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Christopher Key Chapple, ed.
“Introduction”
Christopher Key Chapple
The Jain Faith in History
The Jain religion originated more than twenty-five hundred years ago in India. It developed a path of renunciation and purification designed to liberate one from the shackles of karma, allowing one to enter into a state of eternal liberation from rebirth, or kevala, which is roughly equivalent to the Buddhist concept of nirvana. The primary method of attaining this ultimate state requires a careful observance of nonviolent behavior. Jainism emphasizes nonviolence, or ahimsa, as the only true path that leads to liberation and prescribes following scrupulous rules for the protection of life in all forms.1
The origins of Jainism are somewhat difficult to trace. The tradition holds that twenty-four great teachers, or Tirthankaras, established the foundations of the Jain faith. The most recent of these teachers, Vardhamana Mahavira (also known as the Jina) most probably lived during the time of the Buddha. Recent scholarship suggests that the Buddha lived in the fourth century BCE. However, the traditional stories of Mahavira indicate that he was born into a family that followed the religious teachings of Parsvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankara, who possibly taught during the eighth century BCE. Because virtually no archaeological ruins can be found in India for the period from 1500 to 300 BCE, exact dates cannot be determined. However, the first excavations of northern India during the Hellenistic era (ca. 300 BCE) include statues of Jain images. Furthermore, the earliest Buddhist texts discuss Jainism in some detail, suggesting that it was a well-established tradition even before the time of the Buddha.
The records of Strabo (64 BCE to 23 CE), the Greek geographer, describe two prevailing styles of religiosity in India at the time of Alexander (ca. 330 BCE), as recorded by Megasthenes (350–290 BCE): the Brahmanical traditions, later described by the Persians as “Hindu,” and the Sramanical traditions, which include Buddhism and Jainism.2 The Brahmanical traditions emphasize the Vedas, ritual, and the authority of a priestly caste. The Sramanical traditions do not accept the Vedas, advocate meditation rather than ritual, and look to monks and nuns for religious authority. Buddhism sent out missionaries from India who established Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, Mahayana Buddhism in East Asia, and Vajrayana Buddhism in Central Asia. Buddhism flourished in India until the tenth century, when its influence waned.
Jainism did not establish a missionary tradition but cultivated a strong laity. Like Buddhism, it began in Northeast India but, possibly because of drought in the third century BCE, many Jains moved to the southern kingdoms of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, as well to the western parts of India now known as Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. Eventually, two sects of Jainism arose: the Digambaras, primarily found in central and southern India, and the Svetambaras, who live primarily in western India. The two groups agree on the foundational Jain principles of karma and nonviolence. However, they differ on their biographical accounts of Mahavira, accept different texts as authentically canonical, and hold divergent views on renouncing clothing and on the potential spiritual status of women. The Svetambaras, whose name means “white clad,” contend that monks and nuns can achieve the highest levels of spirituality without renouncing their clothing. They also believe that women hold the potential to achieve the state of liberation, or kevala. The Digambaras, whose name means “sky clad,” hold that all clothing must ultimately be renounced and that, because only men are allowed to take this ultimate vow of renunciation, a woman must be reborn as a man to achieve kevala. These traditions arose in geographic isolation from one another and developed into distinct schools by the early centuries of the common era.
The Acaranga Sutra (ca. 400 BCE), a text used extensively by the Svetambaras, is the oldest surviving Jain manual, describing the rules proclaimed by Mahavira to be followed by his monks and nuns. One thinker, Umasvati, who probably lived in the fourth century CE, developed a philosophical approach to Jainism that both Svetambaras and Digambaras accept. In a text known as the Tattvartha Sutra, or Aphorisms on the Meaning of Reality, he succinctly outlines the Jain world-view, describing karma, cosmology, ethics, and the levels of spiritual attainment (gunasthana). Later philosophers, including Haribhadra (ca. 750 CE) and Hemacandra (ca. 1150 CE) of the Svetambara tradition and Jinasena (ca. 820 CE) and Virasena (ca. 800 CE) of the Digambara tradition, developed an extensive literary corpus that includes stories, epics, philosophical treatises, and poetry. During the Mogal period, Jinacandrasuri II (1541–1613), the leader of the Kharatara Gaccha (a subdivision of the Svetambara sect) achieved great influence at the court of Akbar, convincing the emperor to protect Jain pilgrimage places. Akbar even prohibited animal slaughter for one week per year under Jinacandrasuri’s urging. In contemporary times, Jain have become very influential in the areas of publishing, law, and business. They continue to work at integrating their philosophy of nonviolence into the daily life of India.
The Jain community has also participated in an extensive diaspora, with several tens of thousands living in various parts of the world. Jain business families settled in East Africa several decades ago. After Indian independence, some Jains settled in Great Britain, with a great influx from East Africa during the expulsion of all South Asians from Uganda under the rule of Idi Amin. In Kobe, Japan, Jains participate in the diamond trade. Jains began migrating to North America after the changes in immigration law in 1965, inspired by the Civil Rights movement. These new immigrants have built temples and organized several networks and organizations for maintaining Jain identity, including the Jaina Associations in North America (JAINA), which sponsors semiyearly conventions. These gatherings have included presentations pertaining to current issues, such as environmentalism.3
Jainism and Environmentalism
The common concerns between Jainism and environmentalism can be found in a mutual sensitivity toward living things, a recognition of the inter-connectedness of life-forms, and support of programs that educate others to respect and protect living systems. For the Jains, this approach is anchored in a cosmology that views the world in terms of a cosmic woman whose body contains countless life souls (jiva) that reincarnate repeatedly until the rare attainment of spiritual liberation (kevala). The primary means to attain freedom requires the active nonharming of living beings, which disperses the karmas that keep one bound. Jains adhere to the vows of nonviolence to purify their karma and advance toward the higher states of spiritual attainment (gunasthana). For Jain laypeople, this generally means keeping to a vegetarian diet and pursuing livelihoods deemed to inflict a minimum of harm. For Jain monks and nuns, this means the need to avoid doing harm to all forms of life, including bugs and microorganisms (nigoda).
Contemporary environmental thinkers in the developed world, particularly within the last decade of the twentieth century, have come to emphasize the interconnectedness of life as the foundation for developing an environmental ethic. On the policy level, the Endangered Species Act of the United States extends protection to even the smallest aspect of life, emphasizing the microphase as the key to ecosystem protection. Taking a different approach, Norway has developed a comprehensive approach to assess the impact of one action on the broader network of relationships within a given biome.4 Both approaches grapple with the age-old problem of how to balance the needs of the one and the many when working toward the highest good.
Drawing from her own relationships with trees, ecologist Stephanie Kaza has proposed an approach to the natural world that engenders feelings of tenderness, respect, and protection. She writes:
The relationship between person and tree, arising over and over again in many different contexts and with various individuals, is one subset of all human-nonhuman relationships… . I want to know, What does it actually mean to be in a relationship with a tree? Acknowledgment of and participation in relationships with trees, coyotes, mountains, and rivers is central to the philosophy of deep ecology… . In the course of studying mountains and rivers in depth, one sees them explode into all the phenomena that support their existence—clouds, stones, people walking, animals crawling, the earth shaking.5
By participating in the close observation of individual life processes, in this case using the tree as a starting point, one begins to see the network of relationships that enlivens all forms of consciousness. By gaining intimacy with a small part of the whole, concern for the larger ecosystem arises. Each piece, no matter how small, contributes to the whole. To disrupt the chain of life at any link can result in dire consequences, as seen in the release of radioactivity in Chernobyl, the great industrial accident in Bhopal, the depletion of the ozone layer over the polar caps, and the extinction of various species of plants and animals.
As seen in the above example from Stephanie Kaza, an important impetus for environmental activism comes from the close observance and consequent appreciation of the external world. As our ecosystem becomes impoverished, humans take notice and respond. Ultimately, this concern for nature can be seen as a form of self-preservation, as the earth is the only context for human flourishing. Similarly, according to the Acaranga Sutra, Mahavira was moved when he observed nature at close range, noticing that even the simplest piece of a meadow teems with life:
Thoroughly knowing the earth-bodies and water-bodies and fire-bodies and wind-bodies, the lichens, seeds, and sprouts, he comprehended that they are, if narrowly inspected, imbued with life… .6
In a contemporary echo of this realization, James Laidlaw records the conversion moment of a woman who subsequently decided to become a Jain nun:
the decision came one morning when she walked into the kitchen. There was a cockroach in the middle of the floor, “and I just looked at it and suddenly I thought, ‘Why should I stay in this world where there is just suffering and death and rebirth?”’7
Seeing the life and spirit of a lowly insect inspired this woman to pursue a lifelong commitment of harmlessness to all beings. Benevolence to souls other than one’s own leads to self-purification and the transcendence of worldly entanglements. The ethics of nonviolence as developed by the Jains looks simultaneously inward and outward. The only path for saving one’s own soul requires the protection of all other possible souls.
Jainism offers a worldview that in many ways seems readily compatible with core values associated with environmental activism. While both uphold the protection of life, the underlying motives governing the Jain faith and those governing environmental activism do differ. First, as various authors in this book will point out, the telos or goal of Jainism lies beyond all worldly concerns. The Jain observances of nonviolence, for instance, are not ultimately performed for the sake of protecting the individual uniqueness of any given life-form for its own sake. The reason for the protection of life is for self-benefit, stemming from a desire to avoid accruing a karmic debt that will result in later retribution against oneself. The result may be the same; a life might be spared. However, this is a by-product of a desire to protect and purify oneself through the avoidance of doing harm. In the case of some environmental activists, aggressive, direct action might be undertaken to interfere with and stop the destruction of a natural habitat in a way that might be seen as violent, such as the monkey-wrenching techniques used by EarthFirst!8 This would not be acceptable to a Jain.
In this volume the following questions will be posed: How does traditional Jain cosmology, and its consequent ethics, view the natural world? Is this worldview compatible with contemporary ecological theory? How might a Jain ethical system respond to the challenges of making decisions regarding such issues as the development of dams, the proliferation of automobiles, overcrowding due to overpopulation, and the protection of individual animal species? Can there be a Jain environmental activism that stems from a traditional concern for self-purification that simultaneously responds to the contemporary dilemma of ecosystem degradation?
In the chapters that follow, this topic will be pursued from a variety of perspectives. The voices included in this volume reflect a wide spectrum of approaches. Several scholars born and trained in the West take a critical look at the real prospects for Jain advocacy of environmental protection. Jain scholars from India, on the other hand, see actual solutions in Jain philosophy for correcting ecological imbalances through a reconsideration of lifestyle and active application of ahimsa. Perhaps the closest analogue to environmental activism within historical Jainism can be found in the tradition of animal protection, as found in the many hundreds, if not thousands, of shelters, or pinjrapoles, located in and near Jain communities in western India.9 Modern initiatives, some of which are mentioned in this book, include tree-planting prgrams at pilgrimage sites. Dr. Michael Fox of the Humane Society and the Center for Respect of Life and Environment has re-energized an animal shelter inspired by Jain values in South India.10 By combining the ancient practice of animal protection with considered reflections on how traditional Jain observances of non-violence might counter the excesses of the modern, industrialized, consumer-oriented lifestyle, the Jain faith might provide a new voice for the development of ecofriendly behaviors.
Overview of the Volume
The book has been divided into four sections, followed by an appendix and a bibliography. The first section examines Jain theories about the nature of the universe, which then provide the context for developing an ecological interpretation of the tradition. The second section raises some challenges to the possibility of developing an ecofriendly Jain ethic. The third section, written by Jain practitioners, asserts that Jainism, with its emphasis on nonviolence (ahimsa), is inherently sensitive to and practically responsive to environmental needs. The fourth section discusses the adaptation of ecological ideas among select members of the contemporary Jain community, largely among its diaspora adherents.
In the first chapter, Nathmal Tatia, who passed away shortly after the conference on Jainism and ecology took place in the summer of 1998, suggests that virtually all the religious traditions of the world “contain aspects that are not anthropocentric” and then introduces key aspects of Jain philosophy. Noting that neither Jainism nor Buddhism contains a creating or controlling God, he emphasizes compassion as the key for the protection of life. Tatia suggests that the Jain advocacy of vegetarianism and protection of animals provide a possible remedy for the current ecological crisis. He provides a synoptic view of how the application of traditional Jain ethics can help one enact environmentalist values.
Philosopher John Koller probes the Jain theory of many-sidedness (anekanta) as an antidote to the one-theory approach that drives the development machine and has led to environmental degradation. Jains traditionally seek to understand any situation from as many angles as possible, as exemplified in the famous story of the six blind men and the elephant. One feels the tail and “sees” a snake. Another feels the ear and “sees” a fan, and so forth. Each can claim a “truth,” but no one, at least before the experience of kevala, can claim to see totality. By utilizing a multiple-perspective approach to environmental issues, Koller suggests that Jains will be better equipped to cope with such ethical dilemmas as the use and abuse of trees and oceans.
Kristi Wiley begins her chapter with an assessment of the discipline of environmental ethics as it has evolved in Western academia. Noting the shift from anthropocentrism to biocentrism, Wiley sees some commonalities between the moral considerations of Jainism and systems ecologists. Her careful interpretation of indigenous Jain biology and elemental theory lists in detail the karmic effects of negative interactions with one’s environment. She makes the important distinction between beings with consciousness (samjni) and those without consciousness (asamjni), which provides some basis for using plants and the elements as resources for human sustenance. Wiley also emphasizes the central role played by the nuns and monks who serve as the conscience of the Jain tradition, advocating protection for even those beings who lack awareness, such as plants and the living bodies contained within earth, water, fire, and air.
The second section poses challenges to the conventional assumption that Jainism by its very nature contains all the precepts of environmentalism. It begins with an essay by John Cort, who suggests that a great deal of work needs to be accomplished before the Jain tradition can honestly claim to be ecofriendly. Noting that the environmental crisis is a recent development, he suggests that environmental thought and activism might help inform how Jains define and realize their commitment to ahimsa. In particular, he discusses the Jain “value of wellbeing” as providing a counterbalance to the Jain emphasis on liberation, noting that “Jain ethics … are highly context-sensitive” and hence adaptable according to time and place. He compares and contrasts ecofeminism and the role of women in Jainism, and suggests that social ecology must be taken into consideration, noting that the project to reforest Jain pilgrimage sites has had a negative effect on low-caste herders whose livestock have become restricted from foraging. Acknowledging the long history of Jainism as a social catalyst, Cort looks forward to the development of a “distinctive Jain environmental ethic.”
Paul Dundas suggests that in the history of Jainism some attitudes toward nature may have been less than ecofriendly. He describes the dualistic and pluralistic nature of Jain philosophy, which divides the world into living and nonliving entities, with each living entity (jiva) responsible for its own fate. Dundas states that within this worldview nature in and of itself has no “autonomous value.” Value lies in the human application of nonviolence to attain, as noted earlier in this introduction, the release of all karma and the eventual severance from all materiality, including “nature.” To apply purely monastic values to the issue of ecological degradation simply does not work, argues Dundas, citing various ethical tales about elephant-eating ascetics, brutal horse tamers, and well diggers, each of which seems to contain, at best, an ambiguous environmental ethic. He cautions that one must exert care in attempting to match a “traditional soteriological path” to “fit the requirements of a modern, ultimately secular, Western-driven agenda.”
My own chapter suggests that the Jain community could benefit from examining its worldview and ethics in light of some contemporary theorists in the area of religion and ecology, specifically Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry, and David Abram. Each of these three has highlighted the dynamic aspects of living processes, displaying a sen-sitivity to life somewhat similar to that found in Jainism. David Abram has emphasized in particular the role of the senses in determining and defining reality, taking an approach comparable to the empiricism emphasized in Umasvati’s Tattvartha Sutra, the Buddhist Abhidharma schools, and the Hindu schools of Samkhya and Yoga. The Jain worldview that sees the universe, from earth-bodies to human beings, as suffused with life accords with the thought of Thomas Berry, who has stated that the world is a “communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.” Furthermore, the Jain assertion that even the earth itself feels our presence is strikingly resonant with the observations of Brian Swimme. The pan-psychic vision of Jainism is compared and contrasted with contemporary Western scientific and philosophical insights, with the suggestion that these two fields be brought into closer dialogue with one another.
Padmanabh S. Jaini, one of the world’s leading scholars of Jainism, summarizes fundamental Jain teachings and then seeks to explore how Jainism might respond to key issues of development and economics. The current drive toward industrialization and consumerism in India violates many essential Jain precepts, particularly non-possession (aparigraha). By examining traditional lifestyles and occupations, as well as Jain attitudes toward wealth in general, Jaini suggests that a balanced approach to development can be pursued.
In the third section of the book, Jain practitioners suggest that Jainism already has developed a working environmental ethics. As such, this section represents an emic, or insider’s, view of Jainism. It includes three essays that might fit more within the genre of a sermon than an academic paper, but which nonetheless make an important contribution to this emerging discourse. These chapters point to new directions to be taken within the practice of Jainism, grounded in the earlier tradition.
Sadhvi Shilapi, a prominent Jain nun, raises up the voice of Mahavira, the great Jain Tirthankara of twenty-five hundred years ago, to suggest how Jains can and should respond to the problems of industrialization, population growth, and human exploitation of nonhuman life-forms. Quoting from the Acaranga Sutra, the oldest text of the Svetambara Jain tradition, she suggests that Mahavira’s sensitivity to plants and the elements themselves can serve to inform the Jain response to resource limitations. She also emphasizes the need for tree planting in rural areas of India, an initiative taken by her own religious community, Veerayatan, in Bihar.
Bhagchandra Jain consults a wide range of Jain literature from both the Svetambara and Digambara schools to compile a masterful argument for the respect of all life-forms. He notes the extensive literature within Jainism devoted to forest protection and emphasizes the ecological aspects of behavior recommended for Jain laypersons.
Satish Kumar, founder and educational director of Schumacher College in England, relates the concept of ecology to the simple lifestyle observed by his own mother, which included strict vegetarianism, pilgrimages to sacred mountains, constant observance of barefootedness, minimalization of possessions, conservation of water, and close adherence to an ethical code grounded in nonviolence.
In the concluding section, Anne Vallely examines the tensions between traditional and contemporary Jainism, particularly in its current globalized form. She notes the trend by some Jains to identify themselves as ecofriendly. She then examines what she terms to be a newly emerging sociocentric ecological worldview within the Jain community. Diaspora Jains, particularly in North America, have brought about a distinctive form of Jainism that emphasizes “the values of vegetarianism, animal welfare, meditation, and active promotion of interfaith activities.” Though the inspiration of each of these can be seen as having its roots in Jain thought and practice, they are being played out in a far more public arena than that traditionally observed by the inward Jain ascetics.
The volume concludes with an appendix, The Jain Declaration on Nature, prepared by L. M. Singhvi, a member of the Indian Parliament and former high commissioner from India to the United Kingdom. This was originally published as a small booklet in 1992. This document has helped stimulate the discussion of environmental values in the Jain community worldwide and serves as an example of what Anne Vallely refers to as the newly emerging sociocentric expression of Jainism.
Contemporary Theorists of Jain Ecology
The interface between Jainism and ecology remains a complex issue, and it is important to recognize some of the pioneers in this emerging discussion. Though he was not able to participate in the Harvard conference, the work and commitment of Michael Tobias must be acknowledged. Tobias, who received his doctorate in the history of consciousness, has worked for several decades as a writer and filmmaker dedicated to environmental causes. In 1988 he released the film “Ahimsa,” which elegantly portrays several Jain leaders and extols the religion as the great champion of animal rights and nonviolent living. He wrote a book titled Life Force: The World of Jainism that serves as a written companion to the film, and he contributed the chapter on Jainism to Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim’s Worldviews and Ecology.11 Though not trained as a scholar of Jainism, Tobias nonetheless recognized a commonality between his own environmental interests and the Jain worldview. He remains a sought-after speaker within the extensive network of Jain conferences and proclaims himself to be a Jain.
The work of Satish Kumar, both with his journal Resurgence and the curriculum that he has developed at Schumacher College, indicates his willingness to blend together social activism and a Jain-inspired commitment to nonviolence. Kumar left the life of a traditional Jain monk to join the land redistribution movement of Vinobha Bhave (1895–1982), and later journeyed as a peace activist on foot from Delhi to Moscow to Paris in an attempt to stop nuclear proliferation in the 1960s.12 He has most recently joined forces with Dr. Atul K. Shah to produce the journal Jain Spirit: Advancing Jainism into the Future, which is published six times each year and distributed internationally. Each issue includes articles and photo essays that reinforce an eco-friendly view. Most of the articles in the “Environment” section of the magazine are by environmental activists such as David Ehrenfield, Joyce D’Silva, and Donella Meadows and serve more to educate Jains about contemporary trends in the field of ecology than to articulate a distinctly Jain vision of environmentalism. Kumar has attempted a synthesis of spirituality and activism, inspired in part by his childhood and young adult years as a monk in Acarya Tulsi’s Svetambaras Terapanthi movement, which includes ten special vows that were formulated in 1949, including “I will always be alert to keeping the environment pollution-free.”
The Advent of Jain Environmentalism
As Anne Vallely notes in her chapter, some modern Jains, particularly in North America, see involvement with environmental causes and animal rights activism as a logical extension of their faith. However, how authentic is this tradition? Is it, as Vallely suggests, a revision of asceticism? Can the observance and advocacy of vegetarianism and ecological sensitivity substitute as a new form of asceticism? Can Jainism truly survive without the living presence of monks and nuns to chide and inspire the more worldly lay community?
In the modern diaspora context, traditional monasticism, rigorously practiced by monks and nuns in India, has not taken root, nor does it seem to be a likely option, given the relatively small numbers of Jains living outside India and the logistical difficulties of providing the donor support sanctioned by the Jain lay community. However, some Jain monastics (and former Jain monastics), such as Muni Sri Chitrabhanu, Acharya Sushil Kumar, Sadhvi Shilapi, and Satish Kumar, have helped promulgate Jain teachings outside of India, and many nuns in training (samanis) from the Terapanthi community have lectured throughout the world. Numerous lay Jains participate in regular practices of fasting and other austerities, particularly the Paryusana fast observed in late August. The many Jain centers and temples throughout North America and the United Kingdom have developed extensive weekend educational programs for children (patsalas), camps, retreats, and web sites to educate their members (and others) about the faith. Many of these activities include mention of the environment from a Jain perspective.
This volume points to the dynamic nature of the Jain faith and its willingness to engage in discussion on this modern social issue. Not unlike nearly any other religious tradition, it remains to be seen if the Jain worldview and ethic can inspire an effective ecological vision. Can Jainism adopt a sociocentric environmental point of view without compromising its core values? Hopefully, this collection of essays will help advance this discussion.
Endnotes
1 For information on the history, philosophy, and practice of Jainism, see Padmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979); Paul Dundas, The Jains (London: Routledge, 1992); Alan Babb, Absent Lord: Ascetics and Kings in Jain Ritual Culture (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1996); and John E. Cort, Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
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2 The Geography of Strabo, trans. Horace Leonard Jones (New York: Putnam, 1930) 101.
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3 See Marcus Banks, Organizing Jainism in India and England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992). See also Peace through Non-Violence: Eighth Biennial Jaina Convention Souvenir Volume (Chicago, Ill.: Federation of Jain Associations in North America, 1995); and Bhuvanendra Kumar, Jainism in America (Mississauga, Ontario: Jain Humanities Press, 1996).
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4 See David Rothenberg, “Individual or Community? Two Approaches to Ecophilosophy in Practice,” in Ecological Prospects: Scientific, Religious, and Aesthetic Perspectives, ed. Christopher Key Chapple (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York, 1994) 83–92.
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5 Stephanie Kaza, The Attentive Heart: Conversations with Trees (New York: Fawcett Columbine, 1993) 10–11.
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6 Acaranga Sutra 1.8.1.11–12; from Jaina Sutras, Part 1, The Akaranga Sutra. The Kalpa Sutra, trans. Hermann Jacobi (1884; New York: Dover, 1968).
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7 James Laidlaw, Riches and Renunciation: Religion, Economy, and Society among the Jains (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 157.
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8 See “Earth First! And Global Narratives of Popular Ecological Resistance,” in Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism, ed. Bron Raymond Taylor (Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1995) 11–34.
