assessment, due to their numerous biomonitoring qualities, which qualify them as ecological indicators. Traditional taxonomy-based monitoring is labour intensive, which limits the throughput, and is often inefficient in providing species level identification, which limits the accuracy of detections. The introduction of molecular based methods for biomonitoring, especially when coupled with High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) applications, offers a step change in ecosystem monitoring. Here I tested the utility of DNA based applications for increasing the efficiency of freshwater ecosystem biomonitoring, using benthic macroinvertebrates as a target group. For the first part of this work, I used DNA barcoding of the Cytochrome Oxidase Subunit I (COI), from individual specimens, to populate a barcode reference library for 94 species of Trichoptera, Gastropoda and Chironomidae from the UK. Then, I used High Throughput Sequencing (HTS) methods to characterise diversity from complex environmental samples. First, I used metabarcoding of aqueous environmental DNA (eDNA) and community invertebrate samples (Chironomidae pupal exuviae), collected on regular intervals throughout a year, to identify diversity levels and temporal patterns of community variation on ecosystem-wide and group specific scales. Finally, I used a structured design of mock macroinvertebrate communities, of known biomass content, to perform a comparison between PCR-based metabarcoding of the COI gene and PCR-free shotgun sequencing of mitochondrial genomes (mito-metagenomics), and evaluate their efficiency for accurate characterisation of biomass content of bulk samples. Overall, HTS has demonstrated great potential for advancing biomonitoring efforts, allowing ecosystem scale diversity detection from non-invasive types of samples, such as eDNA, whilst moving into mito-metagenomic work could improve the field even further by improving quantitative abundance results on the community composition level. | https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.704797 |
Background: The use of mobile technologies for data capture and transmission has the potential to streamline clinical trials, but researchers lack methods for collecting, processing, and interpreting data from these tools. Objectives: To assess the performance of a technical platform for collecting and transmitting data from six mobile technologies in the clinic and at home, to apply methods for comparing them to clinical standard devices, and to measure their usability, including how willing subjects were to use them on a regular basis. Methods: In part 1 of the study, conducted over 3 weeks in the clinic, we tested two device pairs (mobile vs. clinical standard blood pressure monitor and mobile vs. clinical standard spirometer) on 25 healthy volunteers. In part 2 of the study, conducted over 3 days both in the clinic and at home, we tested the same two device pairs as in part 1, plus four additional pairs (mobile vs. clinical standard pulse oximeter, glucose meter, weight scale, and activity monitor), on 22 healthy volunteers. Results: Data collection reliability was 98.1% in part 1 of the study and 95.8% in part 2 (the percentages exclude the wearable activity monitor, which collects data continuously). In part 1, 20 of 1,049 overall expected measurements were missing (1.9%), and in part 2, 45 of 1,083 were missing (4.2%). The most common reason for missing data was a single malfunctioning spirometer (13 of 20 total missed readings) in part 1, and that the subject did not take the measurement (22 of 45 total missed readings) in part 2. Also in part 2, a higher proportion of at-home measurements than in-clinic readings were missing (12.6 vs. 2.7%). The data from this experimental study were unable to establish repeatability or agreement for every mobile technology; only the pulse oximeter demonstrated repeatability, and only the weight scale demonstrated agreement with the clinical standard device. Most mobile technologies received high “willingness to use” ratings from the patients on the questionnaires. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the wireless data transmission and processing platform was dependable. It also identified three critical areas of study for advancing the use of mobile technologies in clinical research: (1) if a mobile technology captures more than one type of endpoint (such as blood pressure and pulse), repeatability and agreement may need to be established for each endpoint to be included in a clinical trial; (2) researchers need to develop criteria for excluding invalid device readings (to be identified by algorithms in real time) for the population studied using ranges based on accumulated subject data and established norms; and (3) careful examination of a mobile technology’s performance (reliability, repeatability, and agreement with accepted reference devices) during pilot testing is essential, even for medical devices approved by regulators. | https://karger.figshare.com/articles/Supplementary_Material_for_A_Pilot_Study_to_Assess_the_Feasibility_of_Collecting_and_Transmitting_Clinical_Trial_Data_with_Mobile_Technologies/7308779/1 |
The initiative for the Monsanto Tribunal comes from a coalition representing all sectors of civil society , and includes in its steering committee Vandana Shiva of Navdanya, former French environment minister, Corinne Lepage, award winning journalist and author of documentary “The World According to Monsanto” Marie-Monique Robin, molecular biologist and toxicologist leading research on toxicities of GMOs and glyphosate herbicides Giles-Eric Séralini, Hans Herren of the Millennium Institute, and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter.
Monsanto is the standard-bearer for the worst excesses of corporate industrial agriculture: poisoning people and planet with agrochemicals, causing illnesses and death and accelerating biodiversity loss; and massively contributing to global warming due to its heavy dependence on fossil fuels and destruction of natural forests and grasslands (see Food Futures Now *Organic *Sustainable *Fossil Fuel Free , ISISTWN Special Report).
Since the beginning of the last century, Monsanto has developed and sold highly toxic products including PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), one of 12 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) that affect human and animal fertility; 2,4,5-T (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacteic acid), a dioxin-containing component of Agent Orange, the defoliant used by the US Army during the Vietnam War that continues to cause birth defects and cancer; Lasso, a herbicide with active ingredient alachlor banned in Europe since 2006 and classified as probable human carcinogen by the US EPA ; and Roundup, “the source of the greatest health and environmental scandal in modern history.” Roundup/glyphosate, falsely claimed by Monsanto to be safe and harmless, became the world’s most widely and pervasively used herbicide. It has brought rising tides of birth defects, cancers, fatal kidney disease, sterility and dozens of other illnesses (see Banishing Glyphosate , ISIS Special Report).
The Monsanto Tribunal in The Hague will assess the allegations against the corporation, and to evaluate the damages caused. The Tribunal will rely on the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” adopted at the United Nations in 2011. It will also assess potential criminal liability on the basis of the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2002, and consider whether a reform of the international criminal law is warranted to include crimes against the environment, or ecocide, as a prosecutable criminal offence.
In order to finance the initiative, the largest crowdfunding platform has been launched to raise €1 million from all over the world . Please donate here: http://www.monsanto-tribunal.org/home/donate/.
The impetus for the imposition of transgenic crops initiated in the USA and it's principal instigator and beneficiary was the Monsanto Corporation, which successfully infiltrated the USDA, FDA and EPA in order to accomplish it's sociopathic goals, at the expense of the Environment and Public Health. Monsanto MUST be held accountable for for the damage that transgenic crops have caused and the governmental agencies that facilitated this hideous fraud must be sanctioned and transformed as well, so that corrective measures are taken to undo the harm done and prevent it from reoccurring, ever again. | http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Monsanto_Tried_for_Crimes_Against_Humanity.php |
Ha Noi, 28 June 2010
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will work with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), the Ministry of Defence, and local authorities on a new project called “Environmental Remediation of Dioxin Contaminated Hotspots in Viet Nam”, which was launched today in Ha Noi. The USD 5 million project is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNDP, and will be implemented by MONRE with UNDP providing technical support.
Between 72 and 80 million litres of herbicide mixtures were sprayed over South Viet Nam during the war. The most infamous herbicide mixture was Agent Orange, which contained the highly toxic by-product dioxin. Dioxin contaminated hotspots still exist today, in places where the herbicides were stored and loaded.
The concentration of dioxin in the three main hotspots is much higher than nationally and internationally agreed standards. Without action, the hotspots will continue to contaminate the wider environment and pose a serious health risk to people living and working nearby. Since 2007 UNDP has funded a project to assess the extent of pollution as well as possible technologies to deal with the pollution, and is now ready for field operations.
The new project focuses on dealing with dioxin contamination at the airport in Bien Hoa. It will also support action at Phu Cat and Da Nang airports, as well as smaller hotspots elsewhere in Viet Nam. The project will use internationally proven techniques to treat and rehabilitate the dioxin hotspots. Although the origin of these hotspots in Viet Nam is unique, the new techniques can be used regardless of the origin of contamination – both in other areas in Viet Nam as well as globally. The project will also build capacities in Viet Nam to remediate dioxin hotspots and other contaminated areas.
GEF is funding the elimination of dioxins according to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants which Viet Nam ratified in 22 July 2002. The USD 5 million project will be an important contribution to actual clean-up of contaminated soil and sediment, but significantly more funds will be needed for the full remediation of all dioxin hotspots in Viet Nam.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, Minister Pham Khoi Nguyen of MONRE said: “We highly appreciate the involvement of UNDP and GEF in the remediation of dioxin/Agent Orange contamination in Viet Nam. The project is also a good opportunity for other international partners to become involved in the thorough treatment of dioxin contaminated areas in Viet Nam and we welcome other organizations and individuals to join UNDP and GEF.”
“Viet Nam has been making many efforts to overcome the dioxin legacy of the war. This includes cleaning up the hotspots, especially at the worst affected site, Bien Hoa airport. However, at both Bien Hoa airport and other hotspots much more is needed. A total destruction of all the contaminants in all hotspots is essential in order to protect people, workers and the environment, and is expected under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants," said United Nations Resident Coordinator Mr John Hendra at the launching ceremony.
Mr Hendra also said "the United States government and NGOs such as the Ford Foundation have supported these efforts. This is highly appreciated, and we all look for that to continue and be stepped up. Through this project UNDP will help address the environmental challenge of the dioxin legacy. UNICEF is already supporting disabled children, including disabled children in dioxin affected areas. The UN is very happy to increase its contribution to these collective efforts and apply its knowledge and networks to these two sides of the dioxin issue, and enable others to join as well."
- Click here to read the speech by UN Resident Coordinator Mr. John Hendra delivered at signing ceremony for the UNDP-GEF Project on 28 June, 2010
- Click here to read the associated media release
- Click here to read the AFP media coverage of the project launch
For further information, please contact:
Pernille Goodall
One UN Communications team
Mbl: 0913209987
Nguyen My Hang
Office 33, MONRE | http://www.un.org.vn/en/media-releases3/69-un-press-releases/1395-new-project-launched-to-help-viet-nam-overcome-impact-of-dioxinagent-orange.html |
Scientists from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), other federal agencies and the general scientific community have conducted a reassessment of dioxin exposure and human health effects since 1991. This information sheet summarizes the draft reassessment, which is entitled Exposure and Human HealthReassessment of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin (TCDD) and Related Compounds. A more in-depthdiscussion can be found in the companion piece, Dioxin: Scientific Highlights from Draft Reassessment(2000).
The term “dioxin” refers to a group of chemical compounds that share certain similar chemical structures and mode-of-action biological characteristics. A total of 30 of these dioxin-like compounds existand are members of three closely related families: the chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (CDDs), chlorinateddibenzofurans (CDFs) and certain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The term dioxin is also used for themost well-studied and one of the most toxic dioxins, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). CDDsand CDFs are not created intentionally, but can be produced inadvertently in nature and by a number ofhuman activities. Combustion, chlorine bleaching of pulp and paper, certain types of chemicalmanufacturing and processing, and other industrial processes all can create small quantities of dioxins. PCBsare no longer manufactured in the United States but formerly were widely used as coolants and lubricants inelectrical equipment.
Dioxins are believed to cause toxic effects in similar ways; that is, they share a “common mechanism of toxicity.” As a result, EPA and others use an approach that adds together the toxicity of individual dioxinsin order to evaluate complex environmental mixtures to which people are exposed. Because dioxins differ intheir toxic potential, the toxicity of each component in the mixture must be accounted for in estimating theoverall toxicity. To do so, international teams of scientists have developed Toxicity Equivalency Factors thatcompare the toxicity of different dioxins. Given these factors, the toxicity of a mixture can be expressed interms of its Toxicity Equivalents (TEQ), which is the amount of TCDD it would take to equal the combinedtoxic effect of all the dioxins found in that mixture. The use of the TEQ approach represents a keyassumption upon which many of the conclusions in the reassessment are based.
The reassessment proposes that most dioxin enters ecological food webs by being deposited from the atmosphere, either directly following air emissions or indirectly by processes that return dioxins already in the environment to the atmosphere. Once they reach the environment, dioxins are highly persistent and canaccumulate in the tissues of animals. EPA estimates that most dioxin exposure occurs through the diet, withover 95% of dioxin intake for a typical person coming through dietary intake of animal fats. Small amountsof exposure occur from breathing air containing trace amounts of dioxin on particles and in vapor form, frominadvertent ingestion of soil containing dioxin, and from absorption through the skin contacting air, soil, orwater containing minute levels. These processes result in widespread, low-level exposure of the generalpopulation to dioxins.
Dioxin levels in the environment have declined significantly since the 1970s following EPA regulatory controls and industry actions. EPA’s best estimates of emissions from sources that can bereasonably quantified, indicate that dioxin emissions in the United States decreased by about 80% between1987 and 1995, primarily due to reductions in air emissions from municipal and medical waste incinerators,and substantial further declines continue to be documented. Dietary intake of dioxin also appears to bedeclining.
EPA estimates that the amount of dioxin found in the tissues of the general human population (which is known as the “body burden”) closely approaches (within a factor of 10) the levels at which adverse effectsmight be expected to occur, based on studies of animals and highly exposed human populations. Despite thepotential risks, currently there is no clear indication of increased disease in the general population attributableto dioxin-like compounds. This may be due to limitations of current data and scientific tools rather thanindicating that dioxin exposure is not causing adverse effects. For cancer, EPA estimates that the risks forthe general population based on dioxin exposure could be as high as the range of a 1 in 100 to 1 in 1,000increased chance of experiencing cancer related to dioxin exposure. Actual risks are unlikely to exceed thisvalue and may be substantially less. This range for cancer risk indicates an about 10-fold higher chance thanestimated in EPA’s earlier (1994) draft of this reassessment.
Fetuses, infants, and children may be more sensitive to dioxin exposure because of their rapid growth and development. Data on risks to children are limited, however, and it is not known if the children in thegeneral population are experiencing adverse effects from dioxin. Although breast milk appears to be asignificant source of dioxin exposure for nursing infants, the overwhelming body of evidence supports thehealth benefits of breastfeeding despite the potential presence of dioxin. Other populations have experiencedelevated exposures to dioxin as a result of food contamination incidents around the world, through theworkplace or from industrial accidents, or from consumption of unusually high amounts of fish, meat, ordairy products containing elevated levels of dioxins. In some cases, such as U.S. Air Force personnelexposed to the herbicide Agent Orange contaminated with dioxin during the Vietnam War, dioxin exposurehas been associated with adverse health effects. | http://findmedarticle.com/h/hes.is1.html |
The module starts by defining biodiversity, discussing its distribution in space and time, and its value to humankind, before examining the key anthropogenic threats driving recent enhanced rates of biodiversity loss.
Seed contamination is another problem of genetic engineering; it can occur from wind or bee pollination that is blown from genetically-engineered crops to normal crops.
Most of these people are in the world's developing nations. Both are highly toxic in their natural raw state. Soil Science This module aims to introduce and demonstrate the nature and properties of soils in an environmental context.
However, these forests are disappearing at a very fast pace.
The final part of the module looks at the practice of conservation through discussion of prioritisation, reserve design and national and international conservation policy and regulation. Environmental Ethics and Environmental Philosophy Environment ethics has produced around environmental philosophy.
Several studies have demonstrated that natural forests are the single most important repository of terrestrial biological diversity--of ecosystems, species, and genetic resources.
Irrigation Irrigated agriculture is important in the developing nations, as it constitutes about 80 percent of water uses. Students undertaking this module will develop a detailed understanding of key concepts of biogeographical and geomorphological interactions in three related environments.
Standing water also may host snails, which may carry schistosomiasis, a tropical disease that affects the urinary and intestinal systems.
Most of the worlds ills are derived from both of these, with oil spillsmining accidents, fires, and now climate change and global warming. Article 48 A of Part IV of the amended constitution, read: If an industry is causing such problem, it is not only the duty of that industry but all the human being to make up for the losses.
If consumption of resources and climate change continue at their current rates, our modern economy cannot be sustained. Many countries with population density similar or higher than India enjoy environmental quality as well as human quality of life far superior than India.
With environmental ethics, you can ensure that you are doing your part to keep the environment safe and protected. In order to build a strong and convincing argument for confronting environmental issues, these principles should be employed.
For example, extreme poverty in much of sub-Saharan Africa limits access to quality water services. Modern people are also responsible for protecting future generations from the negative effects of deforestation.
It causes soil erosion, destruction of wetlands and wide migration of solid wastes. Population growth, because it can place increased pressure on the assimilative capacity of the environment, is also seen as a major cause of air, water, and solid-waste pollution.
A newly designed water supply project for the city, to be pumped over an elevation of 2, meters about 6, feetis expected to be even more costly. This natural process is important to river ecology and for agricultural production.
Discharge of untreated sewage is the single most important cause for pollution of surface and ground water in India. Solid waste is routinely seen along India's streets and shopping plazas.
It is a major source of air pollution in Indiaand produces smoke and numerous indoor air pollutants at concentrations 5 times higher than coal. These conditions determine the carrying capacity of the biosphere to produce enough food for the human population and domesticated animals.
Trees act as a carbon sink: These floodplains have rich soils, and their high productivity often supports large human populations. As a result of the social and environmental changes they have caused, large dams have also been a source of controversy—sometimes violent—in the developing nations.
Inadequate water supply in this city of 9 million has forced many residents to drink and bathe from derelict surface-water sources. Soil erosion is a natural process, but deforestation and other human activities have resulted in a fivefold increase in the average levels of sediment carried in the world's rivers.
Examples range from questions of national independence in the UK, through geopolitical concern with nuclear arms development, to humanitarian crises brought on by civil war.
It enables you to take your academic knowledge and to experience at first hand how it can be applied in the workplace.
Indeed, forget waste segregation and recycling directive of the India's Supreme Court, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates that up to 40 percent of municipal waste in India remains simply uncollected. This accelerated destruction of forests poses a serious threat to the environmental and economic well-being of the earth.A purposeful sampling strategy was employed to select participants.
Purposeful sampling is a qualitative method where the researcher selects a small number of participants on the basis of their special attributes and ability to inform an understanding of the research question.
4 In this case participants were selected on the basis of their cultural heritage and religious beliefs. As per agronumericus.com, ” Environmental ethics is a branch of applied philosophy that studies the conceptual foundations of environmental values as well as more concrete issues surrounding societal attitudes, actions, and policies to protect and sustain biodiversity and ecological systems.
Mar 11, · The Controversy of Deforestation Environmental issues affect every life on this planet from the smallest parasite to the human race.
There are many resources that humans and animal needs to survive; some of the most obvious resources come from the forests. Deforestation is occurring all over the world, with all types of forests, and is one of the top environmental issues today. What Is Deforestation Deforestation is the clearing of land to convert it to non-forest uses (such as pasture, crop land, or commercial development).
The purpose of this paper is to highlight issues of deforestation and systematically identify its underlying causes, by incorporating the views of all stakeholders, forestry sector experts and policy makers from the federal, provincial and local levels. | https://xoreqapidagod.agronumericus.com/an-analysis-of-the-environmental-issues-and-the-principles-of-deforestation-20112pe6051.html |
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oregon & cascadia
18.Dec.2009 16:53
forest defense
|
health
Oregon BLM Herbicide Use Plan Needs Comments by January 4th
author: Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project Action Alert
[ This was posted previously with a December deadline, but the deadline has been extended according to the BLM. This is a horrific plan and will mess up water supplies and forests for decades... if not longer. Please write a comment! ]
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement, "Vegetation Treatments Using Herbicides on BLM Lands in Oregon" are available online at
http://www.blm.gov/or/plans/vegtreatmentseis/
.
*Mail comments (today) to: Vegetation Treatments EIS Team, POB 2965, Portland, OR 97208-2965, or email (but confirm receipt) to:
[email protected]
The Oregon Bureau of Land Management is currently proposing to increase toxic herbicide use on BLM public lands in Oregon from about 17,000 acres of herbicide spraying a year to control invasive plants to almost three times as much -- 45,000 acres a year, and to increase the number of herbicides used from four (two of which the Forest Service has stopped using due to high toxicity risks to the public, workers, and ground water) to 12 herbicides on the west-side of the Cascades and 16 on the east side, claiming that there is higher public acceptance of herbicide risks east of the Cascades. The BLM offers a narrow range of alternatives, rejecting public suggestions to increase the use of non-herbicide control methods, to reduce ground-disturbing activities that encourage the introduction and dispersal of invasive plants, to not allow aerial spraying of herbicides, which is more likely to damage crops, contaminate drinking water, and affect non-target native plants, wildlife, and people, and to prohibit use of the very potent Acetolactate Synthase-inhibiting herbicides (Chlorsulfuron, metsulfuron methyl, sulfometuron methyl, imazapic, and imazapyr) which are particularly risky to use in aerial spraying or boom spray applications.
Failing to incorporate or combine any of these public proposals and the suggestion of only using herbicides as a last resort, the BLM is offering 5 alternatives, four of which use herbicides, with alternative 1 being no herbicide use, which they admit they are not taking seriously, saying it is for comparison purposes only. Alt. 2 is the current amount of herbicide use with four herbicides, three of which ( 2,4-D, dicamba, and picloram) we think should be prohibited from use due to high toxicity, high potential for ground-water contamination, and long persistence in soils. Alt 3 would increase herbicide use to 30,000 acres a year (almost twice current use) with 11 herbicides used west of the Cascades and 13 on the east-side, and the most extreme option, alt. 5, would increase herbicide use to 50,000 acres a year with 18 different herbicides available for use throughout all of Oregon BLM public lands. Both alternatives 4 (the BLM's preferred alternative) and 5 include toxic herbicide control of native plants (not just exotics) in rights of way, recreational sites, administrative sites, and for theoretical improvement of habitat for federally listed Threatened species like the Sage grouse, who could be hurt by the toxic chemical use itself - uses for herbicides not currently allowed. Alt. 5 would allow herbicide use for any purpose (unspecified) which BLM staff desire, and appears to be an illegal alternative in that this makes it impossible to predict and analyze potential environmental impacts.
Most of the herbicides proposed for use are highly toxic to native, non-target plants, including rare plants, federally listed plants, medicinal, and edible plants, and may limit the abundance of and contaminate edible mushrooms; several pose serious human health risks (eg. cancer, reproductive impairment, endocrine disruption, liver failure) to recreationaists, forest workers, Native American subsistence gatherers, mushroom pickers, etc. Several of the herbicides proposed for use are known ground-water contaminants, some have high likelihood of damaging food or ornamental criops if aerially sprayed (aerial spraying is planned), some are toxic to fish, and some pose higher risks to wildlife - especially bees, birds, amphibians, and grazing mammals such as deer elk, pronghorn, and wild horses, as well as to small mammals and scavengers. Using a large number of herbicides, while touted as more effective for controlling invasive plants and often cheaper than using manual control methods, still means that in most cases they are redundant with each other for use on particular invasive plants, making most of them unnecessary.
Below are highlights of some of the reasons to be concerned about the BLM's proposal and information on which are the most toxic herbicides. The BLM could be asked to consider a potential compromise alternative using a smaller selection of only the least toxic herbicides only on exotic invasive plants, along with more emphasis on preventing the introduction and spread of invasives and using non-herbicide control methods more effectively and wherever possible.
IMPACTS TO HUMAN HEALTH: The following herbicides are assessed by the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service to be of the greatest risks to human health of those proposed for use: bromacil, diuron, tebuthiuon, diquat, 2,4-D, Hexazinone, and Triclopyr. Clopyralid and Picloram pose a potential cancer risk through contamination with hexachlorobenzene. 2,4-D, bromacil, diuron, tebuthiuron, and diquat pose risks to workers even at typical application rates.
Here's an example of the kind of human health risks one herbicide can present: "Pilots and aerial mixer-loaders face a risk for systemic, reproductive, and cancer effects from typical and maximum exposures to bromacil. Backpack and hand applicators, and ground applicators, mixer-loaders, and applicator/mixer-loaders are also at risk for systemic and reproductive effects from maximum exposures. Risks for systemic, reproductive, and cancer effects to wokers and the public are associated with accidental scenarios of spill to skin..., direct spray...., consumption of fish from a directly sprayed water body..., consumption of directly sprayed berries..., and drinking water contaminated by a truck spill or a jettison of mixture..." (BLM EIS p. 316 - no cancer risk cited for all by spills to skin exposure)
The variety of risks from diuron and tebuthiuron read similarly. Diuron is a suspected carcinogen and possible endocrine disrupter. The Natural Resources Defense Council has petitioned the EPA to cancel all registrations of the herbicide formula ingredient 2,4-D and all allowances for presence in food or water due to the EPA's failure to consider 2,4-D's effects of endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, mutagenicity, increased skin absorption under common conditions, and adverse developmental effects at doses below those in the EPA risk assessment for exposure of infants to 2,4-D in breast milk. (EIS p. 91) For applications at maximum rates or in accidental spill scenarios, the following herbicides also pose "low" to "high" risks to workers and the public" fluridone, chlosulfuron, clopyralid, and glyphosate. (EIS pp. 314-317)
The BLM admits that there would be less adverse effects to the public with only using non-herbicide methods and that they are already using non-herbicide control methods (weed-pulling, mowing, burning, grazing, etc.) for invasive plants over 716 acres and for native plants (eg. poison oak) over 400 acres. Yet the BLM plans to increase use of herbicides in recreational sites (campgrounds, rafting put-ins, viewpoints, Wilderness Areas, etc.) and thereby increase the potential for accidental exposure of recreationists and herbicide applicator workers to toxic chemicals. Popular berry-picking areas, commercial and recreational mushroom gathering areas, and Native cultural plant gathering areas could also be sprayed with toxic herbicides.
Aerial spraying of herbicides poses a greater risk to the public (as well as to crops, native plants, water quality, fish, and wildlife) due to off-site drift, yet the BLM still proposes it, only completely banning aerial use of dicamba with diflufenzopyr and sulfometuron. This allows aerial spraying of other herbicides highly toxic to humans such as 2,4-D and tebuthiuron. In Idaho in 2001 a "by the books" typical aerial spraying of sulfometuron methyl resulted in severe damage to thousands of acres of adjacent farmland crops the following year. (EIS p. 86) The EPA is considering prohibition of its use within 100 feet of water and in situations typical of dry Eastern Oregon (low annual rainfall and powdery dry soil or light sandy soil), suggesting that aerial spraying of the potent ALS-inhibiting herbicides should be prohibited. Aerial spraying should be avoided in general. Boom broadcast applications such as by ATV's are more hazardous to the public, fish, water quality, crops, and native plants than spot-spraying, yet spot-spraying is more risky to the workers, indicating the need to avoid the use of the most toxic herbicides. Children are at greater risk than adults.
DRINKING WATER, STREAM, AND FISH CONTAMINATION: Glyphosate can persist in the bottom sediments of aquatic environments with a degradation half-life of 12 days to 10 weeks. Recent studies detected solution phase glyphosate in 36% of 154 stream samples, and its acid degradation product in 69% of the samples. Glyphosate formulas with polyethoxylated tallow amine (POEA) surfactant is considerably more toxic to aquatic species - including fish- than other formulas. Yet glyphosate is registered for aquatic use and would be applied to wetlands and aquatic plants emerging from the water. (EIS p. 163)
Bromacil is mobile in soil, has a high potential to leach into groundwater, and is a known groundwater contaminant. (EIS p. 164) Chlorsulfuron is persistent in soils, has a long potential half-life in water (24 days to more than a year) and has high potential to leach into groundwater. Dicamba is mobile in soil, can contaminate surface water and has high potential to leach into ground water. It is a known groundwater contaminant in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. The EPA has set health advisory concentration levels for dicamba but has failed to set maximum concentration limits for drinkable water.
The EPA recently placed diuron on the drinking water contaminant candidate list (EPA 2008) yet the BLM is still proposing its use. Known aquatic dissipation half-lives of diuron range from 3 to 177 days. Movement through soil is known to have transported diuron and its metabolite to a stream and adjacent shallow groundwater. (Field et al 2003, EIS p. 165) :
Hexazinone and its degradates persist, are highly mobile, and are readily washed into surface waters. Hexazinone has been identified as a groundwater contaminant in seven states. The EPA requires a groundwater advisory on all product lables states that hexazinone should not be used on permeable soils. In areas where irrigation water is contaminated with hexazinone or where groundwater discharges to surface water, hexazinone residues in water could pose a threat to plants." (EIS p. 165) Hexazinone has been detected in streams near terrestrial application sites up to 30 days after application and reported in run-off up to 6 months post-application in a forest dissipation study. (Neary and Michael 1996; Michael et al. 1999, EIS p. 165) Potential for displacement of hexazinone and consequent impacts to crops or native plants seem too high for the BLM to be using it.
Imazapic is a new herbicide which has received little study. The herbicide label for the "Plateau" formula in which imazapic is the active ingredient, indicates that imazapic is a groundwater contaminant. (BASF 2004, EIS p. 165) Metsulfuron methyl has high potential to leach into groundwater but so far is not a reported groundwater contaminant according to the EIS. The three added herbicides - bromacil, diuron, and tebuthiuron- proposed for use in alt. 4 (but not alt 3) are all known groundwater contaminants.
Alt. 5 would add the use of diquat, a known groundwater contaminant that can de-oxygenate water if applied in large areas of water, hurting fish and other aquatic species. Yet this destructive herbicide is proposed for use largely to control Giant salvinia, which is not even known to occur in Oregon, which appears to be outside of its ecological habitat range. Alt.s 4 and 5 would also apply herbicides to more roads and rights of way.
As the EIS admits: "As more roads and rights-of-way (and thus more ditch lines) are treated, there is more potential for herbicide to enter water... bromacil, diuron, and tebuthiuron... are all persistent and mobile herbicides." (EIS p. 174) "Picloram can move off site through surface or subsurface runoff, and has been detected in the groundwater of 11 states (Howard 1991). Picloram... is not degraded rapidly in the environment (Tu et al. 2001). Concentrations in runoff have been reported to be great enough to damage crops, and could cause damage to certain submerged aquatic plants (Forsyth et al. 1997 cited in Tu et al. 2001)... the EPA reported it stable to hydrolysis and unlikely to degrade in ground water, even over several years (EPA 1995). Maximum picloram runoff generally occurs following the first significant rainfall, after which runoff concentrations drop to levels that persist up to 2 years post-application." (EIS p. 166) The toxicity, high mobility, and high persistence of picloram have caused us to advocate for prohibition of its use.
PROHIBIT USE OF THE MOST TOXIC HERBICIDES: Given that other, apparently less toxic and persistent herbicides are now available for use, the BLM should exercise its perogative and officially prohibit the use of the most toxic, persistent, mobile, and non-selective herbicides, including 2,4-D, picloram, dicamba, glyphosate with POEA surfactant, triclopyr BEE, bromacil, diuron, hexazinone, and tebuthiuron, which is another persistent groundwater contaminant known to contaminate streams and degrade slowly in aquatic systems. Just as the Forest Service Region 6 has dropped the use of 2,4-D and dicamba and is not even considering use of the very toxic diquat, diuron, bromacil, teburhiuron herbicides, so too can the BLM drop the planned use of the most toxic herbicides listed above plus picloram.
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We hope you'll help us fight needless risk to our wild land ecosystems, people, native plants, fish, and wildlife by sending in your comments so the BLM is aware of broader public concern. Thank you! Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project is also in great need of public financial support if you can contribute to help keep our work going. Please send donations to: League of Wilderness Defenders (for tax deduction), Blue Mountain Biodiversity Project, 27803 Williams Lane, Fossil, Oregon 97830. Call us with any questions: voice mail: (541) 385-9167.
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement, "Vegetation Treatments Using Herbicides on BLM Lands in Oregon" are available online at
http://www.blm.gov/or/plans/vegtreamentseis/
. Or call Todd Thompson, BLM Restoration Coordinator at (503) 808-6326 for a hard copy to be mailed to you.
*Mail comments to: Vegetation Treatments EIS Team, POB 2965, Portland, OR 97208-2965, or email (but confirm receipt) to: | http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/12/396225.shtml |
Were Vets Who Served in Guam Exposed to Agent Orange and Denied Benefits?