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9 Deryck O. Lodrick, Sacred Cows, Sacred Places: Origins and Survivals of Animal Homes in India (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1981).
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10 See the web site for the India Project for Animals and Nature.
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11 Worldviews and Ecology, ed. Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1994).
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12 See Satish Kumar’s autobiography, Path without Destination (New York: William Morrow, 1999).
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Copyright © 2002 Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School.
Reprinted with permission. | https://fore.yale.edu/Publications/Books/Religions-World-and-Ecology-Book-Series/Jainism-Table-Contents/Jainism |
1. Mahayana Buddhism is known for its intricately rich mythological universe filled with various Bodhisattvas. Which among the following Bodhisattvas are correctly matched?
1. Amitabha : heavenly radiating body of Buddha
2. Maitreya : a future Buddha
3. Manjushri : personifies supreme wisdom
4. Vajrapani : protector of snakes and a guardian of amrit (elixir)
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
(a) 1, 2 and 3 only
(b) 1, 3 and 4 only
(c) 2, 3 and 4 only
(d) 1, 2, 3 and 4
Answer: (d) Explanation:
1. The heavenly Buddha named Amitabha (infinite radiance).
a. Amitabha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva. His two main disciples are the bodhisattvas Vajrapani and Avalokiteshvara, the former to his left and the latter to his right. Amitabha is often depicted, when shown seated, displaying the meditation mudra while the earth-touching mudra is reserved for a seated Gautama Buddha alone. Devotion to Amitabha came to the fore in China about 650 CE and from there spread to Japan, where it led in the 12th and 13th centuries to the formation of the Pure Land school. Amitabha as a saviour figure was never as popular in Tibet and Nepal as he was in East Asia, but he is highly regarded in those countries. In Tibetan Buddhism, the Panchen Lamas and Shamarpas are considered to be emanations of Amitabha.
2. The heavenly bodhisattvas included Maitreya (the kind one).
a. He is regarded as a future Buddha. According to Buddhist tradition, Maitreya is a bodhisattva who will appear on Earth in the future, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma. The prophecy of the arrival of Maitreya refers to a time in the future when the dharma will have been forgotten by most on the terrestrial world. Maitreya is the earliest bodhisattva around whom a cult developed and is mentioned in scriptures from the 3rd century CE. He was accepted by all schools of Buddhism and is still the only bodhisattva generally honoured by the Theravada tradition. His worship was especially popular from the 4th to the 7th century, and his images are found throughout the Buddhist world; many of them beautifully convey his characteristic air of expectancy and promise. He is represented in painting and sculpture both as a bodhisattva and as a buddha. 3. Amitabha – heavenly radiating Manjushri (sweet glory) – personifying supreme
wisdom. a. He was supposed to be an assistant of the heavenly Buddha Shakyamuni and was associated closely with wisdom. He is most commonly shown wearing princely ornaments, his right hand holding aloft the sword of wisdom to cut through the clouds of ignorance and his left holding a palm-leaf manuscript of the Prajnaparamita. 4. Vajrapani was a bodhisattva whose symbol was the vajra (thunderbolt);
a. He was considered a protector of snakes and a guardian of the elixir of life. He is one of the earliest three protective deities or bodhisattvas surrounding the Buddha. Because of his association with the rain-controlling nagas and with the Hindu god of rain, Indra, he is invoked in times of drought. Like Indra he holds the thunderbolt and is coloured dark blue or white. In Tibet he assumes ferocious forms to combat demons and to guard the mystical teaching of Buddhism, and in Japan he guards the temple doorways. Vajrapani is the patron-saint of the Shaolin Monastery in Japan which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
2. The Dalai Lama, is a title given to spiritual leaders of the Tibetan people. Which Tibetan Buddhist sect is headed by the Dalai Lama?
(a) Nyingma
(b) Kagyu
(c) Sakya
(d) Gelug
Answer: (d) Explanation: Tibetan Buddhism is a branch of Vajrayana Buddhism that evolved from the 7th century CE in Tibet. It is based mainly on the rigorous intellectual disciplines of Madhyamika and Yogachara philosophy and utilizes the Tantric ritual practices that developed in Central Asia and particularly in Tibet. Special features of Tibetan Buddhism
1) the status of the teacher or "Lama"
2) preoccupation with the relationship between life and death
3) important role of rituals and initiations
4) rich visual symbolism
5) elements of earlier Tibetan faiths
6) mantras and meditation practice Sects/Groups within Tibetan Buddhism – 1. Nyingmapa: Founded by Padmasambhava, this is oldest sect 2. Kagyupa: Founded by Tilopa, the Kagyupa tradition is headed by the Karmapa Lama.
Important Kagyupa teachers include Naropa, Marpa, and Milarepa. 3. Sakyapa: Created by Gonchok Gyelpo 4. Gelugpa: Founded by Je Tsongkhapa (also known as Je Rinpoche), this tradition is headed by the Dalai Lama.
3. Acharanga Sutra, the famous religious book, belongs to which of the following religion?
(a) Jainism
(b) Buddhism
(c) Sikhism
(d) Hinduism
Answer: (a) Explanation: It is the first of the 12 texts accepted Angas as canonical by Shvetambara Jains. The Digambara Jains believe that the original version of this sutra was lost. The Acharanga Sutra is the oldest agam, from a linguistic point of view, written in Ardhamagadhi Prakrit. The Sutra contains two books. The first one describes the conduct and behaviour of ascetic life: the mode of asking for food, bowl, clothes, conduct while walking and speaking and regulation of possessions by ascetics. It also describes the penance of Mahavira, the Great Hero. The second parts lay down rules for conduct of ascetics.
4. Sixty three shalakapurush (illustrious persons) are religio-mythical characters that include Ram, Narayan, Prati-Narayan and even Chakravarti kings. Which among the following religions they belong to? (a) Jainism
(b) Buddhism
(c) Hinduism
(d) Sikhism
Answer: (a) Explanation: According to the Jain cosmology, the shalakapuruṣa (illustrious or worthy persons) are 63 illustrious beings who appear during each half-time cycle. The Jain universal or legendary history is a compilation of the deeds of these illustrious persons. Their life stories are said to be most inspiring. They comprise of – 1. 24 Tirthankaras (Teaching Gods) – The 24 Tīrthankaras or the supreme ford makers appear in succession to activate the correct religion and establish the community of ascetics and laymen. 2. 12 Chakravartin – The Chakravartis are the universal monarchs who rule over the six continents. 3. 9 Balabhadras (gentle heroes) – who lead an ideal Jain life e.g. Lord Rama 4. 9 Narayanas or Vasudeva (warrior heroes) 5. 9 Prati-narayanas (anti-heroes) – They are anti-heroes who are ultimately killed by the Narayana Out of the above five classes of illustrious persons, Tirthankaras are placed at the top. They establish the religion and attain liberation. The Chakravarti attain liberation if they renounce their kingdom, or else go to hell if they indulge in sensual pleasures. Next in rank are Baladevas who are gentle heroes and devout laymen, who attain liberation corresponding to Tirthankaras. Vasudevas are also devout Jain laymen and ultimately attain liberation, but are first reborn in hell because of their violent actions. Unlike in the Hindu Puranas, the names Balabhadra and Narayana are not restricted to Balarama and Krishna in Jain puranas. Instead they serve as names of two distinct classes of mighty half-brothers. They appear nine times in each half of the time cycles of the Jain cosmology and jointly rule half the earth as half-chakravarti. Ultimately Prati- naryana is killed by Narayana for his unrighteousness and immorality. Jain Ramayana is based on the stories of Rama, Lakshmana and Ravana who are the eighth Baladeva, Narayana, Pratinarayana and respectively. Similarly Harivamsa Purana is based on the stories of Balarama, Krishna and Jarasandha, who are the ninth and the last set of Balabhadra, Narayana, and Pratinarayana. However, the main battle is not the Mahabharata, but the fight between Krishna and Jarasandha who is killed by Krishna. The epic poem Trīṣaṣṭi-śalākā-puruṣa-charitra is written by Hemachandra (1088-1173). He was a Jain scholar, poet, and polymath who wrote on grammar, philosophy, prosody, and contemporary history. Noted as a prodigy by his contemporaries, he gained the title kali-kāla-sarvajña, "the all-knowing of the Kali Yuga".
5. Mir Sayyid Ali Hamdani’s Khanqah in Srinagar city remains a popular tourist attraction. Consider the following statements w.r.t him:
(1) He belonged to the Kubrawiya order of Sufism.
(2) He brought various crafts to the Kashmir valley which helped to boost the local economic activity
(3) Ladakh’s economy and society was influenced by him, besides holding influence over Kashmir valley.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 1 and 3 only
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3
Answer: (d) Explanation: Mir Sayyid Ali Hamdani (1314-1384) was a Persian Sufi of the Kubrawiya order, a poet and a prominent Shafi'i Muslim scholar. He was born in Hamdan, and was buried in Khatlan, Tajikistan. It is said he traversed the known world from East to West three times. In 1370s-80s Hamdani lived in Kashmir. Hamdani is regarded as having brought various crafts and industries from Iran into Kashmir; it is said that he brought with him 700 followers, including some weavers of carpets and shawls, who taught the craft of pashmina textile and carpet-making to the local population. The growth of the textile industry in Kashmir increased its demand for fine wool, which in turn meant that Kashmiri Muslim groups settled in Ladakh, bringing with them crafts such as writing. | https://www.defactoias.com/upsc-mock-test/history-wednesday/history-quiz-33 |
The aim of human life is to achieve liberation. This can be accomplished through right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct. Jain scriptures deal elaborately with the path of salvation. A vow is self-imposed obligation as to what one ought to do and what not to carry out. Lord Mahavira propounded two types of religion, Anagara Dharma known as Mahavrata belonging to ascetic life, and Agara Dharma known as "Anuvrata" pertaining to householder life. The Great vows (Mahavrata) and small vows (Anuvrata) should be practiced in thought, word, and deed with full commitment to its careful observance at all times. Asceticism is the central path to salvation.
A Period of Probation
Those souls who want to renounce worldly life or worldly attachment must first of all undergo a period of probation and extensive training for from five to seven years. In this respect, the radical step was taken by Shravakas in Terapantha tradition that they establish an institution named Parmarthik Shikshan Sanstha which aims at creating full-fledged ascetic life before initiation into monkhood or nunhood. They all learn spiritual practice, life-style, and religious study including the Jain basic texts, grammar, and literature in this institution. They pass the curriculum or courses specified for graduates and undergraduates. The daily routine is to wake up 4:00 AM and go to bed at 10 PM.
Initiation
When the supervisor and he or she feels confident that they would be able to live the life of monkhood or nunhood, they get permission from their parents. When Acharya himself is convinced that they are capable of following the vows of Sadhus and Sadhvis, Acharya gives Deeksha (initiation). Deeksha is the ceremony in which the householder becomes a monk or a nun. At the time of Deeksha, they take five major vows and act strictly in accordance with those vows. Along with the great vows, they practice five samitis (comportment) and three guptis (restraints).
Five Major Vows
- Ahimsa Mahavrata (non-violence): Monks and nuns never cause harm or violence to any living being including the tiniest creature.
- Satya Mahavrata (truth): They never lie.
- Achaurya Mahavrata (non-stealing): They never take anything from anywhere, even a small needle, without the permission of the owner.
- Brahmacharya Mahavrata (celibacy): They observe an absolute adherence to celibacy. They also do not touch the opposite sex.
- Aparigraha Mahavrata (non-possession): They possess only the barest necessities. Apart from this, they have no attachment to material things, relationships, pleasure of the five senses, etc., and for that which they keep for their daily needs.
All of these major vows are practiced in word, thought, and deed. They do not get it done by others, do not assist anyone in committing sins, nor do they approve of anyone that commits such sins.
Non-violence is the basis of all other vows just as a fence is meant to protect a field. The other four vows are intended to enable a person to observe the prime vow of non-violence.
Five Samitis
- Irya Samiti: Taking due care in walking and moving about.
- Bhasha Samiti: Taking due care in speaking.
- Eshana Samiti: Taking due care in accepting alms.
- Adananikshepa Samiti: Taking due care in lifting, using, laying, and putting down things.
- Utsarga Samiti: Taking due care in disposing of excreta such as mucus, urine, stools, and other items.
Three Guptis
- Mano Gupti: Restraint of mind.
- Vaka Gupti: Restraint of speech.
- Kay a Gupti: Restraint of body.
All thirteen of the foregoing rules constitute the practical code of right conduct for an ascetic life.
Six Essential Duties
All monks and nuns perform six essential duties known as Avashvak twice a day before sunrise and after sunset.
- Samayika: Equanimity of mind, i.e., concentrating the mind upon one's own soul and its attributes by withdrawing wandering thoughts.
- Chaturvinshatistava: Adoration, recitation, and contemplation of the attributes of the divine twenty four Tirthankaras.
- Vandana: Obeisance to Acharya (guru).
- Pratikraman: Repentance of transgression of past activities committed in the performance of monkhood life.
- Kayotsarga: Practice of complete abandonment of the body while devoid of attachment.
- Pratyakhyana: Determination of renouncing sweets, fried foods, and other things.
Living Style
Digambar ascetics live naked. They wear no clothes. They own nothing except a peacock feather and one bowl for containing water. They have no bowl to hold food. At mid day, they go for alms and stand where householders are. They receive and eat food from the cavity of their hands. They also drink liquids poured therein while in the standing position. They eat and drink once a day, and they sit and sleep on the floor.
Shvetambar monks and nuns wear white clothes. They tie a rectangular piece of cloth over the mouth to avoid violence. They always have ogho (rajoharan), which means a mop of woolen threads to avoid violence where they walk, sit, or lie down, etc. They keep only limited clothes and bowls made of wood, coconut shells, or shells of pumpkin. These are the articles by which they can be distinguished. The.style of taking alms (gochari), vihar (walking) and locha are unique activities of Jain monks and nuns.
Gochari
The Jain monks and nuns do not cook, nor do they get it prepared for them. They go from house to house and receive a little food and water. As a cow eats grass moving from place to place, similarly the monks and nuns take little portion of food from the homes of householders. Thus they collect alms from various houses. They do not accept food from those male or female householders who offer food just after washing hands by running water, or putting down a crying baby. If he or she crushes or touches a living being plants, seeds, etc., with the physical body, then, in that state, they also do not accept alms. They don't throw-out even a particle of food. They take their meals at the place where they are staying. In rain and after sunset, they do not go out for alms. When they return from alms, they show alms to the Guruji or senior. If sometimes it is insufficient, they remain satisfied with their share. From time to time they do fasting. The entire life of Sadhus and Sadhvis is directed towards the upliftment of his or her own soul and others' welfare.
Vihar
They always move about on bare feet throughout their life whether it may be scorching sun or cold weather, stony, or thorny passage. They do not put on shoes while travelling. They do not stay more than a few days in one place except in the rainy season called Chaturmas, which is four months long. They do not move out of their place after sunset. Mostly they stay in Sabha Bhavana, Upashray, etc.
Loch
Loch is a particular activity of Jain Sadhus and Sadhvis. They pluck out their hairs by their hands or they get them plucked out by others. As a rule, they perform this twice a year at a particular time. It is regarded an essential rite of their life.
Self Supported
Monks and nuns are self-supporting. The whole work is done by themselves. They do not take help from anybody except their colleague monks. A nun is not allowed to be alone to go take alms. If a nun is sick, she can be carried in carts drawn by nuns, and the monks can be carried by monks. Nuns are more than twice the number as compared to monks. All monks and nuns show the path of wholesome, righteous, disciplined life to everyone through the media of discourses, discussion, or spiritual practices.
Revolutionary Order
Apart from Jain ascetic life, a new order was established by the Late Ganadhipati Tulsi and Acharya Mahapragya. The need for a third category between monks and nuns and householders for Jains living abroad and current time had been felt for the past thirty to forty years. As a result, to satisfy the demands of the modern age, the new order came into being in 1980. It was a revolutionary step in the modern epoch.
The saman and samani follow the lifestyle of Jain Sadhus and Sadhvis in respect to the five great vows and code of conduct with minor exceptions. They are granted permission to use, transportation and allowed to take food which is prepared for them. The aim of establishing this order is to facilitate the spread of Jainism and open up new avenues of constructive work world wide.
Before initiation, all undergo a period of probation and extensive training for about five to seven years. Afterwards, they become saman or samani. Today there are over ninety saman and samanis. They travel all around the world. Over the last twelve years, several groups have visited Japan, Hong Kong, U.S., Europe, Africa, Australia, etc. They have attended several worldwide conferences and conducted many camps. They have also lectured while abroad at schools, colleges, universities, and other communities. | https://www.herenow4u.net/?id=83166 |
Traditionally, the youngest age of initiation is eight. This is considered the age of reason in Indian tradition. Story literature and historical examples show that boys of this age or just a little more used to become Jain monks. One famous example is the 12th-century writer Hemacandra. Among certain Śvetāmbara monastic orders it was and still is common to initiate young boys into monkhood.
Nowadays child initiation – bāla-dīkṣā – is a highly controversial issue, which has even been the subject of cases in the Indian judicial system. Some believe that bright minds are able to decide for themselves and choose the monastic path in total freedom. Others reply that young children know nothing of life and are not in a position to decide. They become monks because of adult pressure.
Both positions have some truth. Hemacandra is just one example among several others in Jain monastic history who were initiated early, led a full mendicant life and became towering personalities of the faith. But there are also many counter-examples.
Today child initiation exists but is probably not so frequent as before. Several monastic orders have established as a rule or practice that 18 is the minimum age for initiation.
On the other hand, there is no upper limit. Mendicants who have entered monastic life in their late years are known in both past and present.
Once a mendicant, someone’s worldly age is no longer important because mendicants’ ages are counted from the day of initiation.
The life of a mendicant is physically demanding so the initiation candidate should be in good physical condition. His or her health should be perfect, without any physical handicap or weakness.
Other restrictions relate to the candidate’s personal circumstances. For example, those who seek to escape a bad situation are not eligible. These rules are meant to deter those who consider the life of a mendicant a refuge from the difficulties of worldly life.
In addition, pregnant women should not be accepted as nuns, because their children would be burdens to the community and the focus of attachment for their mothers. Story literature, however, has several instances of women who had to flee from their families for various reasons but managed to hide their pregnancy and were thus admitted into an order.
Among some monastic orders, candidates born into certain castes may be excluded or encouraged. Even if such practices are not explicitly mentioned, reading colophons or exploring statistical data often shows a privileged connection between certain castes and geographical areas, on the one hand, and given monastic orders.
Becoming a monk or nun is the most important sign of dedication to spiritual advance for Jains. Such a life-changing decision is not taken lightly, and the eligibility rules partly contribute towards this. Those thinking of being ordained must gain family permission and, in most cases, complete a period of preparation first.
Preceptor, teacher. A title given to a Jain religious teacher, usually one who is a head monk.
Food, money, medicine, clothing or anything else given to another person as a religious or charitable act. Asking for and giving alms is a significant part of Jainism, as it forms a daily point of contact between lay people and mendicants. Seeking, donating and receiving alms are highly ritualised ceremonies in the Jain tradition, and spiritual purity is essential for both giver and recipient. Giving alms is a way for lay Jains to gain merit – puṇya.
The 'Five Lesser Vows' that householder Jains take. These are not as strict as the 'Five Greater Vows' that ascetics observe but are more practical in daily life. Few Jains take these non-compulsory vows these days. The vows are to:
Someone who withdraws from ordinary life to meditate and practise physical hardships in order to advance spiritually. Jain ascetics or mendicants beg for food from devout lay followers and wander the land.
Also used as an adjective to describe the practice of rigorous, even extreme, physical hardships in the belief that it leads to a higher spiritual condition.
Favourable or lucky. Auspicious objects bring good fortune and may predict good events or a bright future.
A follower of Buddhism. There are two main schools of Buddhism, namely:
Both sects are practised in India.
Hindu society is traditionally divided into numerous jātis or classes, which are usually grouped into the four varṇas – often called 'castes' – of:
Relating to ritual purity, castes are hereditary and probably based on occupation. Members of different castes performed particular socio-economic roles and did not mix or eat the same food. People outside the caste system were usually looked down upon.
Avoiding or stopping sexual relations, often after taking a religious vow. A celibate practises celibacy.
Either avoiding sexual activity outside marriage or being totally celibate. Chaste can also mean a pure state of mind or innocent, modest action.
Found at the end of a Jain manuscript, a colophon is similar to the publication information at the beginning of modern books. It usually contains the title and sometimes details of the author, scribe and sponsor. The colophons of Jain manuscripts may also include the names of owners, readers and libraries where they have been stored. They frequently have decorative elements and very commonly contain a wish for good fortune for any readers. Written mainly by the scribes who copy texts, Jain colophons are often written in Sanskrit.
Not feeling attached to any things, people or emotions in the world, whether positive or negative. Jains believe that detachment from the world is necessary to progress spiritually towards the ultimate aim of freeing the soul from the cycle of rebirth.
'Sky-clad' in Sanskrit, used for one of the two main divisions of Jainism, in which monks are naked. There are some differences of doctrine or belief between these two sects and to some extent their followers consider themselves as belonging to distinct branches. Divisions can be fierce in practical matters, for example, over the ownership of pilgrimage places, but all sects see themselves as Jains.
Religious initiation through which a man or woman leaves the householder or lay status to become a mendicant. Parts of this ritual renunciation are public ceremonies, depending on the sect.
An active follower of a religion, especially one who passes on teachings to others.
A principle or system of teachings, especially religious philosophy.
Literally a Sanskrit word for 'tree', gaccha is used by Śvetāmbara Mūrti-pūjak Jains to describe the largest groups of their mendicant lineages. It is often translated as 'monastic group', 'monastic order' or 'monastic tradition'. These groups are formed when some mendicants split from their gaccha because of disagreements over ascetic practices.
Formal or ceremonial admission into an organisation or group.
Follower of the 24 Jinas or an adjective describing Jain teachings or practices. The term 'Jaina' is also used although 'Jain' is more common.
A 'victor' in Sanskrit, a Jina is an enlightened human being who has triumphed over karma and teaches the way to achieve liberation. A synonym for Tīrthaṃkara, which means 'ford-maker' or one who has founded a community after reaching omniscience through asceticism. The most famous 24 – Ṛṣabha to Mahāvīra – were born in the Bharata-kṣetra of the middle world, but more are found in other continents. There have been Jinas in the past and there will be some in the future.
Sanskrit for 'self', 'soul' or 'that which is sentient'. It makes up the universe along with ajīva, or non-sentient material substance. It is a material substance that changes in size according to the body it inhabits in each life. It is born in different bodies in various places in the Jain universe based on karma from earlier lives. The soul is liberated from the cycle of birth when it has achieved spiritual purity and omniscience. Also called ātma or ātman.
The water pot used by Digambara mendicants.
Action or act, thought of as physical in Jainism. Created by mental or physical action, karma enters the soul, which then needs religious restraints and practices to make it flow out. Karma can be both:
Both types of karma trap a soul in continual rebirth. A pan-Indian concept, karma has extremely complex, detailed and technical divisions and subdivisions in Jainism.
'Passion' that causes activity, which results in new karma binding to the soul. It must be eliminated by restraints or austerities so the soul can be liberated. Passion may be attraction – rāga – or aversion – dveṣa – and has degrees of intensity. There are traditionally four passions:
Also one of the 14 'gateways' or categories of investigation of mārgaṇā – 'soul-quest'.
Pulling out one’s hair in handfuls in a symbolic gesture as a part of the religious initiation known as dīkṣā. Only mendicants do this, and they do it regularly in their monastic life.
Title given among Digambaras to a lay person who has taken the vows and observes the same strict rules as a monk but does not practise nudity.
Believers in a religion who are ordinary worshippers, not clergy or members of religious orders. In Jainism, lay people are often called 'householders', indicating that they live in houses and have domestic responsibilities, unlike ascetics.
A class of gods that intervenes in the lives of future Jinas to encourage them to renounce worldly life.
The five vows taken by ascetics. Monks and nuns must follow these ‘absolute’ vows of:
The 24th Jina Mahāvīra added a fifth vow to his predecessor Pārśva's four, making the vow of celibacy not just implicit but a separate vow.
The 24th Jina of the present age. His symbolic colour is yellow and his emblem the lion. Mahāvīra or 'the great hero' is his title. His birth name was Vardhamāna, meaning 'ever increasing'. His existence is historically documented but the two main sects of Digambara and Śvetāmbara Jains have slight differences in their accounts of his life.
Ascetics are initiated into a tradition handed down from a named religious teacher. Religious instructions and principles are passed on orally and in writings from one generation of mendicants to the next, continuing the monastic lineage.
The 'liberation' of the soul from its body and thus from the cycle of rebirth because it has no karma and becomes omniscient. The ultimate aim of Jainism is to achieve mokṣa and become a liberated soul in siddha-śilā.
A single-sex group of ascetics that vows to follow rules set out by a founding religious teacher. They formally renounce the world to become monks and nuns. They usually have a hierarchy of leaders at different levels to govern them.
A man who has taken a public vow to withdraw from ordinary life to formally enter religious life and advance spiritually. Frequently, monks perform physical austerities or undergo physical hardships in order to progress spiritually.
Sage. A common term for a Jain monk.
Hell. There are seven levels of hells in the lower world of Jain cosmology.
The 22nd Jina of the present age, also called Ariṣṭanemi. His symbolic colour is blue or black and his emblem the conch. There is no historical evidence of his existence.
The Jains hold that Nemi is the cousin of the Hindu god Kṛṣna. The tale of his renunciation and jilting of his fiancée Princess Rājīmati are famous among the Jains.
The Digambara mendicants are 'sky-clad' because they believe that all the Jinas and their male ascetic followers went nude as part of their vow of renunciation. This vow entails renouncing all possessions, including clothing. Female Digambara ascetics wear white saris and are thus technically spiritually advanced celibate laywomen. Śvetāmbara mendicants of both sexes, however, wear white clothing. The difference of opinion over whether the vow of non-possession includes clothing was one reason for the Jain community's split into these two major sects early in the Common Era.
A woman who has taken a public vow to withdraw from ordinary life to enter religious life and advance spiritually. Frequently, nuns perform physical austerities or undergo physical hardships in order to progress spiritually.
The act of being appointed as a member of the clergy of a religion. It is a formal ceremony that consecrates a believer into the holder of a religious office.
To deliver a speech on a religious topic, usually given by a prophet or member of the clergy. It may be a formal task of a religious office or open to all believers in a religious faith. Often covering social and moral subjects, preaching may be intended to:
Giving up something. A lay person who becomes an ascetic renounces the life of a householder within society, instead choosing the physical hardships of being a monk or nun. The formal renunciation ceremony in Jainism is dīkṣā.
A sequence of actions that must be followed to perform a religious ceremony. The set of actions is largely symbolic, for example offering food to statues symbolises sacrificing to a deity. The ritual actions are often accompanied by set phrases.
Cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth caused by karma binding to the soul as a result of activities. Only by destroying all karma can this perpetual cycle finish in mokṣa – liberation. The karma gained in life affects the next life, and even future lives, for example:
Set of sacred texts that believers accept as authoritative within a religion. Synonymous with canon.
An organised group of believers in a religion, often distinguished from other groups within the same religious faith who have differences of doctrine or practice.
Breaking a religious or moral principle, especially if this is done deliberately. Sinners commit sins or may sin by not doing something they are supposed to do.
'Hearer’ of the teaching. This commonly refers to the Jain lay man, who follows the teachings of the 24 Jinas and is not a member of the clergy or a religious order. The feminine form is śrāvikā.
'Hearer’ of the teaching. This commonly refers to the Jain lay woman, who follows the teachings of the 24 Jinas and is not a member of the clergy or a religious order. The masculine form is śrāvakā.
'White-clad’ in Sanskrit, the title of one of the two main divisions of Jainism, in which both male and female mendicants wear white robes. There are some differences of doctrine or belief between these two sects and to some extent their followers consider themselves as belonging to distinct branches. Divisions can be fierce in practical matters, for example, over the ownership of pilgrimage places, but all sects see themselves as Jains.
A subsect of the Śvetāmbara Sthānaka-vāsin, which originated in Rajasthan in the 18th century. The Terāpanthin do not worship images. One of the sect's best-known leaders was Ācārya Tulsī, who created a new category of ascetics in 1980. These samaṇ and samaṇī are allowed to travel using mechanised transport and to use money.
An intellectual and cultural movement that arose around the mid-17th century in Western Europe. It stressed freedom of thought, reason, analysis and individualism as guides to behaviour and social development rather than the traditional authorities of church and state, which seemed to ask for uncritical acceptance. During the Enlightenment, new ways of thinking about the world – especially scientific approaches and radical philosophies – developed.
An ancient Jain text outlining the rules of monastic conduct, said to be Mahāvīra's final sermon. These 36 lectures provide rules for ascetics but also discuss various topics, such as karma and the substances in the universe, and recount the tale of Nemi's renunciation.
Reverence towards the elders, modest behaviour.
Vows are extremely important in Jain religious life. Mendicants take the compulsory Five Great Vows – mahā-vratas – as part of their initiation – dīkṣā.
Lay people can choose to take 12 vows, which are divided into:
All of these vows are lifelong and cannot be taken back. The sallekhana-vrata is a supplementary vow to fast to death, open to both ascetics and householders. | http://www.jainpedia.org/themes/practices/monks-and-nuns/becoming-a-monk-or-nun/contentpage/1/index.html |
Mr. Pravin K. Shah is an author and educator who is active member of the Jain community in the United States. He is currently the vice president of Jain Education International and has worked with the Pluralism Project since the mid-1990s, specifically on the development of the Jainism section of On Common Ground: World Religions in America.
Mr. Shah has been instrumental in the formation of several educational resources about JainismThe term Jain or Jaina refers to the tradition of the Jinas, the “victorious ones” who have won spiritual liberation, and to those who follow it. The Jain tradition as we know it dates back some 2500 years to the life of the teacher Mahavira, said to ..., including the JAINAThe Federation of Jain Associations in North America (JAINA) is an umbrella organization encompassing the approximately 60 Jain centers in the United States and Canada. Since its first meeting in 1981, JAINA has held conventions every two years in various... Education and Literature CD and the JAIN eLibrary. The JAINA Education and Literature CD contains over 2,000 files, which consist of more than 10,000 pages. The CD was formally launched during ParyushanaParyushana is the most important holy season in the Shvetambara Jain ritual calendar. This festival season, celebrated over eight days in September, is the climax of the four-month monsoon period when ascetics abandon the wandering life to settle down amo... Parva (Mahvir Janma Vchan Day) in September 2002 at the Jain Society of Northern California (San Francisco). The Jain eLibrary is an online collection of scriptures, manuscripts, encyclopedia entries, magazines, and digitized books. | http://pluralism.org/affiliate/pravin-shah/ |
What is Jainism?
The founder of Jainism was the 1st Tirthankar, Rishabhadeva. In the Jain religion, there are 24 Tirthankars. Tirthankar means a person who has already crossed the line of the cycle of life and death and becomes Jina, which means Conqueror, becoming Arhat means able, and who became Mahavira means enlightenment.
- The first Tirthankar is Rishabha Dev, whose name has been given in Rigveda; except for Mahavira and Parshavanath, all 24 Tirthankaras are not historically justified.
- Parshavanath, the 23 tirthankar in Jain tradition, belongs to the Kshatriya royal family of Kasi. He propounded 4 principles -Truth, Non-Violence, No Stealing, No Accumulation, and the fifth one was added by Mahavira, which is Celibacy, and then it became panch maha vrata for all followers of Jainism.
- Major Jain pilgrimage in India includes Dilwara Temple in Mount Abu (Rajasthan), Palitana Temples (Gujarat), Girnar (Gujarat), Shikharji (Jharkhand), and Shravanabelagola(Karnataka).
Who is Mahavira in Jainism ?
Vardhamana Mahavira was the 24th Tirthankara, born at Kundalgram in Vaishali to King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala, who ruled over the Jnatrika clan in 540 BC. At 30, he left his home to live an ascetic life. According to Jain Holy books, on the the10th day of Vaishaka, he reached the town of pava near Patna, where he found the truth of life, i.e., kevalya.
He was given the title 'Mahavira' or the great hero. Some other titles given to him are Jaina or jitendriya i.e., one who conquers all his senses, and nirgrantha, or the one who is free from all bonds. At 72, he died in pava near Rajagriha (now in Patna).
Teachings of Mahavir in Jainism
The followers of Jainism are bound by their religion to live in such a way that would not harm any being. According to Jainism, one can get rid of bad Karma and pull themselves out of the cycle of rebirth and achieve salvation through a three-jewel fold path of right belief, knowledge, and conduct.
These three jewels of Jainism are commonly called Ratnatraya.
Jains are compulsorily supposed to follow the five constraints in life:
- Ahimsa(Non-Violence)
- Satya(Truthfulness)
- Asteya (Non-Stealing)
- Aparigraha(Non acquisition)
- Bhattacharya(chaste living).
Why did Jainism Emerge?
Post-Vedic society was divided into four varnas: Brahmanas, Kshatriya, Vaishyas, and Shudras. Each Varna was assigned well-defined functions. The classification of Varna was based on birth, and two varnas were given the highest class and the powers.
- But, these varnas created tensions in society. We have no means of ascertaining the reactions of the vaishyas and the Shudras, but the Kshatriya, who functioned as a ruler, reacted strongly against the ritualistic domination of Brahmanas and seems to have led a kind of protest movement against the importance attached to birth in varna system.
- The Kshatriya reaction against the domination of Brahmanas, who claimed various privileges, was one of the causes of the origin of new religions. Vardhamana Mahavira, who founded Jainism, and Gautam Buddha, who founded Buddhism, belonged to the Kshatriya clan and disputed the Brahmanas' authority.
- However, the real cause of the rise of these new religions lies in the spread of the new agricultural economy in North-Eastern India. North-East India, including regions of eastern UP and northern and Southern Bihar, has about 100 cm of rainfall.
The following are the other causes of the emergence of Jainism-
- It was taught in Pali and Prakriti language, which is more understandable and accessible for ordinary people than Sanskrit.
- People of all castes are welcome in Jainism.
- Vedic religion has become highly observant.
- The Varna system is rigid, and people of lower caste lead pathetic life where the believers of Jainism provide them with a glorious life.
- A great famine within the Ganges Valley occurred after the 200 years of the Mahavira death, which prompted King Chandragupta Maurya and Bhadrabahu, the last Acharya of undivided Jain Sanga, to migrate to Karnataka.
Spreading and Splitting of Jainism
To spread the teaching of Jainism, Mahavira organized an order of his followers that admitted both men and women. He preached his teachings in Prakrit, the language of common people. The followers of Mahavir were not large in numbers; they were just 14000. Despite this, Jainism gradually spread into the south and west India, where Brahmanical religion was weak.
- According to a late tradition, the spread of Jainism in Karnataka is attributed to Chandragupta Maurya. The emperor became a Jaina, gave up his throne, and spent the last year of his life in Karnataka as a Jaina ascetic, but any other source does not corroborate this tradition. Another reason that was believed to exist behind the spread of Jainism was the great famine in Magadha after the death of Mahavira.
- The famine lasted for 12 years, and in order to protect themselves, many Jainas migrated to the south under the leadership of Bhadrabahu, though the rest of them stayed back in Magadha under the leadership of Sthalabahu.
- The emigrant Jainas also spread Jainism in complete India, including the southern part.
- At the end of the famine, they return to Magadha where they develop differences with local Jainas. Those who returned from the South claim that even during the famine, they strictly observed the religious rules. They alleged too that Jaina ascetics living in Magadha had violated those rules and had become lax.
- To sort out these differences and to compile the principal teaching of Jainism, a council was convened in Patliputra, modern Patna, but the Jainas who had returned from the south boycotted it and refused to accept its decisions.
Relevance of Jainism Teachings in the Contemporary World
Contribution of Jainism:
- Attempt to reform ill practices of the varna system.
- Expansion of Prakrit and Kannada languages.
- The principle of Ahimsa is that is non-violence helpful in reducing growing violence and terrorism.
- It also helps to promote the No First Use nuclear policy.
- The principle of Aparigraha, which is non-possession also helps reduce people's greedy nature.
- It can also help reduce Green House Gas Emissions by controlling or non-possession attitudes toward luxuries producing carbon emissions.
- It also contributed to prosperous architecture and literature.
Jain Councils
There are two main Jain councils held:
- First Jain council
- The first Jain Council was held at p\Patliputra in the 3rd century B.C. and was presided by Sthulbhadara.
- Second Jain council
- The second Jain council was held in Vallabhi in 512A.D. and was presided by Devardhi Kshmasramana.
- In this, the final compilations of 12 Angas and 12 Upangas occur.
Jainism and Buddhism
Jainism taught five doctrines that are.
- do not commit violence
- do not tell a lie
- do not steal
- do not hoard
- observe continence(brahmacharya).
It is said that Mahavira added only the fifth Doctrine. The rest of the four were taken from the teachers in the past. Jainism attaches the utmost importance to Ahimsa or noninjury to living beings. Jains do believe in God and its existence but kept them below the Jina. Also, they didn't condemn the varna system, unlike Buddhism.
Buddha was a practical reformer who worked and taught the world's realities. According to Buddha, the world has both happiness and sorrow, and people have to face both equally. They cant be controlled according to their desires. But if the person can hold back desires to attain nirvana, he is considered free from the cycle of birth and death.
Buddha recommended an eight-fold path to eliminate human misery. These 8-fold paths are-
- Right Observation
- Right Determination
- Right Speech
- Right Action
- Right Livelihood
- Right Effort
- Right Awareness
- Right Concern.
If a person follows this eight-fold path, he would free himself from priests' machinations and reach his destination. Gautam Buddha taught that a person should avoid an excess of both luxury and austerity and prescribed the middle path.
Similarities in Jainism and Buddhism
- Buddhism and Jainism both rejected the Vedas that is Grand rituals and priest class
- The founder of both Jainism and Buddhism, Mahavira and Gautam Buddha, was born into a royal family. Both of them left their luxurious lives to attain moksha or enlightenment.
- Both Buddhism and Jainism emphasize the need for nonviolence towards animals, who must be treated the same as human beings.
- Both Buddhism and Jainism believe in Karma.
- There is a concept of reincarnation in Buddhism. and In Jainism that refers to the soul's rebirth in a new body following the death of the previous one.
Difference between Jainism and Buddhism
- Buddhism did not believe in the soul, while Jainism believed in the soul.
- In Buddhism Sangha and Monks were given prominence, while In Jainism lay followers were given prominence.
- In Buddhism liberal feelings and practical actions were emphasized while In Jainism extreme Ahimsa was emphasized.
- In Buddhism, the middle path is a reasonable way to salvation while In Jainism the method of Salvation is far from ordinary.
- Buddhism quickly spread to other countries also while Jainism is mostly limited to India.
Jainism UPSC
Jainism is an important part of ancient Indian history. This is an unavoidable topic of ancient history for the UPSC Exam. Jainism UPSC topic has been asked mostly in the prelims exam. To prepare the Jainism UPSC and Buddhism topics of ancient history relevant to the exam in detail download the NCERT Books for UPSC and the History UPSC Books. Jainism and Buddhism are essential topics regarding UPSC Prelims and UPSC Mains as well.
The aspirants willing to appear in the IAS Exam can also get UPSC Syllabus and Current Affairs to ensure they are well prepared. The aspirants have also facilitated UPSC Previous Years Question Papers and other Study Materials.
Jainism Notes for UPSC PDF
Candidates can also download the Jainism UPSC Notes PDF which includes all relevant topics for the upcoming exam.
☛ Download Complete Notes on Jainism in PDF
Jainism UPSC Question
[Prelims 2018] Question 1. Anekantavada is a core theory and philosophy of which one of the following?
(a) Buddhism
(b) Jainism
(c) Sikhism
(d) Vaishnavism
Answer:- Option B
Question 2. Concerning the history of ancient India, which of the following was/were common to both Buddhism and Jainism?
- Avoidance of extremities of penance and enjoyment
- Indifference to the authority of the Vedas
- Denial of the efficacy of rituals
Select the correct answer using the codes given below: | https://byjusexamprep.com/jainism-upsc-notes-i |
Jainism is an off-shoot of Hinduism. But it has its won specific attributes and qualities. This book contains the sum total of the teachings and preachings of 24 Tirthankers and a successive chain of Jain Acharyas. The book will expose you to the concepts of liberation of soul, non-violence, truth or compassion. It is indispensable to those who are interested in the growth of Indian culture and ethos.
Jainism and Buddhism are the two contemporary religions which have their roots deeply seated in Hinduism. Hence, when we discuss Jain and Buddhist philosophies, we cannot segregate them from Hindu philosophy as most of the tenets and preaching of both the religions are off-shoots of Hinduism. | https://indiaclub.com/products/12734-soul-of-jainism |
Contributed by Jérôme Petit
The name of Yogīndu came down to later times probably because Daulatrām wrote a Hindi commentary on the Paramātma-prakāśa in the first half of the 18th century. More precisely, he wrote a Hindi rendering of another commentary, which was written in Sanskrit by Brahmadeva, probably in the 13th century.
In other words, between the 16th and 18th centuries some poets translated many important Jain treatises with spiritual tenets into Hindi. This assured them wider access and great popularity among the laity. Yogīndu is one of the writers who benefited from this development.
Apabhraṃśa is an umbrella term for the dialects that were the forerunners of modern Indian languages. Taken from the Sanskrit term apabhraṃśa, which literally means 'corrupt' or 'non-grammatical language', Apabhraṃśa was used to write a large number of Jain texts. Though Apabhraṃśa developed over the 6th to 13th centuries, literary works date back to the 8th century.
Someone who withdraws from ordinary life to meditate and practise physical hardships in order to advance spiritually. Jain ascetics or mendicants beg for food from devout lay followers and wander the land.
Also used as an adjective to describe the practice of rigorous, even extreme, physical hardships in the belief that it leads to a higher spiritual condition.
An essay explaining a text. Commentaries on the scriptures are common in the Jain tradition and there are various types, including the:
Vision, insight or perception. It works with the quality of jñāna – knowledge in the soul – to gain deep, true understanding and is ever-changing.
Also one of the 14 'gateways' or categories of investigation of mārgaṇā or 'soul-quest'.
Sanskrit for 'meditation', one of the six internal austerities or tapas that help purify the soul of karma. Meditation is deep thought about religious doctrine or mental focus on spiritual matters over a period of time. An important part of many religions, meditation is especially important in Jain belief because it forms key elements of religious practice and spiritual development.
An active follower of a religion, especially one who passes on teachings to others.
A principle or system of teachings, especially religious philosophy.
Quality, positive point.
The most widely spoken group of languages in India, originating in the northern part of the subcontinent. Local dialects and Hindi languages are spoken all over northern India and in surrounding countries. Standard Hindi is used in administration by the central government of India, along with English.
Follower of the majority faith in India and an adjective describing something belonging to Hinduism. Hindus have numerous gods and diverse beliefs and practices, though many believe in the soul, karma, the cycle of births and liberation. Roughly a billion Hindus comprise the third largest religion in the world.
Follower of the 24 Jinas or an adjective describing Jain teachings or practices. The term 'Jaina' is also used although 'Jain' is more common.
Sanskrit for 'self', 'soul' or 'that which is sentient'. It makes up the universe along with ajīva, or non-sentient material substance. It is a material substance that changes in size according to the body it inhabits in each life. It is born in different bodies in various places in the Jain universe based on karma from earlier lives. The soul is liberated from the cycle of birth when it has achieved spiritual purity and omniscience. Also called ātma or ātman.
'Knowledge', of which there are five main types:
With spiritual progress, one can gain the different types of knowledge.
Also one of the 14 'gateways' or categories of investigation of mārgaṇā or 'soul-quest'.
Action or act, thought of as physical in Jainism. Created by mental or physical action, karma enters the soul, which then needs religious restraints and practices to make it flow out. Karma can be both:
Both types of karma trap a soul in continual rebirth. A pan-Indian concept, karma has extremely complex, detailed and technical divisions and subdivisions in Jainism.
Digambara monk who lived in the second or third centuries CE. Little is known of his life but his mystical writings, concentrating on the soul and internal religious experience, have been enormously influential in Jain thought. Key works include Samayasāra, Niyamsāra, Pañcāstikāya and Pravacanasāra.
Believers in a religion who are ordinary worshippers, not clergy or members of religious orders. In Jainism, lay people are often called 'householders', indicating that they live in houses and have domestic responsibilities, unlike ascetics.
The 'liberation' of the soul from its body and thus from the cycle of rebirth because it has no karma and becomes omniscient. The ultimate aim of Jainism is to achieve mokṣa and become a liberated soul in siddha-śilā.
Sage. A common term for a Jain monk.
A system of contemplative prayer, meditation and complete detachment from worldly affairs in the hope of gaining direct spiritual experience of the divine. In Jainism those who practise mystical techniques hope to gain true self-realisation and thus destroy karma and be liberated.
Wrong or bad action. Similar to a bad merit in Buddhism.
The highest soul, the liberated soul, the Absolute, often used instead of siddhi. Jains believe that a soul or ātman can achieve liberation from the cycle of birth through its own spiritual development. This concept has been called God in Western thought since the start of the Christian era.
Mode.
A journey to a place of religious significance. Some religions encourage pilgrimage as ways to advance spiritual progress and deepen the faith of those who make the trip – pilgrims.
A term for any of the dead vernacular languages of ancient and medieval India. It may be contrasted with classical Sanskrit, the language used by priests and the aristocracy. The Jains used a large variety of Prakrits, with the Jain canon written chiefly in Ardhamāgadhī Prākrit.
Sanskrit for a 'right or good action'. Similar to a merit in Buddhism, it helps to reduce karma.
Giving up something. A lay person who becomes an ascetic renounces the life of a householder within society, instead choosing the physical hardships of being a monk or nun. The formal renunciation ceremony in Jainism is dīkṣā.
String of beads used by devotees to help them count the number of prayers or chants they are repeating.
Cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth caused by karma binding to the soul as a result of activities. Only by destroying all karma can this perpetual cycle finish in mokṣa – liberation. The karma gained in life affects the next life, and even future lives, for example:
A classical language of India, originally used by priests and nobility. Sanskrit has a rich literary and religious tradition. With only a few thousand native speakers nowadays, it is predominantly used in Hindu religious ceremonies and by scholars.
Reality or truth. This is very important to Jains and the satya-vrata is the second of the mendicant's Five Great Vows and the lay person's Five Lesser Vows.
Spiritual discipline. But Jains also use it to mean an ‘activity’ that produces vibrations.
Also one of the 14 'gateways' or categories of investigation of mārgaṇā or 'soul-quest'. | http://www.jainpedia.org/themes/principles/sects/digambara/yogindu/contentpage/2.html |
Contributed by M. Whitney Kelting
Meaning ‘year-long fast’ in Sanskrit, Varṣītap is modelled on the fast of the first Jina, Ṛṣhabhanātha or Lord Ṛṣabha. Instead of doing a 13-month total fast, which would be impossible, the fasters adopt a pattern of alternating days of total fasting with days of partial fasting. They always begin on Fāgan dark 8th and end on Vaiśākh bright 3rd, 13 and a half months later.
Varṣītap is one of the most demanding fasts for Jains. Devotees believe it is especially effective at reducing the karma in one’s soul. Though fasting is often thought of as an especially female expression of religious devotion, both men and women undertake the varṣītap fast.
The story behind the varṣītap is that of the first feeding of Ṛṣabhanātha or Lord Ṛṣabha after his renunciation. He renounced on Fāgan dark 8th and took a vow of silence. Ṛṣabha decided not to accept any food offered to him unless it was suitable food offered in the right way. He was the first Jina of this era and this, together with his vow of silence, meant that no one knew the proper way to give alms to a Jain monk.
For 13 and a half months Ṛṣabha wandered without being offered suitable alms. Then he met Prince Śreyāṅs in the city of Hastinapur. The prince recalled from an earlier lifetime the proper way to feed a Jain mendicant. Śreyāṅs offered Ṛṣabha some sugar-cane juice and finally the first Jain monk was able to break his fast.