The life-changing damage done by the Agent Orange herbicide continues to haunt American soldiers who served during the Vietnam War. It took years for the government to yield to pressure and acknowledge the devastating effects of the chemical. Many Vietnam veterans have been compensated for the debilitating illnesses but others who served outside Vietnam continue to be denied benefits by the VA. Diane Dimond spoke with a group of these forgotten veterans, and heard from some that they fear they will die before receiving treatment and justice from the country they served.
Air Force Master Sergeant LeRoy Foster is a monumental pain in the ass to the Veterans Administration. He has been leading a small army fighting the VA’s years-long refusal to grant Agent Orange benefits to hundreds of veterans who served on Guam during the Vietnam Era.
Foster served as a Fuels Specialist assigned to the 43rd Supply Squadron at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, from September 1968 until June 1978. Part of his duties included getting rid of weeds and other vegetation on the base. In sworn testimony to the U.S. Congress and in several affidavits to the VA Foster maintains that Agent Orange—which contains deadly TCDD dioxin—was among the defoliants he regularly mixed and loaded into his 750 gallon trailer-mounted sprayer and dispersed base-wide.
The government’s own analysis of chemicals present in the island’s soil and resolutions passed by Guam’s legislature also suggest that Agent Orange was among the herbicides routinely used on the Air Force base. Despite this evidence, the DOD continues to deny that Agent Orange was ever used on Guam and has refused to award afflicted veterans the disability coverage that has become standard for those who were harmed by the chemical in Vietnam.
Foster, 65, is the rare exception. He finally won his VA claim for Agent Orange benefits in January 2011 after producing medical records from 1968 when he was treated at Andersen AFB for chloracne—an oily, painful condition of cysts and pustules that erupts on a dioxin-exposed person’s cheeks, arms, torso and groin area. While chloracne is not exclusively attributed to Agent Orange, it is consistent with the symptoms caused by dioxin and the VA, when it reviewed Foster’s claims, did not dispute them or offer alternative explanations for his condition.
Hundreds of other Guam-based veterans from that era have also filed VA claims citing exposure to Agent Orange as the cause of their health problems but the vast majority has seen their cases rejected.
Numerous VA records examined by The Daily Beast reveal that out of the 270 claims filed by Guam-based veterans for Agent Orange–related illnesses, fewer than 10 have been approved. Among the diseases afflicting the group are: Hodgkin’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, chloracne, prostate or respiratory cancers, soft tissue sarcoma, diabetes mellitus (Type 2), chronic B-cell leukemia and ischemic heart disease.
The VA declined to provide comment for this story but in their own official response to claims filed by veterans, two issues are commonly cited for denying benefits: the lack of surviving records proving that Agent Orange was present on Guam and the fact that claims were filed too long after the initial exposure occurred. Testimony from Foster and others that the chemical drums used for spraying were marked with the telltale orange stripe that gives the herbicide its name has not been enough to overturn the government’s official denial.
The Department of Defense is resolute on the issue. “There was never any Agent Orange on Guam,” public information officer Lt. Col Jeff Pool told The Daily Beast recently. “The D.O.D has found no records of the use, storage or testing of Agent Orange on Guam."
Pool said the DOD recently conducted an “exhaustive” nine month examination of stateside shipping documents from the Vietnam-era after similar Agent Orange claims were made by Vietnam vets stationed on Okinawa. The study of these hardcopy records took place at 16 different locations, according to the DOD, and found, “No source documents that validate the claims that Agent Orange was shipped to, or through, unloaded, stored, used or buried,” at any U.S. military installation outside the immediate area of Vietnam.
MSgt Foster says that this is preposterous and that he spent years spraying “over a million gallons” of the damaging herbicide all over vegetation at Andersen AFB. Other eyewitness vets at the base have backed up Foster’s story.
“The DOD has its canned response,” Foster said in a telephone conversation from his home in Westfield, New York. “The dioxin is there on Guam. It didn’t get there by accident.”
Though the DOD has been consistent in denying any Agent Orange use at Andersen Air Base, the VA’s position has been harder to pin down. On its official website the VA states that:
“You must prove that you were exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides during your military service to be eligible for service-connection for diseases VA presumes are related to Agent Orange exposure.”
But the VA has never explained why it approved giving benefits to Foster, who only submitted his paperwork in 2009, and denied them to the majority of his fellow vets who served on Andersen AFB during the same period and exhibit similar symptoms.
Many of these aging vets fighting for medical care bitterly complain that the military they proudly served has turned against them. Some privately question whether the government deliberately destroyed records of Agent Orange use in Guam in order to evade responsibility and payment for the harm it caused.
While the DOD continues to deny Agent Orange was ever present on Guam its findings appear to contradict the reports from other groups, including another government agency.
The official measurement made by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in a 2002 Public Health Report put the dioxin soil contamination at Andersen AFB at an astronomical 19,000 ppm (parts per million). According to the EPA, safe levels have been placed at below 1 ppb (parts per billion).
Advisory reports assessing risk for potential investors in Monsanto and Dow Chemical, two manufacturers of Agent Orange, state in nearly identical language: “Soldiers stationed on Guam who handled Agent Orange have become ill and symptoms of TCCD (dioxin) poisoning are apparent in the general population of the island as well.” The report goes on to quantify the “extraordinary level of contamination” still apparent when it was written in 2004.
In 2008, Guam’s legislature passed a resolution petitioning the U.S. government to acknowledge the use of Agent Orange on the island and requesting inclusion in the “Agent Orange Equity Act,” which granted benefits to areas that were officially recognized as being contaminated by the chemicals use. The resolution also addressed the VA’s stance.
“…The VA procedures have also resulted in an unjustified withholding of benefits for military and civilian workers in staging areas for the Vietnam War such as Guam through which military personnel munitions equipment and supplies including herbicides containing Agent Orange were shipped.”
Health officials in Washington first began to acknowledge that the widely used Agent Orange was a health hazard beginning in 1970 but it wasn’t banned by the Environmental Protection Agency until 1979.
Today, the VA recognizes 15 Agent Orange related diseases. Foster’s various illnesses have left him in a wheelchair to fight, among other maladies, Type 2 diabetes, ischemic heart disease, spinal stenosis, and degenerative joint and disc disease. Foster stands as an anomaly—a modern-day, human Catch 22. The DOD denies that he could have been exposed to Agent Orange yet the VA has awarded him disability payments specifically tied to the deadly herbicide's effects.
Foster says his VA claim probably succeeded where hundreds of others have failed because he has been so vocal. Since he began fighting, Foster has deluged the Agency and Congress with mountains of documentation, eye-witness accounts to his spraying activities and testimonials from sick Andersen AFB colleagues. Foster traveled to Washington in both 2010 and again in 2012 to speak to members of the Senate and House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. He has written directly to President Obama. He says he is motivated by the guilt he feels over the illnesses and deaths of his Guam-based comrades.
“This is why I do not sleep at night,” Foster wrote in a recent letter to his VA counselor. “This is what I carry around in me all day long and all night long for I am directly responsible for their deaths. I am responsible for the continuing suffering on Guam by so many children and so many young adults who have no idea what I did there.”
Many of the Guam-based vets point to studies about Vietnam’s Agent Orange contamination and say they show that the herbicides Foster sprayed forty years ago still remain in Guam’s soil, water table and food chain—just as it does in Vietnam. These vets blame the herbicide's aftereffects for the miscarriages and birth defects among military dependents as well as the civilian population on Guam. Perhaps not coincidentally, the island does have a higher than normal cancer rate, especially rare leukemia-type cancers in children.
Despite the health problems on the island, no official acknowledgment or funding for treatment has come out of the 2008 resolution by Guam’s legislature.
Veteran’s Law attorney Katrina Eagle of San Diego has won cases for two Guam-based vets and currently represents several more. The claims, “never move swiftly” through the VA system, Eagle said with a sigh, and most require a lengthy appeal process.
“It is an arbitrary law,” Eagle told The Daily Beast, referring to the regulations dictating officially recognized Agent Orange zones. “It draws the line between the land mass of Vietnam and everywhere else. If you had boots on the ground in Vietnam you are automatically assumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange,” and thus qualify for benefits.
“Guam is its own Pandora’s box,” according to Eagle. After the VA has heard so much firsthand testimony and seen the drum photos, she says, “Everybody knows that stuff (Agent Orange) was there but they keep on with a wink-wink denying it.”
Even when tests on Guam-based vets turn up high dioxin levels in their blood, Eagle says that’s not enough. “That you have something in your bloodstream isn’t going to get you anything from the VA,” she said. “You have to prove an actual disability” stemming from military service.
The U.S. government has never been hasty about accepting responsibility for the health scourge left by Agent Orange. It wasn’t until August 2012 that the U.S. offered a $43 million four-year toxic cleanup project for sites in Vietnam. That slow reaction gives many Guam-based vets little hope that they will live to see Washington recognize their health problems.
In another strange turn, it was Chuck Hagel, the current secretary of Defense who once presented himself as a stalwart advocate for veterans affected by Agent Orange.
In his 1981 testimony to the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Hagel responded to a question about the VA moving too slowly on Agent Orange claims.
“There is nobody who wants to get this resolved worse that I, simply because I have a very personal interest in this issue. I may have been sprayed along with my brother who spent a year with me in Vietnam. So, I stand behind no one as far as wanting to get this issue resolved.”
Responding to a request for comment, the DOD told The Daily Beast that Secretary Hagel has nothing to say on the issue of Agent Orange in Guam.
Among the many that have been rejected for Agent Orange benefits is Sgt. Ralph Stanton, 64, of Savannah, Missouri who became reunited with MSgt Foster 40 years after they both left Guam. Foster mentioned his war-time buddy in an April 12, 2012 letter to President Obama.
“I was the guy he used to call, “the little bastard,” as I use (sic) to make him sick when I came by spraying the Agent Orange … on the security/perimeter fences,” Foster wrote in a letter pleading with the President to add Guam to the official list of Agent Orange locations. Foster mentioned the guilt he cannot shake.
“I feel responsible for all of these men, women and children (who became) ill because of what I did there for our country,” Foster wrote. “My only grandchild was born … with multiple birth defects (twelve toes and twelve fingers, a heart murmur and now they think she may be autistic.)”
Both Foster and Stanton have children and grandchildren who are plagued with the same birth defects as reported in post-war children born in Vietnam. According to them, birth defects are common among the Guam veterans from their era. However, the latest Institute of Medicine report on Veterans and Agent Orange says more study is needed on the question of “paternally transmitted effects to offspring.”
But, the liability assessment reports produced for Monsanto and Dow Chemical investors assert that, “TCDD has been shown in laboratory animals to have multigenerational impacts, not just on the offspring of exposed animals, but on the next generation as well.”
President Obama did not answer Foster’s letter but this past Memorial Day he said to the nation, “Let’s resolve to take care of our veterans … Not just in the first five years after a war, but the first five decades. For our Vietnam veterans, this means the disability benefits for diseases connected to Agent Orange.”
MSgt. Foster ruefully says, “It's hollow words until they actually do something.”
Foster and Stanton have knitted together a coalition of their fellow Guam-based vets. Stanton, who worked at Andersen’s fuels maintenance shop and burned excess fuel in empty Agent Orange drums, now suffers from diabetes, heart trouble, chloracne eruptions on his torso and arms, kidney disease, and a degenerating spine. He established a detailed website about what he says was the toxic contamination left on Guam. He is writing a book about his experiences on with the military and the VA and with the help of Katrina Eagle he continues to appeal his rejected VA claim for benefits.
“They can do whatever they want,” Stanton told a radio host recently. “They can turn it down because you didn’t dot an “I.” Then, you can appeal and they’ll find a “T” you didn’t cross. If it was a real court of law we would have won our cases because we have our evidence. But the VA doesn’t want to hear it.”
In 1992, the Environmental Protection Agency put Andersen AFB on the list of Superfund sites, noting the area was vastly contaminated with dioxins, pesticides, trichloroethylene and other soil and water toxins. More than 20 years later, the base remains on the priority cleanup list and is currently home to more than 8,000 people—military personnel, their families and civilians. There is a plan underway, confirmed by the DOD’s Lt. Col. Pool, to transfer an additional 5,000 Marines from a base in Okinawa, “sometime in the near future.”
Those veterans who spoke with The Daily Beast about their service on Guam and the sickness they attribute to their time on the tiny island, shake their heads in disbelief that anyone still populates the highly contaminated Andersen AFB. Along with many concerned civilian Guamanians they worry that the U.S. military is risking the health of even more people, including children, while it denies the suffering visited on the last generation. | http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-hero-project/articles/2013/09/25/were-vets-who-served-in-guam-exposed-to-agent-orange-and-denied-benefits.html |
The U.S. Department of Defense developed Agent Orange as a tactical herbicide used to remove trees and dense tropical vegetation during the Vietnam War. In the process, about 5 million acres of vegetation were destroyed. The name Agent Orange comes from the orange stripe on the 55-gallon drums used to store the chemical.
Agent Orange is an herbicide/defoliant that causes leaves to fall off of plants and contains dioxin. Dioxin is a highly toxic environmental contaminant produced by industrial waste. The toxic dioxin component in Agent Orange, known as TCDD, can be very harmful even in trace amounts, but exposure is rare.
However, U.S. military personnel serving in Vietnam between 1962 and 1875 are “presumed to have been exposed to herbicides” (including Agent Orange), according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Vietnamese citizens were also exposed to the chemical.
Prolonged exposure to Agent Orange is believed to cause birth defects and some cancers. Side effects of trace (or small) exposures are still being investigated.
The Danang airbase in Vietnam where Agent Orange was stored continues to be a hot spot for dioxin contamination. Since the Vietnam War, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned the use of any herbicide that contains some of the most harmful dioxins, reducing dangerous exposures to TCDD in the U.S.
For more information about Agent Orange, visit the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs Agent Orange webpage. | https://www.illinoispoisoncenter.org/health-safety/house-and-garage/agent-orange |
Dioxins or CCD (chlorinated dibenzo-p-Dioxins) describe a family of organic compounds that are chemically similar; including PCB’s and TCDD’s. TCDD, the dioxin present in Agent Orange, is considered the most toxic of dioxin compounds. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registration reports that TCDD exposure in animals causes weakened immune systems, reproductive and birth defects, weight loss, liver damage, and hormonal abnormalities.
Both the World Health Organization and the Department of Health and Human Services concur: TCDD is a cancer agent.Cancer agents are compounds that have been proven to cause cancer through altering DNA or DNA expression of proteins. As this carcinogen alters the DNA of those originally exposed, it alters the heritable material (DNA) passed down to their children. Children of today’s generation are still being born with deformities from parents who were exposed to the foliage contaminated by the United States during the Vietnam war.11
Toxicity of Dioxins:
The toxicity of dioxin compounds is attributed to their structure which is extremely stable and not naturally occuring. Similar molecules such as PCP’s, or polychlorinated biphenyl, are dioxin compounds produced for industrial uses such as coolants and electrical work. PCP’s are not easily flammable and can withstand high levels of heat and combustion.
As their name suggests, dioxins are chemical structures comprised of carbon, hydrogen, and two oxygens. CCD’s are a chlorinated version of this dioxin molecule. Chlorines bond to the dioxin structure through the manufacturing processes – synthesizing CCD’s. All CCD’s are toxins and their potency increases as the degree chlorination increases. TCDD, or tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, is simply a CCD that has four chlorine molecules attached. TCDD was initially produced as a byproduct of manufacturing herbicides and pulp bleaching for producing paper.5 TCCD is most commonly known as a byproduct of the synthesis of the herbicide Agent Orange.
Dioxin compounds are extremely hazardous because of their unyielding stability. This stability is also what makes these compounds so useful in industry. Their stable structure prevents them from being broken down or decomposing. Current research is developing techniques capable of reducing toxicity in dioxin like compounds with low degrees of chlorination, however the more toxic compounds such as TCDD retain their toxicity and currently remain unable to be broken down.
Consequences:
In spite of their cessation of production in 1979, TCDD and their CCD relatives continue to circulate within the environment. Agent Orange was developed as an herbicide – to kill the leaves of plants and trees.7 An unfortunate side effect is that their power of destruction and deformity is not limited to leaves. Dioxins easily permeate skin: the largest protective organ in humans and animals. TCDD presence contaminates water and soil – plants uptake the contaminated water, animals eat the contaminated plants, and humans are subsequently and continually exposed if it is present in the environment. The CDC reports that animal exposure results in a variety of symptoms including altered reproductive function, abnormal liver enzyme levels, tumor development, and premature death.8
Dioxin like compounds accumulate within the fatty tissue of animals and humans – their bodies are not equipped to detoxify it.6 Dioxin compounds then hijack the cell’s AHR receptors and gain access into their cells nuclei.9 The AHR pathway is regulated by AHR receptors that reuptake their substrate into the nucleus. Nuclei are present in all eukaryotic cells and contain the DNA that becomes trait-characterizing protein through a process referred to as the central dogma. Protein transcription is essential for life. A simple single base replacement, deletion, or insertion into a coding region of DNA could have detrimental effects.
While the injuries and deformations an individual acquires during their lifetime are not transmitted to their children, mutated DNA – altered genetic information – potentially could be. Many genetic mutations are silent or harmless and do not affect bodily function. However, if the wrong gene undergoes a mutation, the effect can be detrimental. Classified as both a cancer agent and an extremely toxic substance, TCDD without a doubt has a detrimental effect on the health, and reproductive capabilities of those exposed and can cause mutations and deformities in their offspring and generations to follow.
The longer an individual is exposed to a carcinogen, the more likely they will be negatively affected. Agent Orange, with it’s resistance to degradation, continues to circulate within the environment it contaminated so many years ago in Vietnam. The people, plants, and animals that have developed and grown up in the presence of this cancer-causing agent and mutagen would be expected to exhibit and experience health defects. When a carcinogen that cannot be detoxified enters an organism’s body, it puts anyone exposed now or in subsequent generations at risk.
Conclusions:
Considering that TCDD is a potent member of a broader family of dioxin-like compounds and is classified as a cancer agent, exposure to this chemical would predictably present numerous health risks, much like deformities rampant in children born today in Vietnam. Established research has shown the detrimental effects of TCDD on animals, therefore it is suggested that TCDD would also have detrimental effects on humans such as cancer, deformities, disease, and other health deficits.
Carcinogens pose a particular threat when they effect DNA and its expression into proteins. TCDD cannot be broken down – it’s presence may have the same detrimental effect on subsequent generations as it does on the initially exposed generation. Longer exposure to a harmful chemical yields more damage, and the longer a harmful compound such as TCDD remains circulating in the environment, the longer it will continue to cause birth defects and abnormalities of the people, plants, and animals living in that environment. Although medical literature is controversial in its consensus about what causes Vietnam’s high birth defect rate compared to other countries, the International Journal of Epidemiology published a study concluding that “parental exposure to Agent Orange appears to be associated with an increased risk of birth defects.10”
Based on the toxicity/behavior of TCDD/Agent Orange and the high birth defect rate of Vietnam, it is ridiculous to not associate the chemical with its apparent consequences. At An Phuc, we believe the United States should be held accountable for indirectly terrorizing future generations from those who were alive during the war. The United States should firstly be providing compensation to military and civilian victims, and should secondarily be conducting more research in attempt to lessen the effects of the seemingly indestructible chemical as time goes on.
If you have any experience applying for research grants and would like to help fund research on rates of Vietnamese birth defects, please email [email protected]
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We provide DIRECT aid to the contaminated people of South East Asia.
- https://veterans.perkinslawtalk.com/post/agent-orange-rainbow-herbicides-and-va-benefits/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2583464/
- https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/basics.asp
- https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tfacts104.pdf
- http://www.greenfacts.org/en/dioxins/l-3/dioxins-1.htm
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309342525_Chemical_Degradation_of_PCDDF_in_Contaminated_Sediment
- https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/38264#section=Depositor-Provided-PubMed-Citations
- https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/pgms/worknotify/dioxinmedstudy.html
- http://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(05)00860-5/pdf
- https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/35/5/1220/762051
- “A Tale of An Phuc House.” Ivan Tankushev. 2012. Film. | https://anphucinternational.org/index.php/2018/04/10/americas-secret-chemical-weapon-agent-orange-dioxin/ |
Seminar discusses long-term effects of dioxin
Le Ke Son, Chief of the office of the national steering committee on overcoming the consequences of toxic chemicals used by the US during the war in Vietnam (Office 33), said the latest research outcomes show that dioxin is complicated and harmful.
Therefore, the prevention of dioxin contamination requires adequate investment, close connectivity and international cooperation, he said.
Son noted that thanks to the attention and resolve of the Vietnamese Government and scientists, dioxin contaminated hot spots at Da Nang, Phu Cat and Bien Hoa airbases have been sealed off for environmental remediation.
Reports presented at the workshop focused on measures to surmount the long-term consequences of the toxic chemicals on the environment and human health, birth deformities and reproductive abnormalities in a handful of dioxin contaminated hot spots, and hormone changes among those exposed to dioxin.
Delegates stressed the need to increase cooperation between the Vietnamese Government and social organisations, and the international community, especially in the fields of scientific research, support for AO victims and environmental treatment.
Scientific studies reveal that dioxin seriously affects the ecological system and human health, causing cancer, damage to the nervous and immune systems, and birth deformities, among others.
According to the Vietnam Association of Victims of AO/dioxin, between 1961 and 1971, the US army sprayed 80 million litres of herbicides, including nearly 400 kg of dioxin, onto the southern battlefield.
Among 4.8 million people exposed to the toxic chemical, about 3 million are AO victims.
The event was jointly held by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Science and Technology.-VNA
Your comments about this article ... | https://en.vietnamplus.vn/seminar-discusses-longterm-effects-of-dioxin/85224.vnp |
Worst Man-Made Environmental Disasters
While natural disasters can do much damage and devastation, some of the worst environmental disasters in history have been caused by people. Some are accidental. Some are speculated to be the work of government conspiracy. The 33 disasters on this list are ordered chronologically starting with the most recent, though they could be grouped by type. Moreover, the repetition of disaster types supports the argument that humans have failed to really learn from past mistakes. If this argument is correct, we may be adding another disaster to the top of the list fairly soon, but for now, here are our top picks among some of the world's worst man-made environmental disasters.
- The
Ones that Made History
- BP Gulf Oil Spill
- Tennessee Coal Ash Spill
- Sidoarjo Mud Volcano
- Jilin
- Al-Mishraq Fire
- West Virginia/Kentucky Coal Sludge Spill
- Baia Mare Cyanide Spill
- Libby, Montana Asbestos Contamination
- Gulf War Oil Spill
- Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
- Chernobyl
- Chevron Oil Refinery Spill
- Bhopal India Gas Leak
- Meltdown at Three Mile Island
- Amoco Cadiz
- Cactus Dome Marshall Islands
- Seveso
- Times Beach Missouri Dioxin Contamination
- Fire Hole in Turkmenistan
- The Palomares Incident
- Ecocide in Vietnam
- Castle Bravo
- London's "Great Smog" 1952
- Love Canal
- Minamata Bay toxic poisoning
- The Great Dustbowl
- Alabama PCB Poisoning
- Ongoing Disasters
The Ones that Made History
BP Gulf Oil Spill
Now ranked as largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, the BP spill resulted from the April 20,2010 Deepwater Horizon Drilling rig explosion. Hundreds of millions of gallons of oil have been spilled to date and it continues to damage marine and wildlife habitats along with the Gulf's fishing and tourism industry.
Tennessee Coal Ash Spill
On December 22, 2008, a wall holding back 80 acres of sludge - a byproduct of the ash from coal combustion - from the TN Valley Authority's Fossil Plant, gave way. It unleashed over a billion gallons of toxic sludge in Kingston, Tennesee. At least 300 acres of surrounding land were affected and 15 homes destroyed. The land is now contaminated with arsenic, mercury and lead.
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Sidoarjo Mud Volcano
In May 2006, gas drilling on the island of Java in Indonesia resulted in a "mud volcano" killing 13 people. Since then, hot sulfuric mud has been gushing from the ground in Sidoarjo and is expected to expand and erupt for 30 more years.
Jilin
A chemical plant exploded in Jilin City in China in November 2005, polluting the Songhua River with an estimated 100 tons of pollutants containing benzene and nitrobenzene entering the water. 10,000 residents were evacuated.
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Al-Mishraq Fire
In 2003, a fire in a sulphur plant near Mosul, Iraq released 21 thousand tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere each day for nearly a month. Many people were hospitalized and most of the area's vegetation was destroyed as a result.
West Virginia/Kentucky Coal Sludge Spill
In October of 2000, 300 million gallons of coal sludge from mining operations flooded land, polluted rivers and destroyed property in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, killing everything in 100 miles of stream all the way to the Ohio River. Investigations were stopped short by the Bush Administration.
Baia Mare Cyanide Spill
On Jan 30, 2000, a dam restraining water from a gold-mining operation in Romania, in the town of Baia Mare, broke. The water was contaminated with 55-110 tons of cyanide and other heavy metals and traveled through several rivers in Romania, Hungary and Yugoslavia, eventually reaching the Danube river. Massive amounts of fish and aquatic plants were killed and up to 100 people were hospitalized after eating contaminated fish.
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Libby, Montana Asbestos Contamination
W. R. Grace Plant in Libby, Montana spewed tremolite asbestos over the town for decades killing over 200 people and sickening over 1,000. The company knowingly released asbestos and tried to hide its dangers from residents and is now bankrupt after facing 270,000 asbestos-related lawsuits. Residents have been facing the effects of this disaster since 1999.
Gulf War Oil Spill
In 1991, Iraqi soldiers leaving Kuwait purposely spilled eight million barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf to prevent a landing by the U.S. Marines. Wildlife was damaged in the Gulf and in surrounding areas in Iraq and Kuwait. Ten years later, marshlands and tidal flats still contained significant amounts of oil.
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill
On the coast of Alaska in 1989, Exxon Valdez oil tanker accidentally struck a reef releasing 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound eventually covering 11,000 miles of ocean. The spill killed 250,000 sea birds, 2,800 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 orcas and billions of salmon and herring eggs and still affects many shore-dwelling animals in the area to this day.
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Chernobyl
An explosion at the core of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl nuclear power plant in April 1986 released more than 50 tons of radioactive material into the air above the Ukraine. According to Ukranian officials, 4,000 people died and 70,000 were disabled by radiation-related illness.
Chevron Oil Refinery Spill
In 1985, authorities discovered that 252 million gallons of oil and chemicals had been dumped into aquifers beneath the refinery from decades of leaking pipes and tanks. As a result, the city of Los Angeles had to supply electricity to pump clean water across the state by burning fossil fuels, which led to increases in air pollution, asthma and global warming.
Bhopal India Gas Leak
This has been called the world's worst catastrophe. On December 2-3, 1984, methyl isocyanite gas leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, near Madhya Pradesh in India, resulting in the exposure of over 500,000 people. Twenty-thousand deaths since the leak can be attributed to the accident, which killed 3,000 people in a few days and is linked to hundreds of thousands of illnesses since.
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Meltdown at Three Mile Island
On March 28, 1979, A partial core meltdown at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania was followed by the release of radioactive gases into the atmosphere. Speculation over whether enough radiation was released to cause significant harm has been up in the air since. Parents of children born with birth defects and other residents accused PA of hiding the health impacts of the accident. Class-action lawsuits have been filed, but no hearings have been allowed.
Amoco Cadiz
Ranked as the fifth largest oil spill in history, the Amoco Cadiz, bearing 1.6 million barrels of oil, sank into the Atlantic Ocean near Portsall in March 1978.
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Cactus Dome Marshall Islands
In the late 1970's the US government dug up 111,000 cubic yards of radioactive debris left by nuclear test explosions in the Marshall Islands, and deposited it on Runit Island into a 350-foot wide crater left by the nuclear tests. The area, which is still radioactive, was then covered by an enormous, 100,000 square-foot concrete dome.
Seveso
In July of 1976, an explosion at a chemical manufacturing plant north of Milan in Italy released TCDD, a dioxin, into the atmosphere. The nearby town of Seveso was most affected. Within days 3,300 animals died and many more were slaughtered to prevent the spread of disease into the food chain. Children were hospitalized with skin inflamation and nearly 500 people were found to have skin lesions.
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Times Beach Missouri Dioxin Contamination
From 1972-1976, roads were sprayed with an oil mix created in a factory that once produced Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, leading to a complete evacuation of Times Beach. The drying and dusting of the road surface resulted in the largest civilian exposure to dioxin in the US.
Fire Hole in Turkmenistan
The desert in Turkmenistan has a 328-foot-wide hole that has been on fire, continuously, for 38 years. The hole was caused by a drilling rig accident in 1971 that caused the ground to collapse and the rig to fall in. When poisonous fumes began leaking from the hole, the Soviets set it on fire to avoid a deadly catastrophe.
The Palomares Incident
On January 17, 1966, a bomber collided with a tanker during mid-air refueling and two of four hydrogen bombs hit the ground and detonated, resulting in the contamination of a 490-acre area with radioactive plutonium, off of Spain's coast.
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Ecocide in Vietnam
Ecocide refers to an herbicide disaster in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. In order to keep communists from hiding in the jungle's vegetation, starting in 1961, the U.S. Army sprayed it with herbicides like Agent Orange. The toxic spray caused cancer, birth defects and disabilities.
Castle Bravo
This is the name of the thermonuclear weapon that was being tested by the United States and upon detonation, released 15 megatons of radiation - 1,000 times stronger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. This radioactive disaster happened at Bikini Atoll on March 1, 1954, in the Pacific Ocean and caused birth defects, illness and death among residents of the surrounding islands.
London's "Great Smog" 1952
In December of 1952 an acid-infused smog engulfed London for 4 days killing 4,000 people in a single month. Eight thousand later deaths are attributed to the pollution, which is believed to be mainly sulfur dioxide. British Parliament passed the Clean Air Act to mitigate the risk of future smog.
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Love CanalThis neighborhood in Niagra Falls became a dumping ground for toxic waste in the 1920's when William T. Love abandoned his attempt to build a canal. In the 1940's, Hooker Chemical began dumping industrial waste in the canal and covering it with dirt. The waste was exposed in the 1950's when the local school board bought the land for $1 and two years later construction on the dumping site began to expose the toxic waste to local residents who suffered from serious health problems including asthma, miscarriages and mental retardation, as a result of the toxins. It was these problems that brought Love Canal into national headlines. A survey found that 56 percent of the children born in that area from 1974-1978 had birth defects.
Minamata Bay toxic poisoning
From 1932-1968, Chisso Corporation, a petrochemical plant, dumped 27 tons of a poisonous toxic mercury compound into Japan's Minimata Bay, causing symptoms such as tremors, brain damage and vision problems in nearby residents. Other, long-term repercussions include death, insanity, birth defects and deformities.
The Great Dustbowl
1930-1936. Also known as the "Dirty Thirties," 1930-1936 marks a period of severe dust storms in the drought-stricken American and Canadian prairie regions, caused by drought and extensive farming without soil conservation to prevent erosion. The soil dried and turned to dust and blew away in large dark clouds; farmland became useless and many were forced to leave their homes.
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Alabama PCB Poisoning
Corporate giant Monsanto dumped toxic waste into West Anniston Creek for nearly 40 years along with millions of pounds of now-banned industrial PCB's into open-pit landfills. Fish were killed instantly. Monsanto tried to cover it up for decades and denied that PCB's were even dangerous. The corporation remains unapologetic to this day.
Ongoing Disasters
The Aral Sea
The Aral Sea has shrunk by 90 percent, due to a Soviet project to boost cotton production. Once the world's fourth-largest lake, its evaporation has now left behind layers of highly-salted sand which winds can carry as far as Scandinavia and Japan and which plague local residents with health problems.
Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone
Over 8,000 square miles of oxygen-deprived water in the Gulf of Mexico - highly polluted and nearly devoid of wildlife.
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Great Pacific Garbage Patch
This is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean, including plastics, chemical sludge and debris, that is roughly the size of Texas and contains 3.5 million tons of trash. Fish are ingesting plastics and other toxins at a fast rate and they will soon be unsafe to eat.