Varṣītap means ‘year-long fast’ and imitates the long fast of the first Jina, Ṛṣabhanatha or Lord Ṛṣabha. Just as Ṛṣabha did, Jains undertaking this fast always begin on Fāgan dark 8th and end on Vaiśākh bright 3rd. The breaking of the fast is also modelled on his example. Throughout the 13 and a half months of Varṣītap, fasters alternate days of complete fasting with days of partial fasting.
Jains believe that this fast is a powerful way of reducing one’s karma. Performed by both men and women, the Varṣītap is one of the most difficult fasts.
Throughout Varṣītap the faster drinks only boiled water and does numerous extra austerities associated with the fast.
For the period of Varṣītap, every other day the faster completes a full fast, fasting partially on the day in between. The days of full fast are called tivihār upvās. On these days the fasters take only water. On the days of partial fasts, the fasters may have one or two meals instead of three. A partial-fast day with one meal is called ekāsana while a day that allows two meals is known as beāsana.
Jains generally associate the eighth and 14th day of each fortnight with fasting. On these days the people who are performing the Varṣītap also carry out a total fast, taking only boiled water.
Someone who withdraws from ordinary life to meditate and practise physical hardships in order to advance spiritually. Jain ascetics or mendicants beg for food from devout lay followers and wander the land.
Also used as an adjective to describe the practice of rigorous, even extreme, physical hardships in the belief that it leads to a higher spiritual condition.
Giving, specifically alms-giving to mendicants.
Giving up or limiting food or specified foods for a period of time, usually as part of a religious practice. Fasting is a key part of Jainism, chiefly because it is believed to:
A 'victor' in Sanskrit, a Jina is an enlightened human being who has triumphed over karma and teaches the way to achieve liberation. A synonym for Tīrthaṃkara, which means 'ford-maker' or one who has founded a community after reaching omniscience through asceticism. The most famous 24 – Ṛṣabha to Mahāvīra – were born in the Bharata-kṣetra of the middle world, but more are found in other continents. There have been Jinas in the past and there will be some in the future.
Sanskrit for 'worship' or 'homage'. All Jains perform rites of honour to the 24 Jinas. Rites of worship take place daily, with more elaborate ceremonies performed on holy days. Mendicant and lay Jains perform different rituals. Some sects worship images – mūrti-pūjaka – and others do not, and different sects have various practices. Focused on images or not, worship can be:
Giving up something. A lay person who becomes an ascetic renounces the life of a householder within society, instead choosing the physical hardships of being a monk or nun. The formal renunciation ceremony in Jainism is dīkṣā.
First Jina of the present age. His symbolic colour is gold and his emblem the ox or bull. There is little historical evidence of his existence. Jains believe that he established many social institutions, such as marriage and the caste system, and introduce crafts and agriculture to the people.
Austerity or asceticism in general. A tapas is an act of austerity or self-discipline that produces bodily heat – tapas – that burns up karma. Austerities may be internal – mental – or external – physical. Both lay and mendicant Jains practise austerities. Fasting is the most common external austerity for lay people these days.
A building reserved for public worship or prayer, usually dedicated to one religion and run by members of that religion's clergy.
Vows are extremely important in Jain religious life. Mendicants take the compulsory Five Great Vows – mahā-vratas – as part of their initiation – dīkṣā.
Lay people can choose to take 12 vows, which are divided into:
All of these vows are lifelong and cannot be taken back. The sallekhana-vrata is a supplementary vow to fast to death, open to both ascetics and householders. | http://www.jainpedia.org/themes/practices/festivals/varsitap.html |
Contributed by Julia A. B. Hegewald
Sacred pavilions usually raise the objects of veneration a metre or so from the ground. In south India, pavilions can also be positioned on short pillars, which raise them to eye level. Much smaller pavilions on very tall pillars are found throughout India and are called māna-stambhas. There are also brahmadeva-stambhas, which contain statues of the protective deity Brahma or Brahmadeva. Visible from some way off, these tall columns serve as identifiers of Jain temples as well as elements in ritual practice.
Sometimes the pillars are relatively short, only about one to one and a half metres high. This raises the shrines to a comfortable height for a standing devotee to venerate the images inside the small structure. Such pillars are particularly widespread in the south of India. A famous example is the column in the Digambara Pārśvanātha Temple at Hassan, in Karnataka.
Other pavilions, however, have clearly been elevated far above human level on columns which are about five to ten metres tall. These are not immediately accessible to worshippers on the ground. This is related to the common south Indian Jain practice of erecting pillars topped by images, symbols and lamps.
There are two major forms of these tall pillars topped by small pavilions. Particularly common are māna-stambhas – ‘pride pillars’. These are votive columns, usually at the front of Jain temples. Māna-stambhas are topped by a small pavilion, which usually houses four adorsed Jina statues – figures with their backs turned towards one another and looking outwards – or simply a single image of a Jina. Māna-stambhas are found throughout the Indian subcontinent, especially in Digambara temples.
Closely related in design are pillars dedicated to the yakṣa Brahma or Brahma-deva, who functions as the kṣetra-pāla, the guardian of the sacred area, in Jain temple complexes. He is particularly popular in the south of India. Brahma-stambhas or brahmadeva-stambhas are surmounted by a figure of Brahma. In most instances, he is seated in a small raised pavilion, as may be seen at Halebid and Shravana Belgola, both in Karnataka.
Elevating the holy items means they are visible from afar. Consequently, they do not act only as objects of veneration at the site, but also gain a more symbolic value, so that a place is recognised as Jain from a distance.
The belief and practice of avoiding the representation of divinities or other religious figures, which may also include human beings or living creatures. Aniconic followers may use images of abstract shapes or symbols, such as pillars, as the focus of religious worship. Aniconic Jains are opposed to the worship of figures of Jinas and deities.
The spiritual assistant – yakṣa – of the tenth Jina, Śītalanatha or Lord Śītala. His image is often found at the top of pillars on Digambara sacred sites, primarily in South India.
A ritual in which an item or place is declared to be holy. A person may also consecrate a specific time or activity or be consecrated, which means becoming dedicated to a religious purpose.
A belief system about the universe that covers its origin, structure and parts, and natural laws and characteristics such as space, time, causality and freedom.
An enthusiastic follower of a religion. Can also describe a keen enthusiast of an individual, concept or activity.
'Sky-clad' in Sanskrit, used for one of the two main divisions of Jainism, in which monks are naked. There are some differences of doctrine or belief between these two sects and to some extent their followers consider themselves as belonging to distinct branches. Divisions can be fierce in practical matters, for example, over the ownership of pilgrimage places, but all sects see themselves as Jains.
Giving up or limiting food or specified foods for a period of time, usually as part of a religious practice. Fasting is a key part of Jainism, chiefly because it is believed to:
The westernmost state in India, which is a stronghold of Śvetāmbara Jainism.
Sanskrit term meaning both:
Conventions or rules governing how images, symbols and the placement of elements and figures are used in art to represent ideas and convey meaning. Also the term for the academic study of such artistic conventions.
An image of a deity or concept that is worshipped either as a god or as a representation of the deity.
Follower of the 24 Jinas or an adjective describing Jain teachings or practices. The term 'Jaina' is also used although 'Jain' is more common.
A city in the northwestern state of Rajasthan in India.
A 'victor' in Sanskrit, a Jina is an enlightened human being who has triumphed over karma and teaches the way to achieve liberation. A synonym for Tīrthaṃkara, which means 'ford-maker' or one who has founded a community after reaching omniscience through asceticism. The most famous 24 – Ṛṣabha to Mahāvīra – were born in the Bharata-kṣetra of the middle world, but more are found in other continents. There have been Jinas in the past and there will be some in the future.
Sanskrit for 'self', 'soul' or 'that which is sentient'. It makes up the universe along with ajīva, or non-sentient material substance. It is a material substance that changes in size according to the body it inhabits in each life. It is born in different bodies in various places in the Jain universe based on karma from earlier lives. The soul is liberated from the cycle of birth when it has achieved spiritual purity and omniscience. Also called ātma or ātman.
State in south-west India.
Omniscience, enlightenment or perfect knowledge – the highest of the five types of knowledge, where one knows everything wherever and whenever it is. It is extremely difficult to attain, equivalent to the 13th stage of spiritual purity in the guṇa-sthāna. Digambaras believe only men can achieve it whereas Śvetāmbaras believe that both men and women can become enlightened.
Believers in a religion who are ordinary worshippers, not clergy or members of religious orders. In Jainism, lay people are often called 'householders', indicating that they live in houses and have domestic responsibilities, unlike ascetics.
Bordering on the Arabian Sea, Māhārāṣṭra in central India is the third-largest and the richest state in India. Its capital is Mumbai and the official language is Marathi.
Someone who is killed for his or her religious beliefs. Originally it referred to someone who willingly died for his or her religious faith. Nowadays it can also mean someone who suffers or is killed for following a religion or other beliefs, whether willingly or not. Also a verb meaning to carry out the killing.
Ascetics are initiated into a tradition handed down from a named religious teacher. Religious instructions and principles are passed on orally and in writings from one generation of mendicants to the next, continuing the monastic lineage.
The 'liberation' of the soul from its body and thus from the cycle of rebirth because it has no karma and becomes omniscient. The ultimate aim of Jainism is to achieve mokṣa and become a liberated soul in siddha-śilā.
A usually flat stone plate with a high-relief carving of one or several snakes – nāgas – with one or multiple hoods. The carved tiles are leaned against trees or rammed into the earth to stand up vertically. Worship of snakes and other nature-related spirits – such as yakṣas – has a long tradition in South Asia. For Jains, snakes are closely associated with the Jinas Pārśvanātha or Lord Pārśva and Supārśvanātha or Lord Supārśva, and Śvetāmbara Jains regard them as one of the guardians of the directions – dika-pālas.
A Sanskrit term for 'Lord', which is usually shortened to nath in modern Indian languages. It is added to the end of a person's name and is frequently used for very holy figures or deities. For example the 22nd Jina is referred to as Neminātha, meaning Lord Nemi.
The petrified footprint of a dead mendicant or holy figure, which is treated as a commemorative sacred object.
Sanskrit term for the ritual walk around the platform on which a Jain temple stands, called the jagatī or vedī.
Sanskrit for 'worship' or 'homage'. All Jains perform rites of honour to the 24 Jinas. Rites of worship take place daily, with more elaborate ceremonies performed on holy days. Mendicant and lay Jains perform different rituals. Some sects worship images – mūrti-pūjaka – and others do not, and different sects have various practices. Focused on images or not, worship can be:
The largest state in India, in the north-western part of the country.
The language spoken in Rajasthan, in north-western India, and surrounding states. It is also spoken in some parts of neighbouring Pakistan. Also the adjective describing people, things or places in or associated with the state of Rajasthan.
A sequence of actions that must be followed to perform a religious ceremony. The set of actions is largely symbolic, for example offering food to statues symbolises sacrificing to a deity. The ritual actions are often accompanied by set phrases.
Someone who is declared by a religious organisation or by popular acclaim to be of outstanding goodness and spiritual purity, usually some time after his or her death. The person's holiness is often believed to have been demonstrated in the performance of miracles. Saints are frequently held up as examples for followers of a religious faith.
The progressive eradication of passions and other negative features in order to reach total spiritual purity. In practice, it is the ritual of fasting unto death.
Literally, Sanskrit for 'universal gathering'. A holy assembly led by a Jina where he preaches to all – human beings, animals and deities alike – after he has become omniscient. In this universal gathering, natural enemies are at peace.
A small structure holding an image or relics, which may be within a temple or building designed for worship. A shrine may be a portable object. Worshippers pray and make offerings at a shrine, which is often considered sacred because of associations with a deity or event in the life of a holy person.
An omniscient soul that has achieved mokṣa. All liberated souls live in the siddha-śilā, at the top of the universe, in perpetual bliss.
The Indian or South Asian subcontinent is a term for the geographical area roughly covering modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
A building reserved for public worship or prayer, usually dedicated to one religion and run by members of that religion's clergy.
A Gujarati word meaning ‘enclosure’, which is used for a temple compound. Bounded by the compound wall – prākāra – this is a sacred area inside which is the main temple and subsidiary shrines.
The vehicle of a Hindu god or goddess. Usually an animal, the vāhana fulfils one or more roles and may:
The vāhana may also have its own divine powers or be worshipped in its own right.
An object offered for religious purposes to a representation of a holy figure or in a sacred place.
The male attendant of a Jina, one of the pair of guardian or protector gods for each Jina. The śāsana-devatā protect his teachings – śāsana – and can appease evil powers. The yakṣa and yakṣī's closeness to the Jina and their divine powers mean they are popular subjects of worship. | http://www.jainpedia.org/themes/places/jain-temples/sacred-pavilions/contentpage/1.html |
Despite decades of research, experts still don’t know why depression afflicts some people and not others. Two people can have very similar backgrounds, experience similar challenging events, and yet one develops depression and the other does not. Even people who have every reason to be happy and have no obvious precipitating event or risk factor for depression still develop it at times, while those who seem to have all the cards stacked against them never become depressed.
The underlying cause of this common psychiatric disorder, in the vast majority of cases, is most likely a combination of different factors rather than one single thing. For some individuals, there may be an obvious cause such as a precipitating event that triggers the disorder. For others, the cause may be the cumulative effect of multiple stressors combined with a genetic or biological predisposition.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the different things that may make you or a loved one vulnerable to depression.
Heredity
Individuals who have a close relative with depression have a greater risk of developing the disorder. This doesn’t mean that all family members are destined to develop it, however. In some families, only one person develops depression. Although scientists continue to explore the role of genetics in depression, they have not identified a specific “depression” gene. But genetics most likely play a role in some – if not many – cases. A genetic predisposition can be an underlying factor – greatly increasing the risk when combined with other things like substance abuse, childhood trauma, or severe stress.
The fact that some types of depression runs in families may not always be due to genetics, however. Family members experience many of the same environmental factors that can increase the risk for depression, such as a high degree of conflict in the home, low socioeconomic status, trauma (for example, physical or sexual abuse within the home), and so on.
Also, personality aspects related to depression – such as low self-esteem, pessimism, fearfulness, dependency, negative thinking, and / or a sense of helplessness – are typically learned at home. Children who grow up in homes that foster these traits are typically more vulnerable to depression than their peers raised in healthier environments.
Major Life Stressors
A variety of life events and stressors can trigger depression in some people. Any kind of significant loss, such as the death of a loved one, divorce, a breakup, or a serious financial loss, can cause a depressive episode. This may be due to the beliefs associated with the loss (e.g. believing one is worthless or a failure) as well as the physiological impact of the stress (e.g. severe stress increases cortisol, which impacts serotonin and other brain chemicals). Exposure to chronic conflict can also lead to depression.
Trauma can also trigger depression. Women who are battered and children who are abused physically and / or sexually are much more vulnerable to depression than those who do not experience similar trauma.
Even events that are generally regarded as positive things – e.g. a promotion, getting married, or having a baby – can trigger depression. Postpartum depression is not uncommon following childbirth – and may be due to a combination of hormonal factors, stress, and lack of sleep.
Biological Factors
Studies show that biology likely plays a role in most cases of depression. This can include brain chemistry, brain abnormalities or changes, and hormonal factors.
Brain chemistry involves certain chemicals – known as neurotransmitters – that help regulate mood, appetite, sleep, and emotions. Serotonin and norepinephrine are two neurotransmitters that often play a role in depression (although there are many others that may as well). When these chemicals are out of balance, depression may be the result. This is why antidepressant medications – which help balance brain chemicals – can be helpful in the treatment of depression for some people. Most of the popular medications for depression are SSRIs – which stands for “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors”. However, antidepressants don’t work for everyone which suggests that brain chemistry is only one of many causes.
Brain changes or abnormalities may also cause depression. For example, researchers have found that individuals with a thin right cortex or a small hippocampus are more likely to develop depression.
Hormonal factors also play a role in depression. Hormonal differences between men and women may be one of the reasons that women tend to be twice as likely to develop depression as men. Studies have also shown that people who struggle with depression often have high levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress.
Often, these biological factors are intertwined. Excess cortisol can impact the hippocampus, for example. High levels of stress can also lead to imbalances in serotonin and other neurotransmitters.
Medications
Certain medications can cause depression, particularly when taken for extended periods of time. These include beta-blockers (for heart conditions and migraines; e.g. Lopressor), benzodiazepines (e.g. Xanax), anticonvulsants (for seizures), corticosteroids (e.g. prednisone), statins (to lower cholesterol; e.g. Lipitor), opioids (for pain; e.g. codeine, OxyContin), estrogens (e.g. Premarin), barbiturates, calcium-channel blockers (used for heart conditions; e.g. Cardizem), and antabuse.
Other medications include eBromocriptine (for Parkinson’s disease), Accutane (for severe cases of acne), Zovirax (for shingles and herpes), Norplant (for birth control), Interferon alfa (for hepatitis B and certain types of cancer), and fluoroquinolone antibiotics (e.g. Cipro).
Medical Conditions
Certain types of medical conditions, as well as chronic illness, chronic pain, and life-threatening illness can all cause symptoms of depression. These include cancer, diabetes, brain trauma, allergies, Alzheimer’s disease, hypothyroidism, Huntington’s disease, multiple sclerosis, perimenopause, stroke, heart disease, and Parkinson’s disease.
Personality Factors
Personality plays a role in developing depression. As mentioned above, certain personality characteristics make individuals particularly vulnerable to depression. These include low self-esteem, a sense of helplessness, a pessimistic outlook, negative thought patterns, a tendency to worry constantly, and the inability to handle rejection.
Co-morbid Psychiatric Disorders
Individuals with other psychiatric disorders are often much more vulnerable to stress. While the co-morbid disorder itself doesn’t necessarily cause depression, the challenges that accompany a mental illness can trigger depression. Frequent co-morbid disorders include schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, social anxiety, and panic disorder.
Substance Abuse
When it comes to substance abuse, it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether depression led to the abuse (i.e. the person is self-medicating), or if the substance itself caused the depression. That being said, certain substances, such as alcohol, can cause depression when used regularly.
Nutritional Deficiencies
Research has shown that certain deficiencies in the diet may contribute to symptoms of depression. These include thiamine (vitamin B1), pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), vitamin B12, vitamin B6, and folic acid. Low fat diets – particularly a deficiency in Omega-3 fatty acids – have also been associated with increased risk for depression.
As you can see, there are many different potential causes of depression. This is why it is often so difficult to pinpoint the exact cause. And, as mentioned above, it is generally the result of a combination of factors rather than just one. That being said, it is helpful to narrow down the most likely potential causes as this will help determine the most effective course of treatment. | https://www.depressiontreatmentcenters.com/risk-factors/ |
Using PerfStack with SRM
With complex networks consisting of cloud, hybrid IT, virtualization, storage area networks, and so on, multi-faceted IT issues can be difficult to pinpoint and diagnose. When an issue surfaces, for example a badly performing application or server, the investigation can take significant time to locate the core issue. The problem could be in storage, network connectivity, user access, or a mix of resources and configurations.
To investigate the issue, create troubleshooting projects with the Performance Analysis (PerfStack™) dashboard that visually correlate historical data from multiple SolarWinds products and entity types in a single view.
With Performance Analysis dashboards, you can do the following:
- Compare and analyze multiple metric types in a single view, including status, events, and statistics.
- Compare and analyze metrics for multiple entities in a single view, including, nodes, interfaces, volumes, applications, and more.
- Correlate data from across the Orion Platform on a single shared time line.
- Visualize hybrid data for on-premises, cloud, and everything in between.
- Share a troubleshooting project with your teams and experts to review historical data for an issue.
PerfStack is a feature provided with all Orion product releases for v2017.1 or later: | https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/srm/content/srm-gsg-using-perfstack-with-srm.htm |
Plantar Fasciitis is a very common condition that causes a stabbing pain in the heel of your foot due to the inflammation of the plantar fascia. The plantar fascia is the tissue at the bottom of your foot and connects the back of your foot to the tips of your toes.
Usually, runners will get plantar fasciitis from their activity of constant running. If the plantar fascia undergoes repetitive strain, this can cause the tissue to become inflamed or cause little tears in the tissue. All too often, however, it is difficult to pinpoint an exact cause to this condition that causes millions of pain in their heel.
Since the condition may come and go, it can be easy to ignore the problem however this might cause you chronic heel pain that will end up making it difficult to go about daily activities because of the pain. Constant corticosteroid injections which are injections that treat inflammation can also lead to the tissue’s rupture. | https://footpaintherapy.com/what-causes-plantar-fasciitis/ |
Why is my skin itchy and blistering?
Why is my skin itchy and blistering?
Impetigo, a bacterial infection of the skin that can occur in both children and adults, may cause blisters. Chickenpox, an infection caused by a virus, produces itchy spots and often blisters on the skin. The same virus that causes chickenpox also causes shingles, or herpes zoster.
What does internal itching mean?
Itching on the whole body might be a symptom of an underlying illness, such as liver disease, kidney disease, anemia, diabetes, thyroid problems, multiple myeloma or lymphoma. Nerve disorders. Examples include multiple sclerosis, pinched nerves and shingles (herpes zoster).
Can blisters cause itching?
A blister is a bubble of skin filled with clear fluid, ranging from pinpoint size to more than an inch in diameter. They are different than pustules, which contain thicker, yellow-white material called pus. Depending on the cause, blistering may be accompanied by pain, redness, or itching.
Can you be itchy inside your skin?
Having an itchy muscle is the sensation of an itch that’s not on the surface of the skin but is felt deep under the skin in the muscle tissue. It’s usually present without any rash or visible irritation. This can happen to anyone, though certain conditions make people more prone to it.
What causes chronic itching without a rash?
There are a number of causes of itching without a rash, including stress, dry skin, an infection, allergies or insect bites.
What causes itchy blisters on the skin?
itchy ‘Blisters are usually caused by injury to the skin from heat or from friction, which create a tear between the epidermis—the upper layer of the skin—and the layers beneath. Short periods of intense rubbing can cause a blister, but any rubbing of the skin at all can cause a blister if it is continued for long enough.
What infections cause blisters?
Many blisters form as a result of some type of infection, such as impetigo, which is caused by bacteria. Additionally, viral infections can produce blisters. Viral infections such as herpes, chickenpox, shingles and the Coxsackie virus are all characterized by the development of blisters on the skin.
What is red rash with blisters?
Skin disorders accompanied by red, itchy, blistery rashes are often due to acute contact dermatitis (poison ivy), and/or irritant dermatitis. Dermatitis is a general term for skin problems that produce symptoms such as a red, itchy rash and blistering. | https://www.handlebar-online.com/articles/why-is-my-skin-itchy-and-blistering/ |
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a rare, but serious lung disease. It causes a build-up of scar tissue in the lungs, which stiffens the lungs to the point where they’re unable to expand and contract. This makes it harder to breathe mainly because the lungs are unable to take in as much oxygen as needed.
IPF is considered a rare, sporadic disease. According to the National Institutes of Health, about 100,000 people in the United States have IPF, and approximately 30,000 to 40,000 new cases are found each year. Worldwide, IPF affects 13 to 20 out of every 100,000 people.
While it’s hard to pinpoint who exactly gets IPF, one recent studyTrusted Source reported that more American men are diagnosed with the disease than women. Another predictive factor is age. Several studies have reported that older age is a common diagnosis factor of IPF.
IPF is difficult to diagnose, mainly because there are few if any symptoms in its earliest stages. Additionally, symptoms of IPF - such as a dry, hacking cough, shortness of breath, and chest discomfort - mimic other conditions. However, with IPF breathing becomes so difficult that even being at rest is straining on the body. Other common symptoms include extreme fatigue and clubbing, where the fingertips and nails are enlarged and rounded.
While the exact cause of IPF is unknown, certain lifestyle factors may play a role in the development of this disease. These factors include smoking cigarettes, working in dusty or grimy environments, and consistent heartburn. Other potential causes include viral infections, certain medications, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Complications
Exacerbations, or worsening symptoms, are one of the main complications of living with IPF. An acute exacerbation typically occurs after an infection, heart failure, or pulmonary embolism. However, an acute exacerbation may also occur without any known cause. An exacerbation can present itself as a dry cough or breathlessness.
Other more serious complications can also arise, such as the development of blood clots in the lungs or even lung cancer.
If you’re interested in learning more about IPF, check out our articles on treatment options, management, and outlook. | https://thaimedic.com/ipf-statistics-facts-and-you |
More interesting notes about my surgery, which is officially called a polypectomy... I wasn't given this kind of info, and it would have been nice--mostly because it helps me to understand what's happening to me and some of it confirms things I've suspected.
You may have a single nasal polyp or several, clustered together like grapes on a stem. The polyps are generally soft and pearl colored, with a consistency like jelly. Very small single or multiple polyps may not cause any problems, but larger ones are likely to obstruct the airways in your nose, making it difficult to breathe. This may lead to mouth breathing, especially in children.
Other signs and symptoms of nasal polyps include:
- A runny nose (I never seem to escape this for long)
- Persistent stuffiness (see above)
- Chronic sinus infections (to the tune of every month to three months during most years)
- Loss or diminishment of your sense of smell (minor)
- Dull headaches (not often)
- Snoring (diagnosed with sleep apnea in 2001)
... Your nose is mainly composed of bone, cartilage and mucous membrane. Each nasal cavity contains three or four bony shelves (turbinates) that curve from the outer part of your nose toward the septum — a thin, cartilage-and-bone divider that separates your nasal cavity. A thick mucous membrane covers both the turbinates and septum. This acts as a filter to remove bacteria and dirt particles, which are swept out of your nose by tiny hairs called cilia.
When incoming air is cold or dry, the highly sensitive tissue that lines the turbinates swells, narrowing your nasal passages and slowing the flow of air so that it becomes warm and moist before reaching your lungs.‚
... Nasal polyps can develop in the mucous lining of your nose or in one or more of your sinuses — four hollow cavities above and behind your nose. But polyps aren't a disease. Rather, they're the end product of ongoing inflammation that may result from viral or bacterial infections, from allergies or from an immune system response to fungus. Chronic inflammation causes the blood vessels in the lining of your nose and sinuses to become more permeable, allowing water to accumulate in the cells. Over time, as gravity pulls on these waterlogged tissues, they may develop into polyps.ng the flow o
Having a condition that causes chronic inflammation in your nose or sinuses is the greatest risk factor for nasal polyps. Children with cystic fibrosis and people with allergic fungal sinusitis — a serious allergy to environmental fungus — are especially likely to be affected. Nasal polyps also occur in a majority of people with Churg-Strauss syndrome, a rare disease that inflames the blood vessels (vasculitis). You're also at high risk if you have asthma, chronic hay fever or chronic sinus infections.
Patients who depend on their voice for their livelihood should be warned that endoscopic sinus surgery may have an effect on their resonance. Additionally, some patients may have underlying nasal mucosal problems that remain after surgery. This is seen in highly allergic individuals or asthmatics.
I'd still like to find more info or pages from people who have had this done. | https://3kitties.livejournal.com/104243.html |
LA JOLLA, Calif., April 08, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- INmune Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: INMB), an immunology company focused on developing treatments that harness the patient’s innate immune system to fight disease, today announced that Lesley Probert, Ph.D., Head of Immunology Department at the Hellenic Pasteur Institute in Athens, Greece, will be presenting a poster about new data on the company’s neurodegenerative disease drug candidate XPro1595 at The European Conference on Neuroinflammation on April 8 and 9.
The poster presentation, titled “Selective inhibition of soluble TNF promotes macrophage phagocytosis of myelin debris and remyelination of demyelinated lesions”, is a follow up study of Dr. Probert’s earlier work demonstrating that XPro1595 promotes remyelination in animal models of Multiple Sclerosis. The current study sheds some light onto how XPro1595 does this. Dr. Probert found that XPro1595 may promotes remyelination by increasing the presence of immune cells that remove damaged myelin. “Clearing out the dead myelin is a key trigger for remyelination. We believe that inflammation, and particularly soluble tumor necrosis factor (the target of XPro1595), changes the function of macrophages, from cells that usually clear dead myelin, to inflammatory cells that perpetuate disease pathology,” says Dr. Probert.
Dr. Probert is one of the world’s leading experts on tumor necrosis factor (TNF) biology in the brain as it relates to myelin – the insulation around neurons that are key to making them work and the pathology associated with Multiple Sclerosis.
XPro1595 has been tested in multiple animal models of Multiple Sclerosis by a number of research groups in the US and Europe. “The work done by Dr. Probert and others with XPro1595 in the Multiple Sclerosis models is very impressive,” says Dr. CJ Barnum, the Director of Neuroscience for INmune Bio. “ We look forward to seeing how their work advances and what this might mean for patients suffering from MS.”
The European Conference on Neuroinflammation – Basic and Clinical Concepts in association with The Oxford Centre for Neuroinflammation is the first in a series of annual events that will facilitate the investigative and analytical discussion of a range of neurodegenerative diseases.
About XPro1595
XPro2595 is a novel biologic DN-TNF therapy that neutralizes soluble TNF without affecting trans-membrane TNF or TNF receptors. XPro1595 is entering a biomarker directed Phase I clinical trial in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease who have biomarkers of neuroinflammation to determine if neutralizing soluble TNF can decrease those biomarkers neuroinflammation There can be no assurance that XPro1595 or any of the company’s other products will be granted approvals or that the data presented in the Poster Presentation will result in successful clinical trials.
About INmune Bio, Inc.
INmune Bio, Inc. is a publicly traded (NASDAQ: INMB) clinical-stage biotechnology company developing therapies targeting the innate immune system to fight disease. INmune Bio is developing three product platforms: two products that reengineer the patient’s innate immune system’s response to cancer and one product to treat neuroinflammation that is currently focused on Alzheimer’s disease. INKmune is a natural killer (NK) cell therapeutic that primes the patient’s NK cells to attack minimal residual disease, the remaining cancer cells that are difficult to detect, which often cause relapse. INB03 inhibits myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC), which often cause resistance to immunotherapy, such as anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors. XPro1595 targets neuroinflammation, which causes microglial activation and neuronal cell death. INmune Bio’s product platforms utilize a precision medicine approach for the treatment of a wide variety of hematologic malignancies, solid tumors and chronic inflammation. To learn more, please visit www.inmunebio.com.
Information about Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release relating to our drug candidates and our ability to optimize our opportunities for growth and other statements that are not descriptions of historical facts may be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
This release contains “forward-looking statements” Forward-looking statements reflect our current view about future events. When used in this release, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “future,” “intend,” “plan,” or the negative of these terms and similar expressions, as they relate to us or our management, identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and assumptions regarding our business, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward–looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict. Our actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. They are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees of assurance of future performance. We caution you therefore against relying on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation, our ability to raise capital to fund continuing operations; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights; the impact of any infringement actions or other litigation brought against us; competition from other providers and products; our ability to develop and commercialize products and services; changes in government regulation; and other factors relating to our industry, our operations and results of operations. Actual results may differ significantly from those anticipated, believed, estimated, expected, intended or planned.
Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. For a more detailed description of the risk factors and uncertainties affecting the Company please refer to the Company’s recent Securities and change Commission filings, which are available at https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=inmune&owner=exclude&action=getcompany. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless otherwise required by law.
INmune Bio Contact:
David Moss, CFO
(858) 964-3720
Media Contact:
Antenna Group
Sharon Golubchik
(201) 465-8008
Investor Contact:
KCSA Strategic Communications
Valter Pinto / Scott Eckstein
PH: (212) 896-1254 / (212) 896-1210 | https://www.inmunebio.com/news-2/2019/261-muneionnouncesosterresentationwithewataega20190408 |
When should you see a doctor?
If you have symptoms or signs of a personality disorder, you should discuss your concerns with your doctor, a primary care professional, or mental health professional. If left untreated, personality disorders can potentially cause significant issues in your life. Personality disorders can also get worse if they are not properly treated.
Causes of Personality Disorders
A personality is a combination of thoughts, behaviors, and emotions that make every person unique. Personality consists of how you see yourself as well as the way you view, understand, and relatie to the outside world. Personality forms during childhood and is shaped through a variety interactions including:
- Genes- Some personality traits can be passed on to you by your parents through inherited genes. These traits are often referred to as a person’s general temperament.
- Environment- Involving the surroundings you grew up in, events that occurred, and relationships that are formed with family members and others.
It is believed that personality disorders are caused by a combination of these genetic and environmental influences. While genes may make a person vulnerable to developing a personality disorder, an environment or life situation may trigger the actual development of a personality disorder.
Risk Factors of Personality Disorders
While the exact cause of personality disorders is not known, there are specific factors believed to increase the risk of developing or triggering personality disorders. These include:
- Family history of personality disorders or other mental illness
- Abusive, unhealthy or chaotic family life during childhood
- The diagnosis of a childhood conduct disorder
- Variations in brain chemistry and structure
Potential Complications
A personality disorder can significantly affect and disrupt the lives of both the affected person and those who care about them. Personality disorders typically cause problems with relationships, including work or school. They can also lead to social isolation or alcohol or drug abuse.
Diagnosis of Personality Disorders
If you show signs or symptoms of a personality disorder, consult with your doctor. If your doctor also suspects that you may have a personality disorder, a diagnosis can be determined through the following measures:
- Physical Exam- The doctor may do a physical exam and ask detailed questions regarding your health. In some cases, your symptoms may be linked to an underlying physical health problem. This physical evaluation may also include lab tests and a screening test for alcohol or drug abuse.
- Psychiatric Evaluation- This evaluation includes a discussion about your feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. This may also include a questionnaire to help pinpoint a diagnosis. Your doctor may also ask your permission to gather information from family members or others may be helpful to your diagnosis.
- Diagnostic Criteria in the DSM-5- Your doctor may compare your symptoms to the criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association.
Diagnostic Criteria
Every personality disorder has its own set of diagnostic criteria. However, according to the DSM-5, generally the diagnosis of personality disorders includes long-term marked deviation from cultural expectations. This commonly leads to significant distress or impairment in at least two of these areas:
- The way you perceive and interpret yourself, other people and events
- The level of appropriateness of your emotional responses
- How well you function when dealing with other people and in relationships
- Whether you can control your impulses
Since many of the personality disorders share similar symptoms, it can be difficult to determine the type of personality disorder. Additionally, more than one type of personality disorder can be present.
Other disorders such as depression, anxiety or substance abuse may further complicate diagnosis. However, it is worth the effort and time to get an accurate diagnosis in order to receive proper treatment.
If you already have purchased a consumer DNA test from AncestryDNA or 23andMe, you can get your own MHG™ Mood and Personality Report Today! Click here to get started on understanding your healthier life! | https://myhappygenes.com/personality-disorders-cluster-a-b-c-part-4/ |
The complexity of information systems in today’s marketplace can be just as daunting as the risks to the data handled by these systems. However, common causes of loss are being identified, making it easier to take preventative control measures. It’s important to know the broad categories of information risk as well as the leading causes of breaches to better protect yourself and your business from cyber breaches.
In general, these events may compromise the confidentiality, integrity or availability of your electronic data – or otherwise cause a loss of system resources. These same events may create liability to others, such as your clients, in regard to data that is stored, handled or processed by your organization.
When it comes to breaches of non-public information, according to data available from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, physical theft, systems hacks and accidental release are the leading causes of breaches of sensitive or non-public information.
The expanding use of portable devices and rapid increases in storage capacity warrant significant attention to how these devices and the data they contain are secured. For example, if the laptops used by employees at a company are poorly tracked, and a laptop goes missing, it would be extremely difficult to pinpoint who last had access to the laptop and find out where that lost media could be located.
Additionally, all data should be consistently backed up on a separate device or at an off-site location, and all devices should be encrypted. Encryption mitigates most of the liability when a device is lost.
Unauthorized access to networks by hackers represents nearly half of all records breached. 2Hacking ranks second in terms of frequency of occurrence, just behind physical theft. In addition to theft of information that can create privacy concerns, once unauthorized access is gained to a system, a hacker can perform a variety of malicious activities. These activities may include theft of your intellectual property, destruction of data, sabotage and theft of system resources.
Accidental release of confidential information occurs in a variety of ways – via the Internet, your website, an employee’s email, or even misplacing information into postal mail or mailing information to the wrong recipient.
Other releases are related to discarding equipment or media that was not properly sanitized to remove all traces of non-public information. Loose editorial and content controls can allow these types of breaches to occur and can also create other types of liability related to content published electronically. This includes liability related to claims of libel, slander and intellectual property rights infringement.
Additionally, while some releases involve rogue employees who gained unauthorized access to private information, many employees simply misuse authorized access privileges. Social engineering techniques, for instance, manipulate employees into performing acts that facilitate a breach or divulge confidential information.
Knowing the risks you face will make it easier to develop your risk management strategy. The unfortunate fact is that not all breaches can be blocked. However, there are many ways business owners can lessen their risk of getting hacked. For a more information or a quote please contact your Professional Underwriters Inc. agent or contact us at [email protected] or complete a quick quote contact form. | https://www.profunderwriters.com/what-does-cyber-liability-cover/ |
South African residents are subject to exchange controls with the effect that they may, inter alia, not freely transfer South African assets offshore. Exchange control rules are not embodied in a single body of law or statute and it is therefore often difficult for a person to understand why they should be subject thereto.
Judge Moseneke provides a concise summary into the history of South African exchange controls in SARB and Another v Shuttleworth ZACC 17, which may shed some light on the rationale for the existence of such rules. The following are relevant events which shaped the exchange control rules and the mode of implementation to date:
Accordingly, although exchange control rules may appear to be arbitrary in the absence of a single body of law or statute providing definitive rules in this regard, understanding the potential impact of the exchange control rules is vital to any cross-border transaction. Penalties in respect of non-compliance can be severe – in extreme cases up to 100% of the value of any unauthorised offshore asset. | http://pkf.co.za/portelizabeth/news/2018/understanding-the-history-and-rationale-for-exchange-control/ |
Migraine is a common type of headache that is often associated with other symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, photophobia (i.e., sensitivity to light), phonophobia (i.e., sensitivity to sound), and numbness of the face.
The exact causes of this condition are not yet clear, but researchers believe a genetic component exists due to the familial pattern found in patients.
Migraines have dozens of triggers that vary from one patient to another. Your doctor will ask you various questions to identify these triggers since this will be an important approach to treatment.
Once you are given the diagnosis, your doctor will provide you the appropriate treatment based on the category of migraines you have (with or without aura).
In this article, we will cover the different causes of migraines, as well as the available treatment options.
The causes of migraines
Unfortunately, researchers have yet to pinpoint the exact causes of migraines. However, some studies found a solid connection between certain habits / activities and the triggering of migraines.
For instance, one study determines that a disequilibrium between different neurotransmitters can precipitate migraines.
The most commonly affected neurotransmitter is serotonin, which explains why patients with migraines respond to antidepressant treatment. far,
Other risk factors of migraines include:
- Bright lights
- Loud noises
- Extreme temperatures (e.g., heat, cold)
- Changes in pressure
- Dehydration
- Hormonal fluctuation during different phases of the menstrual cycle (e.g., progesterone, estrogen)
- High-intensity physical activity
- Emotional stress
- Sleep disorders (e.g., insomnia)
- Taking certain medications (e.g., oral contraceptives)
- Smoking
- Alcohol use
From this list of factors, you can probably understand the difficulty of diagnosing migraines.
The treatment of migraines
Like other idiopathic diseases (i.e., medical conditions without clear cause), there is no definitive treatment for migraines.
With that said, some treatments offer comfort to patients and control the severity and frequency of migraine episodes.
Treatment of migraines include:
- Lifestyle modifications (e.g., managing stress, practicing mindfulness)
- Taking over-the-counter medications (e.g., Tylenol, ibuprofen)
- Anti-emetic (drugs that stop vomiting) and anti-nausea medications
- Psychotherapy (i.e., counseling)
Note that you should consult with your doctor before starting any new therapy for migraines. Additionally, trying out alternative solutions, such as herbs, should be supervised due to fear of interactions with the drugs.
Overall, your doctor will follow an approach of trial and error to determine the best drug that works for you.
Takeaway message
Migraine is a chronic neurological condition that affects millions of people. It presents with headaches, sensitivity to light and sound, as well as digestive symptoms (e.g., nausea, vomiting).
We hope that this article managed to address the main aspects of migraines. | http://effectivehealth.net/migraines-a-painful-and-disabling-attack/ |
17 Jan Why Your Plumbing Is Making A Whining Sound
There’s no doubt that strange plumbing sounds in your home can be a disruption. In some cases, they may even be a sign of a serious issue that needs to be fixed. Few plumbing noises are more disturbing than the high-pitched whining or screeching sound that can come from pipes, faucets or the toilet. So what is the cause of this whining sound from plumbing and what does it mean? Here we look at some of the most common causes of whining pipes and plumbing.
Recognizing Plumbing ‘Whining’
Plumbing whining should be differentiated from other plumbing sounds such as gurgling, rattling and knocking. However, you may have more than one type of noise coming from your plumbing at any one time. When looking for the cause of your plumbing whining, it’s important to identify and note when the whining sound occurs. Does it occur only when you open the faucet? Is the whining sound in the pipes in the walls? Or does it occur after you flush the toilet? Identifying the timing and precise location of the whining sound can help you and your plumber identify the cause.
Top Reasons Why Your Pipes are Making A Whining Sound
There are actually a number of causes of whining noises coming from plumbing. Some of these causes can be quite innocent and easy to fix, while others indicate a more serious problem needing major repairs. If you notice whining sounds from your plumbing, it’s a good idea to call a licensed plumber to diagnose any issues and quickly identify and fix the cause of plumbing whining.
Some of the most common causes of plumbing whining include:
Washer Replacement Needed
– If you notice the whining sound occurring when you open your faucet, a flimsy and old washer could be to blame. A valve in the sink or pipes could also be causing the issue. Your plumber will inspect the faucet and sink where the noise is occurring to precisely pinpoint the culprit of the sound.
Faulty Valve in Sink or Toilet
– Faulty valves can also be responsible for whining sounds. Because these are often located close to toilets and sinks and are often mistaken in the case of more serious issues, it’s a good idea to get your valves professionally inspected.
High Mains Water Pressure
– High water pressure from the street supply can also cause whining in the pipes. In this case, your plumber would install equipment to moderate the mains pressure to be easier on your pipes and reduce the whining.
Air In the Pipes
– Air may be getting into your pipes from leaks in appliances, pipes or faucets, or in more serious cases from cracks in the pipes. Have a licensed plumber inspect your plumbing immediately if you suspect there is air in your pipes.
Blockages in Pipe
– Pipe blockages are one of the more serious causes of plumbing whining. Pipe blockages can lead to serious leaks or burst pipes, causing serious damage to your home! If you suspect there is a blockage in your pipes, call a rooter service right away.
With so many potential causes of whining sounds coming from your plumbing, it can be difficult to pinpoint which issue is affecting your system. By contacting your local licensed plumber when you first notice whining sounds in your plumbing, you can get a fast, accurate and professional opinion on the cause of plumbing whining, and avoid serious plumbing complications and repairs. | https://advancedplumbingandrooter.com/plumbing-making-whining-sound/ |
Hair loss conditions can sometimes be difficult to diagnose, mainly because there are many different contributing factors and causes. The exact causes of hair loss vary from person to person, and in some people are never pinpointed.
Proper diagnosis of hair loss is made even more difficult when the condition is rare. One of these conditions is tufted folliculitis, an uncommon disorder which can cause hair loss and scarring of the scalp.
Symptoms
People with tufted folliculitis often have patches of scarring alopecia accompanied by something known as doll’s hair-like bundling of follicles. This means that multiple hairs emerge through expanded follicular orifices. This causes the ‘tufting’ effect, along with the retention of telogen hairs in the follicles and a fibrosing process.
Associated conditions
Tufted folliculitis is a symptom of a number of scarring diseases and conditions, including:
• Graham-Little syndrome
• Chronic lupus erythematosus
• Folliculitis decalvans
• Chronic staphylococcal infection
• Acne keloidalis nuchae
• Dissecting cellulitis
• Lichen planopilaris
• Immunobullous disorders
Treatment
At present, no definitive curing treatment for tufted folliculitis has been found, although there are measures sufferers can take to reduce discomfort and improve the appearance of the scalp. | https://www.lucindaellery-hairloss.co.uk/blog/hair-loss-general/what-is-tufted-folliculitis.php |
After you make the decision to solve the problem, the next process is to do the research necessary to find a fix or workaround.
Figure 5. Research the problem
Activities: Research the Problem
For effective and meaningful Problem Management, researching a problem must follow disciplines similar to those of the scientific method. This includes:
At first glance, this may seem overly complicated. However, it is critical that Problem Management identifies the root cause of the problem and determines the exact steps to eliminate it. This process allows you to examine one variable at a time. This is important because introducing multiple variables at the same time can make it impossible to isolate the valuable ones. This could lead to ineffective or over-complicated fixes being deployed.
The output of this process is the production of a known error record. However, since it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly when the data required to create the known error record will become apparent, you should ask the following questions during each activity in this process. If the answer to any of the questions is yes, it is time to create the known error record:
The following table lists the activities involved in researching the problem. These include:
Table 6. Activities and Considerations for Researching the Problem
Root Cause Analysis Techniques
A difficult area of Problem Management for most organizations is analyzing the root cause of a problem. Root cause analysis techniques are used to identify the conditions that initiate an undesired activity or state. Since problems are best solved by attempting to correct or eliminate their root causes, this is a critical part of resolving any problem.
There are many techniques available for performing root cause analysis. Two of the most popular are:
Fishbone Diagrams
Visual techniques are often used to assist IT professionals to determine the root cause of a problem. One tool useful in visually diagramming the process is the Ishikawa, or fishbone, diagram. The following figure illustrates a fishbone diagram.
Fault Tree Analysis
Fault tree analysis is another visual technique used to assist with root cause analysis. It is a top-down approach to identifying all potential causes leading to a defect. In the final stage of diagnosis, the root cause is identified and the problem is moved from an unknown state to a known state. The following figure shows an example of fault tree analysis. | https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc543298.aspx |
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (also known as ALS) is a rare type of neurological disease. It affects a person’s nerve cells, making it difficult and even impossible to control their muscles.
The disease specifically affects our voluntary movements. This means that walking, talking, and chewing becomes a tiring and difficult task. As the disease takes hold, patience finds it difficult to breathe and eventually passes away due to a lack of oxygen.
But how does someone develop ALS? The answer is in their genetics.
The Genetics Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Multiple clinical trials and basic research have found that there are multiple causes of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, but the most important and common component was found in the genes.
For more information click here – https://www.mybiosource.com/als_amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis
Looking at the genetic history of the patients in the trial, we can see that at least 10% of those coping with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis have had at least one other biological family member with the same condition. In all of the 10%, it was clear that the medical condition was inherited.
However, a large portion of people (90%) didn’t have a family member with the same condition.
Using advanced technology, scientists could look at the molecular structure of the patient’s genes. Specifically using genome sequencing techniques, these scientists created “next-generation” and “first-generation” examples of each patient type.
This allowed scientists to compare those who have had ALS in their family to those without a history of ALS. They could then pinpoint the change or difference to locate the gene which causes this effect.
Through this study, the scientists found that around 50% of patients did have familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, which meant that others in their family would have had this disease first. This went against the historical evidence brought in by family members.
At this point, it should be noted that poor medical history, lack of familial knowledge, and poor medical technology could be the reason for this disparity.
The pathogenic variants which have been shown a connection or causation to ALS are most commonly TARDBP, SOD1, FUS, and C9ORF72. However, over 50 different genomes have been identified as having a disease-modifying element to create or deteriorate into cell-eating ALS.
These genes and pathogens are most commonly found in Asian and European genetic backgrounds.
You may have noticed that the majority of patients still don’t fit into the genetic understanding of ALS. This could be because our understanding is still limited, or it could be due to other factors in play.
In one study, twins were studied for the connection between ALS and heritability. In the study, just 60% of the participants both had the neurological disease. This, again, suggests that there are other factors at play.
What We Still Don’t Know About Missing Heritability In Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
The biggest reason for our lack of understanding comes from technology or lack thereof. ALS is a complex disease, and due to its complex nature, we need technology to develop faster than the disease itself.
So far, most studies have relied almost completely on high throughput sequencing technology which uses the short reading function. This technique is extremely helpful when trying to find single-nucleotide polymorphisms. However because the vast majority of our genes are not understood or even characterized in single threads or short-read platforms, it means the primary data is already limited.