Guiyu China
Guiyu is the world's second most polluted place on the planet, due to the dumping, dissembling, burning and acid soaking of enormous amounts of electronic trash.
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The Niger Delta
This is an ongoing disaster with 7,000 oil spills occurring between 1970-2000. The Nigerian government and oil companies continue to ignore the problem.
Picher, Oklahoma Lead Contamination
In Picher, Oklahoma, gigantic piles of lead-laced mine waste covered 25,000 acres and poisoned local residents eventually causing evacuation of the town. | http://www.filtersfast.com/articles/Worst-Man-Made-Environmental-Disasters.php |
The primary cause of Harmful Effects of Deforestation? is logging, which causes deforestation in several ways.. First of all, logging requires large areas of forest to be cleared, and large equipment needs access to them. In addition, the clearing of forests for roads also destroys forest cover, reducing the canopy that protects plants, animals, and insects. Lastly, the thinning of the forest canopy reduces the biodiversity of the area, which is especially harmful for countries with tropical forests.
Effects of Deforestation on The Environment
The destruction of forests also impacts the environment. Deforestation has caused huge amounts of soil erosion around the world, causing the soil to be unusable for agriculture. In addition, deforestation raises the river bed, which increases the risk of flooding. Additionally, the sediments in rivers and oceans harm fish eggs and coral reefs, and pollute the water. These are just some of the harmful effects of deforestation.
Deforestation Solutions
Large-scale deforestation has a detrimental impact on biodiversity, resulting in the extinction of one species. It can also affect the food chain, as a species that is endangered can quickly replace it. The economic benefits of deforestation are short-lived but often accompanied by reduced long-term productivity. Soil erosion is the most significant threat to our planet’s ecosystem. Moreover, a global decline in deforestation will cause a dramatic decrease in the amount of water available to other organisms.
Widespread Deforestation
The drier climate that we live in is a direct result of widespread deforestation. Because trees are natural reservoirs of water, they hold back large amounts of rainwater. This means that a country will be more prone to floods as a result of deforestation. Thus, it’s vital to put strict regulations on logging trees and to make farmers aware of the negative impacts of the practice.
Effects of Deforestation Wikipedia
The effects of deforestation can be felt by all of us. The destruction of forest land is detrimental to the environment. It also causes drought and extreme temperature swings. As a result, the deforestation of forests has become a major source of global warming. Consequently, it must be prevented and halted. And in addition to its impact on people, it is also a significant contributor to the economy.
Changing Climates
In addition to the loss of forest habitat, deforestation can lead to desertification. Changing climates can also impact human health. Despite these threats, there are many ways to reduce deforestation and save the environment. It’s not only important to stop the destruction of forests, but it’s also necessary to make sure that humans are not causing any damage. This can be done by reducing the number of trees, but it can also lead to a change in weather patterns.
Impact Of Deforestation On Environment
A deforested landscape is a threat to the natural water cycle. Without the trees, the ground will not be able to absorb as much water, leading to floods and soil erosion. In addition to increasing the number of pollutants, a deforested area also contributes to the loss of trees and their habitats. As a result, humans must make a conscious effort to reduce deforestation to protect the environment.
Negatively Impact of Deforestation on Environment
Human deforestation also negatively impacts the environment and biodiversity. As a result, it reduces the amount of oxygen in the air and makes the oceans more acidic. Consequently, the loss of forests also increases the risk of drought, floods, and natural disasters. For example, the loss of forest cover in West Africa increased the incidence of malaria in the region, which is a major cause of the disease.
Widespread and Damaging
While the destruction of forests has been linked to the eradication of species, the impact on human populations is more widespread and damaging. The destruction of forests causes the deforestation of forests and the resulting degradation of ecosystems. This is a major cause of global warming, and the effects of deforestation on the environment are devastating to human civilizations. These factors can be costly for many people. If you want to know how to reduce the effects of deforestation, read on.
Negative Effects is Soil Erosion
Among the most significant of these negative effects is soil erosion. As a result, the deforested area becomes unusable for agriculture. Furthermore, the destruction of forests also has detrimental effects on the microbial community that helps plants and animals to thrive. It is essential to maintain healthy soil conditions for these ecosystems to avoid droughts and other environmental damage. These harmful effects of deforestation are often related to the extinction of plants and animals in these areas. | https://techtrendexpert.com/2021/12/what-are-the-harmful-effects-of-deforestation/ |
Contamination with toxic substances is a constant and ongoing threat to many of the streams in Israel. This was illustrated on the eve of Yom Kippur, when a fire raged at the “Azaria” oil collection plant in the Acre area, causing burnt oil to leak and flow in the direction of the nearby Naaman stream. Thanks to the quick response of the Nature and Parks Authority, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Western Galilee Drainage and Streams Authority, the pollution of the stream was almost completely prevented.
Unfortunately, things happened differently in the case of the Ashalim stream, which was severely polluted by acid effluents in June 2017 – one of the worst ecological disasters in the history of the State of Israel. Findings of a stream monitoring program, which were presented at the Annual Science and Environment Conference on October 12-13, revealed that the stream has not yet recovered from the damage despite the three years of rehabilitation efforts. Significant contamination is still evident in the soil, vegetation, and animals in the area.
The Ashalim stream is a unique nature reserve, home to a large variety of flora and fauna, and a popular hiking site. It is located west of the southern part of the Dead Sea and connects the Negev and the Judean Desert, forming an ecological corridor vital to various animals and plants.
On June 30, 2017, a evaporation pool at the Rotem Amfert factory of the Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL) collapsed, and about 100,000-200,000 cubic meters of highly toxic acid (Phosphogypsum, a by-product of phosphoric acid production) poured into the streambed of the Ashalim. The effluents, which contained high concentrations of phosphorus, sulfur, fluorine, sodium, and heavy metals, seeped into the soil and fatally damaged the local animal and plant populations.
The enormous ecological harm caused by acid spill led to a series of lawsuits, including the largest ever environmental class action filed in Israeli history, demanding ICL to pay NIS 397 million in damages. As of June 2020, although the stream had been reopened to visitors, the rehabilitation process was expected to take many more years.
The damage is still noticeable
Following the disaster, the Nature and Parks Authority initiated a plan to monitor the stream and it’s biodiversity, which is managed and coordinated by Hamaarag – the national program for assessing the state of nature in Israel. The operation was launched about two and a half years ago and will have a total duration of five years. To that end, 15 teams of researchers from universities and various research institutes in Israel are currently mapping the state of the Ashalim stream based on the condition of the soil, water, as well as small and large animals (except Ibexes, which are surveyed individually by the Nature and Parks Authority). Because there is not enough in-depth information about the state of the stream before the disaster, the researchers compare their current findings to nearby streams that are similar in characteristics.
“Today, two and a half years into the monitoring program, the damage to the ecosystem of the Ashalim stream is still significant. This damage is evident in various trophic levels of the system – producers, consumers, and predators,” says Dr. Rael Horwitz, the monitoring program coordinator, who adds that the situation remains the same even though no less than six floods have swept the stream since the pollution.
Heavy metal pollution
“High concentrations of the pollutants, mainly fluorine, phosphorus, sulfur, and sodium, can be found in the soil. There is evidence that the layer of contamination in some places of the stream bed is tens of centimeters deep. “There is also an over accumulation of heavy metals in plant and animal tissues originating from the contamination,” says Horwitz.
The extensive damage to the streams fauna spans from microscopic organisms through the herbivorous animals to the predators. The researchers found traces of heavy metals such as copper, cadmium, vanadium, and zinc in the body tissues of various plants and animals, including rodents and poultry, at significantly higher concentrations than in samples taken from plants and animals at nearby streams.
One group that has not been able to recover since the spill is the microorganisms – these are the smallest creatures that can be found in the stream, but they are critical for the ecosystem. The monitoring program determined that the Ashalim stream has larger populations of bacteria that are resistant to harsh conditions than the nearby streams. Ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, which are part of the nitrogen cycle, have disappeared from the creek, leading to a shortage of available nitrogen needed for plant growth.
The program has also found damage to the vegetation in the river: vegetation density in the Ashalim stream is low compared to the nearby streams, and the plants do not reach their full growth potential.
Life is coming back
However, the researchers also found some positive developments. One of them relates to the small pools in the narrow and deep parts of the stream. After a big flood, invertebrates such as crabs, insects, and worms can be found in the flooded pools.
“After the spill, the acidity levels in the pools were very high, but in 2018 after a few floods, levels went back to normal, resulting in a partial but rapid recovery of invertebrates, especially the insects,” says Horwitz. According to the scientist, until recently, an important group was almost completely absent on the pools of the stream: Branchiopoda – a class of crustaceans, including fairy shrimp and clam shrimp, that feed on algae and detritus and are an important food source for water insects. “However, this year, after a flood in the stream in March, we found three different groups of crabs in three samples, including the rare fairy shrimp,” he says. “This is a very encouraging sign. Despite the recovery, it is important to note that there is clear evidence of high concentrations of heavy metals in the insects tissue, but we continue to monitor to see if there will be a trend of improvement.”
Another optimistic finding concerns the acacia trees in and around the stream, a key species of the desert ecosystem. “No apparent damage was detected in the adult trees following the incident, which is also very encouraging,” says Horwitz. However, he notes that it is too early to conclude that acacia trees have not been affected by the disaster, as there may be long-term effects, such as the accumulation of pollutants in the trees over the years.
Intervening in natural regeneration
An important question that arises in the context of rehabilitating damaged natural sites is whether humans should intervene in the natural regeneration processes of the ecosystem – or let nature take its course. “On the one hand, human intervention is a violation of the natural system,” Horwitz says. “On the other hand, only our children and grandchildren may see the signs of a slow, partial or complete natural regeneration, and only active measures can reduce the time it takes for the stream to recover and return to a state similar to that before the contamination.”
“Given the complexity of the Ashalim case, there is certainly reason enough to consider active rehabilitation to a certain degree. However, it is safe to say that the system cannot be brought back entirely to its original state, with or without our help. There is damage that cannot be repaired, at least not in our time,” he adds.
The monitoring of the Ashalim stream is expected to continue in the coming years, and the plan will be adapted based on new findings. One major issue that the researchers intend to focus on later is the accumulation of pollutants in the food web. To this end, pollutant concentrations in the bodies of different organisms from different levels of the food web are currently being examined, including animals that form a link between trophic levels – such as snails, which feed on plants and are eaten by rodents.
According to Horowitz, despite extensive research efforts, the evaluation of the extent of the damage is still in the early stages. “On an ecological scale and based on the magnitude of the pollution, a 5-year monitoring program is not enough, and we are preparing to monitor the natural regeneration of the ecosystem of the Ashalim stream for many more years,” he concludes. | https://www.zavit.org.il/intl/en/uncategorized/ashalim-stream-still-contaminated-from-disastrous-acid-spill/ |
37 years after the fall of Saigon, the U.S. is beginning a project to help reverse some of the devastation caused by the Vietnam War. The U.S. has begun a joint project with Vietnam to clean up toxic chemicals left behind during the Vietnam War. According to the Associated Press, the $43 million project will decontaminate a former U.S. air base in Denang. The site, which is now a Vietnamese military base, is contaminated with dioxin, a toxic byproduct left over from a chemical dubbed Agent Orange. It will take four years to decontaminate the 47-acre site.
During the Vietnam War, the U.S. used defoliants to devastate Vietnam’s jungles, which were used for cover by guerrillas such as the Viet Cong. Chemicals were often dumped from helicopters, as seen in the photo above. Agent Orange is the most well-known of these chemicals, and its toxicity has caused lasting damage to Vietnam’s environment and population. 20 million gallons of Agent Orange were dropped on almost 18% of Vietnam’s forests during the war. The chemical has left behind a dioxin compound that has been shown to cause cancer and birth defects.
The AP quoted U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear as saying, “We are both moving earth and taking the first steps to bury the legacies of our past.” Shear was also reported to have said the U.S. is looking at providing similar cleanup efforts at another site contaminated by Agent Orange, the former Bien Hoa U.S. air base.
This is not the first measure taken by the U.S. to mitigate the environmental and health risks posed by Agent Orange. According to the AP, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency poured six inches of concrete over the site five years ago. The new plan for the Denang site is to dig up the soil contaminated by dioxins and heat it to 635 degrees Fahrenheit. This will break the dioxin down into harmless compounds such as oxygen and carbon dioxide. | https://www.webpronews.com/agent-orange-cleanup-begins-in-vietnam/ |
Humans are the only living things on planet Earth who are responsible for destroying its environment. Humans pollute the air, water, soil, light, sound and even the sky. This is due to human activities such as travel, power generation, industrial waste dumped in rivers, polyethylene waste, deforestation, nuclear testing, automobiles, industrialization, man-made methods used in l agriculture, cell phones, etc. This pollution is harmful not only to humans but also to animals and plants. Environmental pollution decreases the healthy lifespan of every living creature.
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through the depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution.
POLLUTION
Human activities affect the environment by contributing to air, water and soil pollution. While it may be difficult to determine which pollutants are associated with specific environmental or public health effects, it is generally accepted that air pollution can indeed cause public health problems and also harm human life. plant and animal life. Pollution is not limited to the air. It can affect soil or waterways and can come from human wastes, industrial chemicals and other sources. These toxins can put enormous stress on the natural world, leading to environmental degradation and problems such as acid rain and harmful algal blooms in the ocean.
Noise pollution: Noise of human origin due to mechanized automobiles, industries, trains, planes, loudspeakers, etc., causes noise pollution which has an impact on the biotic and abiotic components of the environment.
Water pollution: Human activities involving the disposal of sewage, solid waste, municipal waste, agricultural and industrial waste make the environment unsuitable for daily use. In addition, polluted water spreads or leads to different diseases.
DEFORESTATION
Deforestation refers to the shrinking of forest areas around the world that are being destroyed for uses such as cropland, urbanization or mining activities. Growing populations need housing, which means they are looking for more space to build houses and cities. This often involves clearing forests to make room for urban and peri-urban development, as well as to provide building materials. Currently, an estimated 18 million acres of trees are cut each year to create space for development and for use in wood products.
Deforestation has many effects, including lower oxygen levels (and increased greenhouse gases), a high risk of soil erosion and destruction of animal habitats. But as is the case with industrial agriculture, some groups have sought to create a positive counter-impact to the harmful effects of deforestation on the environment.
INDUSTRIALIZATION
Although human industrial activities provide for the basic needs of society, they simultaneously release many pollutants into the environment. Pollutants cause loss of raw materials, health risks, increased mortality rate, crop damage, making the environment unsuitable for living organisms. There are several forms of industrial pollution. Industrial pollution can also impact air quality and can penetrate the ground, causing widespread environmental problems. Industrial activities are a major source of air, water and soil pollution, causing disease and death all over the world.
USE OF PAPER
Hundreds of different papers are produced and used daily: newspapers, paper towels, toilet paper, checks, documents, receipts, the list goes on and on. It is important to remember that the only resource for paper are trees. Due to the need for hygiene and unnecessary lifestyles, the demand for paper keeps increasing, so trees are being cut down to meet the needs of the market, causing changes in the global ecosystem.
NUCLEAR TESTS
Nuclear weapon testing is the most dangerous human activity that destroys nature on a much larger scale. These tests are carried out either on the surface, or underground, or sometimes even underwater. These tests result in the uncontrolled release of radioactive material which has several harmful effects on the health of humans, animals and nature as a whole.
HARMFUL PESTICIDES
AND FERTILIZERS
With the sharp increase in population, there is also an increase in food production. To facilitate this production, crops are produced through the use of toxic fertilizers and have extremely low nutritional values.
LOSS OF HABITAT AND EXTINCTION
Conservation of wildlife is becoming increasingly difficult because their natural habitat is constantly threatened and destroyed. Water pollution and deforestation are the main reasons for habitat loss. Deforestation can result in abundant land for humans, but leaves animals homeless. Human activities are triggering the extinction of species on an unprecedented and massive scale. The destruction of natural habitat as well as environmental and global warming, poaching, pollution and deforestation are some of the main causes of this tragedy.
GLOBAL WARMING
Global warming refers to the rapid increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface over the past century, mainly due to greenhouse gases released by people burning fossil fuels necessary for industrialization. It causes the ice caps to melt and sea levels rise, causing tsunamis, cyclones and other natural disasters. | https://rarehawaii.org/impact-of-human-activities-on-the-natural-environment-kashmir-reader/ |
Among the many horrors of the Vietnam War was the United States military’s spraying of Agent Orange, a highly toxic defoliant, throughout the rainforests of the South Pacific. This egregious military action resulted in countless injuries and deaths – its lingering effects still rearing their ugly head today in veterans who were exposed to it during their days in active service. And while the assumption has long been that nobody knew just how poisonous Agent Orange was until after the war had ended, we now know that its manufacturers were fully aware of the chemical’s extreme toxicity several decades prior.
It was November 17, 1953, to be precise, when a horrific accident took place at a German chemical manufacturing plant owned by Badische Anilin und Soda-Fabrik, also known as BASF. Dozens of workers came into contact with a substance known as 2,3,7,8-TCDD, a chemical dioxin compound similar to those found in Agent Orange, that resulted in “horrible skin eruptions with nearly blister-like welts and some ulcerations where infections ensued.” These eruptions occurred primarily on “the face, neck, arms, and upper half of the body” of those exposed, according to historical documents.
The problem persisted for more than a year, in fact, with many more workers developing horrible symptoms in response to the chemical that caused them to suffer conditions like insomnia, persistent dizziness, joint pain, and loss of libido. BASF scientists brought test rabbits into the facility to see how they would fare, and after just two weeks all of them died of liver failure. It was during this time that dioxins were first identified as a harmful byproduct of herbicide and pesticide production, typically resulting from the overheating of chemical compounds like trichlorophenol.
But rather than make this important information known, BASF, and later Monsanto, kept it a secret. Dioxins would continue to show up in Agent Orange and many other chemical pesticides and herbicides manufactured in the years that followed, resulting in many people, including soldiers who bravely put their lives on the line to serve the country, suffering serious health consequences and even death.
It wasn’t just the toxicity of 2,3,7,8-TCDD that chemical companies kept a secret, either. A “confidential” letter sent by a Monsanto physician to someone from the Dow Chemical Company, dated June 24, 1965, clearly outlines “the extraordinary danger” of 2,4,5-trichlorophenol, a dioxin found in Agent Orange.
Revealed as part of the “Poison Papers” information release, the letter outlines “the extraordinary danger of … tetrachlorobenzodioxin,” a chemical in Agent Orange that for many decades following was sprayed on crop fields throughout the U.S. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that the chemical was finally banned – but by this point, so much damage had already been done that Agent Orange would go down in history as one of the worst “mistakes” in American history.
Except that it wasn’t actually a mistake, as the world’s largest chemical companies knew all along that dioxins were prolific in their products. But that hasn’t stopped them from continuing to produce products that contain them. There would also be many other incidents of dioxin exposure at chemical manufacturing plants as well, in which employees suffered serious adverse effects, in some cases leaving them permanently scarred as a result of this chemical violence.
Beyond just covering up the truth about dioxins, Monsanto in particular would go so far as to actually falsify studies about the “safety” of dioxins. A Monsanto medical doctor by the name of George Roush would admit under oath in 1985 that his employer manipulated data on dioxins to cover up the fact that they can cause cancer, for instance.
Be sure to check out the Poison Papers archive PoisonPapers.org. | https://www.monsantomafia.com/2018-07-12-global-chemical-giants-knew-about-the-health-dangers-of-dioxins-decades-before-vietnam.html |
Humans affect biodiversity by their population numbers, use of land, and their lifestyles, causing damage to habitats for species. … Through proper education, and by demanding that governments make decisions to preserve biodiversity, the human population will be able to sustain life on earth longer.
How does biodiversity negatively affect humans?
Biodiversity underpins the health of the planet and has a direct impact on all our lives. Put simply, reduced biodiversity means millions of people face a future where food supplies are more vulnerable to pests and disease, and where fresh water is in irregular or short supply.
How do humans affect biodiversity in positive ways?
Maintaining biodiversity – positive human impacts on biodiversity. … replanting hedgerows because there is higher biodiversity in them than the fields they surround. reducing deforestation and the release of greenhouse gases. recycling rather than dumping waste in landfill sites.
What are three human activities that affect biodiversity?
The main human activity that affect biodiversity are habitat destruction, foreigner species importation and hunting.
What are the human induced causes of biodiversity loss?
Biodiversity loss is caused by five primary drivers: habitat loss, invasive species, overexploitation (extreme hunting and fishing pressure), pollution, climate change associated with global warming. In each case, human beings and their activities play direct roles.
What are the effects of environmental hazards to human health?
Environmental hazards increase the risk of cancer, heart disease, asthma, and many other illnesses. These hazards can be physical, such as pollution, toxic chemicals, and food contaminants, or they can be social, such as dangerous work, poor housing conditions, urban sprawl, and poverty.
What are two human actions that affect life and biodiversity?
The main threats facing biodiversity globally are:
- destruction, degradation and fragmentation of habitats.
- reduction of individual survival and reproductive rates through exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species.
How can humans reduce their impact on biodiversity?
Leave critical wildlife habitat undisturbed, especially nesting and denning sites. Promote wildlife use by setting up bird and bat houses. Eradicate and control introduced weeds on your property. Keep vehicles on main roads to reduce the spread of weeds and disturbance to wildlife.
How important is biodiversity in the lives of human?
Biodiversity is important to humans for many reasons. … Ecological life support— biodiversity provides functioning ecosystems that supply oxygen, clean air and water, pollination of plants, pest control, wastewater treatment and many ecosystem services.
What are the 5 major impacts humans have on the environment?
Humans impact the physical environment in many ways: overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation. Changes like these have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water.
What kind of threats to the biodiversity may lead to its loss?
The four main reasons responsible for the loss of biodiversity are loss of habitat, over-exploitation, the introduction of the co-extinction of species and exotic species. | https://aslebiennialconference.com/ecologic/how-do-humans-affect-biodiversity-how-does-biodiversity-affect-humans.html |
# Chemical Control Superfund Site
The Chemical Control Corporation superfund site is located at 22 South Front St. Elizabeth, New Jersey. Once a marsh, the 2-acre (0.81 ha) area next to the Elizabeth River is primarily flat land that is slightly above sea-level. The company, known as the Chemical Control Corporation, worked as a hazardous waste disposal plant from 1972 until its condemnation in 1979. Before the April 21, 1980 fire, it was reported that over 50,000 drums of chemicals, ranging from dioxin, benzene, cyanide, toluene, ethylene dichloride and more, were present on the site. State intervention was taken prior to the fire, but it became a matter of national intervention following the fire due to the level of contamination that impacted the environment and community. Cleanup operations have been underway since the early 1980s. The Environmental Protection Agency is considering removing the site from the National Priorities List because of the extensive cleanup that has been done.
## Origins
The Chemical Control Corporation superfund site is located in a highly industrial district of Elizabeth, New Jersey. The Elizabeth River, which runs from several counties in New Jersey, empties itself right in front of the site. The company was operated from 1972-1979 under several owners including William Carracino, Eugene Conlon, John Albert and William Collection. The buildup of chemical wastes began after failure to fix the incinerator. Under the ownership of Collection, the site reached over 50,000 drums of chemicals which resulted in Chemical Control being condemned in 1979 as a superfund site.
### Town history
The city of Elizabeth is located in New Jersey. It is the largest city in Union County and also holds the largest county seat. Based on the 2010 census, Elizabeth is also the fourth largest city in New Jersey. It is composed of several districts and neighborhoods including Midtown, Bayway, Downtown or the Port of Elizabeth, West End, Elmora Hills, Frog Hollow, North End, Keighry Head, Peterstown, The Point, Quality Hill and Westminster. It is bordered by the towns of Roselle, Roselle Park, Union, Hillside, Newark and Linden, which is the site of the LCP Chemical, Inc. superfund site. The Elizabeth River, which runs through both Union and Essex County, empties “underneath a bridge on the S Front Street near Elizabeth Ave and S 1st St." South Front Street is the location of the Chemical Control Corporation superfund site which had contaminated the Elizabeth River.
### Company history
The Chemical Control superfund site was operated and run by the Chemical Control Corporation. It received a five-year operating permit in 1972 for its incinerator that passed the air quality tests. Between 1976 and 1977, the owner and operator of Chemical Control was William Carracino. During this period of time, he arranged for midnight dumpings throughout Elizabeth to "offset the buildup of inventory at the site." He was indicted and convicted of this crime and was sentenced to “two consecutive three year terms and fined a sum of $21,000." However, Carracino sold the company to Eugene Conlon and John Albert, who were allegedly linked to a well-known mob under the Genovese family. The two appointed William Collection as the new president. During this time, 30,000 drums of chemicals were recorded on site and Collection was ordered to get rid of them in a safe manner. He had refused to do so and by 1979 over 50,000 drums of chemicals were recorded to be on site. This led to the condemnation of the Chemical Control site in 1979.
## Superfund designation
State and national intervention were enforced on the Chemical Control superfund site. The state of New Jersey initiated cleanup efforts through Peabody Coastal Services and from funding by the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund after the site was condemned in 1979. The 1980 fire at Chemical Control resulted in national intervention as a result of the magnitude of contamination that effected both the state of New Jersey and New York via the air, soil, and water.
### State intervention
Prior to the Environmental Protection Agency intervention, the state of New Jersey initiated a cleanup of the site in 1979 when the company was taken over by Conlon and Albert. The state stated that the new owners of the site had to "eliminate the barrels that had built up on the site at a rate of 1,200 per month, to inventory and label all on-site drums, and to incinerate all burnable waste." However, the state administrator who mandated the requirements did not state that the site was barred from accepting more chemicals. This resulted in an increase of 30,000 drums of chemicals to 50,000 drums of chemicals on site by 1979. As a result, an investigation by the Bureau of Hazardous Waste's was started which, "led to the suit filed against Chemical Control and its parent company, the Northern Pollution Control Company of New York. The owners of Chemical Control, Conlon and Albert, claimed that their company did not have sufficient funds to perform a cleanup. The Chemical Control records at the time showed only a few thousand dollars, so the state put the company in receivership." After being condemned in 1979, Peabody Coastal Services was hired to commence the cleanup of the site. Between 1979 and the fire of 1980, 8,000 to 10,000 drums of toxic and explosive chemicals were removed, along with "5 pounds of radioactive substances, 10 pounds of disease-bearing material, and nearly 400 pounds of explosive material." The whole operation costed between $11 -$13 million and was all funded by the New Jersey Spill Compensation Fund.
### National intervention
At first, national intervention was not necessary due to the intense state efforts to clean up the site. However, "on April 21, 1980, an explosive fire at the Chemical Control Corporation's Elizabeth, New Jersey hazardous waste treatment facility sent a toxic mixture of gases and chemical particulates into the atmosphere. Fifty-five gallon drums containing a variety of chemicals rocketed two hundred feet in the air before they burst due to the intense heat. Temperatures reached 3,000° F., melting and fusing containers. An estimated 50,000 drums of hazardous waste burned for more than ten hours before the Elizabeth fire department was able to bring the fire under control at 9:15 a.m. During the fire, a plume of noxious smoke and ash blanketed a fifteen square-mile area northeast from the site." The fire not only caused chemicals to become airborne, but also resulted in them entering water, groundwater and soil. Contamination of the environment and health risks of over 15 million people led the Environmental Protection Agency to intervene at the site. The site was proposed for admission to be put on the National Priorities List in October 1981 and was finally added in September 1983. The origin of the fire “has never been determined, although unstable chemicals are the prime suspect”
## Health and environmental hazards
The damages caused by the Chemical Control Corporation superfund site effected both the surrounding environment and community of Elizabeth, New Jersey. The chemicals before the fire effected groundwater, soil and the nearby water way of the Elizabeth River. During the 1980 fire, chemicals became airborne and spread to neighboring towns and states. Numerous chemicals from the site, including benzene, PCBs, toluene and more, resulted in side effects of irritated eyes, vomiting, diarrhea and skin rashes. The long term effects from the exposure of the chemicals can be seen in firefighters who have developed lung diseases, cancer, blood disorders, and nerve damage.
### Chemicals involved
As a result of both leaking drums of chemicals and the 1980 fire, the contamination of soil, surface water, ground water and air reached dangerous levels. Prior to the fire, the noted chemicals that were removed from the site included benzene, cyanide, military nerve gas, PCB's, dioxin and nitroglycerine. One of the more toxic chemicals that was reported on site was dioxin, which “in its pure form, three ounces of dioxin in New York's water supply could kill everyone in the city”. Carracino admitted that there was one thousand 55-gallon drums of dioxin at the Chemical Control site. During the fire, the chemicals known to be onsite included "insecticides, mercury compounds, nitric and picric acids, benzene, toulene, solvents, plasticizers, alcohol, and ethylene dichloride." The solvents on site including benzene and ethylene dichloride can cause sudden death, blindness, damage to kidneys, liver and lung damage, irregular heartbeat, and skin rashes. High mercury compound exposure can cause mercury poisoning leading to death or permanently damaged kidneys and brain. The exposure of insecticides can cause certain types of cancers, birth defects, irritation of eyes and skin and hormonal imbalance. Some of these side effects have been reported from firefighters and bystanders of the nearby communities. The chemicals that resulted in contamination were detected in different areas of the environment. The chemicals found in groundwater included hexachlorocyclopentadiene, PCBs, and toluene. Contaminates found in the air included benzene, PCBs, toluene, and xylene. The subsurface soil was analyzed and it was discovered that the chemicals of "VOCs, phthalate esters, PCBs, and polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons at depths of approximately 3 to 10 feet.". However, the amount of each chemical present on site is unknown
### Contamination of Elizabeth River
Due to the 1980 fire and midnight dumpings by Carracino, the surface water of the Elizabeth River, which was in close proximity, had been contaminated by several chemicals. These chemicals included benzene, PCBs, toluene, trichloroethylene, and trihalogenated methanes. This also lead to the contamination of marine life in the river including, crabs, shellfish and fish. This raised awareness of the human health threats as a result of ingesting chemicals via marine life.
### Health threats
The 1980 fire resulted in a widespread contamination of chemicals. On average, 15 million people were affected by the huge cloud of smoke and contaminates that arose and spread from both the surrounding towns of Elizabeth, New Jersey and also New York City. Those impacted the most were firefighters and residents in close proximity of the fire. It was reported that as a result of the fire, some of the chemicals were neutralized from the intense heat. In a book published by Lewis Regenstein, he reports that "on the other hand, many firefighters, bystanders, and residents as far away as Staten Island required treatment for irritated throats, eyes, lips, and skin. Some also suffered temporary loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, and eye strain. Fire fighters and waste disposal workers were reported to be still suffering from dizziness and diarrhea six months after the fire." In an article published in the Star Ledger, it was reported that ten years after the fire, "about 20 members of the fire department who were involved with battling the blaze, now suffer from cancer or other illnesses, including lung disease, blood disorders and nerve damage." Firefighter Mularz, who was one of the men on duty during the blaze, reports that due to his own exposure, he was diagnosed with "permanent lung damage, mental problems and an incurable blood disorder." Many of those affected by the fire who suffered from health problems are currently in lawsuits to seek out compensation
## Clean up
A three-stage cleanup plan for the Chemical Control superfund site was initiated by the Environmental Protection Agency. It included two long-term remedial plans and one immediate action plan. After cleanup, the Environmental Protection Agency is considering removing the Chemical Control superfund site from the National Priorities List.