To try and solve this problem some research has been put into mapping the short-read files and creating an algorithm to find patterns – thereby making the data still useful.
This is slowly becoming a more common practice, and this data is sometimes used to diagnose patients as well as test possible delaying medications.
The next problem comes from the fact that most ALS patients didn’t develop their disease hereditary (or so we currently believe). This means that genetic study is unlikely to give a wider understanding of the disease.
Recently a study showed how looking for structural variations instead of single-nucleotide polymorphisms detected 7 times more sequences. Through this study, the researchers were more likely to find the expression of a gene.
They concluded that the structural variance may be the cause or increased likelihood of developing the disease. This could in turn explain why some people seem to develop the illness without a family history. Perhaps, the family history was always there but laid dormant due to its gene structure.
Summary
There is still a lot we do not know about Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, but more research shows that the illness is genetic even if it isn’t 100% hereditary. | https://techbullion.com/the-genetics-behind-amyotrophic-lateral-sclerosis/ |
This article is the second in a series about the principles and practice of getting proximate:
What is a narrative and why are narratives so important? Why can single narratives be so destructive?
Narratives are stories that we tell, or that are told to us, to describe a certain plight or circumstance of a community or group of individuals. Single narratives are always biased. They never tell the whole story. Instead, they relay the emotional leaning of the narrator or the narrator’s community. Many times, depending on who the narrator is, the narratives themselves can be one dimensional and may have little bearing on what stories the people or communities might tell of themselves.
Whether or not we realize it, narratives can influence the way we see, think, and even respond to social issues. People and communities are not monolithic. That is why it is so important to seek multiple narratives that are authentic – those that take into account not only the circumstances at hand, but also past events that may have created the current circumstances. In addition, multiple narratives help us to understand the thoughts, feelings, and aspirations of those involved.
Let’s examine a well known narrative concerning low income students of color – that they continually underperform in math and reading. Why? As the narrative goes, these students often act out in class, are lazy and don’t study, and are just not mentally up to the task. There are, though, alternative narratives. For instance, low income students of color have far less access to high quality pre-K than their wealthier white peers, therefore often enter the K-12 system already far behind. Additionally, research has shown that just as the larger U.S. population shows implicit racial bias, teachers show this same bias towards students of color. While well intentioned, implicit racial bias in the classroom manifests itself through lower expectations, lower quality teaching, and how teachers manage their classrooms.
Another example is the narrative around young, low-income high school graduates that receive scholarships to attend college because they are “disadvantaged”. An alternate narrative might suggest that these low-income high school graduates receive scholarships because they have academic potential and possess the same hopes and dreams for their futures that all young students have.
Reading these two narratives, what did you think and how did they make you feel?
A single narrative often creates stereotypes making it impossible for us to see anything else. And, stereotypes are often incomplete. They unnecessarily put people in a box where they are seen in only one way, which is then what they become. When we hear one narrative, we naturally judge its veracity based on our own life experiences … is this true or false?
Multiple narratives can open our minds up for discussion, while single narratives may cause us to judge either the truth of the narrative or make assumptions about the subjects of the narrative. Multiple stories often shed new light on an issue, while a single story simply reconfirms existing beliefs or causes us to make judgements about the subjects of the single narrative. By rejecting a single entrenched narrative and instead seeking counter-narratives, we can begin to understand long standing systemic issues and can be better informed as we begin to seek solutions.
Part of the Get Proximate initiative asks us to be curious and to actively seek out new narratives. To hear them, we must listen deeply and truly engage with members of the community by hearing their voices. These new narratives will broaden our awareness and shape the way we see, feel, engage and act with our community partners as we all seek to understand and to break down systemic inequities.
Here are some practical ideas about how we might start to examine and seek out multiple narratives as we continue our social impact work.
As you are gathering information about an issue or organization, consider:
- Whose voices are missing in what you have learned so far?
- Identify ways you can hear these perspectives: attend community events (even online), reviews, testimonials, get connected to community members, etc.
- Examine what notions or assumptions you already have about a particular issue, organization or community they serve. Ask where does this narrative come from?
- Seek out information that challenges existing notions so in the end you have a fuller picture.
Many propositions are on the ballot and as we examine each one we learn the arguments for and against and weigh who is making them. In the end we make final decisions based on information from multiple sources. Does examining an issue from multiple sides change where you might have originally started?
SV2 Partners can share examples of your experiences and work, and continue the conversation in the mySV2 Get Proximate community. | https://www.sv2.org/getting-proximate-to-understand-multiple-narratives/ |
Why Am I Always Angry and Irritated For No Known Reason?
If you’re wondering: “Why am I always angry and irritated for no apparent reason?”. You can lower your rage after following these techniques. Identify the triggers that make you lash out and use your breath to calm yourself. Practicing deep breathing can also help. You have to listen to your inner voice for clues about what’s causing you to feel angry.
There can be many causes for unexplained anger and irritation. Still, some of the most common include biochemical imbalances, stress, anxiety, poor diet, lack of sleep, and certain medications. Sometimes you can correct these conditions with a change in lifestyle or medication. At the same time, other times, they may require more serious treatment.
The symptoms of anger and irritation can be difficult to identify and may go unrecognized for years. For some people, these angry feelings are constant and difficult to control. Due to past bad experiences, someone might experience anger and irritation periodically, but the cause is often unknown. Some possible causes include stress, anxiety, hormonal changes, and genetics. Understanding the symptoms and triggers of these feelings can help you take steps to alleviate them.
Why am I angry and irritated for no reason?
Each experiences anger and irritability differently. However, some possible reasons why someone might be angry and irritated for no known reason include:
- Hormones can influence emotions and behaviors, including anger and irritability.
- People prone to anxiety or stress may experience increased levels of anger and irritability.
- Bad moods can be caused by disappointment, frustration, or sadness.
Why do I get so angry over little things?
It’s hard to pinpoint why people get so angry over little things. Maybe it’s the fact that we’re constantly critiqued and judged, making us feel like we’re never good enough. Maybe it’s the feeling of nothing under control that comes with being in a situation where someone we care about is causing us pain. Whatever the reason, anger can be incredibly destructive and hurt our lives.
Some people get angry over small things, and some don’t. One possibility is that the person is feeling overwhelmed or stressed out. Another possibility is that anger is a way of getting control over a situation. Finally, anger can be rooted in unresolved issues from the past.
People get upset when they feel like their opinions or feelings are not being taken seriously or think their needs are not being met. It is also possible to become angry when you feel like you are being ridiculed or feel like you have been wronged.
Feeling irritable and intolerant of others.
It can be hard to pinpoint when your irritability sets in. Still, it’s usually preceded by a feeling of being overwhelmed. Irritated people often find it difficult to tolerate other people’s behavior or emotions. It can lead to conflicts and arguments, making you feel even more irritable. Irritability is often accompanied by other symptoms such as restlessness and difficulty concentrating. If you feel irritable regularly, there may be a reason for it.
Irritability is the most common symptom of a mood disorder, and irritable people often find it difficult to get along with others. It’s not just that people with mood disorders are hard to deal with; they’re also hypersensitive to anything that might be perceived as an insult or provocation. It can make it difficult for them to enjoy life and make friends.
Dealing with anger in the heat of the moment
In the heat of the moment, you might find it difficult to stop your anger. While expressing your anger may feel good at the time, it can lead to more serious consequences. In addition to hurting people, anger can escalate into slander, punches, and hatred. There are ways to deescalate anger and respond calmly. One way is to destress by walking away or changing your environment. This can give you time to collect yourself.
While anger is a natural human emotion, it can be a problem if uncontrolled. Chronic anger may lead to negative consequences and even negatively affect your relationships. For short-term solutions, try deep breathing exercises or visualize a calm environment. If these methods don’t work, walk away. Eventually, you’ll feel more confident and able to control your anger.
Identify your triggers and warning signs. Be aware of your physical sensations when you feel your anger rising. By tuning into your body’s signals, you can lessen the intensity of your feelings. Breathing helps counteract rising tension. You should breathe deeply from your abdomen, forcing fresh air into your lungs. Then, try expressing your anger more assertively. If you can’t get the other person to understand your point of view, you can consider using powerful techniques.
Why do I wake up angry for no reason?
People usually wake up angry because of the events of the night before. Studies have shown that people who wake up angry have more negative thoughts throughout the day and react to situations more aggressively. Often, people don’t even know why they are angry. There can be a lot of different triggers that set off anger in people, and it isn’t easy to pinpoint one specific reason.
One possibility is that you’re temperamentally prone to waking up angry for no reason. Another possibility is that something triggers your anger in the morning, such as a frustrating situation at work or a lingering issue from the night before. Whatever the cause, it can be tough to overcome the anger and get back to normal.
However, some possible explanations include something that made you angry during the night. You were woken up by someone or something. You had a frustrating conversation with someone, you are feeling overwhelmed and can’t figure out how to get through the day, etc.
Final Words
The research found that people who are always angry or irritated for no reason may have a zinc deficiency. The lack of zinc can lead to an imbalance in the neurotransmitter serotonin, which can cause anger and irritation. If you become angry at little things and their emotions, consider getting tested for a zinc deficiency. By improving your diet and supplementing with zinc, you can help to restore balance and live a happier life. | https://sennik.club/why-am-i-always-angry-and-irritated-for-no-known-reason/ |
The establishment of cause-effect relationships of various events, processes, actions is the central task of professional journalists. Also, many examples of cause and effect essay topics may be found in school and university curriculum. Teachers use such assignments due to their important educational functions. Cause-effect papers help young people learn to think, conduct a qualitative analysis and justify their own point of view.
Knowing the cause of some event, you can influence it in different ways and target the audience, social institutions to certain useful activity. How to achieve this result? The best way is to read the works of experienced essayists. Consideration of cause and effect essay examples for college will make it easier to understand the peculiarities of this dependence.
By definition of logic, it is about the paired phenomena, one of which generates another. The first phenomenon is called the cause, and the second is the effect. In the temporal plan, the cause always precedes the effect.
But, of course, the causal relationship cannot be limited to the usual sequence of events in time. For example, the bus starts moving after we get inside. But it does not mean that our appearance is the reason for the movement of the bus. In order for the preceding event to be defined as the cause of the next one, there should be an active material connection between them.
The presence of the first phenomenon always leads to the emergence of the second, and the elimination of the first factor leads to the elimination of the second. Characteristic features of causal relationships are certainty and uniqueness, that is, the same causes provoke the same consequences under the same conditions.
Perhaps, trying to distinguish the main push factor in a cause and effect essay example, you will notice that it often emerges on the background of other causes that give rise to phenomenon under consideration and impose imprint on it.
In order to establish a causal relationship, first of all, a student should isolate the set of phenomena he is interested in from a wide set of other factors. Next, it's worth paying attention to circumstances that preceded their emergence. Then, out of these circumstances, it is necessary to choose the determining factors that can be studied as the causes of the main effect.
Some students do not understand why it is necessary to study other authors' texts. After all, the purpose of the work seems to be quite obvious. But they ask this question until taking a pen and trying to write something on their own. After a failure, when it is not clear how to start a cause and effect essay, examples are considered as a rescue tool.
All this due to the fact that the mere enumeration of phenomena capable of causing subsequent events still does not eliminate the difficulties associated with determining the main cause.
the cause may be reversely affected by its effect.
For a professional writer, it is enough to look through the cause and effect essay conclusion examples to determine what analytical methods were used for the argumentation, because they are the basis of proof. Having thoroughly studied the below classification, you will skillfully operate facts and substantiate own point of view.
The essence of this method is that, by studying a complex set of causal relationships, an author can discover the main cause by eliminating all the alleged circumstances capable of provoking similar events, except for one factor that is considered as the cause of the phenomenon being studied.
Writing a cause and effect essay examples, experienced authors use this method when several phenomena arise in a variety of circumstances, but always in the presence of the same factor. It is assumed that this factor is the cause of considered phenomenon.
This method consists in comparing the case when some event occurs with the case when it does not occur. In both situations, the same conditions must be preserved, except for one factor, which is absent in one case.
This technique is actively used, for example, when studying the effectiveness of the organization of various forms of labour. The author focuses not on what is repeated in these forms, but on clarifying the differences in them and the additional positive or negative consequences.
Unlike the similarity method, the single difference method is present in most reliable examples of a cause and effect essay. However, do not forget that applying the single difference method is connected with an organization of an experiment, since there are no absolutely identical social or natural conditions with only one difference. They must be created and organized artificially.
Most often, this method is used to test the results of applying the similarity method. In fact, most good cause and effect essay examples are based not on one but on several argumentation techniques.
By its logical nature, a hypothesis is an idea which has one or more unknown elements. It is quite easy to find a cause and effect essay introduction example in which the author puts forward a hypothesis based on analogy or inductive / deductive methods provoking focused research process. Most often, when clarifying the causes of the studied facts, the essayists initially resort to analogy or inductive generalizations and then turn to deduction.
the hypothesis was substantiated by deduction from reliable facts.
So, read the essay examples with different types of argumentation. After some time, you will develop your writing skills and learn how to delight teachers with perfect papers. Good luck! | https://pro-papers.com/samples/category/cause-and-effect-essay-examples |
As human beings, our minds tend to be our greatest asset. We are complex and can express individuality only because of them. To some, however, the mind is an uncontrollable and unforgiving part of the body that causes significant suffering and inability to function in society as “normal” people. Your teachers, classmates, and friends could be battling their brains daily and you may not even know it. Mental health issues are not only limited to official psychiatric diagnoses, people suffer from unknown and seemingly odd conditions daily. At Springdale High School alone, some students and teachers suffer from anxiety, OCD, Misophonia, and other conditions that we may not even know about.
OCD (Obsessive-compulsive disorder) is one of the many conditions that some of our peers are dealing with. It causes sufferers to have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, ideas, sensations, and behaviors that drive them to do something over and over, inflicting great stress and anxiety upon those who have the disorder.
“it’s stressful and I can’t do anything about the compulsions,” said a Springdale student who requested to remain anonymous. “From little things like my handwriting being appealing to checking the oven after cooking at least five times to make sure it’s off.”
In school, compulsions are often major distractions in a sufferer’s life.
“It makes it harder to focus. Sometimes I redo assignments over and over again,” said the source. Having a condition like OCD in which your brain is constantly nagging and compelling you to do things is tiring and extremely stressful for those who deal with it every single day, especially in school.
Misophonia (literally defined as hatred of sound) is a mental condition that few know about and even fewer suffer with. The lives of people with Misophonia are tiring, stressful, and often lonely. The condition causes a severe fight-or-flight response within someone when certain sounds or visuals (triggers) are heard or seen. Common triggers for Misophonia sufferers are chewing, tapping, repetitive noises, sniffing, and loud noises, but they vary between sufferers.
“My worst triggers are probably gum chewing/popping, utensils/pencils scraping, whistling, eating sounds, and finger-nail clipping.” said Karen Daugherty, a teacher at SHS who suffers from Misophonia. “When I am triggered, my first instinct is to ask them to stop, but when that doesn’t work, I have to get away from the trigger or put headphones in and try to block out the noise.”
These sounds aren’t just simple annoyances for people with Misophonia; they cause panic attacks, anger, anxiety, and a need to stop the sound or leave the situation. It renders them incapable of focusing on anything other than the trigger sound, filling their minds with nothing other than the repetition of the same sounds over and over. In this day and age, triggers are inescapable, and it puts a lot of stress on those with Misophonia, making it difficult to be in social situations, go to work, or attend school.
“I don’t spend as much time as I would like to with my family and friends because of Misophonia.” said Daugherty. “Some days, having Misophonia makes it difficult to do my job, especially if students aren’t respectful of classroom expectations regarding food/drinks/noise in general.”
To those with Misophonia, everyday activities are difficult to get through without being triggered and having to leave the situation. It causes relationships with family, friends, and even meer acquaintances to become strained simply because it’s so difficult for those without Misophonia to truly grasp.
“When I tell them about Misophonia, their initial response is ‘oh I have pet peeves too.’” said Daugherty. “They think of it as more of an annoyance than a condition that you can’t control. What may be a simple sound to them is really painful for those with Misophonia, and that’s really hard for them to understand.”
Life with Misophonia is painful and often times extremely lonely for sufferers. It’s a very real condition that many overlook or don’t even know about, but those that have it are all too aware of it and all of the sounds that take control of their lives.
Anxiety is often discussed lightly among those that aren’t truly burdened with this non-stop, severe issue. There are many different types of anxiety disorders that fall under the umbrella of a single definition–a worry about the future events with fear as a reaction to current events. These feelings may cause physical symptoms such as a fast heart rate and shakiness. At SHS, there are multiple people who suffer from varying anxiety disorders that take control of their lives in and out of school. Even small things can trigger anxiety attacks in sufferers.
“Quite a few things give me anxiety,” one student said. “Sometimes multiple small things happening at once cause anxiety attacks and other times, it seems like nothing happens to bring it out.”
Often times, anxiety causes those who suffer with it to feel alone, as if they have no one to talk about it with. That thought, in itself, can trigger anxiety attacks.
“I don’t have many people to talk to about it. I have this fear that I’m overreacting and people will think that I am being too dramatic,” said the student. “I’m afraid that I will disappoint people and that I’m alone in this.”
For each individual person, anxiety attacks feel different, varying in severity and length. Common symptoms of anxiety attacks are sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, feelings of choking, chills, dizziness, and pure fear. The attacks typically include at least four symptoms at once. Anxiety attacks can happen both in states of anxiousness and in states of calm.
“Every attack is different for me and different things can cause them to stop each time,” the student added. “Sometimes it helps to talk to someone. Other times, I just need to be alone, listen to music, and pray to make them go away.”
When attacks like these come without warning and sometimes without cause, it makes it increasingly difficult for sufferers to lead “normal” lives.
“Anxiety has been a major hindrance.” said the source. “It has kept me from joining many activities because I’m afraid that additional work would stress me out and cause even more attacks. I also think that I have lost friends and had my grades drop when stress became too high.” Anxiety disorders often cause sufferers to adjust their lives according to what works best for them in keeping attacks at bay, lowering opportunities and overall quality of life. | http://bulldogherald.com/2018/01/18/mental-health-at-springdale-high/ |
What is multiple sclerosis? What are the causes of this disease?
What Is Multiple Sclerosis ?
Multiple sclerosis is a disease that is seen in the brain and spinal cord. This disease is referred to as MS briefly. The disease is common neurological disease in young adults.Disease usually seen in children between the ages of 20 and 40 Ms, although there are also risks.
The exact cause of the disease is unknown but is believed to arise due to genetic and environmental factors. The disease is often observed in the central nervous system. Disease is classified as autoimmunity. The failure to recognize its own cells the immune system autoimmunity is a state of.
Gives many signs of MS disease. These symptoms differ from each other. MS disease is a serious disease that should be taken into consideration. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment is important.
What Are The Symptoms Of Multiple Sclerosis?
Many MS symptoms. The recent complaints in some cases of MS, at the same time can be seen. Motion system, sensory system, cerebellum, optic nerve, and visual pathways in the brain, together with the impact of the findings.
Common symptoms in these four systems, happens quite often. With serious symptoms of MS disease is felt. The symptoms may point to different diseases. Therefore complaints should be taken into consideration. There are four different common findings outside the system. These are;
- Involuntary movements
- Contractions
- Epilepsy seizures
- Sexual disorders
- Urinary incontinence
- My urine reach
- Urination
- Memory problems
- Mental health problems
Motion system
- Weakness in half the body
- Weakness in the legs
- Weakness in the arms
- Stiffness in the joints
- Contractions of the joints
- Partial paralysis
- Extreme fatigue
Sensory system
- Numbness and burning in the arms
- Burning and numbness in the legs
- Sensory reduction
- The rise of the senses
- Decreased sensation in the body
Cerebellum
- Hand tremors
- Difficulty walking
- Speech difficulties
- Increase speed on eye movement
- Stand upright
The optic nerve and of the visual pathways in the brain
- Vision loss
- Blurred vision color
- Double vision
- Stained vision
Multiple Sclerosis Causes
There are many theories about the cause of the disease multiple sclerosis, but the exact cause is unknown. Research many factors have been identified. Still no definitive cause identified as a result of research about the factors has not been found. According to some research, is caused by an unidentified virus, it is believed.
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Another study is stated to be the cause of disorders of the immune system. According to other research due to viruses and germs is thought to develop as a result of destruction of the central nervous system. Different research it is said to occur due to genetic predisposition.
Diagnosed With Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis disease may be diagnosed with a single method. Many testing for this disease and inspection method is applied. With these techniques, a definitive diagnosis is suggested. This is the first neurological history of the patient are taken into account. MRI findings after neurological examination is required. In some cases, cerebrospinal fluid is taken. In some cases, biopsy and electrophysiologic tests are performed. As a result of the method applied, a definitive diagnosis is suggested.
- Neurological examination
- MR
- Biopsy
- Electrophysiological tests
Multiple Sclerosis Treatment Methods
A variety of methods are used for the treatment of multiple sclerosis disease. The goal of treatment in MS is that the patient can lead a normal life. Therefore care must be taken to control the symptoms and attacks first. The progression of the disease is tried to be prevented. The method that works for the treatment of MS for continuous improvement.
Protective Treatment
Protective treatment method in the treatment of Ms, an application is made for in the course of the disease. Protective drug therapy in the treatment is applied. In this way, has tried to reduce the frequency and severity of attacks. At the same time hindered the progress of the disease. Protective treatment method, under the skin, is applied by injection into the vein and into Nov there are treatment options that.
Symptoms And Treatment Options
Treatment of the symptoms takes a long time. Therefore treatment should proceed under medical supervision.
Attack Treatment
Cortisone is used in the treatment of MS attacks. Cortisone drugs are used to treat this disease, although there are side effects. Therefore the doctor prescribed cortisone medication within the time and the dose should be used. Cortisone treatment can be performed either standing, under the supervision of a doctor or health centers.
WARNING !
Located in our news, written and compiled from different sources of visual content to be created, a letter of suggestions and information. Constitutes the definitive diagnosis and treatment. In the face of any health problem contact your doctor. | https://www.orak11.com/index.php/multiple-sclerosis-diagnosis-and-treatment-methods/ |
respond give feedback to discussion posts short answers 3 5 sentences
Student One:
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Causal reasoning is the evidence used to establish a causal claim. To determine the effect of a cause we use causal reasoning. It shows the relationship between cause and effect of events (Shuttleworth, n.d.). To answer the WHY questions we and try to figure things out with causal reasoning. The cause and effects relationships gives meaning and understanding of the world we live in (Dryer, 2011). This reasoning is important to critical thinkers make many important decisions. The basis of decision making is the cause and effect relationship; they are reasoned actions and decisions are made based on the causal reasoning. Critical thinkers need to observe all angles of the question and possible outcomes before they decide on an answer. However, creating causalities can be difficult because the difference between groups, correlation between characteristics, and the post ho ergo propter hoc fallacy (Dryer, 2011). Its hard to really say what is the reason for something to happen because there is usually more than one factor, so the casual reasoning becomes more complex.While watching the NBC video clip on they state that the full moon has an effect on mankind in multiple ways. There are a lot of babies born, lunatics com out, and there are multiple crimes committed. This evidence did come from reliable professional sources who have experienced these events. But I do not believe the full moon is the only cause of all these occurrences I think there is way too much evidence missing and this is just a coincidence or superstition.
Student Two:
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Causal reasoning aims to establish a link between causes and effects. When the reasoning is about causal claims, it is causal reasoning. According to the book, “although we recognize the importance of establishing causal relationship, it is also true that doing so is very difficult†(Dyer, 2011). Complex association with various causes and an effect, it is not easy to establish what causes exactly lead to a certain outcome. When we claim that one event causes another event, there may be other events that are also related to the second event. Because of the uncertainties and probabilities of among various events, it may be impossible to establish the exact reasons of why a certain event occurred. Most human judgments under uncertainty involve reasoning about causal relationships (Benjamin). Critical thinking is important in minimizing the error associated in making judgments. Establishing a link between causes and effects without proper judgments and evidence lead to wrong conclusions. Therefore, it is important to think critically and connect the cause and effect as accurate as possible. Also, it is important to identify correlation between two events which does not guarantee a cause effect relationship. Generalizations is also a weak strategy when establishing cause-and-effect link.