### Initial clean up
After the 1980 fire, national intervention from the Environmental Protection Agency fueled cleanup efforts. A remedial plan was approved by William N. Hedeman Jr., the Director of the Office of Emergency and Remedial Response, in order to determine the extensive cleanup measures that needed to be taken. The research and analysis of this part alone costed $785,500 and would be completed in 12 months. The cleanup for the site was addressed in three stages, the first being an immediate action plan by the Environmental Protection Agency, followed by two long-term remedial phases. The immediate action by the EPA started in the early 1980s and included "removing and decontaminating 11 box trailers and one vacuum truck; clearing plugged storm sewers; sampling and removing 187 gas cylinders left at the site and one taken from the Elizabeth River; conducting a limited site investigation and a focused evaluation of the alternatives for cleanup to confirm reports that drums from the site had entered the river; and removing all containers found next to the site." Following the immediate action of the Environmental Protection Agency, long term actions were initiated which included:
“(1) combining contaminated soil with a solidification agent so that the contaminants cannot migrate from the site; (2) removal of debris from earlier cleanup actions, including water collected during monitoring well installation, items recovered from the Elizabeth River under the initial cleanup action, used disposable equipment, and the decontamination pad; (3) sealing the sanitary sewer line under the site where it connects to the South Front Street storm sewer; (4) repairing the berm that separates the site from the Elizabeth River; and (5) collecting and analyzing environmental samples to ensure the effectiveness of the remedy, including an periodic evaluation to assess protectiveness of human health and the environment.” All three plans were completed.
### Current status
The Chemical Control site is now "an empty lot of approximately 2 acres covered by crushed stone and secured by a chain link fence”. A most recent five-year review was completed on September 12, 2014 and the Environmental Protection Agency is considering removing the Chemical Control Corporation Superfund site from the National Priorities List However, the site has not been approved for reuse or redevelopment. As of 2019, the site was being used for storage purposes. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_Control_Superfund_Site |
Agent Orange still active in Vietnam
Agent Orange continues to contaminate food supplies and local people in Vietnam, over 30 years after it was dropped, a new study has found.The finding, published in the Journal of Occupation and Environmental Medicine, found that six out of sixteen food samples had levels of the TCDD-dioxin (1) from Agent Orange as high as those during the Vietnam war. It concludes that food is the main source of intake for the dioxin, and, consequently, the reason that approximately 95% of blood samples taken in the area were found to have elevated TCDD levels.
Typical blood TCDD levels are 2 parts per trillion (ppt) in Vietnamese people, but levels as high as 413ppt were found in some. This is the highest level ever recorded. Elevated levels of the dioxin were found even in those born many years after the spraying ended.
Agent Orange was sprayed from US aircraft during the Vietnam War, between 1962 and 1972, primarily for use as a defoliant, destroying both tree cover and crops.
Dr Arnold Schecter, lead researcher of the study, said: “This study is one of many that shows Agent Orange is not history. Dioxin contamination is still found in high levels in some Vietnamese, as high as when spraying was going on.”
The study was conducted in Bien Hoa City, near Ho Chi Minh City, an area heavily sprayed with Agent Orange during the war. It was also the site of a substantial leak of over 5,000 gallons of Agent Orange approximately 30 years before the study took place.
Sixteen food samples were collected of chicken, duck, pork, beef, fish, and a toad. Duck meat had the highest levels of the dioxin, followed by the Channa Striata, or snakehead, fish and the toad.
In addition, soil and sediment samples from the Bien Hung Lake also contained elevated TCDD levels.
Dr Schecter told edie that dioxins are only soluble in fat, so only meat samples were chosen. He said that public health measures should now include not eating food from contaminated areas and removing fat from food before cooking. He also urged further studies of the potential health effects of dioxins and other toxic chemicals among veterans of the Vietnam War.
Exposure to Agent Orange has been linked to birth defects and a variety of illnesses, including cancer, diabetes and spina bifida. | https://www.edie.net/news/0/Agent-Orange-still-active-in-Vietnam/7384/ |
The ancient Egyptians’ religion entailed multiple deities, goddesses, and gods that were worshipped for various reasons. Each deity carries its own meaning and representation of the world around the Egyptians.
Often times, different animals or insects were seen as the embodiment of these deities and thus were sacred to the Egyptian people. They were also used to symbolize the deities in their artefacts. Like the cat symbolizing Bastet, Mafdet, and Sekhmet. Or a bird as the symbol for Thoth.
The dung beetle is one such example. It was used as the symbol for Khepri. Below are some fascinating facts about this Egyptian scarab, as well as the symbolism and meaning which Khepri as a deity represented.
7 Interesting Egyptian Scarab Beetle Facts
The scarab beetle has been around for centuries. Here are some amusing facts about this bug that you may not have known.
1. A huge family
The Dung Beetle forms part of a massive family of scarabs. To date, scientists have discovered just over 30,000 different species of scarabs.
Scarab beetles have a wide range in size. Some are extremely small and are only about 0.02 inches. Whilst others, such as the Goliath beetle, can be 4.7 inches long.
2. Don’t need spades
They’re great diggers. Scarab beetles have serrated edges along the sides of their front legs. This makes it easier for them to dig through soil.
3. Night owls
They mostly come out at night. Majority of the scarab beetle family are nocturnal. Meaning they are most active during night time as opposed to daytime.
4. Unique shells
Some have beautiful coloured shells. Several members of the Scarab family have structurally coloured shells. The shells also act as left-handed circular polarisers. Meaning that instead of absorbing light, it reflects it, giving off a colourful look.
5. Love for dung
Dung beetles really love dung. The dung beetle uses manure for just about anything. It is even used as a food source – nasty but true. The dung beetle will pick through the manure to find the nitrogen particles to eat, which is a great source of protein for them.
They also lay their eggs inside the manure once they have rolled them into balls and into their underground nest. When the larva hatch, the dung doubles as a food source for them too.
Another way they use their ball of poo is to climb onto, and relax on it to cool off during really hot days. As the ground becomes quite hot, it may cause the beetle to overheat, so to counteract this, they chill out for a bit on their ball of dung.
6. Star-crossed
Celestial navigation for the win. It has been discovered that the Dung Beetle uses celestial cues to navigate itself. The sun, moon, and even the milky way is used by them to find their way in the wild.
7. Small, but strong
They’re stronger than you think. Dung beetles are able to move over 1,000 times their own bodyweight, which makes them one of the strongest insects out there.
Khepri: What Did It Symbolize?
Amidst the horde of gods the ancient Egyptians worshipped, Khepri was among the most important of them all. This god was believed to have created himself. He was known as the god of creation, life, resurrection, and the movement of the rising sun. Therefore, he can be seen as another form of The Sun God, Ra.
Khepri is often depicted as a man either wearing a crown with a dung beetle on it or as having a scarab for his head. Hence why the dung beetle is used to symbolise him in ancient Egyptian artefacts, such as ornaments, tokens, jewellery, texts, and hieroglyphs.
The scarab beetle has become an important and popular talisman throughout Egyptology due to what it represents.
According to ancient Egyptian lore, Khperi’s responsibility was to renew and move the sun into the sky from the underworld every morning. After the day dies out and the night takes over, it is again Khepri’s responsibility to renew the sun before rolling it out again the next morning. As the beetle rolls his ball of soil and manure across the land, Khepri rolls the sun into the sky each day.
He was also thought to protect the spirits of the dead during their judgement. Scarab amulets would be placed over the heart of those that have passed on during the mummification for their protection.
The scarabs were then also inscribed with spells, mostly from the Book of the Dead. He, therefore, played an especially important part when someone has died, as well as during funeral rituals.
Although the scarab symbol was custom practice for funerary rituals, it was also popular with common people, as well as royalty. Both types of people incorporated this symbol into their daily lives, too.
Because the dung beetle lays its eggs in the ball of dung, the larva hatches, symbolically, out of ‘nothing’. The birth of the larva that transforms into the dung beetle, therefore, represents life and rebirth, as symbolized by Khepri. This is fitting to the ancient Egyptian religion that believed in immortality and resurrection.
The word Khepri’s root meaning is “to transform”, or, “to create”, as well as the quite literal term, “scarab beetle”. There are also multiple ways of spelling Khepri, such as:
- Khepera
- Chepri
- Khepra
But regardless of spelling, the meaning remains the same: “He Who Is Coming Into Being”.
Final Thoughts About The Egyptian Beetle God
The ancient Egyptians certainly chose the correct bug to represent Khepri. Being such a rugged, and strong insect that has been on earth for over 250 million years, it is no wonder that they seem immortal and god-like. As seen in the Egyptian civilization, the scarab is the god of bugs.
Today, one can still find ornamental and jewellery pieces of the symbol of Khepri to purchase around Egypt. It has even become popular in modern lifestyles and pop-culture. The symbol was featured in a mission on the video game ‘Assassins Creed’, and has also become a popular subject for tattoos.
What may be an ordinary dung beetle to some of us, held very important, and beautiful symbolism to the people of ancient Egypt. Next time you see one, contemplate that it is not merely a bug rolling around a ball of poo – it is a representation for regeneration and life. | https://safarinear.com/sacred-beetle-of-egypt/ |
I have recently noticed the appearance of the scarab motif in both interior and fashion designs.
This little creature has a fascinating history dating as far back as 2000 BC. A scarab is actually just a beetle, a dung beetle at that. It began as a religious symbol in ancient Egyptian culture and was thought to represent the early morning or rising sun. It is associated with feelings of development and growth, among other things, and is found in hieroglyphics, amulets and other forms of jewelry, both ancient and new. Large numbers of scarabs were carved from stone or other natural materials and the more valuable ones depict royalty in some form.
This entry was posted in architectural hardware, custom hardware and tagged architectural hardware, scarab, scarab hardware, scarab motif, scarab motif fabric, scarab motif hardware, scarab motif in design. Bookmark the permalink. | https://martinpierceblog.com/2013/12/18/history-of-scarab/ |
Scarab box, scarab, Egyptian scarab.
The scarab was associated very early on in Egypt with the generative forces of the rising sun and with the concepts of eternal renewal. The beetle is known for coming out of the sand backwards dragging its ball of dung behind it along the ground before depositing it in underground tunnels as a source of food for its larvae, therefore symbolizing the sun�s daily journey across the heavens from East to West. Because the young beetles seemed to emerge spontaneously from these tunnels, the Egyptians worshipped the scarab under the name Khepri: �He who came forth from the earth� or �He who came into being�. Thus the beetle was equated with the creator Got Atum from early times. Scarabs thus became potent amulets and were often placed upon the breasts of mummies in the position of the heart as a symbol of new life and were then weighed against the feather of truth in the final judgment. They were usually inscribed with part of chapter 30 of the Book of the Dead. | http://ancienttreasures.com/lrgtext.php3?product=E-343&CA=2 |
Carved brown limestone heart scarab, once placed on the throat, chest, or heart of the Mummy. On the top one line of hieroglyphics and Egyptian symbols and five lines of hieroglyphics and Egyptian symbols on the bottom. Some were worn by the deceased on a necklace, or mounted in gold settings as a pectoral. Heart scarabs provided the bearer with the assurance that at the final judgment as depicted in the Book of the Dead, the bearer would be found "True of Voice" and accepted into the eternal afterlife by the God Osiris. Unusually large and beautiful. Third Intermediate Period. | http://www.sadighgallery.com/Ancient_Scarab_30464 |
3,000-year-old seal discovered on school trip-Zamkuwire
A 3,000-year-old Egyptian scarab seal was unearthed last week during a school field trip to Azor in Israel, just outside the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
Eighth-grade students at Rabin Middle School in the same town were being taught by an Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) tour guide when the find was made.
“We were walking around when I saw something that looked like a small toy on the ground,” said Gilad Stern of the IAA Educational Center, which led the tour. “An inner voice said to me, ‘Take it and turn it over.’ I was amazed. It was a scarab seal, every amateur archaeologist’s dream. The students were really excited,” he added.
The scene depicted on the scarab – a common dung beetle – shows two figures, one seated and the other with an elongated head, probably representing the crown of an Egyptian pharaoh, who raises his hand above the first figure. It may be an ancient pharaoh bestowing authority on a local Canaanite, archaeologists say.
Ancient Egyptians considered the small beetle – which lives in the feces of mammals and makes pellets out of them which it uses as a breeding chamber to store its future offspring – as the embodiment of creation and regeneration, similar to the act of God.
Hundreds of beetles of the same genus have been discovered in modern Israel, mostly in graves, but also in layers of sediment. Some of them were imported from Egypt, but many were imitations made by local craftsmen. The IAA noted that the level of craftsmanship of the newly discovered scarab is “not typical of Egypt and therefore may constitute a product of local artisans.”
“The scarab was used as a seal and was a symbol of power and status,” said IAA Bronze Age specialist Dr. Amir Golani. “The one discovered is made of earthenware, a silicate material covered with a blue-green glaze, which may have been placed on a necklace or a ring. “It may have fallen from the hands of an important figure who came to the region, or having been deliberately buried in the ground with other objects and then resurfacing after thousands of years,” the researcher added.
As for the scene depicted on the scarab seal, Dr. Golani said it “reflected the geopolitical reality that prevailed in the land of Canaan during the Late Bronze Age (c. 1500-1000 BCE), when the local Canaanite rulers lived — and sometimes rebelled — under Egyptian political and cultural hegemony.” Therefore, it is very possible that the seal actually dates from the Late Bronze Age, when the local Canaanites were ruled by the “Egyptian Empire.”
It is not uncommon in Israel for simple walkers and especially children to get their hands on very old artifacts, witnesses to the country’s multi-millennium history. | https://zamkuwire.com/2022/12/01/3000-year-old-seal-discovered-on-school-trip-zamkuwire/ |
An exceptional Victorian Egyptian Revival ring set with an Egyptian faience scarab amulet. The ring itself is simple, crafted in 9k gold with slim band, pinched shoulders and four double claw mounts, keeping the focus on the scarab. The underside of the amulet features a cartouche, possibly that of Thutmose III.
The term faience broadly encompassed finely glazed ceramic beads, figures and other small objects found in Egypt as early as 4000 BC. In this instance it is composed mainly of silica (sand or crushed quartz), along with small amounts of sodium and calcium, and finished with a faded turquoise glaze. In ancient Egypt the scarab was a symbol of immortality, resurrection, transformation and protection, and was much used in funerary art - representing the cycle of death and rebirth. | https://www.butterlaneantiques.com/products/victorian-egyptian-revival-faience-scarab-ring |
Hello and welcome back to the SCARABsolutions Ancient Art Podcast. In this episode, as promised, we’ll take a close look at one particularly exquisite artistic masterpiece from Ancient Egypt, the Mummy Case of Paankhenamun at the Art Institute of Chicago. Let’s check out the iconography and symbolism throughout its decoration and see how the ornamentation works together to express a unifying theme paramount in Ancient Egyptian funerary belief.
Come now as we unwrap The Case of the Mysterious Mummy.
The first point I want to talk about is the importance of hieroglyphs in Egyptian art. Hieroglyphs play a very important role in Egyptian ornamentation and iconography. The way that the Egyptians depict the 3D world on a 2D surface, like in relief carving and wall painting, is deeply related to how 3D objects are represented in Egyptian hieroglyphs, both stylistically and symbolically. They’re related stylistically in the shape of objects and figures on a 2D surface and symbolically in the meaning that an object, figure, or some sort of emblem has — the meaning of the object and its function as it relates to the rest of the composition and often also the accompanying inscription. So, funerary reliefwork and painting often complement the accompanying inscription.
I know, I know … this is getting complicated. So let’s simplify this with an example.
This is a wall fragment from the tomb of fella named Amenemhet. He’s the big guy in the middle and that’s his wife Hemet standing beside him holding the lotus flower to her nose and affectionately resting her hand on her husband’s shoulder. To the right of them you see another small figure standing in among all the goods for the funerary feast, holding a big bovine leg. That’s their son, also named Amenemhet. Amenemhet was a very common name during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom. A number of kings had that name too. What is being depicted here is the classic funerary feast, a common scene in private funerary shrines stretching back as far as the Old Kingdom. An offering table piled high with grave goods stands before Amenemhet — enough food and drink to keep his ka (his spirit) well nourished in the hereafter.
This type of funerary feast and offering scene really functions as the ritualistic culmination of the funerary procession and decorative reliefwork of a private mortuary shrine. The entire decorative scheme of the surrounding walls leads up to this point, where the deceased celebrates his life with his family, enjoys the nourishment of his soul, and has an offering presented to the gods on his behalf. The inscription running along the perimeter of the scene is very important here. It’s an offering formula, a common prayer encountered alongside representations of the funerary feast throughout the Old and Middle Kingdom and surviving well beyond even after Egyptian private funerary practice takes on a rather different appearance. The painted scene here is basically a representation of the prayer. It’s called the hetep di nysw and it goes something like this:
Hotep di nysw kha te henket, ka, apd, shes, menkhet, hotep djefaw, khet nebet wabet ankht netjer im, imakhy r Aser neb Djedw, netjer aa, neb Abdjw.
Now, what that says is:
An offering that the king gives consisting of a 1000 loaves of bread, 1000 jugs of beer, oxen, fowl, alabaster, and cloth, an offering of provisions, and everything good and pure on which a god lives for the revered one Osiris, lord of Djedu, great God, lord of Adydos.
And then if we look at the painting, we’ll see that a lot of what we just encountered in the inscription is represented here on the offering table and scattered about the room. On top of the table we have these slices of bread. And on top of that there’s that big leg of an ox. To the side of the table we have some jugs of bear, a head of an ox, parts of geese inside there, and various fowl. But those slices of bread on top of the table—those tall, thin, vertical slices—they’re not exactly in the conventional format in which the Egyptians represented slices of bread. If we look at another example here from the Art Institute of Chicago—another wall fragment from a person’s tomb—this is actually from the Old Kingdom, centuries earlier, from the tomb of Thenti. So here we see on the offering table slices of bread. If we look at the base of the slices, they’re flat resting perfectly on top of the table, and then the slices nicely meet together to form good loaves. If we go back to the scene of Amenemhet, we see that the slices are not flat on the base of the table. There’s a roundness to the base of those slices there. They’re not actually slices of bread, even though that’s what they’re meant to function as here, but what’s actually being represented are hieroglyphs. This is actually the hieroglyphic character for the flowering reed. If we look at the inscription above all the way to the left, we see an owl. Just in front of that owl there’s another flowering reed. If we look closely, that flowering reed in the hieroglyphic inscription is represented the same way that the flowering reeds on the table are represented. So literally we have hieroglyphs incorporated into the decorative reliefwork. The manner in which the flowering reeds and the bread and beer and fowl are represented here in this scene is precisely the same way in which Egyptian scribes would represent them in their hieroglyphic form. What the flowering reed is meant to represent here and standing in place of sliced bread is really … you could say … all the fruits of the field, as the inscription says: “everything good and pure that a god needs to survive.” The whole produce section at the supermarket.
So, now we have an idea of how hieroglyphs smuggle their way into Egyptian funerary art and add further symbolic messages to the scenes being depicted. Hieroglyphs have the distinct advantage of being not only words and language, but also real-world objects that can nicely and cleverly be incorporated into the scene. You oftentimes hear someone speaking of reading a work of art. In Egyptian art that phrase takes on a very literal meaning.
So let’s turn now, finally, to the Mummy Case of Paankhenamun. Let’s examine the symbolism behind the rich ornamentation and see how it can all be read together as a composition expressing a unified theme in Egyptian funerary belief, namely the idea of birth, death, resurrection, and eternal life, which we already touched on last time with our discussion of Khepri, the scarab beetle.
The mummy case is later than the two wall fragments that we just looked at. It actually comes from the Third Intermediate Period, a time of decentralized, fragmented government in Egypt after the collapse of the New Kingdom (that time of all the famous kings like Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, King Tut, and Ramesses the Great). Lack of a unified Upper and Lower Egypt, however, certainly didn’t hamper the artistic achievements of the Egyptians at this time. This is truly one of the most beautiful mummy cases I’ve come across, with it’s brilliant colors and wonderfully symmetrical and almost minimalist composition … well, inasmuch as one finds minimalist composition in Ancient Egypt. What I mean is, the artist was not afraid to leave plenty of white space, which gives it a far less cluttered feeling than many other mummy cases.
Prominently displayed on the chest we see a falcon-headed version of the winged scarab beetle, Khepri, the god of the rising sun, pushing the solar disk above his head out of the eastern horizon. This symbol of rebirth and resurrection, appropriately enough, is very prominent in Egyptian funerary art. Just beneath this scarab, we see a little circle sitting on a flat base. This is the Egyptian hieroglyph called shen. It’s actually a loop of rope tied in a knot and represents the concept of eternity. Specifically eternity in a cyclic sense, like the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening and it does this day after day forever and ever, like the pendulum of a clock swinging back and forth. And it’s very appropriate to be found here right next to Khepri, since Khepri also embodies that very same idea through the Sun’s rebirth in the morning, death in the evening, and rebirth again the next day. As a little side-note, if you take the shen symbol, the little loop of rope, and stretch the loop into an oval rather than a circle, you get the cartouche, the round emblem that contains an Egyptian king’s name.
Going a little further on down, we come to a very critical moment, where Paankhenamun is lead hand in hand by the falcon-headed god Horus, the god of kingship to an audience with Osiris, the king of the gods and god of the hereafter. In this later period, funerary practice becomes more democratic than in the Old and Middle Kingdoms and private individuals could enjoy the same benefits of the afterlife that were previously reserved primarily for the king. Now, the private citizen becomes one with the gods in death and only starting around the time of the New Kingdom do we see anyone other than the king being in the physical presence of the gods and actually touching the gods.
What I’m particularly interested in here is what’s between Horus and Osiris. Sprouting out of the ground is a beautiful lotus blossom, kinda like the one we saw Hemet sniffing on the wall fragment of Amenemhet. The lotus in Ancient Egypt is another symbol of birth and rebirth, it’s also a symbol of creation. In one of the few different Ancient Egyptian creation myths, you start off with this swirling primeval chaos, the primordial ocean called Nun … nothing else. Then a mound of earth spontaneously rises from the water. Eventually a single lotus bud springs forth, emerging from the murky, muddy depths of water and earth. The bud blossoms to reveal the infant god Nefertem. He goes by other names in different creation myths, like Atum and Ra, but we’re talking about the lotus here. Just like in the creation myth, the lotus flower thrives in the dark, marshy water of the Nile. It rises to the surface from the dark depths, this brilliantly beautiful object emerging from the ugly muck, and opens its petals each morning to greet the sun’s nourishing rays. Each night it closes up, symbolically dying according to the Egyptians, and is then reborn each morning with the rise of the sun again. Contrary to popular belief, though, it doesn’t actually sink down beneath the water’s surface with the setting sun and then rise up again the next morning. That would make for very attractive symbolism, though.
Standing on top of the lotus in this scene, we’ve got these four little guys all wrapped up in mummiform, just like Osiris behind them. These are the four Sons of Horus, minor funerary deities that serve to protect the internal organs of the deceased. You might recognize them as the heads on the Canopic jars, the four vessels buried with the deceased which contained the nicely-wrapped, individually preserved soft internal organs. Early on it was more common to have four Canopic jars with just human heads, but later (around the late 18th dynasty) it became standard to use the four different heads of the Sons of Horus. Everybody wants to know which head protects which organ, so here it goes … and they’ve got names too!
• The first guy, his name’s Imsety and his Canopic jar contained the liver.
• The falcon-headed Qebsenuef took care of the intestines.
• HAPY (yes, that’s his name, Hapy) with the baboon head watched over the lungs.
• And the jackal-headed Duamutef held the stomach.
The heart, of course, as we all know, ideally remained in the body.
Relevant to the discussion here is the placement of the Sons of Horus on the lotus blossom and their diminutive size relative to the gods around them, as though they are representing the concept of Nefertem, the child god born from the flowering lotus at creation. Just another drop in the hat of this ongoing theme of life, death, rebirth, and resurrection throughout the ornamentation of the mummy case.
A fascinating example of using hieroglyphs as symbols in the ornamentation of the scene is present here in the platform that Osiris is standing on. Notice that it’s not a perfectly rectangular platform. Rather the front of the platform is at an angle (roughly 30 degrees maybe). The back side of the platform however is a sheer drop-off. The shape of this platform is actually exactly that of the Egyptian hieroglyph called ma’a, which means truth, law, justice, and order, And it’s often deified in the more recognizable form of the goddess Ma’at and her symbol, the feather of truth, against which the heart is weighed on the scales of judgment in the entry to the afterlife. So here we have Osiris, god of the dead and afterlife, king of the gods, standing firmly on the platform of truth, law, and justice. (Sadly a platform somewhat lacking in current politics.)
The goddess Ma’at also makes a personal appearance on the mummy case. We see her sitting practically at the throat of Paankhenamun facing the Benu bird, the Egyptian Phoenix. (More on that in a second.) But the appearance here of Ma’at is particularly significant. The deceased in Egyptian funerary inscriptions is frequently said to be “justified,” or literally “true of voice” (ma’a kheru), meaning that you don’t speak untruths at judgment and that you were a truthful, just, and righteous individual in life. Ma’a kheru can also essentially be taken as synonymous with “dead,” just as today we sometimes append “rest in peace” after the names of the deceased when written or spoken. We also see the words ma’a kheru written here above and to the left of the benu bird. In this example, you read it from right to left and the second hieroglyph, or the one on the left, actually represents the human windpipe and lungs.
How ‘bout that? See … I don’t make this stuff up!
Briefly, the benu was the sacred bird of Heliopolis, the seat of the sun-god cults of Ra and Atum. The word benu likely derives from weben meaning “to rise,” as in what the sun does each morning. And as with the scarab beetle, the benu bird also symbolizes the idea of rebirth.
Moving along now down the mummy case, beneath the presentation scene, we come to a peculiar object — the ta-wer. This is the ceremonial standard for the Egyptian nome (or region) called Thinis, also the town of Abydos, a sacred cult center and the mythic burial place of Osiris. Ta-wer means “great land” or “eternal land,” meaning the ancient resting place of the god. This emblem is actually a representation of a sacred reliquary of Osiris. The central dome-shaped portion supposedly contains the head of the dead god, surmounted on a tall pole that rises up from the Egyptian hieroglyph for the word “mountain” called djew. This hieroglyph took on a certain afterlife and burial significance, with the association of the western, mountainous, desert region of Egypt with graveyards and the land of the dead. The hieroglyph for “horizon” has a similar appearance, with two mountain peaks and a sloping valley in between, and then a solar disk nestled between the peaks, as the sun might rise or set along a mountainous horizon. This gives the ta-wer a certain charming ambiguity. Is this symbolic of Osiris descending upon death below the western horizon to the land of the dead, or rising as the sun in the eastern horizon, reborn in the afterlife? The answer is undoubtedly … “Yes.” You can see that the dome-shaped portion is meant to signify that it houses the head of Osiris, since it wears the twin-plumed crown (which we also commonly see worn by the gods Amun and Min), and also the double cobra uraeus, appearing twice here: on the crown and as a headband coming off to the right of the reliquary. The latter pair also have their own little crowns, the white crown of Upper Egypt and the red crown of Lower Egypt, showing that Osiris is the ultimate king of Upper and Lower Egypt.
The placement of the ta-wer in this location on the mummy case takes on further symbolic significance. As you can see, it’s located at something approximately in the area of Paankhenamun’s nether regions. Kinda sorta in the phallus area. Although being god of the dead, the cult of Osiris also has a distinct fertility aspect. Both vegetative (as a god of agriculture) and sexual. The Classical Greek historian and traveler Herodotus has a somewhat amusing account of an Egyptian festival to Osiris in his book nowadays simply called The Histories. Here’s a translation of that passage by Aubrey de Sélincourt. It’s in book 2, section 48. Oh, and the Greeks have this thing where they associate the gods of other lands with their own gods. And the association can sometimes be on a pretty deep level. So, here, Osiris is constantly referred to as Dionysus.
In other ways the Egyptian method of celebrating the festival of Dionysus is much the same as the Greek except that the Egyptians have no choric dance. Instead of the phallus they have puppets about 18 inches high. The genital of these figures are made almost as big as the rest of the bodies and they’re pulled up and down by strings as women carry them around the villages. Flutes lead the procession and the women, as they follow, sing a hymn to Dionysus. There’s a religious legend to account for the size of the genitals and the fact that they are the only part of the puppet’s body, which is made to move.
Unfortunately, Herodotus doesn’t really offer any sort of explanation of this religious legend, but presumably he’s referring to the Egyptian myth of Osiris’s murder at the hands of his jealous brother Set, who then dismembers the body and scatters it all over Egypt. Isis, the wife and sister of Osiris, then goes around collecting all the pieces and reassembles his body. The only piece that’s missing is the phallus, eaten by a fish. She cleverly fashions a phallus for Osiris out of the rich, fertile Nile silt (what the Egyptians planted all their crops in). And from this, she conceived their son, Horus.
The final major decorative band on our journey across the mummy case of Paankhenamun reveals a marvelously anthropomorphic version of the Djed pillar. Let’s focus on the central column with the alternating red, blue, and green horizontal stripes. In the upper segment of the column, the yellow dividing bands are somewhat elongated, extending horizontally beyond the width of the column. Together, this is the Egyptian hieroglyph djed meaning endurance, stability, and health. It’s a stylized representation of a human backbone, specifically the backbone of Osiris. As we can clearly see, it’s association with Osiris through the crossed arms, the royal mummy pose, holding the crook and flail, two implements of kingship (the shepherd and the warrior). The Djed also wears an elaborate royal crown of Osiris. Two ostrich feathers stick up above the wavy horns of a ram, on which also rests a small red solar disk is the center. Flanking the feathers, two cobras rise up like the uraeus, each in turn surmounted by the solar disk. This very distinctive crown of “two feathers” is similar to, but not the same as the crown we just saw on the ta-wer above. The “two feathered” crown also commonly appears on votive statuettes of Osiris placed in the burial chamber of the deceased. There’s a great example of this type of statue in the Art Institute’s collection, which I hope to explore in a later podcast.
I’m particularly intrigued by the pedestal on which the Djed stands. It looks a lot like a doorway, reminiscent of the niched façade of early royal tombs and the surrounding walls to mortuary temples. This niched façade pattern makes an appearance in many different forms of Egyptian funerary art and architecture … on sarcophagi, as the false door, and even in the serekh, an early version of the cartouche, the emblem denoting and literally housing the royal name.
In the treatment of perspective in Egyptian artistic convention, above generally denotes behind. In this case, if the niched façade is meant to be a doorway to some structure, like a sarcophagus, tomb, or mortuary temple, behind would be within. So here we have the anthropomorphic, deified, mummified Djed pillar of Osiris enshrined within his tomb. It’s too bad that the mummy case isn’t installed in a free-standing vitrine so it could be seen from behind, because there’s actually a giant Djed pillar running all along the back of the mummy case.
The Wedjet or Eye of Horus is seen here flanking the Djed on either side. The Eye of Horus nowadays has a distinctive apotropaic function, that is, it protects the wearer from evil forces and averts the evil eye. It had a protective function in Ancient Egypt too, but also serves as eyes through which deceased can look out. We also frequently encounter the Wedjet painted on the side of coffins, as amulets decorating the mummy, and carved into scenes decorating the mortuary chapel.
And just as we began, so do we end with the winged scarab beetle, Khepri, god of rebirth and the rising sun. I know I already covered this in the last podcast on the Scarab in Ancient Egypt, but it doesn’t hurt to reiterate. The appearance of the scarab on the head and at the feet nicely bookends this entire volume of work on life, death, and rebirth in Egyptian funerary thought. The sun god is swallowed at his death in the evening by the goddess Nut, travels through the underworld during the nighttime journey, and is reborn as the rising sun each day. Similarly, Khepri makes his appearance at the head, journeys along the body with its unified message of life and rebirth in the eternal hereafter, and explodes forward at the end, pushing the solar disk aloft to continue the journey and repeat his message for all eternity.
So there ya have it. That’s the end of this episode of the SCARABsolutions Ancient Art Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to visit the website at scarabsolutions.com. Just click on the Ancient Art Podcast link to find additional resources, like bigger versions of the photos, and links to other useful sites. One recent addition is a link to the Perseus Project, a valuable resource for reading and searching Classical texts, like that bit from Herodotus above. I’ve also added a bibliography with some useful books, articles, and websites, which is sure to grow over time. And feel free to leave your comments online at scarabsolutions.com. This is your host, Lucas Livingston, signing off. See ya next time!
©2006 Lucas Livingston, ancientartpodcast.org
1: The Scarab in Ancient Egypt
Welcome to the SCARABsolutions Ancient Art Podcast. Join us in each episode as we explore the art and culture of the Ancient Mediterranean World. Together we’ll uncover the truths and discover new ideas on the civilizations that shaped our modern world.
In this, our inaugural podcast episode, I thought I would begin the podcast appropriately enough with a short introduction to the Scarab, known to the Ancient Egyptians in its Hieroglyphic form as kheper, or “to come into being.” Known also as the Scarab beetle god Khepri, a manifestation of the Sun-god Ra as he rises in the morning on the eastern horizon. Ra assumes multiple manifestations throughout his daytime journey across the sky. At his midday zenith he assumes the form perhaps most recognized by us today — the falcon or falcon-headed man. And in the evening as the sun sinks below the western horizon, Ra assumes the form of the aged ram-headed Atum falling to his daily death and his nighttime journey through the underworld.
This cyclic action of the sun rising and setting closely parallels the pattern of birth, life, and death, and then resurrection … a iconographic motif that we routinely encounter throughout Ancient Egyptian funerary art. In New Kingdom tomb painting and funerary papyri (also known as the Am Duat or Imy Duat which means “That which is in the Underworld”), we see Ra making his journey across the heavens and being swallowed in the evening by his mother Nut, as we can see here in this image from the ceiling of the burial chamber in the tomb of Rameses VI — KV9 in the Valley of the Kings, photo courtesy of the Theban Mapping Project. And then at dawn, Ra is reborn by Nut in the form of Khepri pushing the sun disk up from the depths and into the sky.
The question of why the Ancient Egyptians would come to represent their Sun god, or at least one aspect of him, as the Scarab, the unglamorous dung-beetle, begs for an answer. While unfortunately we don’t benefit from the Ancient Egyptian’s own writings on this matter, it’s generally held that the scarab beetle came to be closely associated with the idea of resurrection as the Egyptians observed the larvae of the beetles being born from death, that is when the eggs are lain in the round balls that the beetle forms out of scavenged animal dung, the dung being the waste or lifelessness cast off by animals; dung also being a potent fertilizer or catalyst for life in the form of vegetation. The eggs hatch, and feed, and the scarab beetle thus emerges from the darkness, like a sort of phoenix rising from the ashes.
And along the same lines, we also observe the scarab beetle rolling balls of dung along the ground, just as we see the god Khepri pushing the solar disk up from the horizon, as we see here again in the burial chamber of Rameses VI.
Another appearance of the scarab prevalent in Egyptian funerary artwork is as necklaces and amulets decorating the exterior and interior of mummies. Scarab amulets take the form of little scarab beetle figurines fashioned out of faience, a type of ceramic material found throughout Egyptian history and prehistory and usually painted with a blue or green glaze to imitate precious stones like lapis lazuli and turquoise. The so-called “heart scarab” is just one type of amulet among many that would decorate the Egyptian mummy. On the flat underside of the heart scarab we typically find a spell carefully inscribed in hieroglyphs (or sometimes crudely scrawled in chicken scratch). We call the spell by the attractive name of “30B.” This spell is also found on funerary papyri during the judgment scene when the heart of the deceased (the seat of all consciousness) is being weighed against the feather of truth, Ma’at. Perhaps a little ashamed of what they may have done in life, they Egyptians included this spell as a little extra insurance to make sure things went their way at this moment of judgment. The spell goes something like this, as is translated by Raymond Faulkner in his 1972 Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.
O my heart which I had from my mother! O my heart which I had from my mother! O my heart of my different ages! Do not stand up as a witness against me, do not be opposed to me in the tribunal, do not be hostile to me in the presence of the Keeper of the Balance, for you are my ka which was in my body, the protector who made my members hale. Go forth to the happy place whereto we speed; do not make my name stink to the Entourage who make men. Do not tell lies about me in the presence of the god; it is indeed well that you should hear! (p. 61, 2005 edition)
Egyptian funerary iconography really emphasizes rebirth and resurrection rather than death. It’s only logical to understand then why representations of Khepri occur so frequently. We see here, for example, an exquisite piece from the ancient art collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Mummy Case of Paankhenamun from the Third Intermediate Period. Prominently decorating the chest of the mummy case, painted in beautiful detail with brilliant colors, we see Khepri interestingly represented here with the falcon head holding the solar disk aloft. If we examine the mummy case only a little more closely, we see that it sports a couple more representations of Khepri — another extraordinarily beautiful one on the feet … and where’s that last one … ? Here you have to get up on your tippy toes and look on top of his head and we’ll find the third scarab. You might just say he’s covered with scarabs “from head to toe.”
Well, that’s it for this short introductory episode. Be sure to check out the next episode as we examine all the iconographic details and symbolism of the mummy case of Paankhenamun in excruciating detail. Come on … you know you want to know what all those funny shapes and figures mean. And if you’re really nice, I may even read the hieroglyphs for you.
Be sure also to visit us online at scarabsolutions.com for more information and links to other great resources, like images from the Art Institute of Chicago and other famous collections. And you’ll definitely want to visit the Theban Mapping Project at thebanmappingproject.com. Here you can explore all the tombs of the Valley of the Kings in a virtual 3D environment with tons of accompanying photos and videos and related articles.
See you next time on the SCARABsolutions Ancient Art Podcast. | https://www.ancientartpodcast.org/blog/page/11/ |
Symbolizing immortality and resurrection, Art Deco was known for its fascination with ancient Egypt. Hand-assembled details, as well as a combination of swirling marbled resin with bold bubble resin, bring this ancient symbol to life.
Original Designer Elena Leong
Height 48 mm x Width 130 mm
Story
A symbol of rebirth, of a heavenly cycle, the scarab beetle at the forefront of Art Deco. | https://www.tortonibijoux.com/product-page/erswilder-ancient-egypt-revival-necklace |
Sacred Egyptian Beetle Scarab
The beetle among the ancient Egyptians was one of the sacred animals. For them, everything around them had a role in the world of the living. Their attitudes and behaviours revealed the "mechanics" of the universe.
The dung beetle, pushing, with its hind legs a ball of excrement in which it laid its eggs, especially in the early hours of the day, was therefore assimilated to the sun god Rising again from the darkness.
He was thus venerated under the name of Kepry, symbol of the eternal rebirth. As a result, every Egyptian wore the beetle in an amulet. They have been found in wood, ivory, precious stone, terracotta enamelled with Egyptian blue, and gold. Pharaoh Amenhetep III had several hundred thousand of them distributed throughout Egypt for the jubilee of his reign. At the time of embalming, the priests inserted a beetle between the strips to ensure the king's rebirth.
Original work on display at the Cairo Museum, Egypt.
Period around 1300 BC, New Kingdom
French artisanal production in engobed and enamelled terracotta.
Hand decorated
Close
Characteristics
- Museum :
- Musée du Louvre
- EAN :
- 3336729058778
- Model dimensions :
- 7 cm x 4 cm
- Reference :
- CB891733
Editor
- Diffuseur : | https://www.boutiquesdemusees.fr/en/home-decor/sacred-egyptian-beetle-scarab/17006.html |
Notes:
See Original Pottery List, L. 1728, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
See note 1.
The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
- Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)
-
Ali Arabi (C.L. Freer source) ca. 1840 - 1932
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
- Description
-
Decoration: secondary figure cut in low relief. Perforation at the back.
- Label
-
This amulet is in the form of the naked dwarf god Pataikos, who protected humans from dangerous creatures. He was often depicted holding a knife in each hand and standing on crocodiles; on top of his head is a scarab beetle, a popular symbol of rebirth. The dwarf god was often shown with other protective deities, represented (as in this example) in profile on the sides and back of the amulet: the goddess Isis; her sister and helper, Nephthys; and the lotus god, Nefertum.
- Published References
-
- Ann C. Gunter. A Collector's Journey: Charles Lang Freer and Egypt. Washington and London, 2002. pp. 103, 130, figs. 4.11, 5.5.
- Collection Area(s)
- Ancient Egyptian Art
- Web Resources
- Google Cultural Institute
- SI Usage Statement
-
Usage Conditions Apply
-
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)
Usage Conditions Apply
To Download
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Mozilla Firefox users: right click on icon, select "save link as..." | https://asia.si.edu/object/F1908.87/ |
Aswan 17 March Midday is a visual narrative of the artist’s journey through Egypt. Exploration of this ancient landscape and the region’s history inspired the many elements of the work. Karina Harper combines the sophisticated beauty of Egyptian culture and the intricacy of the personal experiences found there.
The scarab beetle is a cultural symbol of Egypt, and can be found carved into many historical sites and also as an iconic souvenir. It is the symbol of Khempri, also known as the Sun God Ra, who created himself out of nothing. It is a symbol of transformation, renewal, and resurrection. These are inspirational ideas that were a large part of the artist’s life at this time.
The felucca is a single mast sailing vessel common to the Nile River. While strolling the banks of the ancient city of Aswan on the 17th of March at midday, the artist became inspired by the beauty of their shape and sketched many of these boats making their lazy journey up and down the river.
This mixed media clock is a complex sculpture that took over 300 hours to complete. The scarab’s head and legs are cast in solid bronze using the lost wax casting technique. The body is hand-carved out of padauk wood, an exotic hardwood native to Africa. This wood, which is a bright orange when first cut from the living tree, deepens to a rich dark violet over time. The scarab’s wings were hammered on the forge from flat bronze sheet, and pierced by hand. The layers of bronze at the bottom of the beetle and under the moving clock are etched to create a raised fluid texture. The clockface plates have been pierced and polished by hand. The second hand is represented by a hazy sun in bronze. The copper minute plate displays the sailing felucca. Moving slowly beneath, the silver hour plate is a liner abstracted representation of the waters of the Nile River. | https://kittenharper.com/gallery/aswan-17-march-midday/ |
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A text known as The Lay of the Harper, dating from the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE) encourages its audience to make the most of the time because death is a certainty: Make a holiday! And do not tire of playing! For no one is allowed...
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Seshat
Seshat (also given as Sefkhet-Abwy and Seshet) is the Egyptian goddess of the written word. Her name literally means "female scribe" and she is regularly depicted as a woman wearing a leopard skin draped over her robe with a headdress of... | https://www.worldhistory.org/search/?q=Egyptian+Culture&page=3 |
Scarabs were popular amulets and impression seals in Ancient Egypt.
They survive in large numbers and, through their inscriptions and typology, they are an important source of information for archaeologists and historians of the ancient world. They also represent a significant body of ancient art.
For reasons that are not clear (although no doubt connected to the religious significance of the Egyptian god Khepri), amulets in the form of scarab beetles had become enormously popular in Ancient Egypt by the early Middle Kingdom (approx. 2000 BCE) and remained popular for the rest of the pharaonic period and beyond.
During that long period, the function of scarabs repeatedly changed. Primarily amulets, they were also inscribed for use as personal or administrative seals or were incorporated into jewelry.
Some scarabs were apparently created for political or diplomatic purposes to commemorate or advertise royal achievements. By the early New Kingdom, heart scarabs had become part of the battery of amulets protecting mummies.
From the middle Bronze Age, other ancient peoples of the Mediterranean and the Middle East imported scarabs from Egypt and also produced scarabs in Egyptian or local styles, especially in the Levant.
Scarabs are a common product of present-day forgery.
Religious significance of the scarab beetle
In ancient Egyptian religion, the sun god Ra is seen to roll across the sky each day, transforming bodies and souls.
Beetles of the Scarabaeidae family (dung beetle) roll dung into a ball as food and as a brood chamber in which to lay eggs; this way, the larvae hatch and are immediately surrounded by food.
For these reasons, the scarab was seen as a symbol of this heavenly cycle and of the idea of rebirth or regeneration. The Egyptian god Khepri, Ra as the rising sun, was often depicted as a scarab beetle or as a scarab beetle-headed man.
The ancient Egyptians believed that Khepri renewed the sun every day before rolling it above the horizon, then carried it through the other world after sunset, only to renew it, again, the next day. A golden scarab of Nefertiti was discovered in the Uluburun wreck.
Historical development
By the end of the First Intermediate Period (about 2055 BCE), scarabs had become extremely common.
They largely replaced cylinder seals and circular “button seals” with simple geometric designs. Throughout the period in which they were made, Scarabs were often engraved with the names of pharaohs and other royal persons.
In the Middle Kingdom scarabs were also engraved with the names and titles of officials and used as official seals.
From the New Kingdom scarabs bearing the names and titles of officials became rarer, while scarabs bearing the names of gods, often combined with short prayers or mottos, like “With Ra behind there is nothing to fear” became more popular. These “wish” scarabs are often difficult to translate.
Commemorative scarabs
Amenhotep III is famous for having commemorative scarabs made. These were large (mostly between 3.5 cm and 10 cm long) and made of steatite.
They are beautifully crafted scarabs, apparently created under royal supervision or control and carry lengthy inscriptions describing one of five important events in his reign (and all of which mention his queen, Tiye).
More than 200 examples have survived and they have been found in locations that suggest they were sent out as royal gifts/propaganda in support of Egyptian diplomatic activities.
These large scarabs continued and developed an earlier Eighteenth Dynasty tradition of making scarabs celebrating specific royal achievements, such as the erection of obelisks at major temples during the reign of Thuthmosis III.
The tradition was revived centuries later during the Twenty-fifth Dynasty when the Kushite pharaoh Shabaka (721-707 BCE) had large scarabs made commemorating his victories in imitation of those produced for Amenhotep III.
Funerary scarabs
Although scarab amulets were sometimes placed in tombs as part of the deceased’s personal effects or as jewelry, generally they have no particular association with ancient Egyptian funerary rites.
There are, however, three types of specifically funerary scarabs, heart scarabs, pectoral scarabs, and naturalistic scarabs.
Heart scarabs became popular in the early New Kingdom and remained in use until the Third Intermediate Period. They are large scarabs (typically 4 cm-12 cm long) often made from dark green or black stone and are not pierced for suspension.
The base of a heart scarab was usually carved, either directly or on a gold plate fixed to the base, with hieroglyphs which name the deceased and repeat some or all of spell 30B from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
The spell commands the deceased’s heart (typically left in the mummy’s chest cavity, unlike the other viscera) not to give evidence against the deceased when the deceased is being judged by the gods of the underworld. It is often suggested that the heart is being commanded not to give false evidence but the opposite may be true.
The Book of the Dead requires the heart scarab to be made of green Νemehef stone but a variety of green or dark colored stones were used. Heart scarabs were often hung around the mummy’s neck with a gold wire and the scarab itself was held in a gold frame.
From the Twenty-fifth Dynasty onwards large (typically 3 cm-8 cm long) relatively flat uninscribed pectoral scarabs were sewn, via holes formed at the edge of the scarab, onto the chests of mummies, together with a pair of separately made outstretched wings.
These were mainly made from faience and glazed blue. The association of pectoral scarabs appears to be with the god Khepri, who is often depicted in the same form.
The third kind of funerary scarab is the naturalistic scarab. These were relatively small scarabs (typically 2 cm to 3 cm long) made from a wide variety of hardstones and faience and are distinguished from other scarabs by having naturalistic carved “3D” bases, which often also include an integral suspension loop running widthways.
Groups of these funerary scarabs, often made from different materials, formed part of the battery of amulets which protected mummies in the Late Period.
When a person died and went to their final judgment, the gods of the underworld would ask many detailed and intricate questions which had to be answered precisely and ritually, according to “The Egyptian Book of the Dead.”
Since many people of those days were illiterate, even placing a copy of this scroll in their coffin would not be enough to protect them from being sent to Hell for giving a wrong answer.
As a result, the priests would read the questions and their appropriate answers to the beetle, which would then be killed, mummified and placed in the ear of the deceased.
When the gods then asked their questions, the ghostly scarab would whisper the correct answer into the ear of the supplicant, who could then answer the gods wisely and correctly.
References:
*This article was originally published at en.wikipedia.org. | https://psy-minds.com/egyptian-scarab-beetles/ |
Description: A selection of small-sized steatite scarabs from the renowned Mustaki collection. All of the pieces are longitudinally pierced and suitable for wear. On the bottom of item A is the hieroglyph representing a basket (translating as nb, Egyptian word for 'everything', 'every', 'master', 'lord' or 'lady'), above which is the Uraeus hieroglyph, in the form of the Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty and divine authority. Under the cobra there is a lotus flower hieroglyph, and on the right there is the hieroglyph for 'stele', ‘boundary stone’ or ‘landmark’.
Item B bears a number of distinct hieroglyphs: framing them there are the two basket hieroglyphs. In the centre is the hieroglyph representing a gaming board with counters (translating as mn and 'strong', 'stable', and 'enduring'), the hieroglyph beneath could be a water canal sign that stands for names of rivers and lakes. Beneath it there are two small hieroglyphs, one on the left standing for ‘base’ or ‘seat’ (unilateral p) and the one on the right standing for bread (phonetic t). To the right is the hieroglyph depicting the ostrich feather of Ma'at, which represents truth. Her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully.
Item C depicts the Scarabaeus sacer, or dung beetle, which carried religious significance to the Egyptians. Dung beetles roll dung into a ball as food and as a brood chamber in which to lay eggs. For these reasons the Scarabaeus sacer was seen as a symbol of the heavenly cycle and of the idea of rebirth or regeneration. On either side of the scarab are the hieroglyphs representing the Uraeus.
On the base of item D is a royal cartouche, containing the name, title and epithets of Thutmose III (Men-kheper-re). Thutmose III was the sixth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. During the first 22 years of his reign, he was co-regent with his aunt and stepmother, Hatshepsut. He was famous for his military campaigns, conquering large territories and expanding the empire. To the left of the cartouche are the nefer hieroglyph (translating as 'the good’, ‘beautiful’, ‘perfection') and the divine flag hieroglyph (translating as ntr and 'divine' or 'god'). The translation of this piece would be ‘the perfect god Men-kheper-re (Thutmose III)’. The price is per individual item. Please e-mail with the letter of your preferential scarab prior to purchase. Items B, C and D are SOLD.
Condition: All very fine and intact. Item A has minor chipping to the base. Item B has minor crazing around the base and to the scarab. Item C has minor chipping to the base and to the mouth of the hole for suspension; the scarab has minor crazing. Item D has encrustations over the base and minor chipping, the scarab has encrustations and minor chip to the leg on the right. | https://www.ancient-art.co.uk/egyptian/egyptian-5/selection-of-small-egyptian-scarabs/ |
Egyptian Gold Scarab Link Bracelet 7.5LPN# 4502
The Egyptian Gold Scarab, beetle being the emblem of Khepera, the God of the morning sun, was regarded by ancient Egyptians as a symbol of resurrection and immortality. Hieroglyphs adorn the back of each gold scarab.
- Made in 24K gold plated pewter, this bracelet measures 7.5 inches L.
- Each scarab is raised (1/4 inch H) on the bracelet link. | https://www.museumize.com/products/egyptian-gold-scarab-bracelet-4502 |
At a celestial level, the cycles of the moon and the sun also had a strong influence in Egyptian Art.
This influencie was in uniformity and also in iconography.
The Uniformity of the Moon and the Sun.
The lunar phases: quarter waning, new moon, crescent quarter and full moon; formed a vital cycle of life, death and resurrection, and served to measure the time before the flood.
For its part, the daily journey of the sun showed the same cyclical principle. First its departure through the horizon at dawn (birth), then its journey through the sky during the day (life) and finally its decline and night trip (death).
At the same time, the sun was observed as a star and of course its cyclic changes in the solstices and equinoxes that determined more or less long days. These lunar and solar cycles also had their mythological and, of course, iconographic interpretation.
The Moon, Horus and Seth.
For example, the Egyptians considered that the form of a waning quarter was a manifestation in the sky of the mythical struggle between Horus and Seth for the throne of Egypt. The new moon indicated the stage in which Horus loses one of his eyes, while the full moon symbolized the victory of Horus over Set, that is, of good over evil.
The Journey of the Sun.
The sun was the king of heaven, the creator god and the divine figure that was above the rest of the pantheon. The Egyptian interpreted his celestial movements in different ways. They considered that at dawn the solar disk was pushed up on the horizon by a scarab, inspired by the natural image of the dung beetle that carries the ball of excrement where it sets its eggs. During the day, the sun was sailing through the sky in the solar boat and at night it entered the body of Nut, the goddess of heaven, where she made her nocturnal journey and regenerated to be reborn the next day.
These factors were eternal, unlimited, stable and invariable and granted the stability that guaranteed the correct functioning of the universe.
The Egyptian Art reproduced this cicles in terms of uniformity for granting also this stability. | https://www.mariarosavaldesogo.com/uniformity-egyptian-art-celestial-level/ |
The scarab is the sacred beetle of ancient Egypt. It is a symbol of immortality, resurrection, transformation & protection Considered a good luck charm. Thoughtful and meaningful piece to give and great to receive! | https://sonofthepharaoh.com/products/winged-scarab-beetle-statue-egyptian-scarab-beetle-with-wings-representing-god-khepri-ancient-egyptian-positivity-good-fortune-talisman |
This stunning black scarab beetle sculpture is handmade from natural Egyptian alabaster. Alabaster was a highly-used material in Pharaonic times—used to make everything from small vessels to sculptures and tombs. Alabaster was used for a variety of different items, from small vessels to carry perfumes, to burial items, to sculptures and tombs. It was a highly-versatile material due to its soft and easily malleable texture as well as its natural white color with natural colored veins
The scarab beetle was one of the most significant religious symbols in ancient Egypt, associated with the mighty sun god, Ra.
The Egyptians viewed the scarab as a symbol of renewal and rebirth. The beetle was associated closely with the sun god because it rolls large balls of dung to lay their eggs, a behavior that the Egyptians thought resembled the progression of the sun through the sky from east to west.
Its young were hatched from this dung ball. This was seen as an act of spontaneous self-creation, giving the beetle an even stronger link with the Ra’s creative force. The connection between the beetle and the sun was so strong that the sun god was thought to be reborn in the form of a winged scarab beetle every morning when the sun rises. As this young sun god, Khepri, rose in the sky, he brought light and life to the land. | https://www.swanbazaar.com/scarab-artifact |
The Steatite Scarab with green-blue glaze in this pendant is an ancient Egyptian artefact, carved during the 18th-20th Dynasty. The ancient Egyptians believed that the scarab (beetle) held the secret of eternal life and these amulets were fashioned into all types of jewellery to be worn as symbols of good fortune. This ancient Egyptian artefact was carved during the New Kingdom period of 1570-1070 B.C.
The nicely incised base shows a decorative design probably made during the reign of Horemheb 1312- 1293 B. C., just following that of Tutankhamen 1334-1325 B.C.
The 14K yellow gold pendant was designed and created by Walker Christopher Goldsmiths Ltd. | https://walkerchristopher.com/product/egyptian-steatite-scarab-pendant-from-the-18th-20th-dynasty/ |
This ancient Egyptian artifact was devoted to curing sick felines.
We love our cats, but the ancient Egyptians revered theirs. They were the first culture to domesticate felines, but they didn’t just keep them as “pets”. Cats were a part of their households, culture, and even their government and religion. Look at ancient Egyptian art and sculpture, and you’ll see plenty of cat images.
Perhaps the artifact that most clearly demonstrates the Egyptians’ devotion to felines is the Metternich Stela, which resides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Over 2,000 years old, the Stela is a black stone monolith covered with hieroglyphics. It was carved during Egypt’s 30th Dynasty (360BC to 343BC).
The hieroglyphics are spells that were used to heal ailing cats. Most ask the Sun God Re to cure virtually any part of a sick cat’s body, including the heart, lungs, brain, legs, stomach and eyes. For example, one spell for the heart translates as: “You cat, your heart is the heart of Ptah, for he has ameliorated your heart from the bad poison that is in any limb of yours.”
All the spells were for cats stung by scorpions – the Egyptians believed most feline ailments were caused by scorpion stings, perhaps because the animals protected their human families by killing the poisonous pests in their homes.
The Sun God Re was considered the father of the cat goddess Bastet, and all cats were considered manifestations of Bastet. “One of the reasons Egyptians associated the cat with the goddess Bastet and the daughter of the Sun God Re was because cats [tabbies] have markings on their foreheads that look like Scarab beetles,” says Professor James P. Allen, Wilbour Professor of Egyptology at Brown University. “The Scarab beetle is one of the images associated with the Sun God Re.”
At the time, the reciting of spells was considered medicine. People used spells to ask their gods and goddesses to cure illness. “The Egyptians were fascinated by the power of the word,” says Professor Allen.
Only 5% to 15% of the population could read, but even illiterate people could use the Stela by pouring water over it. “The use of water was a way of transferring the power of the words written on the Stela to the water,” says Professor Allen. The person would catch the flowing water and have the cat drink it to obtain its medical benefits.
Despite its reliance on magic, the Metternich Stela marks the very beginnings of feline veterinary medicine. It’s also an incredible demonstration of how much the Egyptians loved their cats. We no longer use spells to heal, of course, but we continue this ancient tradition every time we take our cats to the vet or give them some TLC! | http://felinewellness.com/magic-of-healing/ |
This lovely Egyptian Revival circle brooch features scarab beetles in turquoise, red, green, coral and amber colours. It dates from the 1970s-80s.
To the ancient Egyptians, scarab beetles were a symbol of immortality, resurrection, transformation and protection.
- Unsigned
- Made with plastic scarab stones and gold-tone metal
- In excellent vintage condition
- Secure roll-over clasp in good working order
- Overall diameter 4 cm
This item is pre-loved and may show signs of wear commensurate with its age. Postage is FREE within Australia. | https://www.myvintageobsession.com.au/products/vintage-scarab-circle-brooch |
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Technical Writing Function
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The purpose of having guidelines is to make the document more readable. Standard guidelines govern – Format – page layout, numbering conventions, etc. (the reason we use LaTeX) – Graphics – use of figures, graphs, charts, tables – Voice – appropriate use of active and passive voice – Verb tense – appropriate for and consistent within each section – References & citations – giving appropriate credit Technical documents have different guidelines than other forms of writing.
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The document should have a clear focus. Who is your audience? – What level of knowledge can be assumed? What is the purpose of the document? – What specific information do you need to communicate? How can you best achieve the stated purpose? – What is the most effective way to communicate the information? Words? Images? Graphs? Tables? Sound familiar?
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Technical papers/reports often include some, or all, of the following sections. Abstract Introduction Background (sometimes included with Introduction) Theory Design Decision & Criteria Materials Methodology Results Discussion Conclusions
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The Abstract is a brief summary that precedes the paper. Very specific to the work done Clearly state the scope of the work Indicate the methodology used Present the main findings and conclusions No background, no fluff Past & present tense
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The Introduction serves several purposes. Clearly state the problem that was addressed Define the scope of the work – explain the reasons and goals of the work Tell why the work is important Explain any limitations associated with the work done Introduce the remainder of the paper Past & present tense
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The Background provides context. What problem is this research intended to address? (i.e. Why is this problem important?) What related work has been done previously? What were the findings of that work? How is this work different? What are the goals of the current research? Past & present tense
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The Background provides context. What problem is this design intended to address? (i.e. Why is this problem important?) What other solutions, if any, are currently available? What are the pros and cons of the available solutions? What are the pros and cons of the new design? Past & present tense
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The Theory provides the conceptual and mathematical foundation. Explain the theory behind the research or design Scientific principles Engineering principles Associated formulas …all with definitions and appropriate graphics Present tense
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The Design & Decision Criteria evidences of the engineering design process. The engineering design process is the outline for this section. Clearly identify design specifications/criteria. – Primary design objective – Goals and constraints Research Details of design alternatives Analysis & decision process Past & present tense
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The Materials section is just that. What specific materials – type and quantity – were required for the research? What specific materials – type and quantity – are required for the prototype/final design? Past or present tense
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The Methodology describes how the work was accomplished. For research, the methodology should be sufficient to reproduce the experiment and data collection process. For design, the methodology should describe the prototyping and testing process. Past & present tense
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The Results presents research findings or design testing. Visual representation of “processed” data – Graphs, tables, diagrams, charts Explanatory text: – Points out the most significant portions of findings/testing – Indicates key trends or relationships – Highlights expected and/or unexpected findings Present tense
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The Discussion puts the results in context. Assesses and comments on results Explanation for Results – Comments on unexpected results, offering hypothesis for them Comparison to theory/literature – Does your research confirm theory and/or previous studies? Does your research deviate from them? Explanation for how the information can be applied in a broader context Present tense
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The Conclusions summarizes essential information. Relate the findings back to the problem being addressed Was the design objective met? Does the end product satisfy the specified goals and constraints? What are the limitations of the work/report? Present tense
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The Recommendations state the next steps (in your opinion). What recommendations can be made based on this research? Should further research follow? If so, specify what should be included at the next stage? Is the prototype ready for production? Should further testing/modifications be made? If so, what’s next? Present & future tense
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The Engineering Design Process might serve as a great outline for some papers. Problem Definition (Introduction & Background) Conceptual Design (Theory) Preliminary Design (Theory, Design & Decision Criteria) Design Decision (Design & Decision Criteria) Detailed Design (Materials, Methodology, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Recommendations)
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Technical Writing Function
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This project investigated the hypothesis that analyzing and searching either ephemeral or archival information can be enhanced using the connections between them by developing more effective retrieval models that use both types of information for a diverse set of search and text analysis tasks. The project also developed new methods of creating links between ephemeral and archival resources, new methods of acquiring ephemeral information efficiently from social media websites, and new reusable datasets for several problems. These resources enable other researchers to reproduce our research results and do their own research on these problems more easily. Parts of this research were done in collaboration with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia and the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal.
Much of the research focused on improving the accuracy of search engines for several tasks. When social media discussion links to a web page, the discussion provides concise and accurate descriptions of the web page; these descriptions can be used to improve the accuracy of a search engine. Tuning text summarization algorithms to mimic discussion in social media sites improves the quality of summaries produced for answer passage retrieval. These improvements are especially important for finding answers to questions that have complex answers instead of simple ‘factoid’ answers. Improved learning-to-rank algorithms and data fusion algorithms further improve retrieval accuracy. We have also studied the impact of combining social and archival data in the environment of conversational search, which has become increasingly important during the project.
Microblog sites such as Twitter are difficult to search effectively, because messages are brief and spelling varies. This research showed that archival sources such as news websites can be used to identify the temporal scope of a query and to provide greater context for the query, which improves search accuracy and efficiency. Often microblog posts can be organized into threads or conversations – sequences of microblog posts – which are a more effective unit of information for retrieval, topic classification, and sentiment analysis tasks.
Social media such as microblogs (e.g., Twitter) and community question answering sites (e.g., Yahoo! Answers) are important sources of ephemeral information. The project developed new methods of crawling social media websites more efficiently, and showed that a 1% sample of Twitter supports the same conclusions as more complete samples for some tasks. The text collections developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technologies’ annual TREC evaluations are the most widely-studied archival datasets. The project enriched existing TREC datasets by adding relevance annotations that support study of the connections between answers in social media and answer passages in web documents; and by adding links from the mention of an entity in document text to its entry in the Freebase knowledge base. It also developed new methods of automatically creating datasets for research on question-answering.
Our work in all of these areas has been ground-breaking and has had significant impact on both academia and industry. We have shown the value of integrating ephemeral and archival information to improve several types of search and text analysis. We have produced over 30 conference publications and had leading roles in organizing workshops on important aspects of the research. We have also produced new datasets and social media crawling techniques that make it easier for other researchers to study these problems. Finally, we have provided advanced research training to several MS and PhD students that have gone on to jobs in the US high tech industry.
This work is supported in part by the Center for Intelligent Information Retrieval (CIIR) and in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF IIS-1160894 and NSF IIS-1160862).