Student Three:
Attention grabbers and buffers are used regularly to engage a reader in a piece and are not necessarily unethical; rather they can be more so of a disappointment or annoying, at times. Readers/ listeners may be drawn to a story, message, or advertisement in hope of entertainment and it can turn out to be something not interesting at all. For example, I always get theses annoying phone calls that start off with telling me that I have won something free, like a sweepstakes or Walmart girt card. However, there is always a catch before I can receive the free prize, such as a survey or asking me to try out some type of product. These calls aren’t unethical or manipulative, fully, because they are obviously selling something and that’s the company’s way of attracting the listener’s attention. However, the fact that there are always some types of commitment before you can claim your prize is a bit manipulative.
Student Four:
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What do you think? Are attention grabbers and buffers unethical and/or manipulative when used? Why?
Attention grabbers are completely ethical when used correctly. However, there are times where attention grabbers are so exaggerated that they do not give a truthful representation of the product or service they describe. For example, the KFC near me started to promote their $10 combo meal that feeds two people. The picture on the menu shows two entrées, two sides, and two drinks, but then you find out at the register that the drinks are sold separately. Exaggerating or false advertising is an unethical use of attention grabbers. Buffers are necessary when delivering very bad news or news that comes as a shock. For example, you should not tell a person that their family member or loved one has passed away using the direct approach. Really bad news like this needs the delicate touch of a buffer. People appreciate a sincere buffer. It shows that you care about the other person’s feelings. However, if you know your audience appreciates the direct approach then it is better to communicate according to your audience needs. | https://uk.brainyessaywriters.com/2020/12/01/respond-give-feedback-to-discussion-posts-short-answers-3-5-sentences/ |
The Many Causes of Fatigue
Fatigue is a clinical symptom that we see a lot at Nordic Clinic, which accompanies most medical conditions. These conditions range acute to chronic, simple to complex, and infectious to behavioural. Indeed, treating chronic fatigue requires assessing a patient from nearly every possible angle to find the cause of fatigue.
Chronic fatigue can also be a product of multiple issues. While infectious disease normally has a single pathogen at play, these pathogens can alter our nutritional status and impact our behaviour to promote fatigue. So, in addition to treating the pathogen, you may also have to address the devastation the pathogen caused.
Infection As a Cause of Fatigue
Most infections, both viral and bacterial, cause fatigue. For most people, this is an acute problem that resolves with eliminating the pathogen. This is simply a normal component of how our immune system works.
Unfortunately, for some, the acute problem becomes chronic. These chronic effects are often attributed to a prolonged course of infection. However, something else may be going on. One paper finds that people with post viral syndrome have neuroinflammation in their brain.1 The initial infection may also cause devastation that needs to be cleaned up, such as nutritional deficiency or behavioural changes.
Chronic GI Disorders As a Cause of Fatigue
Chronic gastrointestinal (GI) disorders also have fatigue as a common symptom.2 Celiac disease, IBS, IBD, and functional dyspepsia all present with fatigue. Interestingly, functional GI disorders also develop after infectious disease, as in post-infectious IBS (when you develop IBS after food poisoning).
With most GI disorders, patients experience nutritional deficiency due to poor digestion and absorption. Additionally, the symptoms of GI disorders alter behaviour and disrupt important things like sleep and stress, which also lead to fatigue.
Behavioural Drivers of Fatigue
Many different things we do lead to fatigue. Burnout is the classic case, where someone burns the candle at both ends. Over time, poor stress management, inadequate sleep, and excessive physical demands are just some lifestyle factors that lead to burnout.
Poor nutrition also causes fatigue. Iron deficiency, even without anaemia, results in fatigue that corrects with increasing iron intake.3 Deficiency in various other nutrients also causes fatigue. It’s important to point out that poor intake or absorption are not the only causes here. Often, there is a nutritional cost to infection that increases dietary needs to enhance recovery.
Finally, disruption to our circadian rhythms leads to fatigue. Circadian rhythms control our physiology, making us alert during the day and ready to fall asleep at night. When disrupted, as in jet lag or shift work, this leads to alterations in hormones and neurotransmitters (chemical messengers in the brain) that cause fatigue. Many behavioural factors, such as activity levels and timing, food timing, and light exposure regulate our circadian rhythms.
Stress Is Not Always The Problem
Yes, most of us are excessively stressed, and yes, excessive stress leads to fatigue. But we have seen many patients where their doctor has put down their symptoms due to stress and stress alone. Many of these patients never get well because they are solely focused on treating their stress. Whilst stress is a contributory factor, if there is untreated infection (or another medical condition), post infectious destruction, nutritional deficiency, gut imbalances, lifestyle factors such as poor sleep, or a combination of two or more of those, they all need to be addressed.
Solving Fatigue Often Requires a Multifactorial Perspective
Addressing chronic fatigue is not as simple as giving somebody a pill and telling them to come back in a month – we wish it was. Often, fatigue is multifactorial and requires a deep patient history and integrative testing to identify the causal drivers. You must really think about what has happened to your body physically, emotionally, and mentally, as well as ruling out medical factors. This will allow you to successfully address, with the help of the right medical, nutritional or health practitioner, the infectious, nutritional, and behavioural causes of fatigue.
If you would like to learn more about fatigue, we will be discussing all things related to fatigue in our upcoming free webinar on this topic. The webinar is a collaboration with Food Pharmacy and we are privileged to have Lina Nertby Aurell hosting the webinar. To read more about the webinar and to sign up, click here.
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This article was originally published as a guest editor post at foodpharmacy.se
By: Graeme Jones, clinical physiologist and CEO at Nordic Clinic Stockholm.
Published: 28/02/2022
. | https://nordicclinic.se/the-many-causes-of-fatigue/ |
What’s going to happen when the minimum wage increases?
In October with the election of the Labour-led coalition in New Zealand there came on the horizon some significant future issues for employers.
One of these was increasing of minimum wages in two stages to $20 per hour in 2021, the first of which is an increase of 75 cents per hour to $16.50 per hour in April 2018 – an increase of just under 5% for those on the lowest wage.
For an employee working a 40 hour week, this amounts to $30 per week additional wages before tax. The employees concerned will barely notice a difference in their take-home pay.
For an employer with many employees, however, the difference could be significant over time – an additional $1560 per annum per employee base line wage.
So if a 40 hour per week employee on minimum wage is paid an additional $1560 per annum, how might an employer pull this back in gross margin? This is the real issue, and each business will be different in that regard.
Increasing productivity per hour for the employees – who are likely to have specific measurable output goals is possibly one way – increase the pressure and the expectation, but most employers will already have optimised this avenue.
Increasing revenue by increased prices and thus gross margin, and hopefully holding volume is another avenue that many will follow – but in a price sensitive and post-recession marketplace, there may be no real give or scope for increases. This is definitely worth consideration.
Reduction of other overheads is possible – given that human hours are necessary for productivity – or even investing in AI, functional integrations and automation for some businesses to replace human productivity with machine productivity.
Reduction of total staff hours is the most likely avenue for employers initially, meaning that as new employees are taken on, their hours are relatively fewer at the slightly higher rate to effectively balance the overall wage bill, but this is likely to have had a detrimental impact on overall productivity – and the circle continues.
Fortunately, the initial wage increase step is a small one in a rising economy, so employers can make adjustments and consider options. However all paths in this dialogue lead to the topic of Lean Management – of utilising all resources to the maximum possible level of efficiency, increasing outputs without increasing overheads to the same degree – investing in technology and in smarter, more efficient or more innovative ways of doing things, because the one constant in business is that change is inevitable.
This forced minor wage increase is another change to be met with innovative forward thinking business management.
Tanya Gray highly driven individual, passionate about helping business owners understand and enjoy the recruitment process. | https://www.recruit-nz.co.nz/minimum-wage-increase-in-2018/ |
What’s going to happen when the minimum wage increases?
In October with the election of the Labour-led coalition in New Zealand there came on the horizon some significant future issues for employers.
One of these was increasing of minimum wages in two stages to $20 per hour in 2021, the first of which is an increase of 75 cents per hour to $16.50 per hour in April 2018 – an increase of just under 5% for those on the lowest wage.
For an employee working a 40 hour week, this amounts to $30 per week additional wages before tax. The employees concerned will barely notice a difference in their take-home pay.
For an employer with many employees, however, the difference could be significant over time – an additional $1560 per annum per employee base line wage.
So if a 40 hour per week employee on minimum wage is paid an additional $1560 per annum, how might an employer pull this back in gross margin? This is the real issue, and each business will be different in that regard.
- Increasing productivity per hour for the employees – who are likely to have specific measurable output goals is possibly one way – increase the pressure and the expectation, but most employers will already have optimised this avenue.
- Increasing revenue by increased prices and thus gross margin, and hopefully holding volume is another avenue that many will follow – but in a price sensitive and post-recession marketplace, there may be no real give or scope for increases. This is definitely worth consideration.
- Reduction of other overheads is possible – given that human hours are necessary for productivity – or even investing in AI, functional integrations and automation for some businesses to replace human productivity with machine productivity.
- Reduction of total staff hours is the most likely avenue for employers initially, meaning that as new employees are taken on, their hours are relatively fewer at the slightly higher rate to effectively balance the overall wage bill, but this is likely to have had a detrimental impact on overall productivity – and the circle continues.
Fortunately, the initial wage increase step is a small one in a rising economy, so employers can make adjustments and consider options. However all paths in this dialogue lead to the topic of Lean Management – of utilising all resources to the maximum possible level of efficiency, increasing outputs without increasing overheads to the same degree – investing in technology and in smarter, more efficient or more innovative ways of doing things, because the one constant in business is that change is inevitable.
This forced minor wage increase is another change to be met with innovative forward thinking business management. | https://recruit-nz.co.nz/minimum-wage-increase-in-2018/ |
Employee productivity (sometimes referred to as workforce productivity) is an assessment of the efficiency of a worker or group of workers. Productivity may be evaluated in terms of the output of an employee in a specific period of time.
Human Resource Management.
Productivity is the ratio or ratios between outcomes (output, output). All the sacrifices (cost) to bring about those results (input, input). Inputs may include the cost of production (production cost) and the cost of equipment (equipment cost). While output can consist of sales (sales), earnings (income), market share, and damage (defects).
Labor productivity is one of the size of the company in achieving its goals. Human resource is the most strategic elements in the Organization. Must be recognize and accept by the management. Increase productivity of work can only be complete by humans.
Therefore, the workforce is an important factor in measuring productivity. This is cause by two things, among others;
First, because of the magnitude of the cost that was scarify for labor as part of the largest cost to the procurement of products or services;
Second, because entries on other factors like capital.
Contains notions of productivity with regard to economical, philosophical concepts and systems. As the concept of economically, productivity deals with human efforts or activities. To produce goods or services that are useful for the fulfillment of human needs and the community at large.
Introduction
As a philosophical concept, productivity contains view of life and the mental attitude that is always striving to improve the quality of life. Where the State today must be better than yesterday, and the quality of life of tomorrow should be better than These days. This gave the impetus to try and develop themselves. While the concept of the system, giving guidelines to the thought that the achievement of a purpose there should be cooperation or alignment of the relevant elements as a system.
It can be said that productivity was the result of a comparison between the work of the employees with the sacrifice that has been issued. This is in accordance with the opinion of that productivity is:
"Ability to benefit the most from the available infrastructure and facilities by generating optimal output even if it is probably the maximum."
How to increase productivity?
Many research results that showed that productivity was greatly influence by factors:
Knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes, and behaviors of the workers who are in the Organization. So much productivity improvement programs putting such things as essentially assumptions.
Other notions of productivity are a universal concept of creating more goods and services to human life, to use the limited resources.
Increasing productivity can be achievement by holding down the last detail all sorts of costs includes in utilizing human resources. (do the right thing) and increase the output of most (do the thing right). In other words, that productivity is a reflection of the level of efficiency and effectiveness of work in total.
In general productivity is define as the relationship between physical or tangible results (goods or services) with the inclusion of the real thing. Productivity is also define as the level of efficiency in producing goods or services. Productivity is also defined as:
- A size comparison of prices for the input and results
- Differences between the collection of the amount of the expenditure and input expressed in units (units).
The most famous productivity measure relating to manpower can be calculated by dividing the expenditure by the amount used or the hours of working people.
How to measure Labor Productivity?
The measurement of labor productivity according to the system the physical individual income/per person or per hour of work the person is widely accept. But from the point of view of daily supervision, measurement/-the measurements are generally unsatisfactory. Due to the existence of variation in the amount need to produce one unit of different products. Therefore, the measurement method use labor time (hours, days or years). Expenditure is convert into units of workers. Which is usually define as the amount of work that can be complete in one hour by a trust worker who works according to the implementation of the standard.
Because the input or results can be express in time, labor productivity can be express as:
A simple index = results in standard hours: Entries in the hours’ time.
To measure a company’s productivity
To measure a company's productivity can be use two types of measure the human, i.e. hours of work hours of work must be paid and the hours of work that use to work. Working hours to be paid include all the hours of work shall be paid, plus the hours not use to work but must be paid, vacation, holidays, leave due to illness, and the other remaining tasks. So for the purposes of General labor productivity measurement we have the require units are:
The quantity of results and the use of quantity of labor input.
Productivity in General can be formulate as follows:
Productivity = Output/input (measurable) + input (invisible).
Invisible input includes the level of knowledge, technical ability, working methodology and organizational arrangements, and work motivation.
To measure work productivity of human labor, machine operator. For example, then the following formulation could be use for this purpose, namely:
Productivity = total output generated
Workforce number of workforce employed in the labor productivity of the here shown as a ratio of the amount of the resulting output per labor hour total human (man-hours), i.e. hours of work used to complete the work. Labor employed can consist of the workforce directly or indirectly, but will usually include both. | https://www.excel-pmt.com/2018/12/work-productivity-definition-and.html |
Hours and places of work?
Why is it we now work 9 til’ 5 for 5 days a week? Many years ago, people worked 7 days per week – then this fell to 6 days per week, but 12 hours per day It took Henry Ford, back in the 30s, to reduce the working week to 40 hours – 5 …
Dec 28
Work hard, then play hard, for best results
Very very few can run at speed for long, like Mo Farah – we need to pause, rest and recover – only then can we rejoin the race and compete Nils Salzgeber (aka Hacker Noon), in a recent post, claims this is because ‘all organisms on this planet follow rhythms’ The most famous is the …
Nov 20
Employee engagement drives productivity?
Employee engagement is nowadays seen as essential if an organisation is to perform well Gallup report that business units in the top quartile of employee engagement outperform bottom units with 17% higher productivity, 20% higher sales and 21% higher profitability – all big performance differences MGI – McKinsey Global Institute – report that productivity increases by …
Nov 06
More job satisfaction, more pay! | http://productivityknowhow.com/tag/motivation/page/2/ |
How productivity ratios improve business performance
Measuring the productivity ratio is crucial for businesses. It is the key for companies to thrive and generate profit in the long run. But to grasp the concept better, it is vital to understand productivity in general.
In business terms, productivity is the ratio between output and input volume. It measures how a company or an individual maximizes inputs like capital, labor, and materials to produce a given output level.
Many people have related productivity with production efficiency. The common idea of productivity is by working harder and faster.
However, this wrong definition leads to burnout among employees and poor performance. Staff tends to “work” for a few hours and not operate at maximum productivity. This results in failure in operational delivery and strategic risk for the company.
It is time to redefine workplace productivity to ensure business success.
What is productivity ratio?
Companies and individuals use productivity ratios to measure the efficiency of an organization in converting inputs into relevant outputs. They use the data to determine the product impact and labor market regulations on economic performance.
Think of it like this: the closer the productivity ratio is to 1.0, the higher the productivity. If the ratio is closer to 0.0, the lower the productivity is. However, this baseline depends on the industry to which the company belongs.
How do you calculate productivity ratio?
The formula for calculating the productivity ratio is simple:
Productivity = Output / Input
Follow these step-by-step guides on calculating the productivity ratio:
Step 1: Determine the inputs
The input is the number of units used to produce a product or provide a service. It can be anything, depending on the industry. Some examples of inputs are work hours, human resources, energy costs, and capital.
Step 2: Determine the outputs
The output is the number of products or services provided based on the amount of input spent. Some examples of outputs are clients acquired, units produced, monthly sales, and revenue.
Step 3: Calculate using the formula
After determining the inputs and outputs, apply the values in the formula to get the productivity ratio.
Step 4: Compare it to a baseline
Businesses should set a baseline to compare and evaluate how close or far they are from the industry standard. The calculated productivity ratio can also be used in computing productivity metrics like sales growth, focus hour per day, or revenue produced per hour.
Why is the productivity ratio crucial in business performance?
Monitoring workforce productivity can help several areas of the business. It allows companies to evaluate and analyze the different operations and processes.
Here is a list of benefits that goes with regularly calculating and monitoring productivity:
Drives employee engagement
Most companies have disengaged employees. Some of them feel overwhelmed, not recognized enough, and unsatisfied. As a result, their productivity declines.
One way to boost their performance is through evaluations. If the employees know that the company will monitor their productivity and get incentives, they will feel motivated. Highly motivated workers have exceptional work ethics and efficiency, resulting in higher productivity.
Utilizes resources better
Productivity results from how well skills and resources are used to provide output. Knowing how employees work, what tools and software they use, and how they work with others will give organizations an idea of how they maximize their resources.
It is one way to know whether it is time to provide additional training or get new tools and software.
Focuses on more crucial business matters
Productivity is about time management and focusing on core tasks rather than menial ones.
Calculating the productivity ratio can help in determining unnecessary steps in operations management. It can help businesses identify the practices and areas slowing down the operation.
With the productivity ratio, these companies can reevaluate their work processes and remove redundant steps, resulting in increased productivity.
Helps in goal development
Knowing the number of output businesses can expect from their workforce can help them set achievable goals. For instance, if a company wants its employees to produce 150 widgets every hour, it can use its set productivity ratio.
The result will determine the company’s number of employees to achieve the goal. Aside from that, knowing the amount of output produced per hour can help businesses set a goal that can benefit the whole organization.
Sustains productivity for long-term growth
Productivity is the key to improving business performance and increasing business results. However, measuring productivity is not a walk in the park or an overnight job.
Calculating the productive ratios is one of the stepping stones in achieving desired business results and keeping the team engaged. | https://www.outsourceaccelerator.com/articles/productivity-ratios/ |
Background: Work limitation rates are crucial indicators of the health status of working people. If related to work productivity, work limitation rates may also supply important information about the economic burden of illness.
Objective: Our objective was to assess the productivity impact of on-the-job work limitations due to employees' physical or mental health problems.
Research design: Subjects were asked to complete a self-administered survey on the job during 3 consecutive months. Using robust regression analysis, we tested the relationship of objectively-measured work productivity to employee-reported work limitations.
Subjects: We attempted to survey employees of a large firm within 3 different jobs. The survey response rate was 2245 (85.9%). Full survey and productivity data were available for 1827 respondents.
Measures: Each survey included a validated self-report instrument, the Work Limitations Questionnaire (WLQ). The firm provided objective, employee-level work productivity data.
Results: In adjusted regression analyses (n = 1827), employee work productivity (measured as the log of units produced/hour) was significantly associated with 3 dimensions of work limitations: limitations handling the job's time and scheduling demands (P = 0.003), physical job demands (P = 0.001), and output demands (P = 0.006). For every 10% increase in on-the-job work limitations reported on each of the 3 WLQ scales, work productivity declined approximately 4 to 5%.
Conclusion: Employee work limitations have a negative impact on work productivity. Employee assessments of their work limitations supply important proxies for the economic burden of health problems. | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12719689/?dopt=Abstract |
Marc is accompanying M to a birthday party this afternoon while T naps upstairs and I get a chance to catch up on the world of equal sharing-related news.
There is an interesting article in the New York Times from 5/31 that describes new research and ideas from thought-leaders on gender studies - experts such as Kathleen Gerson (New York University), Barbara Risman (University of Illinois) and Ellen Galinsky (Family and Work Institute).
The latest research shows 'women and men are becoming more alike in their attitudes toward balancing life at home and at work. The gender revolution is not over....it has just developed into "gender convergence."' Gender convergence is defined as 'an ever-increasing similarity in how men and women live and what they want from their lives,' per Dr. Risman and her co-investigator Dr. Molly Monahan Lang.
To me, this means that perhaps the 40 (or 45 or 50 or 70) hour work week ain't working for businesses. I wonder if there is a productivity study that pinpoints the ideal number of work hours in a day or week - the point at which an employee is working enough time to be an engaged, up-to-date and knowledgeable employee but yet not so much that productivity per hour starts to melt. Does anyone know of such a study? Could it be that the the ideal worker is actually someone who logs, say, 25-35 hours per week? Hmmm.... At these reduced hours, perhaps one could legitimately lead a balanced life without a guilty conscience, and businesses could stop picking up the full tab. Just an (unproven) thought. | http://blog.equallysharedparenting.com/2007/06/gender-convergence-and-work.html |
Question # 1 [15 Marks] Bob Richards, the production manager of Zychol Chemicals, is preparing his quarterly report, which is to include a productivity analysis for his department. One of the inputs is production data prepared by Sharon Walford, his operation analyst. The report, which she gave him this morning, showed the following.
|-||2011||2012|
|Production (units)||4,500||6,000|
|The raw material used (barrel of petroleum by-products)||700||900|
|Labor hour||22,000||28,000|
|Capital cost applied to the department ($)||375,000||620,000|
Bob new his labor cost per hour has increased from an average of $13 per hour to an average of $14 per hour, primarily due to a move by management to become more competitive with a new company that had just opened a plant in the area. He also knew that his average cost per barrel of the raw material had increased from $320 to $360. He was concerned about the accounting procedures that increased his capital cost from $375,000 to $620,000, but earlier discussions with his boss suggested that there was nothing that could be done about the allocation. Bob wondered if his productivity had increased at all.
He called Sharon into the office and conveyed the above information to her and asked her to prepare this part of the report. Discussion Question:
- Prepare the productivity part of the report for Mr. Richards. He probably expects some analysis of productivity inputs for all factors, as well as a multifactor analysis for both years with the change in productivity (up or down) and the amount noted.
- Assume additional information related to the cost of production was available. The cost per unit for 2011 was $120 and for 2012 was $125. Considering the increase in the cost is there a change in multifactor productivity growth?
Solution Q1:
Question # 2 [15 Marks] Forecasts based on average. Given the following data: (Stevenson page 96)
|Period||Number of Complaints|
|1||60|
|2||65|
|3||55|
|4||58|
|5||64|
Prepare a forecast using each of these approaches:
- The appropriate naive approach. [2 marks]
- A three-period moving average. [3 marks]
- A weighted average using the weight of 0. (most recent), 0. 3 and 0. 2. [4 marks]
- Exponential smoothing with a smoothing constant of 0. 4. [6 marks]
Solution Q2:
Question # 3 [15 Marks] Using seasonal relatives, Apple’s Citrus Fruit Farm ships boxed fruit anywhere in the Middle East. Using the following information, forecast shipments for the first four months of next year.
|Period||Number of Complaints|
|1||60|
|2||65|
|3||55|
|4||58|
|5||64|
The monthly equation being used is Yt = 402 + 3t Where t = 0 corresponds to January of two years ago Yt = Number of boxes of fruits expected to ship in month t.
Solution Q3:
Question # 4 [15 Marks] Consider the following two techniques for forecasting F1 and F2. The actual and the two sets of the forecast are as follows
|Period||Demand||F1||F2|
|1||68||66||66|
|2||75||68||68|
|3||70||72||70|
|4||74||71||72|
|5||69||72||74|
|6||72||70||76|
|7||80||71||78|
- Calculate the MAD, for each set of the forecast. Given your results, which technique appears to be more accurate? Explain
- Calculate the MSE, for each set of the forecast. Given your results, which technique appears to be more accurate?
- Calculate the MAPE, for each set of the forecast. Given your results, which technique appears to be more accurate?
Solution Q4:
Question # 5 [10 Marks] Rick Wing, a salesperson for Wave Soldering Systems, Inc. (WSSI), has provided you with a proposal for improving the temperature control on your present machine. The machine uses a hot-air knife to cleanly remove excess solder from printed circuit boards; this is a great concept, but the hot-air temperature control lacks reliability. According to Wing, engineers at WSSI have improved the reliability of the critical temperature controls. The new system still has the four sensitive integrated circuits controlling the temperature, but the new machine has a backup for each. The four integrated circuits have reliabilities of 0. 90, 0. 92, 0. 94, and 0. 96. The four backup circuits all have reliability of 0. 90.