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. | https://ciir.cs.umass.edu/research/ephemeral/2018outcomes |
“The construction industry has been facing considerable challenges due to the inadequacy of the traditional methods in executing, managing, and modeling infrastructure and construction projects. While many techniques have been developed to improve the decision-making process in the industry, there is no evidence of sufficient and continuous improvements in the industry’s adoption and implementation of innovative techniques such as new management approaches, modern modeling methods, and emerging computational data analytics. To this end, the goal of this research is to address some of the recent challenges faced in the industry with a focus on infrastructure asset management, construction engineering and management operations, and offsite construction technology. The research goals and objectives were achieved through multiple management, modeling, and computational analytical methods; including artificial intelligence and supervised machine learning algorithms, mathematical and risk modeling, statistical and multivariate time series analysis, clustering techniques and unsupervised data mining algorithms, and surveys and industry panel meetings. The research has numerous intellectual merits, methodological contributions, and practical implications as it addresses critical research areas that have not been investigated before and strengthens areas which needed in-depth examination and further advancements. The findings, outcomes, and conclusions of this research will contribute in further improving the cost, time, productivity, and safety considerations in the industry; leveraging innovative management, modeling, and computational analytics in infrastructure and construction projects; devising data-driven decision-making processes; and administrating and preparing the workforce of the future”--Abstract, page iii.
Advisor(s)
El-adaway, Islam H.
Committee Member(s)
Burken, Joel G. (Joel Gerard)
Khayat, Kamal
ElGawady, Mohamed
Dagli, Cihan H., 1949-
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Degree Name
Ph. D. in Civil Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Publication Date
Summer 2021
Pagination
xviii, 420 pages
Note about bibliography
Includes bibliographic references (pages 371-419).
Rights
© 2021 Rayan Hassane Assaad, All rights reserved.
Document Type
Dissertation - Open Access
File Type
text
Language
English
Thesis Number
T 11899
Recommended Citation
Assaad, Rayan Hassane, "Innovative modeling and management of infrastructure systems, engineering and construction operations, and offsite construction technology using computational data analytics" (2021). Doctoral Dissertations. 3003. | https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/doctoral_dissertations/3003/ |
Meeting notes, including summaries of speaker remarks and small group discussions, from the Better, Stronger, Faster roll-out at the UC Davis Mondavi Center on December 18, 2019.
Better, Stronger, Faster: Summary of Stakeholder Input and Proposed Next Steps
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Over the course of 2018-19, many of you approached the California Department Fish and Wildlife separately or in small groups to discuss improvements to our processes. The Department wants to share with you our thinking on reforms to help make our work “better, stronger, and faster.” We would like your feedback on improvements to our processes.
Ecological Health Assessments Process Guide
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Fundamental to understanding how to manage and steward the natural world, raise awareness, or inspire action is being able to describe how your resources are faring and what needs intervention, and to do so in a credible and compelling way.
One way that natural resource-based agencies, organizations, or partnerships may choose to do this is through an assessment of the state of their resources. While these “ecological health assessments” are often initially developed to create a baseline against which future change can be measured, they can also focus management priorities, educate the public, generate action, and/or increase financial or political support.
The process described here is based on what we did for Mt. Tamalpais. This is one approach you can use, but because every effort will be different, we have tried to make the process scalable—describing a more comprehensive and involved method followed by possible alternative approaches. Each reader will need to assess how, or if, to apply this advice to their own project. That said, we have called out key decision points for elements we feel are truly fundamental, no matter what approach you choose to take.
Parks, Public Lands and Waterways Policy Recommendations for California Governor Gavin Newsom
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This paper identifies priority actions that California Governor Gavin Newsom's Administration can take to protect our parks, public lands, and waterways for the enjoyment of current and future generations.
Capacity Building for Collaboration: Summary and Key Findings
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This document summarizes the key findings from a recently commissioned case study exploring barriers to and strategies for improving capacity for landscape-scale stewardship networks. This summary, prepared by the Steering Committee for the California Landscape Stewardship Network, includes direct excerpts from the case study as well as paraphrased findings.
Landscape-Scale Stewardship’s Ability to Achieve Policy Goals in “Recommendations to Protect California’s Parks, Public Lands and Waterways”
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A companion letter to the Resources Legacy Fund's policy recommendations to California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Funding & Legislation Working Group DRAFT Principles of Investment
Capacity Building for Collaboration: Additional Research Supporting the Case Study Findings
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This document provides examples of how two national reports support or add to the findings of the California Landscape Stewardship Network's Capacity Building for Collaboration case study.
Shifting the Regulatory Paradigm Toward Bold Immediate Action for a Resilient California
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Wildfire. Drought. Flooding. Species extinction. Climate change. California faces grave threats that require bold, immediate action. An essential part of any solution is to restore and proactively manage California’s lands and natural resources at a scale and pace sufficient to result in meaningful benefits.
The purpose of this paper is to help catalyze new conversations and strategies to reduce persistent barriers to environmental stewardship, conservation and restoration of California’s lands that are unintended consequences of essential environmental regulations. It summarizes and assesses key advances in addressing these barriers—including legislative and policy approaches as well as approaches based on coordination, collaboration, and trust building—and includes recommended next steps.
This white paper includes a problem statement, key findings (p. 3), assessment of recent efforts (p.3), models outside the field of conservation (p.17), and conclusions and recommended next steps (p.19).
Landscape Stewardship Conversation Starter Kit
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How many times have you heard someone say "we can't fundraise for stewardship?" If that's how we think about stewardship, that's how it will be. As Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't - you're right.”
The goal of this Kit is to enable anyone who wants to prioritize, value, and fund the work of taking care of the land to change the narrative about stewardship. To move away from "it can't be funded" to "it is essential that we fund and prioritize it" while staying grounded in our values, impacts, and stories. | https://calandscapestewardshipnetwork.org/resources-library?combine=&field_category_target_id=All&sort_by=field_year_value&sort_order=DESC&page=6 |
Graphs are powerful tools for representing real-world networked data in a wide range of scientific and engineering domains. Understanding graph properties and deriving hidden information by performing analytics on graphs at extreme scale is critical for the progress of science across multiple domains and solving real-world impactful problems. Widespread adoption of cloud platforms for graph analytics has led to an exponential increase in the workloads while at the same time the rate of performance improvements of cloud platforms has slowed down. To address this, cloud platforms are being augmented with accelerators. However, the expertise required to realize high performance from such accelerator enhanced cloud platforms will limit their accessibility to the broader scientific and engineering community.
This project will research and develop a toolkit to provide Graph Analytics as a Service (GAaaS) to enable researchers to easily perform extreme-scale graph analytics workflows on accelerator enhanced cloud platforms. We will develop high-performance graph analytics algorithms and software for key graph workflows targeting accelerator enhanced cloud platforms. We will develop memory optimizations and partitioning and mapping techniques to exploit the heterogeneity and the high bandwidth provided by HBM.
AREAS OF INTEREST:
Graph Analytics, Cloud Computing, Memory Optimization, Acceleration on Heterogeneous Architectures, FPGA IP Core development
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Disclaimer: The following papers may have copyright restrictions. Downloads will have to adhere to these restrictions. They may not be reposted without explicit permission from the copyright holder. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsors including National Science Foundation (NSF), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and any other sponsors listed in the publications.
Click here for the complete list of publications of all Labs under Prof. Viktor K. Prasanna. | https://sites.usc.edu/fpga/scalable-graph-analytics-on-emerging-cloud-infrastructure/ |
objectives are different.
The main objectives of evaluations are to improve decision-making, resource allocation and
accountability. This can be achieved through informing the public, informing key decision-making
processes and encouraging ongoing organisational learning.
Guidelines for Evaluation Reports
CONTENTS
A standard evaluation report starts with a cover page, a table of contents, a list of abbreviationsand acronyms and an executive summary.
The evaluation report should further contain the following main chapters: I. Introduction, II.Evaluation findings (clearly supported by evidence), III. Conclusions, IV. Recommendations and V. Lessons learned. For sub-headings to include, see attached Template report.
The attached Template report should be used by writing your text on top of those laid out in the
Word file in order to create a report with the correct format and style.
Although the structure of the report may be adapted to the particular circumstances of an
evaluation exercise (for example, several projects may be covered by a joint report or additional
evaluation criteria may be included), the main head ings should be retained, while sub-headingsmay be added, as necessary.
The main body of the report should not exceed 25-50pages depending on the scope of the
evaluation exercise (annexes excluded). Annexes should be kept to an absolute minimum (no
longer than 15 pages). Only those annexes that serve to demonstrate or clarify an issue related to a major finding should be included.
Information should only be included in the report if it significantly affects the analysis and serves
to clarify issues. Rather than repeating information already provided, references should be made
to annexes, other parts of the report or documents used to obtain information. Sources of
information used should be referenced in a consistent manner throughout the report.
FORMAT
The report should be typed in A4 format using AdobeGaramond Pro for body text and page
numbers and Myriad Pro for figures, tables and other graphical elements containing text. For text
size see attached document with typographic styles.
Pages should be numbered consecutively using Roman numerals from the table of contents until
the executive summary and Arabic numerals from the introduction until the end of the document,
including the annexes, with the numbers appearing in the middle at the bottom of the pages.
Paragraphs should not be numbered. For footnotes, see attached template report.
Spell-check as well as grammar check should further be undertaken before the report is submitted.
The attached document on UN spelling should be consulted
.
The report should be submitted in electronic format in Word in black and white.
To facilitate the typesetting of the report, standard Word-style tables as well as the original Excel
files for all "figures" and tables that employ a table format should be submitted along with the
report. Please include a country map in the report as a reference.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The section should consist of a concise executive summary of no more than four pages that
includes:
a)An introduction and the background: short description of the project evaluated including itsNobjectives;
b)The major findings of the evaluation;
c)The main conclusions;
d)The major recommendations, i.e. there should be a c
lear illustration of how the recommendations build upon the conclusions, which in turn build upon the findings.
e)The major lessons learned.
The executive summary should be crisp and clear, communicating the most important information about the evaluation.
Evaluation reports written in a language other thanEnglish should be accompanied by an
English translation of the executive summary prepared by a competent translator and cleared by
the Independent Evaluation Unit. | http://bba.pz10.com/2013/07/guidelines-for-evaluation-reports.html |
Perform data mining activities on two Excel datasets. Prepare a 4-5 page report of findings, including whether datasets accurately depict performance, the use of data sampling methods in strategic decision making, and conclusions and recommendations about improving patient service and staff performance. Include in the report the analysis of the raw data in Excel data analysis tables.
INTRODUCTION
Data mining is a statistical analysis process used to extract data to provide useful information. Beginning with raw data, a data analyst organizes the data, rearranges it, and then searches for patterns. After identifying the patterns, the analyst can turn the data into usable information. In this assessment you will perform data mining activities and apply the results to different uses in health care information settings.
DEMONSTRATION OF PROFICIENCY
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
Competency 3: Use data analysis skills to support health information integrity and data quality.
Analyze data samples.
Explain how to use data sampling methods and data mining to inform strategic decision making.
Recommend quality of care improvements based on statistical analysis.
Competency 4: Apply statistical strategies to analyze health care data.
Organize raw data.
Perform data mining activities.
Competency 5: Communicate in a professional manner to support health care data analytics.
Create a clear, well-organized, professional document that is generally free of errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. | https://superioressaywriters.com/data-mining-19/ |
This assignment is the culmination of your crafting of a research paper on a homeland security issue. In Week Four you presented the first three sections of your paper. This week you add the final sections and present the full paper. Be sure to make any changes to your literature based on instructor feedback.
The three main sections you should add to the paper for this submission are the Methodology and Research Strategy, Analysis and Findings, section and theConclusions/Recommendations section.
Methodology and Research Strategy: This section provides the reader with a description of how you carried out your qualitative research project, and the variables you identified and analyzed. It describes any special considerations and defines any limitations and terms specific to this project, if necessary. This section can be brief or more complicated, depending on the project, written in 1-2 pages.
Analysis and findings are not the same as conclusions. In the analysis component of this section you identify how you analyzed the data. The second part is the finding you got from your analysis of the data. The findings are the facts that you developed, not your interpretation of the facts. That interpretation is conducted in the conclusions and recommendations section of the paper. Findings will come from the prior research you examined and your analysis of those prior findings to create new findings for your paper. While there may be some facts that are such that they will stand and translate to your paper, the intent is to create new knowledge, so you will normally analyze the data to create your own findings of what facts that data represents.
Conclusions and Recommendations is the section where you give your interpretation of the data. Here you tell the reader what the findings mean. Often the conclusions and recommendations sections will mirror the findings in construct as the researcher tells the reader what that researcher sees as the meaning of that data, their conclusions. Then, drawing on those conclusions, the researcher tells the reader what they believe needs to be done to solve/answer the research question. This section may include recognition of any needs for further research and then finishes with a traditional conclusion to the paper as a whole.
Remember, your paper should seek to answer a question that helps to solve the research puzzle you identified.
Scoring Rubric: A copy of the complete scoring rubric for this assignment is provided in the Writing Resources module within the course lessons. The following is a synopsis of that rubric.
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Area of Evaluation
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Maximum Points
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Focus/Thesis
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20
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Content/Subject Knowledge
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20
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Critical Thinking Skills
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20
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Organization of Ideas/Format
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20
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Writing Conventions
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20
Technical Requirements:
Length: 2-3 additional pages (in addition to your literature review) double spaced, 1″ margins, 12 pitch type in Times New Roman font left justified format.
Citations/References: You must use APA style for this assignment. | https://nursingpaperhelp.com/need-to-write-methodology-and-research-strategy-analysis-and-findings-section-and-the-conclusions-recommendations/ |
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Background: Painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) is a frequent complication of diabetes mellitus. Current treatment recommendations are based on short-term trials, generally of ≤3 months’ duration. Limited data are available on the long-term outcomes of this chronic disease. The objective of this study was to determine the long-term clinical effectiveness of the management of chronic PDN at tertiary pain centres. Methods: From a prospective observational cohort study of patients with chronic neuropathic non-cancer pain recruited from seven Canadian tertiary pain centres, 60 patients diagnosed with PDN were identified for analysis. Data were collected according to Initiative on Methods, Measurement, and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials guidelines including the Brief Pain Inventory. Results: At 12-month follow-up, 37.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 23.0-53.3) of 43 patients with complete data achieved pain reduction of ≥30%, 51.2% (95% CI, 35.5-66.7) achieved functional improvement with a reduction of ≥1 on the Pain Interference Scale (0-10, Brief Pain Inventory) and 30.2% (95% CI, 17.2-46.1) had achieved both these measures. Symptom management included at least two medication classes in 55.3% and three medication classes in 25.5% (opioids, antidepressants, anticonvulsants). Conclusions: Almost one-third of patients being managed for PDN in a tertiary care setting achieve meaningful improvements in pain and function in the long term. Polypharmacy including analgesic antidepressants and anticonvulsants were the mainstays of effective symptom management.
Research in human subjects is at the core of achieving improvements in health outcomes. For clinical trials, in addition to the peer review of the results before publication, it is equally important to consider whether the trial will be conducted in a manner that generates data of the highest quality and provides a measure of safety for the participating subjects. In Canada, there is no definitive legislation that governs the conduct of research involving human subjects, but a network of regulations at different levels does provide a framework for both principal investigators and sponsors. In this paper, we provide an overview of the federal, provincial and institutional legislation, guidelines and policies that will inform readers about the requirements for clinical trial research. This includes a review of the role of the Food and Drug Regulations under the Food and Drugs Act and the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS2), an overview of provincial legislation across the country, and a focus on selected policies from institutional research ethics boards and public health agencies. Many researchers may find navigation through regulations frustrating, and there is a paucity of information that explains the interrelationship between the different regulatory agencies in Canada. Better understanding the process, we feel, will facilitate investigators interested in clinical trials and also enhance the long-term health of Canadians.
In this article, we conduct a review of introduced and enacted youth concussion legislation in Canada and present a conceptual framework and recommendations for future youth sport concussion laws. We conducted online searches of federal, provincial, and territorial legislatures to identify youth concussion bills that were introduced or successfully enacted into law. Internet searches were carried out from July 26 and 27, 2016. Online searches identified six youth concussion bills that were introduced in provincial legislatures, including two in Ontario and Nova Scotia and one each in British Columbia and Quebec. One of these bills (Ontario Bill 149, Rowan’s Law Advisory Committee Act, 2016) was enacted into provincial law; it is not actual concussion legislation, but rather a framework for possible enactment of legislation. Two bills have been introduced in federal parliament but neither bill has been enacted into law. At present, there is no provincial or federal concussion legislation that directly legislates concussion education, prevention, management, or policy in youth sports in Canada. The conceptual framework and recommendations presented here should be used to guide the design and implementation of future youth sport concussion laws in Canada.
Background: Computer-assisted navigation (CAN) may guide spinal instrumentation, and requires alignment of patient anatomy to imaging. Iterative-Closest-Point algorithms register anatomical and imaging datasets, which may fail in the presence of significant geometric congruence leading to inaccurate navigation. We computationally quantify geometric congruence in posterior spinal exposures, and identify predictors of potential navigation inaccuracy. Methods: Midline posterior exposures were performed from C1-S1 in four human cadavers. An optically-based CAN generated surface maps of the posterior elements at each level. Maps were reconstructed to include bilateral hemilamina, or unilateral hemilamina with/without the base of the spinous process. Maps were fitted to symmetrical geometries (cylindrical/spherical/planar) using computational modelling, and the degree of model fit quantified. Results: Increased cylindrical/spherical/planar symmetry was seen in the subaxial cervical spine relative to the high-cervical and thoracolumbar spine (p<0.001). Inclusion of the base of the spinous process decreased symmetry independent of spinal level (p<0.001). Registration with bilateral vs. unilateral hemilamina did not significantly reduce geometric symmetry. Conclusions: Geometric congruence is most evident at C1 and the subaxial cervical spine, warranting greater vigilance in navigation accuracy verification. At all levels, inclusion of the base of the spinous process in unilateral registration decreases the likelihood of geometric symmetry and navigation error.
Surface electroencephalogram (EEG) recording remains the gold standard for noninvasive assessment of electrical brain activity. It is the most efficient way to diagnose and classify epilepsy syndromes as well as define the localization of the epileptogenic zone. The EEG is useful for management decisions and for establishing prognosis in some types of epilepsy. Electroencephalography is an evolving field in which new methods are being introduced. The Canadian Society of Clinical Neurophysiologists convened an expert panel to develop new national minimal guidelines. A comprehensive evidence review was conducted. This document is organized into 10 sections, including indications, recommendations for trained personnel, EEG yield, paediatric and neonatal EEGs, laboratory minimal standards, requisitions, reports, storage, safety measures, and quality assurance.
Augmented reality (AR) superimposes computer-generated virtual objects onto the user’s view of the real world. Among medical disciplines, neurosurgery has long been at the forefront of image-guided surgery, and it continues to push the frontiers of AR technology in the operating room. In this systematic review, we explore the history of AR in neurosurgery and examine the literature on current neurosurgical applications of AR. Significant challenges to surgical AR exist, including compounded sources of registration error, impaired depth perception, visual and tactile temporal asynchrony, and operator inattentional blindness. Nevertheless, the ability to accurately display multiple three-dimensional datasets congruently over the area where they are most useful, coupled with future advances in imaging, registration, display technology, and robotic actuation, portend a promising role for AR in the neurosurgical operating room.
During the “DBS Canada Day” symposium held in Toronto July 4-5, 2014, the scientific committee invited experts to discuss three main questions on target selection for deep brain stimulation (DBS) of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). First, is the subthalamic nucleus (STN) or the globus pallidus internus (GPi) the ideal target? In summary, both targets are equally effective in improving the motor symptoms of PD. STN allows a greater medications reduction, while GPi exerts a direct antidyskinetic effect. Second, are there further potential targets? Ventral intermediate nucleus DBS has significant long-term benefit for tremor control but insufficiently addresses other motor features of PD. DBS in the posterior subthalamic area also reduces tremor. The pedunculopontine nucleus remains an investigational target. Third, should DBS for PD be performed unilaterally, bilaterally or staged? Unilateral STN DBS can be proposed to asymmetric patients. There is no evidence that a staged bilateral approach reduces the incidence of DBS-related adverse events.
Background: Hyperacute stroke is a time-sensitive emergency for which outcomes improve with faster treatment. When stroke systems are accessed via emergency medical services (EMS), patients are routed to hyperacute stroke centres and are treated faster. But over a third of patients with strokes do not come to the hospital by EMS, and may inadvertently arrive at centres that do not provide acute stroke services. We developed and studied the impact of protocols to quickly identify and move “walk-in” patients from non-hyperacute hospitals to regional stroke centres (RSCs). Methods and Results: Protocols were developed by a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional working group and implemented across 14 acute hospital sites within the Greater Toronto Area in December of 2012. Key metrics were recorded 18 months pre- and post-implementation. The teams regularly reviewed incident reports of protocol non-adherence and patient flow data. Transports increased by 80% from 103 to 185. The number of patients receiving tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) increased by 68% from 34 to 57. Total EMS transport time decreased 17 minutes (mean time of 54.46 to 37.86 minutes, p<0.0001). Calls responded to within 9 minutes increased from 34 to 59%. Conclusions: A systems-based approach that included a multi-organizational collaboration and consensus-based protocols to move patients from non-hyperacute hospitals to RSCs resulted in more patients receiving hyperacute stroke interventions and improvements in EMS response and transport times. As hyperacute stroke care becomes more centralized and endovascular therapy becomes more broadly implemented, the protocols developed here can be employed by other regions organizing patient flow across systems of stroke care.
Objectives: To assess the etiology of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pleocytosis in critical care patients with seizure(s) or status epilepticus (SE). Many previous studies, some performed decades ago, concluded that CSF pleocytosis may be entirely attributable to seizure activity. Methods: We undertook a retrospective chart review of adult patients with an admitting or acquired diagnosis of seizure(s) or SE in critical care units at the Winnipeg Health Sciences Centre between 2009 and 2012. Patients were identified through a critical care information database at a tertiary care center. We limited our study to patients who had lumbar punctures at our center within 5 days of seizure(s) or SE. Results: Of 426 patients with seizures in critical care units, 51 met the inclusion criteria. Seizure subtypes included focal seizures (5 or 10%), generalized seizures (14 or 27%), and SE (32 or 63%). Twelve (seven with SE) of the 51 (24%) were found to have CSF pleocytosis. A probable etiological cause for the CSF pleocytosis was identified in all 12 cases. Conclusions: We conclude that seizures do not directly induce a CSF pleocytosis. Instead, the CSF pleocytosis more likely reflects the underlying acute or chronic brain process responsible for the seizure(s). This was not readily apparent in early studies without magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain and currently available laboratory investigations. An etiological cause of CSF pleocytosis must always be sought when patients present with seizures and it should never be assumed that seizures are the cause.
During the “DBS Canada Day” symposium held in Toronto July 4-5, 2014, the scientific committee invited experts to share their knowledge regarding deep brain stimulation (DBS) management of movement disorders in three domains: (1) the programming algorithms, (2) the necessary team to run a neurosurgery program, and (3) the appropriate scales to better define in a more comprehensive fashion the effect of the brain surgery. Each presentation was followed by an open discussion, and this article reports on the conclusions of this meeting on these three questions. Concerning programming, the role of the pulse width and the switching off of the stimulation at night for thalamic stimulation for the control of tremor have been discussed. The algorithms proposed in the literature for programming in Parkinson’s disease (PD) need validation. In dystonia, the use of monopolar vs bipolar parameters, the use of low vs high frequencies and the use of smaller versus larger pulse widths all need to be examined properly. Concerning the necessary team to run a neurosurgical program, recommendations will follow the suggestions for standardized outcome measures. Regarding the outcome measures for DBS in PD, investigations need to focus on the non-motor aspects of PD. Identifying which nonmotor symptoms respond to DBS would allow a better screening before and satisfaction postoperatively. There is an important need for more data to determine the optimal programming protocol and the standard measures that should be performed routinely by all centers.
Objective: Prospective memory (PM) is a cognitive function defined as the ability to perform an intention at an appropriate moment in the future. In the aging population, PM is essential for maintaining independent daily living. Introduced as a simple and quick way to assess PM in clinical settings, the envelope task has to date received very limited empirical and practical interest. Methods: The present study investigated the task’s clinical utility in detecting PM impairment in a sample composed of 49 healthy older adults (OA), 41 patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and 64 individuals with amnestic and nonamnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI) of heterogeneous etiology: 17 of idiopathic nature, 20 presenting an idiopathic rapid-eye movement sleep behaviour disorder, and 27 patients diagnosed with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease. Results: The envelope task was highly sensitive and specific in discriminating Alzheimer’s disease patients from OA. Although it was specific in distinguishing MCI individuals from OA, its sensitivity was modest, especially in patients presenting a nonamnestic MCI subtype. Conclusions: Given its high specificity and simple low-cost administration procedure, the envelope task is a promising instrument for clinicians who seek to rapidly assess PM impairment in their daily practice.
Objective Chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for multiple sclerosis (MS). Venoplasty has been proposed as a treatment for CCSVI. The aim of our study was to gain a better understanding of the “real-world” safety and longitudinal effectiveness of venoplasty Methods: British Columbia residents who self-reported having had venoplasty and consented to participate in the study were interviewed and followed for up to 24 months post-therapy using standardized structured questionnaires Results: Participants reported procedure-related complications (11.5%) and complications within the first month after the procedure (17.3%). Initially, more than 40% of participants perceived that the venoplasty had had positive effects on their health conditions, such as fatigue, numbness, balance, concentration/memory and mobility. However, this improvement was not maintained over time Conclusions: Follow-up patient-reported outcomes indicated that the initial perception of the positive impact of venoplasty on the health conditions of MS patients was not sustained over time. In addition, venoplasty was not without associated morbidity.
Background: Resting state functional connectivity (RSFC) in the fronto-parietal network (FPN) has been associated with cognitive ability. For this reason, it was hypothesized that RSFC connectivity of the FPN would be related to cognition in patients with diffuse glioma. To assess this relationship, pre-operative cognitive status was correlated to patient specific connectivity within the FPN. Further, we assessed whether RSFC could predict neuropsychological outcome following surgery Methods: Sixteen patients with diffuse glioma underwent neuropsychological assessment and pre-operative task and resting state fMRI. Thirteen had post-operative cognitive assessment at one-month post-surgery. RSFC in a subject-specific FPN was correlated with pre- and post-operative cognitive scores. Results: Higher connectivity within the FPN was associated with lower composite cognitive scores, while higher connectivity of the parietal node of the tumor-affected hemisphere was associated with lower fluid cognition but not crystallized cognition. Higher connectivity values between the parietal node of the healthy hemisphere and the rest of the FPN was associated with better neuropsychological outcome one month after surgery. Conclusions: RSFC between key nodes of the FPN is associated with cognitive performance in patients with diffuse glioma and is a promising biomarker for cognitive outcome following surgery. | https://core-cms.prod.aop.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-neurological-sciences/volume/3BB9D226FE2243A1E767FD4BBFB73756 |
Work on a document that will inform improvements to education in the county has made good progress, Powys County Council has said.
The council has been working on its Post Inspection Action Plan to address Estyn recommendations following their inspection of the Education Authority back in July.
When completed, it will be the action plan that will detail how education in the county will be strengthened over the coming years.
An outline of the emerging key areas of work in the plan will be presented to the council's Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, October 30 with Estyn inspectors due to attend the meeting.
Cllr Phyl Davies, Cabinet Member for Education, said: "We have made a pledge to strengthen our education service and improve outcomes for our learners following the findings of Estyn's inspection that were published last month.
"We have been working hard on our Post Inspection Action Plan, which will address the recommendations that Estyn have given us.
"It is important that members of the council's Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee consider the key areas of the Estyn inspection report and the emerging action plan, while our education partners including headteachers, governors and trade unions will have an opportunity over the coming weeks to contribute to the plan.
"Their feedback will be vital as we ensure that our action plan is robust and the actions identified address each of the Estyn recommendations.
"Our emerging actions will be further developed following next week's scrutiny committee through ongoing engagement with our education partners.
"The full plan will be discussed in detail with Estyn in late November. The outcome of those discussions will help us form a final Post Inspection Action Plan, which will then become the key document that will inform the improvements we need for education in Powys." | https://en.powys.gov.uk/article/7996/Estyn-Post-Inspection-Action-Plan-update |
For instructions and tips on how to write an executive summary for your own business plan, see Writing the Executive Summary of the Business Plan, part of the Writing a Business Plan series Tips for writing an executive summary for investors Before you develop your executive summary for seeking investment, understand how it fits into your business plan. However, there may be times that an executive report may also be used for planning purposes as well. Any findings, conclusions, recommendations, or other details that appear in the larger document must be touched on in the executive summary Executive Summary re:Mind is an appointment reminder service targeting individuals discharged from inpatient mental health hospitalizations. Here's how to write one that will generate the right decision These tips on how to write a summary report will help you. Summary of the analysis chapter. Executive Summary: The purpose of this report is to give insight of HRM role in the organization. Steps for Writing an Executive summary for a Report. It restates the purpose of the report, it highlights the major points of the report, and it describes any results, conclusions, or writing an executive summary for a report recommendations from the report. You might even copy text from your report into the summary and then edit it down Before writing an executive summary, know that what it is all about and what it should include. Carol M. Loading Unsubscribe from NPBComm2? Our Executive Summary Writing Course combines our industry communication experience with a tested process for summary development. There are still many information available on the internet. Its purpose is to summarize the key points of a document for its readers, saving them time and preparing them for the upcoming content. It contains instructions for writing executive summaries and includes examples of executive summaries from issued reports, an executive summary checklist, and a "Background" worksheet, as further help in drafting executive summaries Writing ExcSumm.doc Guidelines for Writing an Executive Summary An executive summary is a brief overview of a report designed to give readers a quick preview of its contents. Therefore, a 10-page white paper would have a 1-page executive summary; a 100-page report should have a 10-page executive summary, and so forth. It is a separate, stand-alone document of sufficient detail and clarity to ensure that the reader can completely understand the. If you do not want to waste your time and make sure you come up with a good summary, then you need to follow all the process said An executive summary gives a short and concise description of a much larger document. An effective executive summary analyzes and summarizes the most important points in the paper or report, and will often make a recommendation based on the analysis. An executive summary should… Be presented as a. Any good example of an executive summary will definitely include the name of. Executive Summary Writing An executive summary or management summary is an essential part in any consolidated document. E xecutive Summaries are much like any other summary in that their main goal is to provide a condensed version of the content of a longer report T he executive summary is usually no longer than 10% of the original document. The executive summary can be either a portion of a business document (a business plan, project proposal, or report) or long articles and documents common in research-driven communities and academia An executive summary of your business plan, for example, is going to look very different from an executive summary of your process or workflow for customers. Your executive summary should highlight the best features of your business plan. Executive summaries are “stand alone” documents. - The Executive Summary is one of the most frequently-read parts of the report.
Essay writing link exchange, executive report summary an for writing a
Outlining what the report did BUT the executive summary also needs to report on the findings The executive summary should be a concise overview of the investigation from beginning to end. The executive summary can be the first section of your business plan, or you might be developing a stand-alone executive summary that you plan on handing out without the rest of. It is often written to share with individuals who may not have time to review the entire report. The executive summary needs to be persuasive and highlight the benefits of your company/product/service, rather than being descriptive and focusing on the features. Its significance to the employee’s performance, HR planning involving recruitment and selection strategies, employee relations has been discussed afterward The key contents of a high-impact executive summary: Summary of the introduction chapter. This uses much more appropriate language & writing style. Writing an Executive Summary. Report titles should be capitalized in the same manner as a book or magazine article, like this: “How to Reference as Executive Summary in AP Style.” If there is a document number on the summary or report include it after the title in. The government and some companies have begun to request executive summaries at the beginning of a long report. Read your report and then finalize the pointers that will be highlighted in the executive summary. Summary of the recommendations and/or conclusions chapter. Scholarly Research and Related Resources: Writing Executive Summaries. Sure, we can write you a top-quality essay, be it admission, persuasive or description one, but if you have a Writing An Executive Summary For A Report more challenging paper to write, don't worry. An executive summary should be written for any business document that is more than four pages long. After reading the summary, your audience should understand the main points you are making and. It's also the best test of the report writer's ability. It is often easier to write the executive summary once the report has been completed GAO published a guide for writing executive summaries to assist in training new supervisors, report reviewers, writers, and editors, and as a reference for more experienced staff. Appropriate Language Every research report should include an executive summary which sums up the key points of the report in a nice, concise package for readers. The executive summary serves several possible purposes An executive summary is a brief section at the beginning of a long report, article, recommendation, or proposal that summarizes the document. Numbers, facts, and goals in your business plan should be congruent with your executive summary. You should ensure that you include all the main points in your summary because it is key when it comes to executive summary writing REPORT WRITING MADE SIMPLE - THE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY NPBComm2. Executive Summary The purpose of an executive summary is to summarize a report. The guide includes several samples of executive summaries from previous reports.. For example, a 35-page report writing an executive summary for a report may begin with a single-page executive summary all of the main information in the longer report. For example, if you’ve identified a. The Title Page Layering Reports Executive Summary. The Blueprint shows you how to write an executive summary step-by-step Four major points to include in your executive summary: A summary of the report’s main conclusions and justification for recommendations 2An explanation of the problem studied A summary of the process used to study the problem An outline of the recommendations or decisions 1 1 3 4 5 A Guide to Writing an Effective Executive Summary. There are still many information available on the internet. Tips for Writing Executive Summaries Executive summary is important to write for all those business reports that exceed from four pages. The Executive Summary. It must be. Your executive summary should be at most 10 percent of the final document. It can be anywhere from 1-10 pages long, depending on the report's length. That’s why every word counts. The Report Abstract and Executive Summary. | https://www.missionline.it/writing-an-executive-summary-for-a-report |
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Question #68794
Med211021433
Recent Question/Assignment
Assessment Tasks Outcome
Unit:
CHCPOL003 Research and apply evidence to practice
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Assessment Tasks
Title Satisfactory/ Not yet satisfactory Assessor
Signature Date Re-submission Satisfactory/ Not yet satisfactory
Written Questions
Assessment 1
Case Studies
Assessment 2
Assessors Feedback
Assessors: Please return this cover sheet to the student with assessment results and feedback. A copy must be supplied to the office and kept in the student’s file with the evidence.
Satisfactory Not Yet Satisfactory
Assessor Signed: Assessor Name: Date:
Assessment 1
Workbook questions
1. Identify four (4) situations where research may be required to support and improve own work practice:
2. Name 5 considerations when evaluating credible sources of evidence
3. Name and detail how you would structure the development of a research proposal
4. List two (2) requirements for obtaining clearance to conduct research
Assessment 2
PROJECT:
Here you have to complete two research activities, after completing the research develop a range of actions that can be implemented within your own field of practice (in your current workplace or it might relate to the field with which you intend to work).
The workplace can be an actual workplace or a simulated environment that reflects workplace conditions.
You have to the of suitable facilities, equipment and resources, including current research, evidence-based studies and industry intelligence.
Nominate the areas in which you will conduct research and describe the problems, issues that you need to explore
Write a report detailing the research, the research results and any conclusions or recommendations. (1000-1500)
In your report and for each of the research activities explain:
• how you identified the situations where research was required
• why the results search was necessary
• the practices that the research was addressing
• what are the intended expected outcomes were
• how the research was conducted
• the method used to collect, collate and evaluate information
• how the information was used—in particular in terms of feasibility, benefits and risks
• conclusions that were drawn from the research
• procedures that were followed to document conclusions, suggestions and recommendations
• methods that were used to action the research results
Your report must be clear, clearly set out with appropriate headings, lists, graphs, charts, tables etc.
The research can apply to any community service area and practice improvement, for example aged care, youth services, youth justice, alcohol and other drugs, mental health, disability services etc.
In the report the participants must show that they have taken appropriate action to:
• identify the need for research
• define clear research objectives
• appropriateness of all information need to be used
• conduct research in a systematic and logical manner
• use the information to assess feasibility, risks and benefits of proposed actions
• using research conclusions try to determine whether there are any other issues requiring attention
• develop procedures that will improve practice and are based on the research findings
• explain why these improvements are important
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Choose the term that describes an inertial property for rotation bodies representing resistance to angular acceleration.
moment of inertia
Which of the following variables contribute to moment of inertia?
m and k
Choose the term that describes the distance from the axis of rotation to a point where the body's mass could be concentrated without altering its rotational characteristics.
radius of gyration
Which of the following accurately describes the radius of gyration of the forearm segment?
greater w respect to the wrist than w respect to the elbow
If both bats A and B have the same mass, which bat is more difficult to swing and why?
bat a bc the weight ring on it is positioned farther from the axis of rotation
What effect does "choking up" on a bat have?
reduces moment of inertia
increases angular velocity of swing
Why is a bat easier to swing if you grip the barrel instead of the handle?
k is reduced
When knee flexion is increased, what happens to the moment of inertia of the leg about the hip?
increased
Regarding moment of inertia of the leg with respect to the hip, which of the following leg morphologies would favor a sprinter?
massive thighs and slimmer lower legs
Which is of importance to performance capability in gymnastic events?
ratio of muscular strength to segmental moments of inertia
Which of the following is referred to as the "quantity of angular motion" possessed by a body?
angular momentum
Which of the following is/are accurate formula(s) for angular momentum?
H=Iw
H=mk2w
Factors that affect the magnitude of a body's angular momentum include all EXCEPT
linear velocity
angular acceleration
What variable has the greatest effect on the body's angular momentum?
...
If a diver goes from a full layout position to a tuck position, what will happen to her angular velocity?
increase
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Verified questions
PHYSICS
An object moves with constant acceleration 4.00 m/s$^2$ and over a time interval reaches a final velocity of 12.0 m/s. If its original velocity is -6.00 m/s, what is its displacement during this interval?
Verified answer
PHYSICS
Mark and David are loading identical cement blocks onto David's pickup truck. Mark lifts his block straight up from the ground to the truck, whereas David slides his block up a ramp on mass less, frictionless rollers. Which statement is true? None of these statements is necessarily true because the mass of one block is not given.
Verified answer
PHYSICS
The water supply for a city is often provided from reservoirs built on high ground. Water flows from the reservoir , through pipes, and into you r home when you turn the tap on your faucet. Why is the water flow more rapid out of a faucet on the first floor of a building than in an apartment on a higher floor?
Verified answer
PHYSICS
A concave mirror has a radius of curvature of 34.0 cm. (a) What is its focal length? (b) If the mirror is immersed in water (refractive index 1.33), what is its focal length? | https://quizlet.com/585200904/biomechanics-341-ch-14-flash-cards/ |
Why a diver curls his body while diving?
Because angular momentum rather than angular velocity is conserved, the more compact shape of a tuck or pike position means an increased angular velocity. This increase in angular velocity is what enables a diver to perform up to 4 1/2 somersaults during the course of a dive.
Why do divers dive into water with folded hands?
In the air, most dives are performed in a tucked or piked position. The tucked position is the most compact (body folded up in a tight ball, hands holding the shins and toes pointed), and as such, gives the diver the most control over rotational speed. Dives in this position, are therefore, easier to perform.
What does it mean to get bent when diving?
The bends, also known as decompression sickness (DCS) or Caisson disease, occurs in scuba divers or high altitude or aerospace events when dissolved gases (mainly nitrogen) come out of solution in bubbles and can affect just about any body area including joints, lung, heart, skin and brain.
Why does a diver changes his body position before diving in the pool?
Answer: A diver changes his body position before and after diving to increase his angular velocity.
Why do divers hold their hands?
Importantly, they must put their hands one on top of the other with flat palms, to create what’s called a rip entry (named because it sounds like a piece of paper is being ripped as the diver hits the water). The swim: After divers hit the water, they must swim their arms out while keeping their lower body rigid.
Why do divers extend their arms in front of them?
They usually extend their arms in front of them to make their center of gravity above their toes, in order to be balanced before jumping. This will make them change their center of gravity in x-direction to be stable before jumping.
Why are divers so ripped?
Divers look so lean and muscular on the board because of the dedication they put into their weight training. The 3m springboard specialists tend to focus more on lower-body power, so do a lot of squatting, but 10m divers just want to build fast explosive power.
Why do Olympic divers wear Speedos?
Speedo’s tight fitting brief was originally designed in the 1960s to reduce drag, give support and provide freedom of movement for competitive swimmers.
Is diving harder than swimming?
According to swimmers, swimming is more difficult than diving. “It is more difficult. You have to have good gymnastic skills and balance to dive, but swimming is 10-times more endurance and technique and you have to have speed,” Buresh said.
What does the bends feel like?
The most common signs and symptoms of the bends include joint pains, fatigue, low back pain, paralysis or numbness of the legs, and weakness or numbness in the arms. Other associated signs and symptoms can include dizziness, confusion, vomiting, ringing in the ears, head or neck pain, and loss of consciousness. | https://supercoolbeaches.com/watersports/why-do-divers-curve-their-bodies.html |
This gyroscope remains upright while spinning due to the conservation of its angular momentum.
In physics, angular momentum (rarely, moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational equivalent of linear momentum. It is an important quantity in physics because it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a system remains constant unless acted on by an external torque.
In three dimensions, the angular momentum for a point particle is a pseudovector r × p, the cross product of the particle's position vector r (relative to some origin) and its momentum vector p = mv. This definition can be applied to each point in continua like solids or fluids, or physical fields. Unlike momentum, angular momentum does depend on where the origin is chosen, since the particle's position is measured from it. The angular momentum vector of a point particle is parallel and directly proportional to the angular velocity vector ω of the particle (how fast its angular position changes), where the constant of proportionality depends on both the mass of the particle and its distance from origin. For continuous rigid bodies, though, the spin angular velocity ω is proportional but not always parallel to the spin angular momentum of the object, making the constant of proportionality I (called the moment of inertia) a second-rank tensor rather than a scalar.
Angular momentum is additive; the total angular momentum of a system is the (pseudo)vector sum of the angular momenta. For continua or fields one uses integration. The total angular momentum of any rigid body can be split into the sum of two main components: the angular momentum of the centre of mass (with a mass equal to the total mass) about the origin, plus the spin angular momentum of the object about the centre of mass.
Torque can be defined as the rate of change of angular momentum, analogous to force. The conservation of angular momentum helps explain many observed phenomena, for example the increase in rotational speed of a spinning figure skater as the skater's arms are contracted, the high rotational rates of neutron stars, the Coriolis effect, and precession of tops and gyroscopes. Applications include the gyrocompass, control moment gyroscope, inertial guidance systems, reaction wheels, flying discs or Frisbees, and Earth's rotation to name a few. In general, conservation does limit the possible motion of a system, but does not uniquely determine what the exact motion is.
In quantum mechanics, angular momentum is an operator with quantized eigenvalues. Angular momentum is subject to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, meaning that at any time, only one component can be measured with definite precision; the other two cannot. Also, the "spin" of elementary particles does not correspond to literal spinning motion.
Velocity of the particle m with respect to the origin O can be resolved into components parallel to (v//) and perpendicular to (v⊥) the radius vector r. The angular momentum of m is proportional to the perpendicular component v⊥ of the velocity, or equivalently, to the perpendicular distance r⊥ from the origin.
Unlike mass, which depends only on amount of matter, moment of inertia is also dependent on the position of the axis of rotation and the shape of the matter. Unlike linear speed, which occurs in a straight line, angular speed occurs about a center of rotation. Therefore, strictly speaking, should be referred to as the angular momentum relative to that center.
the product of the radius of rotation and the linear momentum of the particle , where in this case is the equivalent linear (tangential) speed at the radius ( ).
where is the length of the moment arm, a line dropped perpendicularly from the origin onto the path of the particle. It is this definition, (length of moment arm)×(linear momentum) to which the term moment of momentum refers.
which is the cross product of the position vector and the linear momentum of the particle. By the definition of the cross product, the vector is perpendicular to both and . It is directed perpendicular to the plane of angular displacement, as indicated by the right-hand rule – so that the angular velocity is seen as counter-clockwise from the head of the vector. Conversely, the vector defines the plane in which and lie.
where is the perpendicular component of the motion, as above.
and for circular motion, where all of the motion is perpendicular to the radius .
Angular momentum can be described as the rotational analog of linear momentum. Like linear momentum it involves elements of mass and displacement. Unlike linear momentum it also involves elements of position and shape.
is the angular momentum, sometimes called, as here, the moment of momentum of the particle versus that particular center point. The equation combines a moment (a mass turning moment arm ) with a linear (straight-line equivalent) speed . Linear speed referred to the central point is simply the product of the distance and the angular speed versus the point: another moment. Hence, angular momentum contains a double moment: Simplifying slightly, the quantity is the particle's moment of inertia, sometimes called the second moment of mass. It is a measure of rotational inertia.
Moment of inertia (shown here), and therefore angular momentum, is different for every possible configuration of mass and axis of rotation.
Because rotational inertia is a part of angular momentum, it necessarily includes all of the complications of moment of inertia, which is calculated by multiplying elementary bits of the mass by the squares of their distances from the center of rotation. Therefore, the total moment of inertia, and the angular momentum, is a complex function of the configuration of the matter about the center of rotation and the orientation of the rotation for the various bits.
For a rigid body, for instance a wheel or an asteroid, the orientation of rotation is simply the position of the rotation axis versus the matter of the body. It may or may not pass through the center of mass, or it may lie completely outside of the body. For the same body, angular momentum may take a different value for every possible axis about which rotation may take place. It reaches a minimum when the axis passes through the center of mass.
For a collection of objects revolving about a center, for instance all of the bodies of the Solar System, the orientations may be somewhat organized, as is the Solar System, with most of the bodies' axes lying close to the system's axis. Their orientations may also be completely random.
where is the radius of gyration, the distance from the axis at which the entire mass may be considered as concentrated.
Angular momentum's dependence on position and shape is reflected in its units versus linear momentum: kg·m2/s, N·m·s or J·s for angular momentum versus kg·m/s or N·s for linear momentum. Angular momentum's units can be interpreted as torque·seconds, work·seconds, or energy·seconds. An object with angular momentum of L N·m·s can be reduced to zero rotation (all of the energy can be transferred out of it) by an angular impulse of L N·m·s or equivalently, by torque or work of L N·m for one second, or energy of L J for one second.
The plane perpendicular to the axis of angular momentum and passing through the center of mass is sometimes called the invariable plane, because the direction of the axis remains fixed if only the interactions of the bodies within the system, free from outside influences, are considered. One such plane is the invariable plane of the Solar System.
Therefore, the time rate of change of angular momentum about a particular center of rotation is equivalent to applied torque about that center. If angular momentum is constant, and no torque is applied.
A figure skater conserves angular momentum – her rotational speed increases as her moment of inertia decreases by drawing in her arms and legs.
A rotational analog of Newton's third law of motion might be written, "In a closed system, no torque can be exerted on any matter without the exertion on some other matter of an equal and opposite torque." Hence, angular momentum can be exchanged between objects in a closed system, but total angular momentum before and after an exchange remains constant (is conserved).
Similarly, a rotational analog of Newton's second law of motion might be, "A change in angular momentum is proportional to the applied torque and occurs about the same axis as that torque." Since a torque applied over time is equivalent to a change in angular momentum, then if torque is zero, angular momentum is constant. As above, a system with constant angular momentum is a closed system. Therefore, requiring the system to be closed is equivalent to requiring that no external influence, in the form of a torque, acts upon it.
A rotational analog of Newton's first law of motion might be written, "A body continues in a state of rest or of uniform rotation unless acted by an external torque." Thus with no external influence to act upon it, the original angular momentum of the system is conserved.
The conservation of angular momentum is used in analyzing central force motion. If the net force on some body is directed always toward some point, the center, then there is no torque on the body with respect to the center, as all of the force is directed along the radius vector, and none is perpendicular to the radius. Mathematically, torque because in this case and are parallel vectors. Therefore, the angular momentum of the body about the center is constant. This is the case with gravitational attraction in the orbits of planets and satellites, where the gravitational force is always directed toward the primary body and orbiting bodies conserve angular momentum by exchanging distance and velocity as they move about the primary. Central force motion is also used in the analysis of the Bohr model of the atom.
For a planet, angular momentum is distributed between the spin of the planet and its revolution in its orbit, and these are often exchanged by various mechanisms. The conservation of angular momentum in the Earth–Moon system results in the transfer of angular momentum from Earth to Moon, due to tidal torque the Moon exerts on the Earth. This in turn results in the slowing down of the rotation rate of Earth, at about 65.7 nanoseconds per day, and in gradual increase of the radius of Moon's orbit, at about 3.82 centimeters per year.
The torque caused by the two opposing forces Fg and −Fg causes a change in the angular momentum L in the direction of that torque (since torque is the time derivative of angular momentum). This causes the top to precess.
The conservation of angular momentum explains the angular acceleration of an ice skater as she brings her arms and legs close to the vertical axis of rotation. By bringing part of the mass of her body closer to the axis she decreases her body's moment of inertia. Because angular momentum is the product of moment of inertia and angular velocity, if the angular momentum remains constant (is conserved), then the angular velocity (rotational speed) of the skater must increase.
The same phenomenon results in extremely fast spin of compact stars (like white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes) when they are formed out of much larger and slower rotating stars. Decrease in the size of an object n times results in increase of its angular velocity by the factor of n2.
Conservation is not always a full explanation for the dynamics of a system but is a key constraint. For example, a spinning top is subject to gravitational torque making it lean over and change the angular momentum about the nutation axis, but neglecting friction at the point of spinning contact, it has a conserved angular momentum about its spinning axis, and another about its precession axis. Also, in any planetary system, the planets, star(s), comets, and asteroids can all move in numerous complicated ways, but only so that the angular momentum of the system is conserved.
Noether's theorem states that every conservation law is associated with a symmetry (invariant) of the underlying physics. The symmetry associated with conservation of angular momentum is rotational invariance. The fact that the physics of a system is unchanged if it is rotated by any angle about an axis implies that angular momentum is conserved.
called specific angular momentum. Note that Mass is often unimportant in orbital mechanics calculations, because motion is defined by gravity. The primary body of the system is often so much larger than any bodies in motion about it that the smaller bodies have a negligible gravitational effect on it; it is, in effect, stationary. All bodies are apparently attracted by its gravity in the same way, regardless of mass, and therefore all move approximately the same way under the same conditions.
In the derivation which follows, integrals similar to this can replace the sums for the case of continuous mass.
The angular momentum of the particles i is the sum of the cross products R × MV + Σri × mivi.
The first term is the angular momentum of the center of mass relative to the origin. Similar to Single particle, below, it is the angular momentum of one particle of mass M at the center of mass moving with velocity V. The second term is the angular momentum of the particles moving relative to the center of mass, similar to Fixed center of mass, below. The result is general — the motion of the particles is not restricted to rotation or revolution about the origin or center of mass. The particles need not be individual masses, but can be elements of a continuous distribution, such as a solid body.
The 3-angular momentum as a bivector (plane element) and axial vector, of a particle of mass m with instantaneous 3-position x and 3-momentum p.
In modern (20th century) theoretical physics, angular momentum (not including any intrinsic angular momentum – see below) is described using a different formalism, instead of a classical pseudovector. In this formalism, angular momentum is the 2-form Noether charge associated with rotational invariance. As a result, angular momentum is not conserved for general curved spacetimes, unless it happens to be asymptotically rotationally invariant.
Again, this equation in L and ω as tensors is true in any number of dimensions. This equation also appears in the geometric algebra formalism, in which L and ω are bivectors, and the moment of inertia is a mapping between them.
in the language of four-vectors, namely the four position X and the four momentum P, and absorbs the above L together with the motion of the centre of mass of the particle.
In each of the above cases, for a system of particles, the total angular momentum is just the sum of the individual particle angular momenta, and the centre of mass is for the system.
Angular momentum in quantum mechanics differs in many profound respects from angular momentum in classical mechanics. In relativistic quantum mechanics, it differs even more, in which the above relativistic definition becomes a tensorial operator.
Angular momenta of a classical object.
Left: "spin" angular momentum S is really orbital angular momentum of the object at every point.
Right: extrinsic orbital angular momentum L about an axis.
Top: the moment of inertia tensor I and angular velocity ω (L is not always parallel to ω).
Bottom: momentum p and its radial position r from the axis. The total angular momentum (spin plus orbital) is J. For a quantum particle the interpretations are different; particle spin does not have the above interpretation.
However, in quantum physics, there is another type of angular momentum, called spin angular momentum, represented by the spin operator S. Almost all elementary particles have spin. Spin is often depicted as a particle literally spinning around an axis, but this is a misleading and inaccurate picture: spin is an intrinsic property of a particle, unrelated to any sort of motion in space and fundamentally different from orbital angular momentum. All elementary particles have a characteristic spin, for example electrons have "spin 1/2" (this actually means "spin ħ/2") while photons have "spin 1" (this actually means "spin ħ").
Finally, there is total angular momentum J, which combines both the spin and orbital angular momentum of all particles and fields. (For one particle, J = L + S.) Conservation of angular momentum applies to J, but not to L or S; for example, the spin–orbit interaction allows angular momentum to transfer back and forth between L and S, with the total remaining constant. Electrons and photons need not have integer-based values for total angular momentum, but can also have fractional values.
In this standing wave on a circular string, the circle is broken into exactly 8 wavelengths. A standing wave like this can have 0,1,2, or any integer number of wavelengths around the circle, but it cannot have a non-integer number of wavelengths like 8.3. In quantum mechanics, angular momentum is quantized for a similar reason.
The reduced Planck constant is tiny by everyday standards, about 10−34 J s, and therefore this quantization does not noticeably affect the angular momentum of macroscopic objects. However, it is very important in the microscopic world. For example, the structure of electron shells and subshells in chemistry is significantly affected by the quantization of angular momentum.
Quantization of angular momentum was first postulated by Niels Bohr in his Bohr model of the atom and was later predicted by Erwin Schrödinger in his Schrödinger equation.
In the definition , six operators are involved: The position operators , , , and the momentum operators , , . However, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle tells us that it is not possible for all six of these quantities to be known simultaneously with arbitrary precision. Therefore, there are limits to what can be known or measured about a particle's angular momentum. It turns out that the best that one can do is to simultaneously measure both the angular momentum vector's magnitude and its component along one axis.
is the rotation operator that takes any system and rotates it by angle about the axis . (The "exp" in the formula refers to operator exponential) To put this the other way around, whatever our quantum Hilbert space is, we expect that the rotation group SO(3) will act on it. There is then an associated action of the Lie algebra so(3) of SO(3); the operators describing the action of so(3) on our Hilbert space are the (total) angular momentum operators.
The relationship between the angular momentum operator and the rotation operators is the same as the relationship between Lie algebras and Lie groups in mathematics. The close relationship between angular momentum and rotations is reflected in Noether's theorem that proves that angular momentum is conserved whenever the laws of physics are rotationally invariant.
The interplay with quantum mechanics is discussed further in the article on canonical commutation relations.
In classical Maxwell electrodynamics the Poynting vector is a linear momentum density of electromagnetic field.
The above identities are valid locally, i.e. in each space point in a given moment .
A top, whose parts by their cohesion are perpetually drawn aside from rectilinear motions, does not cease its rotation, otherwise than as it is retarded by the air. The greater bodies of the planets and comets, meeting with less resistance in more free spaces, preserve their motions both progressive and circular for a much longer time.
From such kind of reflexions also sometimes arise the circular motions of bodies about their own centres. But these are cases which I do not consider in what follows; and it would be too tedious to demonstrate every particular that relates to this subject.
However, his geometric proof of the law of areas is an outstanding example of Newton's genius, and indirectly proves angular momentum conservation in the case of a central force.
As a planet orbits the Sun, the line between the Sun and the planet sweeps out equal areas in equal intervals of time. This had been known since Kepler expounded his second law of planetary motion. Newton derived a unique geometric proof, and went on to show that the attractive force of the Sun's gravity was the cause of all of Kepler's laws.
During the first interval of time, an object is in motion from point A to point B. Undisturbed, it would continue to point c during the second interval. When the object arrives at B, it receives an impulse directed toward point S. The impulse gives it a small added velocity toward S, such that if this were its only velocity, it would move from B to V during the second interval. By the rules of velocity composition, these two velocities add, and point C is found by construction of parallelogram BcCV. Thus the object's path is deflected by the impulse so that it arrives at point C at the end of the second interval. Because the triangles SBc and SBC have the same base SB and the same height Bc or VC, they have the same area. By symmetry, triangle SBc also has the same area as triangle SAB, therefore the object has swept out equal areas SAB and SBC in equal times.
At point C, the object receives another impulse toward S, again deflecting its path during the third interval from d to D. Thus it continues to E and beyond, the triangles SAB, SBc, SBC, SCd, SCD, SDe, SDE all having the same area. Allowing the time intervals to become ever smaller, the path ABCDE approaches indefinitely close to a continuous curve.
Note that because this derivation is geometric, and no specific force is applied, it proves a more general law than Kepler's second law of planetary motion. It shows that the Law of Areas applies to any central force, attractive or repulsive, continuous or non-continuous, or zero.
The proportionality of angular momentum to the area swept out by a moving object can be understood by realizing that the bases of the triangles, that is, the lines from S to the object, are equivalent to the radius r, and that the heights of the triangles are proportional to the perpendicular component of velocity v⊥. Hence, if the area swept per unit time is constant, then by the triangular area formula 1/2(base)(height), the product (base)(height) and therefore the product rv⊥ are constant: if r and the base length are decreased, v⊥ and height must increase proportionally. Mass is constant, therefore angular momentum rmv⊥ is conserved by this exchange of distance and velocity.
In the case of triangle SBC, area is equal to 1/2(SB)(VC). Wherever C is eventually located due to the impulse applied at B, the product (SB)(VC), and therefore rmv⊥ remain constant. Similarly so for each of the triangles.
Leonhard Euler, Daniel Bernoulli, and Patrick d'Arcy all understood angular momentum in terms of conservation of areal velocity, a result of their analysis of Kepler's second law of planetary motion. It is unlikely that they realized the implications for ordinary rotating matter.
In 1736 Euler, like Newton, touched on some of the equations of angular momentum in his Mechanica without further developing them.
Bernoulli wrote in a 1744 letter of a "moment of rotational motion", possibly the first conception of angular momentum as we now understand it.
In 1799, Pierre-Simon Laplace first realized that a fixed plane was associated with rotation — his invariable plane.
Louis Poinsot in 1803 began representing rotations as a line segment perpendicular to the rotation, and elaborated on the "conservation of moments".
In 1852 Léon Foucault used a gyroscope in an experiment to display the Earth's rotation.
...a line whose length is proportional to the magnitude of the angular momentum, and whose direction is perpendicular to the plane of motion of the body and of the fixed point, and such, that when the motion of the body is viewed from the extremity of the line, the radius-vector of the body seems to have right-handed rotation.
In an 1872 edition of the same book, Rankine stated that "The term angular momentum was introduced by Mr. Hayward," probably referring to R.B. Hayward's article On a Direct Method of estimating Velocities, Accelerations, and all similar Quantities with respect to Axes moveable in any manner in Space with Applications, which was introduced in 1856, and published in 1864. Rankine was mistaken, as numerous publications feature the term starting in the late 18th to early 19th centuries. However, Hayward's article apparently was the first use of the term and the concept seen by much of the English-speaking world. Before this, angular momentum was typically referred to as "momentum of rotation" in English.
↑ Wilson, E. B. (1915). Linear Momentum, Kinetic Energy and Angular Momentum. The American Mathematical Monthly. XXII. Ginn and Co., Boston, in cooperation with University of Chicago, et al. p. 190 – via Google books.
↑ Worthington, Arthur M. (1906). Dynamics of Rotation. Longmans, Green and Co., London. p. 21 – via Google books.
1 2 Taylor, John R. (2005). Classical Mechanics. University Science Books, Mill Valley, CA. p. 90. ISBN 978-1-891389-22-1.
↑ Dadourian, H. M. (1913). Analytical Mechanics for Students of Physics and Engineering. D. Van Nostrand Company, New York. p. 266 – via Google books.
↑ Watson, W. (1912). General Physics. Longmans, Green and Co., New York. p. 33 – via Google books.
↑ Barker, George F. (1893). Physics: Advanced Course (4th ed.). Henry Holt and Company, New York. p. 66 – via Google Books.
↑ Barker, George F. (1893). Physics: Advanced Course (4th ed.). Henry Holt and Company, New York. pp. 67–68 – via Google Books.
↑ Oberg, Erik; et al. (2000). Machinery's Handbook (26th ed.). Industrial Press, Inc., New York. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-8311-2625-4.
↑ Watson, W. (1912). General Physics. Longmans, Green and Co., New York. p. 34 – via Google books.
↑ Kent, William (1916). The Mechanical Engineers' Pocket Book (9th ed.). John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York. p. 517 – via Google books.
↑ Oberg, Erik; et al. (2000). Machinery's Handbook (26th ed.). Industrial Press, Inc., New York. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-8311-2625-4.
↑ Oberg, Erik; et al. (2000). Machinery's Handbook (26th ed.). Industrial Press, Inc., New York. pp. 161–162. ISBN 978-0-8311-2625-4.
↑ Kent, William (1916). The Mechanical Engineers' Pocket Book (9th ed.). John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York. p. 527 – via Google books.
↑ Rankine, W. J. M. (1872). A Manual of Applied Mechanics (6th ed.). Charles Griffin and Company, London. p. 507 – via Google books.
1 2 3 Crew, Henry (1908). The Principles of Mechanics: For Students of Physics and Engineering. Longmans, Green, and Company, New York. p. 88 – via Google books.
↑ Worthington, Arthur M. (1906). Dynamics of Rotation. Longmans, Green and Co., London. p. 82 – via Google books.
↑ Worthington, Arthur M. (1906). Dynamics of Rotation. Longmans, Green and Co., London. p. 12 – via Google books.
↑ Worthington, Arthur M. (1906). Dynamics of Rotation. Longmans, Green and Co., London. p. 11 – via Google books.
↑ Stephenson, F. R.; Morrison, L. V.; Whitrow, G. J. (1984). "Long-term changes in the rotation of the earth – 700 B.C. to A.D. 1980". Philosophical Transactions Royal Society. 313 (1524): 67. Bibcode:1984RSPTA.313...47S. doi:10.1098/rsta.1984.0082. +2.40 ms/century divided by 36525 days.
↑ Dickey, J. O.; et al. (1994). "Lunar Laser Ranging: A Continuing Legacy of the Apollo Program" (PDF). Science. 265 (5171): 482–90, 486. Bibcode:1994Sci...265..482D. doi:10.1126/science.265.5171.482. PMID 17781305.
↑ Landau, L. D.; Lifshitz, E. M. (1995). The classical theory of fields. Course of Theoretical Physics. Oxford, Butterworth–Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-2768-9.
↑ Battin, Richard H. (1999). An Introduction to the Mathematics and Methods of Astrodynamics, Revised Edition. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-56347-342-5.
↑ Wilson, E. B. (1915). Linear Momentum, Kinetic Energy and Angular Momentum. The American Mathematical Monthly. XXII. Ginn and Co., Boston, in cooperation with University of Chicago, et al. p. 188, equation (3) – via Google books.
↑ Wilson, E. B. (1915). Linear Momentum, Kinetic Energy and Angular Momentum. The American Mathematical Monthly. XXII. Ginn and Co., Boston, in cooperation with University of Chicago, et al. p. 191, Theorem 8 – via Google books.
↑ Synge and Schild, Tensor calculus, Dover publications, 1978 edition, p. 161. ISBN 978-0-486-63612-2.
↑ R.P. Feynman; R.B. Leighton; M. Sands (1964). Feynman's Lectures on Physics (volume 2). Addison–Wesley. pp. 31–7. ISBN 978-0-201-02117-2.
↑ Ballantine, K. E.; Donegan, J. F.; Eastham, P. R. (2016). "There are many ways to spin a photon: Half-quantization of a total optical angular momentum". Science Advances. 2 (4): e1501748. Bibcode:2016SciA....2E1748B. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1501748. PMC 5565928. PMID 28861467.
↑ Littlejohn, Robert (2011). "Lecture notes on rotations in quantum mechanics" (PDF). Physics 221B Spring 2011. Retrieved 13 Jan 2012.
↑ Okulov, A Yu (2008). "Angular momentum of photons and phase conjugation". Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics. 41 (10): 101001. arXiv:0801.2675. Bibcode:2008JPhB...41j1001O. doi:10.1088/0953-4075/41/10/101001.
↑ Okulov, A.Y. (2008). "Optical and Sound Helical structures in a Mandelstam – Brillouin mirror". JETP Letters (in Russian). 88 (8): 561–566. Bibcode:2008JETPL..88..487O. doi:10.1134/s0021364008200046.
↑ Newton, Isaac (1803). "Axioms; or Laws of Motion, Law I". The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. Andrew Motte, translator. H. D. Symonds, London. p. 322 – via Google books.
↑ see Borrelli, Arianna (2011). "Angular momentum between physics and mathematics" (PDF). for an excellent and detailed summary of the concept of angular momentum through history.
↑ Bruce, Ian (2008). "Euler : Mechanica Vol. 1".
↑ Rankine, W. J. M. (1872). A Manual of Applied Mechanics (6th ed.). Charles Griffin and Company, London. p. 506 – via Google books.
↑ Hayward, Robert B. (1864). "On a Direct Method of estimating Velocities, Accelerations, and all similar Quantities with respect to Axes moveable in any manner in Space with Applications". Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. 10: 1. Bibcode:1864TCaPS..10....1H.
↑ see, for instance, Gompertz, Benjamin (1818). "On Pendulums vibrating between Cheeks". The Journal of Science and the Arts. III (V): 17 – via Google books. ; Herapath, John (1847). Mathematical Physics. Whittaker and Co., London. p. 56 – via Google books.
↑ see, for instance, Landen, John (1785). "Of the Rotatory Motion of a Body of any Form whatever". Philosophical Transactions. LXXV (I): 311–332. doi:10.1098/rstl.1785.0016.
Hall, Brian C. (2013), Quantum Theory for Mathematicians, Graduate Texts in Mathematics, 267, Springer, ISBN 978-0-387-40122-5 .
Feynman R, Leighton R, and Sands M. 19–4 Rotational kinetic energy, from The Feynman Lectures on Physics (online edition), The Feynman Lectures Website, September 2013.
Look up angular momentum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. | http://library.kiwix.org/wikipedia_en_computer_novid_2018-10/A/Angular_momentum.html |
Momentum is mass multiplied by velocity. This means that the physical meaning of the conservation of linear It’s a good idea, at this point, to make sure you’re clear on the physical meaning of the derivatives in Equation 9.3.Because of the interaction, each object ends up getting its velocity changed, by an amount dv.Furthermore, the interaction occurs over a time interval dt, which means that the change of velocities also occurs over dt.This time interval is the same for each object. Momentum is a derived quantity, calculated by multiplying the mass, m (a scalar quantity), times velocity, v (a vector quantity). Linear momentum is defined as the product of a system’s mass multiplied by its velocity. Note the definition says velocity, not speed, so momentum is a vector quantity. Conservation of momentum of a particle is a property exhibited by any particle where the total amount of momentum never changes. Angular momentum is related to angular velocity in much the same way that linear momentum is related to linear velocity, P(t) = Mv(t) (see Eq. Momentum is a vector quantity.As discussed in an earlier unit, a vector quantity is a quantity that is fully described by both magnitude and direction. Linear Momentum. This means that a 1,000-kg car moving north at 20 m/s has a different […] Momentum, product of the mass of a particle and its velocity.Momentum is a vector quantity; i.e., it has both magnitude and direction. Momentum is the most important quantity when it comes to handling collisions in physics. The linear momentum of a particle is defined as the product of the mass of the particle times the velocity of that particle. Account qualitatively for the increase of photon wavelength that is observed, and explain the significance of the Compton wavelength. This means that the momentum has a direction and that direction is always the same direction as the velocity of an object's motion. Linear Momentum - Guido F. Nelissen 5 In the former section we have demonstrated that the linear momentum of a moving particle system, is equal to the sum of the (identical) congruent velocities of all its particles with unit mass (∑m j v j = m.v c). Linear Momentum We know that momentum is the quantity of motion of a moving body, but what, exactly, does that mean? Compute the linear/angular momentum of a Frisbee of mass .160kg if it has a linear speed of 2 m/s and an angular velocity of 50 rad/s. To fully describe the momentum of a 5-kg bowling ball moving westward at 2 m/s, you must include information about both the magnitude and the direction of the bowling ball. 7.41).However, in the case of angular momentum, a matrix is needed to describe the distribution of mass of the object in space, the inertia tensor, I(t).The inertia tensor is a symmetric 3 × 3 matrix. Treat frisbee as uniform disk of radius 15cm. Momentum, like velocity is a vector quantity, so its direction matters. Momentum is a physical quantity defined as the product of mass multiplied by velocity. Relate the linear momentum of a photon to its energy or wavelength, and apply linear momentum conservation to simple processes involving the emission, absorption, or reflection of photons. Conservation of momentum is a fundamental conservation law. In symbols, linear momentum is expressed as Momentum as a Vector Quantity. The scientific definition of linear momentum is consistent with most people’s intuitive understanding of momentum: a large, fast-moving object has greater momentum than a smaller, slower object. Isaac Newton’s second law of motion states that the time rate of change of momentum is equal to the force acting on the particle. Physically, this means that during the interaction of the two objects (m 1 and m 2), both objects have their momentum changed; but those changes are identical in magnitude, though opposite in sign. p = mv The law of conservation of energy is also fundamental. For example, the momentum of object 1 might increase, which means that the momentum of object 2 decreases by exactly the same amount. The law of conservation of momentum says that from every interaction, the total momentum will be the same before and after.
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a. Mechanics of Particles: Laws of motion; conservation of energy and momentum, applications to rotating frames, cent r ipetal and Cor iol is accelerat ions; Motion under a central force; Conservation of angular momentum, Kepler's laws; Fields and potentials; Gravitational field and potential due to spherical bodies, Gauss and Poisson equations, gravitational self-energy; Two-body problem; Reduced mass; Rutherford scattering; Centre of mass an laboratory reference frames.
b. Mechanics of Rigid Bodies: System of particles; Centre of mass, angular momentum, equations of motion; Conservation theorems for energy, momentum and angular momentum; Elastic and inelastic collisions; Rigid body; Degrees of freedom, Euler's theorem, angular velocity, angular momentum, moments of inertia, theorems of parallel and perpendicular axes, equation of motion for rotation; Molecular rotations (as rigid bodies); Di and tri-atomic molecules; Precessional motion; top, gyroscope.
c. Mechanics of Continuous Media: Elasticity, Hooke's law and elastic constants of isotropic solids and their inter-relation; Streamline (Laminar) flow, viscosity, Poiseuille's equation, Bernoulli's equation, Stokes' law and applications.
d. Special Relativity: Michelson-Morley experiment and its implications; Lorentz transformations-length contraction, time dilation, addition of relativistic velocities, aberration and Doppler effect, mass-energy relation, simple applications to a decay process; Four dimensional momentum vector; Covariance of equations of physics.
a. Waves: Simple harmonic motion, damped oscillation, forced oscillation and resonance; Beats; Stationary waves in a string; Pulses and wave packets; Phase and group velocities; Reflection and Refraction from Huygens' principle.
b. Geometrical Optics: Laws of reflection and refraction from Fermat's principle ; Matrix method in paraxial optics-thin lens formula, nodal planes, system of two thin lenses, chromatic and spherical aberrations.
c. Interference: Interference of light-Young's experiment, Newton's rings, interference by thin films, Michelson interferometer; Multiple beam interference and Fabry-Perot interferometer.
d. Diffraction: Fraunhofer diffraction-single slit, double slit, diffraction grating, resolving power; Diffraction by a circular aperture and the Airy pattern; Fresnel diffraction: half-period zones and zone plates, circular aperture.
e. Polarization and Modern Optics: Production and detection of linearly and circularly polarized light; Double refraction, quarter wave plate; Optical activity; Principles of fibre optics, attenuation; Pulse dispersion in step index and parabolic index f ibres; Mater ial dispersion, single mode fibres; Lasers-Einstein A and B coefficients; Ruby and He-Ne lasers; Characteristics of laser light-spatial and temporal coherence; Focusing of laser beams; Three-level scheme for laser operation; Holography and simple applications.
a. Electrostatics and Magnetostatics: Laplace and Poisson equations in electrostatics and their applications; Energy of a system of charges, multipole expansion of scalar potential; Method of images and its applications; Potential and field due to a dipole, force and torque on a dipole in an external field; Dielectrics, polarization; Solutions to boundary-value problems-conducting and dielectric spheres in a uniform electric field; Magnetic shell, uniformly magnetized sphere; Ferromagnetic materials, hysteresis, energy loss.
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c. Electromagnetic Waves and Blackbody Radiation: Displacement current and Maxwell's equations; Wave equations in vacuum, Poynting theorem; Vector and scalar potentials; Electromagnetic field tensor, covariance of Maxwell's equations; Wave equations in isotropic dielectrics, reflection and refraction at the boundary of two dielectrics; Fresnel's relations; Total internal reflection; Normal and anomalous dispersion; Rayleigh scattering; Blackbody radiation and Planck's radiation law, Stefan - Boltzmann law, Wien's displacement law and Rayleigh-Jeans' law.
a. Thermodynamics: Laws of thermodynamics, reversible and irreversible processes, entropy; Isothermal, adiabatic, isobaric, isochoric processes and entropy changes; Otto and Diesel engines, Gibbs' phase rule and chemical potential; van der Waals equation of state of a real gas, critical constants; Maxwell-Boltzman distribution of molecular velocities, transport phenomena, equipartition and virial theorems; Dulong-Pet i t , Einstein, and Debye's theories of specific heat of solids; Maxwell relations and applications ; Clausius- Clapeyron equation; Adiabatic demagnetisation, Joule-Kelvin effect and liquefaction of gases.
b. Statistical Physics: Macro and micro states, statistical distributions, Maxwell-Boltzmann, Bose-Einstein and Fermi-Dirac distributions, applications to specific heat of gases and blackbody radiation; Concept of negative temperatures.
Stern-Gerlach experiment, electron spin, fine structure of hydrogen atom; L-S coupling, J-J coupling; Spectroscopic notation of atomic states; Zeeman effect; FrankCondon principle and applications; Elementary theory of rotational, vibratonal and electronic spectra of diatomic molecules; Raman effect and molecular structure; Laser Raman spectroscopy; Importance of neutral hydrogen atom, molecular hydrogen and molecular hydrogen ion in astronomy; Fluorescence and Phosphorescence; Elementary theory and applications of NMR and EPR; Elementary ideas about Lamb shift and its significance.
Basic nuclear properties-size, binding energy, angular momentum, parity, magnetic moment; Semi-empirical mass formula and appl icat ions, mass parabolas; Ground state of deuteron, magnetic moment and non-central forces; Meson theory of nuclear forces; Salient features of nuclear forces;Shell model of the nucleus - successes and limitations; Violation of parity in beta decay; Gamma decay and internal conversion; Elementary ideas about Mossbauer spectroscopy; Q-value of nuclear reactions; Nuclear fission and fusion, energy production in stars; Nuclear reactors.
Classification of elementary particles and their interactions ; Conservation laws ; Quark structure of hadrons; Field quanta of electroweak and strong interactions; Elementary ideas about unification of forces; Physics of neutrinos.
Crystalline and amorphous structure of matter; Different crystal systems, space groups; Methods of determination of crystal structure; X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopies; Band theory of solids - conductors, insulators and semiconductors; Thermal properties of solids, specific heat, Debye theory; Magnetism: dia, para and ferromagnetism; Elements of superconductivity, Meissner effect, Josephson junctions and applications; Elementary ideas about high temperature superconductivity.
Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductors; pn-p and n-p-n transistors; Amplifiers and osci l lators; Op-amps; FET, JFET and MOSFET; Digital electronics-Boolean identities, De Morgan's laws, logic gates and truth tables; Simple logic circuits; Thermistors, solar cells; Fundamentals of microprocessors and digital computers. | http://www.infoa2z.com/education/Physics-Syllabus-for-Main-Examination-HCS |
This post contains all the important formulas that you need for A Level Physics. (Equivalent to AP Physics) If you do not recognise any of the terms listed here, you should go review the respective topic.
Please drop me a comment if I missed out any particular important definitions.
Random errors are errors of measurements in which the measured quantities differ from the mean value with different magnitudes and directions.
Systematic errors are errors of measurements in which the measured quantities are displaced from the true value by fixed magnitude and in the same direction.
Accuracy is a measure of how close the results of an experiment agree with the true value.
Precision is a measure of how close the results of an experiment agree with each other.
The internal energy is a function of state and the total microscopic kinetic and potential energies of the particles composing the system.
The specific latent heat of vaporization, Lv, is defined as the amount of heat required per unit mass to change a substance from the liquid phase to the vapor phase without any change in temperature.
First law of thermodynamics state that internal energy is a function of state and the increase in internal energy is equal to the sum of the heat supplied to system and work done on system.
Speed is the rate of change of distance traveled with respect to time.
Velocity is the rate of change of its displacement with respect to time.
Acceleration of an object is the rate of change of its velocity with respect to time.
Normal contact force is a force perpendicular to the surface experienced by a body when it is in physical contact with something else.
Hooke’s Law states that within the limit of proportionality, the extension produced in a material is directly proportional to the load applied.
The principle of moments states that, when an object is in equilibrium, the sum of anticlockwise moments about any point equals the sum of clockwise moments about the same point.
The moment of a force is the product of the force and the perpendicular distance between the axis of rotation and the line of action of the force.
A couple is a pair of forces, equal in magnitude but opposite in direction, whose lines of motion do not coincide.
Centre of gravity is the point on an object through which the entire weight of the object may be considered to act.
Stability of an object refers to its ability to return to its original position after it has been displaced from that position.
Pressure is force acting per unit area.
Upthrust/buoyancy force is an upward force on a body produced by the surrounding fluid (i.e., a liquid or a gas) in which it is fully or partially immersed, due to the pressure difference of the fluid between the top and bottom of the object.
Archimedes’ Principle states that the upthrust experienced by an object partially or entirely immersed in a fluid is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.
Newton’s first law of motion states that a body will continue in its state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless an external resultant force acts on it.
Newton’s second law states that the rate of change of momentum of a body is proportional to the resultant force acting on it and the change takes place in the direction of the force.
Newton’s third law states that: If body A exerts a force on body B, then body B exerts a force of equal magnitude but in the opposite direction on body A.
The principle of conservation of momentum states that the total momentum of a system of objects remains constant provided no resultant external force acts on the system.
Work is the mechanical transfer of energy to a system or from a system by an external force on it.
Heat is the non-mechanical transfer of energy from the environment to the system or from the system to the environment because of a temperature difference between the two.
The principle of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed in any process.
Gravitational Potential Energy is defined as the amount of work done in order to raise the body to the height h from a reference level.
Power is defined as the rate of work done or energy converted with respect to time.
Angular displacement, θ is the angle subtended at centre of a circle by an arc of equal length to the radius.
Angular velocity, ω is the rate of change of angular displacement with respect to time.
The period T of an object in circular motion is the time taken for the object to make one complete revolution.
The frequency f of an object in circular motion is the number of complete revolutions made by the object per unit time.
Displacement is the distance moved by the particle from its equilibrium position.
The amplitude of a wave is the maximum displacement of the particle from its equilibrium position.
The wavelength is the distance between 2 successive points on a wave which are in phase with one another.
The period is the time taken for a particle on the wave to complete one oscillation.
Phase Difference (φ) between two particles or two waves tells us how much a particle (or wave) is in front or behind another particle (or wave).
Intensity of a wave is the rate of transfer of energy per unit area perpendicular to the direction of travel of the wave.
Periodic motion is the regular, repetitive motion of a body which continually retraces its path at regular intervals.
Period T of a periodic motion is the time to make one complete cycle.
Frequency f of a periodic motion is the number of cycles per unit time.
Angular frequency of a periodic motion is the rate of change of angular displacement with respect to time.
Displacement of an object is the distance of the oscillating particle from its equilibrium position at any instant.
Amplitude of a periodic motion is the magnitude of the maximum displacement of the oscillating particle from the equilibrium position.
Simple Harmonic Motion (SHM) is defined as the oscillatory motion of a particle whose acceleration a is always directed towards a fixed point and is directly proportional to its displacement x from that fixed point but in the opposite direction to the displacement.
Damping is the process whereby energy is taken from the oscillating system.
Natural frequency of the system is the frequency at which it will vibrate freely. | https://www.miniphysics.com/all-definitions-needed-for-level.html |
Momentum is mass multiplied by velocity. Conservation of momentum of a particle is a property exhibited by any particle where the total amount of momentum never changes. Linear Momentum. Momentum is a physical quantity defined as the product of mass multiplied by velocity. Momentum as a Vector Quantity. The scientific definition of linear momentum is consistent with most people’s intuitive understanding of momentum: a large, fast-moving object has greater momentum than a smaller, slower object. Treat frisbee as uniform disk of radius 15cm. Momentum is a derived quantity, calculated by multiplying the mass, m (a scalar quantity), times velocity, v (a vector quantity). This means that a 1,000-kg car moving north at 20 m/s has a different […] Compute the linear/angular momentum of a Frisbee of mass .160kg if it has a linear speed of 2 m/s and an angular velocity of 50 rad/s. 7.41).However, in the case of angular momentum, a matrix is needed to describe the distribution of mass of the object in space, the inertia tensor, I(t).The inertia tensor is a symmetric 3 × 3 matrix. Momentum, like velocity is a vector quantity, so its direction matters. This means that the physical meaning of the conservation of linear The linear momentum of a particle is defined as the product of the mass of the particle times the velocity of that particle. Note the definition says velocity, not speed, so momentum is a vector quantity. The law of conservation of momentum says that from every interaction, the total momentum will be the same before and after. Account qualitatively for the increase of photon wavelength that is observed, and explain the significance of the Compton wavelength. Linear Momentum We know that momentum is the quantity of motion of a moving body, but what, exactly, does that mean? To fully describe the momentum of a 5-kg bowling ball moving westward at 2 m/s, you must include information about both the magnitude and the direction of the bowling ball. Physically, this means that during the interaction of the two objects (m 1 and m 2), both objects have their momentum changed; but those changes are identical in magnitude, though opposite in sign. Relate the linear momentum of a photon to its energy or wavelength, and apply linear momentum conservation to simple processes involving the emission, absorption, or reflection of photons. This means that the momentum has a direction and that direction is always the same direction as the velocity of an object's motion. Momentum is a vector quantity.As discussed in an earlier unit, a vector quantity is a quantity that is fully described by both magnitude and direction. Momentum is the most important quantity when it comes to handling collisions in physics. Conservation of momentum is a fundamental conservation law. Linear Momentum - Guido F. Nelissen 5 In the former section we have demonstrated that the linear momentum of a moving particle system, is equal to the sum of the (identical) congruent velocities of all its particles with unit mass (∑m j v j = m.v c). In symbols, linear momentum is expressed as Angular momentum is related to angular velocity in much the same way that linear momentum is related to linear velocity, P(t) = Mv(t) (see Eq. It’s a good idea, at this point, to make sure you’re clear on the physical meaning of the derivatives in Equation 9.3.Because of the interaction, each object ends up getting its velocity changed, by an amount dv.Furthermore, the interaction occurs over a time interval dt, which means that the change of velocities also occurs over dt.This time interval is the same for each object. For example, the momentum of object 1 might increase, which means that the momentum of object 2 decreases by exactly the same amount. Isaac Newton’s second law of motion states that the time rate of change of momentum is equal to the force acting on the particle. Momentum, product of the mass of a particle and its velocity.Momentum is a vector quantity; i.e., it has both magnitude and direction. Linear momentum is defined as the product of a system’s mass multiplied by its velocity. p = mv The law of conservation of energy is also fundamental.
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Conservation of Momentum: We noted last time that Newton’s third law naturally holds the conservation of motion, so let’s find the connection together. When no external forces are applied to a body, then there is nothing to change the motion of that body, right? (Newton’s first law!). This is the same as a body with zero acceleration. Acceleration is the measure in the change of velocity, so if that change is zero, then this means the velocity of this body is constant, or unchanging. When the net force is zero, that means there is no change in motion – which means MOTION IS BEING CONSERVED! This is referred to as the conservation of momentum. Momentum is always conserved, no matter what!
Angular momentum: We have actually already talked a little bit about the conservation of angular momentum! It is precisely what binds the planets to orbit our Sun! The rotating motion generates a twisting force we call “torque”. As long as the net force (or net torque) is zero, then angular momentum is conserved. The conservation of angular momentum is the reasoning behind Kepler’s second law!
Energy: In essence, energy is what makes matter move! We like to categorize the types of energy to clarify how matter is moving. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. Falling rocks, orbiting planets, dancing ballerinas, are all examples of matter that has kinetic energy. Then there is radiative energy which is synonymous to “radiation”. Radiation is the energy that light carries and light can definitely use this energy to change motion of other objects. The energy of light is what makes it possible for us to see, it warms our planet, and plants use it to live! And then there is energy that is stored, or potential energy. This energy can be converted later into energy that moves the object. Yes, that means potential energy can turn into kinetic energy. The most common type of potential energy in astronomy is the potential energy from gravity! The gravitational potential energy of a body depends on its mass and how far it can move as a result of gravity. Even energy is conserved! In fact, energy cannot be created nor destroyed. This means any energy a body gains is really just energy that was stolen from somewhere or something else.
Before Isaac Newton published his three laws of motion and discovered the law of gravity, we were already getting a glimpse into this new world of physics thanks to Johannes Kepler.
Kepler established three planetary laws of motion purely through observing the planets in the night sky. Kepler’s first law is that the planets travelled in elliptical orbits. Then, there was something else he noticed: planets in their elliptical orbits didn’t move at a constant speed. The planets actually sped up as they approached the Sun, and slowed down as they moved away from it. Technically Kepler’s second law states “planets cover equal areas in equal time intervals”, which turns out to also describe the conservation of angular momentum! Kepler’s third law is the empirical relationship between the orbital period of a planet and its distance from the Sun. It wasn’t until Newton came along 100 years later that we understood why Kepler’s laws were true. Particularly Kepler’s third law, which was incomplete. Kepler’s third law, which points out a relationship between the orbital period and the distance from the Sun, is now known as the Law of gravity!
Law of gravity: The universal law of gravitation describes how gravity behaves and can be summarized in the following three ways:
- Every body is attracted to another body through the force of gravity.
- The strength of the gravitational force is directly proportional to the product of the masses.
- The strength of the gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distances between the masses.
This means the farther two bodies are from each other, the weaker their gravitational force is on one another. The closer they are, the stronger the gravitational force is. This is precisely why the planets revolve around the Sun at different speeds.
Want to know more? | https://onplanetnine.com/conservation-laws-and-keplers-planetary-laws/ |
Describes a simple demonstration of angular momentum conservation using a spinning desk chair. A short tutorial of angular momentum and angular momentum conservation is included.
Find a desk chair that spins. Sit in it, hold your arms straight out to the sides, stick your legs straight out in front of you, and have a friend give you a gentle spin. While you're spinning slowly, pull in your legs and arms. You'll speed up.
Stick out your arms and legs again; you'll slow down. Pull them in again; you'll speed up. If you're desk chair doesn't have too much friction you may have time to pull your limbs in and out several times before you slow to a stop.
If you want to make the effect more dramatic, strap on some ankle weights and hold something heavy in your hands. A couple of 500-page physics texts would be appropriate.
Challenge your friends to see who can make the most rotations before slowing to a stop.
what's going on?
The spinning desk chair provides an illustration of the "conservation of angular momentum", which is one of the fundamental conservation laws in physics and closely mirrors the conservation of linear momentum, which is more familiar to most people.
The conservation of linear momentum states that the mass times velocity, $mv$, of an object (or system of objects) does not change unless there is some external force acting on it. The principle follows from Newton's first law, which says that objects in motion will continue in a straight line at the same speed ("uniform motion") unless acted on by an outside force. If you leave it alone, an object will continue to move the same way it has, at a constant speed, not changing direction.
Fig. 1: Forces on a roulette ball. The force from the rail pushes inward along the radius, and does not change the speed of the ball. It produces no torque. The force of friction pushes opposite the direction of the velocity, perpendicular to the radius, causing a torque that slows the rotation. Image adapted from work by Conor Ogle at Wikimedia Commons available under the CC-BY 2.0 license.
Similarly, the conservation of angular momentum states that a rotating object will continue rotating (in a way we'll specify below) unless acted on by a "torque". A torque is produced by a force that causes something to spin (or stop spinning).1 For a small object moving in a circle, any force on the object that has a component perpendicular to the radius (the line from the center of the circle to the object) produces a torque; it causes the object to rotate faster or slower. See figure 1 for an example of the forces on a roulette ball. The force from the rail is directed radially and therefore provides no torque (and does not change the angular momentum of the ball). The force of friction is perpendicular to the radius, providing a torque, which reduces the angular momentum.
definition of angular momentum
In the absence of a net force, the linear momentum does not change;2 we say it is a "conserved quantity". In the absence of a net torque, which means there is no net force perpendicular to the radius of motion (although there could be forces along the radius), another quantity is conserved. In this case, it is tempting to guess that the conserved quantity would be the mass times the velocity that's perpendicular to the radius, $mv_\perp$. However, as the desk chair experiment shows, this guess is not correct. When you pull your arms and legs inward, you exert forces along the radius, but you exert no force perpendicular to the radius (no torque). Nonetheless, $v_\perp$ increases and you start rotating faster, $mv_\perp$ is not constant.
It turns out the conserved quantity is the radius, times the mass, times the perpendicular velocity, $rmv_\perp$, which is known as the angular momentum. As the radius decreases and the object is pulled inward, the perpendicular velocity $v_\perp$ increases, and vice versa.
examples
Ice skaters use the conservation of angular momentum to great advantage when doing spins. A skater will start out spinning slowly with her limbs extended, but as she pulls them in towards her body, the average radius decreases and the rotation speed increases. Notice how the rotation speed changes as Natasha Lipinsky does her spins at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn2DRYvEODQ.
Celestial bodies that orbit planets or stars also conserve angular momentum. In these cases, the forces (due to gravity) are always directed inward towards the planet or star that is doing the pulling. There is no torque. Comets are particulary dramatic examples of the conservation of angular momentum because their orbits are so eccentric. The animation by Matthias Kabel at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Komet.ogg shows how the speed of a comet increases as it gets closer to the sun. | http://sciphile.org/lessons/desk-chair-angular-momentum |
Mathematical Physics: Linear vector space, matrices; vector calculus; linear differential equations; elements of complex analysis; Laplace transforms, Fourier analysis, elementary ideas about tensors.
Classical Mechanics: Conservation laws; central forces; collisions and scattering in laboratory and centre of mass reference frames; mechanics of system of particles; rigid body dynamics; moment of inertia tensor; noninertial frames and pseudo forces; variational principle; Lagrange’s and Hamilton’s formalisms; equation of motion, cyclic coordinates, Poisson bracket; periodic motion, small oscillations, normal modes; wave equation and wave propagation; special theory of relativity – Lorentz transformations, relativistic kinematics, mass-energy equivalence.
Electromagnetic Theory: Laplace and Poisson equations; conductors and dielectrics; boundary value problems; Ampere’s and Biot-Savart’s laws; Faraday’s law; Maxwell’s equations; scalar and vector potentials; Coulomb and Lorentz gauges; boundary conditions at interfaces; electromagnetic waves; interference, diffraction and polarization; radiation from moving charges.
Quantum Mechanics: Physical basis of quantum mechanics; uncertainty principle; Schrodinger equation; one and three dimensional potential problems; Particle in a box, harmonic oscillator, hydrogen atom; linear vectors and operators in Hilbert space; angular momentum and spin; addition of angular momentum; time independent perturbation theory; elementary scattering theory.
Atomic and Molecular Physics: Spectra of one-and many-electron atoms; LS and jj coupling; hyperfine structure; Zeeman and Stark effects; electric dipole transitions and selection rules; X-ray spectra; rotational and vibrational spectra of diatomic molecules; electronic transition in diatomic molecules, Franck-Condon principle; Raman effect; NMR and ESR; lasers.
Thermodynamics and Statistical Physics: Laws of thermodynamics; macrostates, phase space; probability ensembles; partition function, free energy, calculation of thermodynamic quantities; classical and quantum statistics; degenerate Fermi gas; black body radiation and Planck’s distribution law; Bose-Einstein condensation; first and second order phase transitions, critical point.
Solid State Physics: Elements of crystallography; diffraction methods for structure determination; bonding in solids; elastic properties of solids; defects in crystals; lattice vibrations and thermal properties of solids; free electron theory; band theory of solids; metals, semiconductors and insulators; transport properties; optical, dielectric and magnetic properties of solids; elements of superconductivity.
Nuclear and Particle Physics: Rutheford scattering; basic properties of nuclei; radioactive decay; nuclear forces; two nucleon problem; nuclear reactions; conservation laws; fission and fusion; nuclear models; particle accelerators, detectors; elementary particles; photons, baryons, mesons and leptons; Quark model.
Electronics: Network analysis; semiconductor devices; bipolar transistors; FETs; power supplies, amplifier, oscillators; operational amplifiers; elements of digital electronics; logic circuits. | http://www.iitportal.com/syllabus/Graduate-Aptitude-Test-in-Engineering-GATE-Syllabus-Physics |
Wikipedia,
In classical mechanics, areal velocity (also called sector velocity or sectorial velocity) is the rate at which area is swept out by a particle as it moves along a curve. In the adjoining figure, suppose that a particle moves along the blue curve. At a certain time t, the particle is located at point B, and a short while later, at time t + Δt, the particle has moved to point C. The area swept out by the particle is the green area in the figure, bounded by the line segments AB and AC and the curve along which the particle moves. The areal velocity equals this area divided by the time interval Δt in the limit that Δt becomes vanishingly small. It is an example of a pseudovector (also called axial vector), pointing normal to the plane containing the position and velocity vectors of the particle.
Areal velocity is the area swept out per unit time by a particle moving along a curve
The concept of areal velocity is closely linked historically with the concept of angular momentum. Kepler's second law states that the areal velocity of a planet, with the sun taken as origin, is constant. Isaac Newton was the first scientist to recognize the dynamical significance of Kepler's second law. With the aid of his laws of motion, he proved in 1684 that any planet that is attracted to a fixed center sweeps out equal areas in equal intervals of time. By the middle of the 18th century, the principle of angular momentum was discovered gradually by Daniel Bernoulli and Leonhard Euler and Patrick d'Arcy; d'Arcy's version of the principle was phrased in terms of swept area. For this reason, the principle of angular momentum was often referred to in the older literature in mechanics as "the principle of equal areas." Since the concept of angular momentum includes more than just geometry, the designation "principle of equal areas" has been dropped in modern works.
Connection with angular momentum
In the situation of the first figure, the area swept out during time period Δt by the particle is approximately equal to the area of triangle ABC. As Δt approaches zero this near-equality becomes exact as a limit.
Illustration of Kepler's second law. The planet moves faster near the Sun, so the same area is swept out in a given time as at larger distances, where the planet moves more slowly.
Let the point D be the fourth corner of parallelogram ABDC shown in the figure, so that the vectors AB and AC add up by the parallelogram rule to vector AD. Then the area of triangle ABC is half the area of parallelogram ABDC, and the area of ABDC is equal to the magnitude of the cross product of vectors AB and AC. This area can also be viewed as a vector with this magnitude, pointing in a direction perpendicular to the parallelogram; this vector is the cross product itself:
Hence
The areal velocity is this vector area divided by Δt in the limit that Δt becomes vanishingly small:
But, is the velocity vector of the moving particle, so that
On the other hand, the angular momentum of the particle is
and hence the angular momentum equals 2m times the areal velocity.
Conservation of areal velocity is a general property of central force motion, and, within the context of classical mechanics, is equivalent to the conservation of angular momentum.
See also
Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply.
Published in April 2019.
Please see some ads intermixed with other content from this site: | https://www.airports-worldwide.com/articles/article0501.php |
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