- What is the reliability of the new temperature controller?
- If you pay a premium, Wing says he can improve all four of the backup units to 0. 93. What is the reliability of this option?
Solution Q5:
Question # 6 [15 Marks] A weather satellite has an expected life of 16 years from the time it is placed into the earth’s orbit. Determine its probability of failure after each of the following lengths of service. (Assume Exponential distribution is appropriate. ) [2. 5 marks each a, b, c, and d]
- More than 9 years
- Less than 12 years
- More than 9 years but less than 12 years
- At least 21 years
Solution Q6:
Question # 7 [15 Marks] An office manager has received a report from a consultant that includes a section on equipment replacement. The report indicates the scanners have a service life-time that is Normally distributed with a mean of 41 months and a standard deviation of 4 months. On the basis of this information, determine the percentage of scanners that can be expected to fail in the following time periods.
- Before 38 months of service
- Between 40 and 45 months of service
- Within 2 months of the mean life
Solution Q7:
Related Questions
on Operations Management Review Questions
Tip 1: Provide information about yourself that indicate you have the required skills and experience Tip 2: Briefly describe what motivates you to be an operations manager “I graduated with a degree in operations management three years ago and later joined a construction company as an operations manager.
PLEASE RESPOND TO A,B,C,D,E and F Operations management focuses on techniques that can increase the quality of an organization's products, the efficiency of its production, and its responsiveness t Which of the following is not a result of overloading?
“The number of tasks an operation manager can perform is mainly determined by the size and industry of the company. In most cases, operation managers oversee the company’s daily operations such as quality assurance, strategic planning]
Operations Managers will be aware that advancements in automation, robotics, big data analytics, and Internet of Things can improve operational results. 6. How can we reduce costs without sacrificing quality?
Did you know that we have over 70,000 essays on 3,000 topics in our database? | https://phdessay.com/operations-management-review-questions/ |
. A firm currently employs 45 production workers and 6 supervisors. The marginal product of the last production worker employed is 50 units of output per hour and production workers are paid $10 per hour. The marginal product of the last supervisor employed is 150 units of output per hour and supervisors are paid $30 per hour. Every employee works 40 hours per week. (i) What is the firm’s total labor cost per week?(ii) Assume that hours of labor by supervisors (Ls) is plotted on the vertical axis and hours of labor by production workers (Lp) is plotted on the horizontal axis. What is the equation for the firm’s isocost line? What are the two intercepts of the isocost line?(iii) Assume that the firm’s isoquants are smooth curves and that labor hours can be varied continuously. Is the firm producing the maximum level of output given its current level of cost? If it is, explain how you can tell. If it isn’t, explain what it should do to increase output.
. A firm currently employs 45 production workers and 6 supervisors. The marginal product of the last production worker employed is 50 units of output per hour and production workers are paid $10 per hour. The marginal product of the last supervisor employed is 150 units of output per hour and supervisors are paid $30 per hour. Every employee works 40 hours per week.
(i) What is the firm’s total labor cost per week?
(ii) Assume that hours of labor by supervisors (Ls) is plotted on the vertical axis and hours of labor by production workers (Lp) is plotted on the horizontal axis. What is the equation for the firm’s isocost line? What are the two intercepts of the isocost line?
(iii) Assume that the firm’s isoquants are smooth curves and that labor hours can be varied continuously. Is the firm producing the maximum level of output given its current level of cost? If it is, explain how you can tell. If it isn’t, explain what it should do to increase output. | https://scholarsanswers.com/a-firm-currently-employs-45-production-workers/ |
As a small-business owner, you must continually strive to improve productivity so that you can get more output for the wages you pay your employees. When you introduce incentives and changes for production workers, it is easy to assume that your productivity will improve. However, you must actually measure the new productivity to see if it has improved, and to what extent. Otherwise, you may be wasting your efforts.
Calculate your current productivity. Do this by dividing the number of units completed by the number of hours spent on them. For example, if it takes two hours to complete the production of three units, then 1.5 units are produced per hour.
Introduce incentives, such as bonuses for higher productivity. Also examine areas where you can make the job easier for employees. If materials are placed far away from workers, move them closer. If poor lighting and noise cause fatigue, examine improvements you can make in the workplace. Choose your productivity improvements and implement them.
Measure productivity after improvements. Again, divide the number of units completed by the number of hours required to make them. After making improvements, you might find that four units were completed in two hours. Your employees are now making two units per hour.
Subtract the old production rate from the new. In the example, employees produce two units per hour, an improvement of .5. This is your production improvement figure.
Divide your production improvement figure by your old production rate and multiply by 100 to get a percentage. In the example, .5 divided by 1.5 equals .33. Multiply by 100 to get 33 percent. That figure is your improvement to productivity. | https://smallbusiness.chron.com/calculate-productivity-improvements-increased-production-levels-20069.html |
Question: lake charles seafood makes 500 wooden packing boxes for fresh...
Question details
Lake Charles Seafood makes 500 wooden packing boxes for fresh seafood per day, working two 10-hour shifts. Due to the increased demand, plant managers have decided to operate three 8-hour shifts instead. The plant is now able to product 650 boxes per day.
- Calculate the companies productivity before the change in work rules and after the change.
First,we have to calculate Productivity before change and after change:
Productivity before change = Units Produced/Labor Hour Used
500/(2*10)=25 boxes/hour
Productivity after change= Units Produced/Labor Hour Used
650/(3*8)=27.083 boxes/hour
- What is the percentage increase in production?
Percentage increase in production=Change in the productivity rates/Old productivity
((27.083-25)/25)*100=8.332%
3.) If production is increased to 700 boxes per day, what is the new productivity?
New Productivity where the plan working two 10 hours shift:
New Productivity= Units Produced /Labor in hour used
700/(2*10)= 35 boxes/hour
New Productivity where plan working three 8 hours shift:
700/(3*8)= 29.167 boxes/hour
What issues do you foresee becoming a problem with this kind of growth? How do you manage personnel shifts and moral? | https://homework.zookal.com/questions-and-answers/lake-charles-seafood-makes-500-wooden-packing-boxes-for-fresh-458616337 |
Balance Scorecard of a Hospital
Please see details of the assignment as follows: Questions to be answered after the reading.
Marge Oliphant, the administrator of the South Tifton Hospital, a 150-bed rural hospital, decided to implement the BSC in her hospital. Her approach was to do a pilot test in the materials management department, a nonpatient care area. The manager, Vernon Clance, was a good choice because he had already submitted reports on inventory levels. Clance approached his department by breaking down the scorecard into its customary four areas:
Learning and Growth, Business Processes, Customer Measures, and Financial Measures.
With his staff, Clance arrived at these measures:
Learning and growth
- Staff turnover
- Job satisfaction
- Staff loyalty
- Education (dollars spent)
Business Processes
- Inventory turnover
- Fill rate
- Accuracy rate
- Responsiveness
- Supplier fill rates
- Productivity (deliveries/labor hour)
Customer Measures
- Customer (hospital units) satisfaction
Financial Measures
- Inventory on hand
- Salary expenses
- $/purchase order
Oliphant was impressed with the measurement selection. Clance used job satisfaction and customer satisfaction measurements that he found in a book. Basically, they measured, on a scale from 1 to 5, how happy a person was with the present position, pay, facilities, and so on. The materials management customers were the
individual units that received supplies on a daily business. They were surveyed on the responsiveness and accuracy of the supplies they received. Clance did detect a 93% fill rate (the percentage of orders successfully filled) in the first month, and that became the target of improvement for the next month.
Oliphant then turned to a patient care unit, the intensive-care unit (ICU). This was a 12-bed unit, not as frenetically paced as the emergency room, although the
patients were in serious condition. Bob Tallent was the unit manager, a business school graduate in charge of the administrative details of the unit. Bob relished the
opportunity to come up with an organized measurement scheme and, with the assistance of the staff, devised these measurements:
Learning and growth
- Nursing turnover
- Staff turnover
- Training and education dollars
- Job satisfaction
- Staff loyalty
Clinical and business processes
- Medical errors
- Clerical errors
- In-processing
- Out-processing
- Billing speed
- Responsiveness
- Productivity index
The Balanced Scorecard Approach to Operations
Customer
- Patient satisfaction
- Family satisfaction
- Physician satisfaction
Financial
- Revenue per patient
- Cost per patient
- Salary expenses
After 2 months in the ICU and 4 months in materials management, Oliphant extended the trial to Accounts Receivable. The program was intended to go hospital-wide at the end of the year.
Discussion Questions
1. Do these areas give an accurate description of what is important in materials management
and the ICU?
2. What issues in each area would be important to Accounts Receivable?
3. If the hospital administrator wanted a global scorecard, what would that look like?© BrainMass Inc. brainmass.com June 18, 2018, 5:26 pm ad1c9bdddf
Solution Preview
1.
The areas chosen by Olivant to study accurately describe the importance of key factors in each of the units, materials management and ICU. The materials management unit represents the supply side of the organization. The ICU unit represents the demand side of the organization. Clance's method of evaluating the materials management unit measures the most important aspects of the unit, in terms of function within the organization and the level in which it may support the hospital. Fill rates measure how well the unit supports processes within other units in the hospital. Employee satisfaction is an indicator of employee performance, which may directly affect fill rates and accuracy. Customer satisfaction is an indicator of how well the materials management supports the needs of the organization as well. The financial measurement indicates the level of efficiency in which the unit operates. This may be an indicator of how much training may be needed or how successful training of employees in the unit is, in developing skills to meet the needs of the organization. It may also indicate whether relationships with current suppliers support the goals of the organization.
The ...
Solution Summary
The expert examines balance scorecards of a hospital. The opportunity of organized measurement schemes are determined. | https://brainmass.com/business/balanced-scorecard/balance-scorecard-hospital-532598 |
Much of productivity in the workplace can be attributed to the working culture embedded in each country, a one-size-fits-all solution to increase employee productivity simply isn't effective. In order for a company to increase it's competitiveness, it's important that employee productivity is measured correctly. There are many different ways on how to measure productivity out there such as dollar per hour or units per output/units of input. However, many of these metrics have limited applicability in the service sector.
This article will outline common workplace cultures and behaviours in Indonesia along with handy quick fixes that you can implement to your local team immediately!
Addressing Hierarchy in the Workplace
Indonesian culture places a great importance on hierarchy. In a working context, while it's crucial to adhere to common practices like using appropriate titles when addressing people of higher status, too much regard for hierarchy can be a hindrance to productivity. Constructive criticism and great suggestions to an idea or an execution becomes considerably restricted because of the desire to please their bosses. As a result, concepts and improvements are faced with resistance and are slow to get picked up. One possible work around is to exercise tactfulness - set up a one-to-one meeting, explain how your idea could improve the business and keep the focus away from the flaws of his current approach.
Don't Beat Around the Bush
Peace and harmony is embedded in the culture of Indonesia even in a workplace setting. Avoiding conflicts is a common practice in fear of confrontations. Business agreements/deals are also typically done only after a lengthy discussion over several meetings during meals and casual activities like golf. It's safe to say that communication approach in Indonesia is indirect, which can be time consuming and ambiguous to people who are not accustomed to the culture, thus It's important to learn to read between the lines and be patient in business and social situations. You might also want to state your intentions clearly from the beginning to minimise the likely small talks preceding the agenda.
Setting Wage Policies and Incentive Programs
It's no surprise that wages have a direct impact on employee productivity. Generally speaking, higher wages almost always equals higher productivity but setting wages is a tricky thing to do. The wage structure in Indonesia is very rigid -- a very limited use of productivity based pay structure and there is also a lack of incentive programs that are needed to drive productivity in the workplace. Moreover, the wage policies in Indonesia is not sustainable, the average wage is very close to the minimum wage and many are paid minimum wage despite years of experience. These are issues that can be addressed by HR and managers to ensure employees are more motivated, engaged, and produce the desirable outcome.
Read also: 6 Offices You Can Rent To Boost Your Productivity
Culture of Workplace Training
Despite the rising education level in the labour force, Indonesia still faces considerable skill gaps and finding employees for professional and management position remained difficult. A large portion of high skill jobs are filled by under-qualified graduates that are facing skill shortages and skill mismatch. In order to promote productivity improvements and close the gap, a company should build a culture of workplace training that is encouraged and subsidized for a more rapid uptake. Invest in vocational training to improve organizational and managerial capacities, as well as workplace strategies such as work-time management.
Be Strategic When Arranging an Offsite Meeting
As one of the worst cities in the world when it comes to traffic, knowing when and where to set your offsite meeting is imperative, especially if you have multiple meetings scheduled for the day. Generally avoid areas like Jl. H. R. Rasuna Said or Jl. Jend. Sudirman around rush hour, failing to do so will result in countless hours wasted on the road which otherwise could have been spent getting actual work done in the office. A useful tip is to carry a portable WiFi on your travels so you can still get some work done amid the chaos that's happening around you, should you need to. Hopefully the MRT set to be completed in March, 2019 will help to offset some of the traffic in Jakarta.
Take Less Smoke Breaks!
Fun fact: Indonesia tops the world in cigarette consumption. It's not uncommon to have a designated smoking area in the workplace. The problem is employees taking way too many smoke breaks which adversely impacts productivity at work. Instilling a smoke break policy in the workplace may sound silly but really is not when it comes to Indonesia. Not only does it help to discourage the bad habit of smoking, but it also forces employees to spend more time at their desk and actually be productive!
Pro Tip: Create other avenues for employees to catch a break. For example, a 15 minute rest in the breakout area for coffee or maybe a game of table tennis!
Leverage Coworking Spaces Around the City
Considering how widespread coworking has grown in Jakarta, coworking spaces are sprawling around the city. If you're always working out of a cafe, it might be a great idea to rent a flexible desk in a coworking space. Not only does it provide a safe and conducive environment for you to work in, you no longer have to pay for light refreshments like coffee, water or tea. If you're never in the same spot twice in a day, check out FlySpaces Passport - a subscription plan which gives you access to over 30 awesome coworking spaces in Jakarta! The next time you're stuck in an area after a meeting, pop into one of the spaces to get your work done.
That's all the tips and tricks I have under my sleeve, let me know below if you find these suggestions useful for your team or if you have other great ideas on how to improve productivity in the workplace in Jakarta! | https://blog.flyspaces.com/fostering-workplace-productivity-in-jakarta |
A growing number of companies claim to place a high priority on the wellbeing of their workers – and there is a fast-growing industry of firms selling products related to employee wellbeing. But does investing in employee wellbeing actually lead to higher productivity and are there any tangible benefits to the business bottom line? Experimental evidence such as Oswald et al (2015) suggests that the answer is yes, but until now, real-world evidence has largely been missing.
To begin to answer this question more systematically, we collaborated with the analytics and advisory company Gallup to look into its client database. Gallup has been gathering data on employee wellbeing, alongside productivity and firm performance outcomes, since the mid-1990s.
We conducted a meta-analysis of 339 independent studies accumulated by Gallup, including the wellbeing and productivity of 1,882,131 employees and the performance of 82,248 business units, originating from 230 independent organisations across 49 industries in 73 countries.
Higher employee wellbeing is associated with higher productivity and firm performance
Figure 1 presents our main finding, showing correlations between employee wellbeing, employee productivity and firm performance across all industries and regions. Employee wellbeing is measured using a single-item five-point Likert-scale question that asks respondents ‘How satisfied are you with your organisation as a place to work?’ with answer possibilities ranging from one (‘extremely dissatisfied’) to five (‘extremely satisfied’).
Figure 1. Correlation between employee satisfaction, productivity and firm performance (Gallup client database, 95% confidence intervals)
We focus on four key performance indicators that are arguably the most important for business:
Customer loyalty, where measures include fairly standard customer loyalty metrics, such as the likelihood of recommending or repurchasing a product or service, the ‘net promoter score’ or simply the number of repeated transactions.
Employee productivity, where measures include mostly financial indicators, such as revenue or sales per person, growth in revenue or sales over time, quantity per time period, labour hours or performance ratings.
Profitability measures, including the percentage profit of revenue or sales, or the difference between current profit and budgeted profit or profit in the previous time period.
Staff turnover, defined as the percentage of (voluntary) turnover per business unit.
We find employee satisfaction to have a substantial positive correlation with customer loyalty and a substantial negative correlation with staff turnover. The correlation with productivity is positive and strong. Importantly, higher customer loyalty and employee productivity, as well as lower staff turnover, are also reflected in higher profitability of business units, as evidenced by a moderately positive correlation between employee satisfaction and profitability.
Some differences between industries, little between regions
Correlations differ somewhat by industry. Figure 2 shows correlations between employee wellbeing, productivity and firm performance by industry, distinguishing finance, retail, services and manufacturing sectors.
For most outcomes – customer loyalty, staff turnover and employee productivity – employee satisfaction is most important in finance, followed by retail and then, closely, by services. The correlation between employee satisfaction and business unit profitability appears to be somewhat stronger in the finance industry than in other industries, except manufacturing.
In fact, for manufacturing, we find that employee satisfaction has the weakest correlation with employee productivity, but the strongest with business unit profitability among all industry sectors. Note, however, that the 95 per cent confidence bands between industries are largely overlapping, pointing towards the universal importance of employee wellbeing across industries. We find little evidence for differences between firms based in the United States and other parts of the world.
Our analysis suggests a number of potentially fruitful avenues for future research. One potential reason for the particularly strong link between wellbeing and productivity in finance may have something to do with working conditions in that sector, in particular relatively higher stress and lower work-life balance, which potentially outweigh positive benefits of higher pay. This suggests that there is more room in the finance industry for employee wellbeing to raise productivity than in other sectors.
Manufacturing is highly focused on process efficiency and safety as primary metrics within plants, which relate directly to costs. Job attitudes are likely to relate to discretionary effort, which then affects quality, efficiency and safety within manufacturing plants and teams, possibly explaining the higher correlation between employee satisfaction and business unit profitability in that sector.
Why would higher employee wellbeing lead to higher productivity?
Of course, from this meta-analysis alone, we cannot make any strong causal claim about the effects of employee wellbeing on productivity or firm performance. But there is both a theoretical and an empirical body of research that points in this direction. Human relations theory states that higher employee wellbeing is associated with higher morale, which, in turn, leads to higher productivity (Strauss, 1968). Conversely, expectancy theories of motivation postulate that employee productivity follows from the expectation of rewards (including higher wellbeing) generated by eliciting effort (Lawler and Porter, 1967; Schwab and Cummings, 1970).
Emotions theory argues that employees’ emotional states affect their productivity (Staw et al, 1994), and in particular, that positive emotions lead to heightened motivation and hence better job outcomes and organisational citizenship (Isen and Baron, 1991*). A further channel is through positive, stimulating arousal, which can result in more creativity (Isen et al, 1987) or positive changes in attitudes and behaviour (Baumeister et al, 2007). In line with these predictions, Oswald et al (2015) show in a laboratory experiment that increases in wellbeing are strongly associated with increases in productivity of up to 12 per cent in a real effort task with incentives. In another study, De Neve and Oswald (2012) find that individuals who reported higher levels of life satisfaction at ages 16, 18 and 22 have significantly higher levels of earnings later in life. This holds even when comparing siblings and holding constant a wide range of observables, including education, intelligence, physical health and self-esteem.
Employee wellbeing also seems to pay off on the bottom line of business: Edmans (2011, 2012) studies the relationship between employee satisfaction and long-run stock market returns using a value-weighted portfolio of the ‘100 Best Companies to Work for in America’. He shows that during the period from 1984 to 2011, these companies had between 2.3 and 3.8 per cent higher returns than the industry average.
Figure 2. Correlation between employee satisfaction, productivity and firm performance, by industry(Gallup client database, 95% confidence intervals)
Concluding remarks
Our work is suggestive of a strong, positive correlation between employee wellbeing, productivity and firm performance. The evidence base is steadily mounting that this correlation is in fact a causal relationship (running from wellbeing to productivity). But clearly there is a need for more field and/or natural experiments in real-world firm settings in order to make a clear business case for improving employee wellbeing.
This calls for more consistent measurement of employee wellbeing in firms, alongside productivity and firm performance outcomes. In earlier work, we suggest that interventions aimed at raising productivity should target the key drivers of wellbeing at work, such as social relationships, making jobs more interesting and improving work-life balance (Krekel et al, 2018).
These interventions should be rigorously evaluated (ideally by randomised controlled trials) and costs should be reported to identify the most cost-effective ways of raising employee wellbeing, productivity and, ultimately, firm performance. | https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/07/happy-employees-and-their-impact-on-firm-performance/ |
What Is Productivity?
Productivity, in economics, measures output per unit of input, such as labor, capital or any other resource – and is typically calculated for the economy as a whole, as a ratio of gross domestic product (GDP) to hours worked. Labor productivity may be further broken down by sector to examine trends in labor growth, wage levels and technological improvement. Corporate profits and shareholder returns are directly linked to productivity growth.
At the corporate level, where productivity is a measure of the efficiency of a company's production process, it is calculated by measuring the number of units produced relative to employee labor hours or by measuring a company's net sales relative to employee labor hours.
Productivity
Understanding Productivity
Productivity is the key source of economic growth and competitiveness. A country’s ability to improve its standard of living depends almost entirely on its ability to raise its output per worker, i.e., producing more goods and services for a given number of hours of work. Economists use productivity growth to model the productive capacity of economies and determine their capacity utilization rates. This, in turn, is used to forecast business cycles and predict future levels of GDP growth. In addition, production capacity and utilization are used to assess demand and inflationary pressures.
Labor Productivity
The most commonly reported productivity measure is labor productivity published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is based on the ratio of GDP to total hours worked in the economy. Labor productivity growth comes from increases in the amount of capital available to each worker (capital deepening), the education and experience of the workforce (labor composition) and improvements in technology (multi-factor productivity growth).
However, productivity is not necessarily an indicator of the health of an economy at a given point in time. For example, in the 2009 recession in the United States, output and hours worked were both falling while productivity was growing — because hours worked were falling faster than output. Because gains in productivity can occur both in recessions and in expansions — as it did in the late 1990s — one needs to take the economic context into account when analyzing productivity data.
The Solow Residual
There are many factors that affect a country’s productivity, such as investment in plant and equipment, innovation, improvements in supply chain logistics, education, enterprise and competition. The Solow residual, which is usually referred to as total factor productivity, measures the portion of an economy’s output growth that cannot be attributed to the accumulation of capital and labor. It is interpreted as the contribution to economic growth made by managerial, technological, strategic and financial innovations. Also known as multi-factor productivity (MFP), this measure of economic performance compares the number of goods and services produced to the number of combined inputs used to produce those goods and services. Inputs can include labor, capital, energy, materials and purchased services.
Productivity and Investment
When productivity fails to grow significantly, it limits potential gains in wages, corporate profits and living standards. Investment in an economy is equal to the level of savings because investment has to be financed from saving. Low savings rates can lead to lower investment rates and lower growth rates for labor productivity and real wages. This is why it is feared that the low savings rate in the U.S. could hurt productivity growth in the future.
Since the global financial crisis, the growth in labor productivity has collapsed in every advanced economy. It is one of the main reasons why GDP growth has been so sluggish since then. In the U.S., labor productivity growth fell to an annualized rate of 1.1% between 2007 and 2017, compared to at an average of 2.5% in nearly every economic recovery since 1948. This has been blamed on the declining quality of labor, diminishing returns from technological innovation and the global debt overhang, which has led to increased taxation, which has in turn suppressed demand and capital expenditure.
A big question is what role quantitative easing and zero interest rate policies (ZIRP) have played in encouraging consumption at the expense of saving and investment. Companies have been spending money on short-term investments and share buybacks, rather than investing in long-term capital. One solution, besides better education, training and research, is to promote capital investment. And the best way to do that, say economists, is to reform corporate taxation, which should increase investment in manufacturing. This, of course, is the goal of president Trump's tax reform plan. | https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/productivity.asp |
Does the term “staff burnout” sound vague? The World Health Organization (WHO) considers it serious enough to add it to the 2019 Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Although the WHO has stated that this is not technically a medical condition, signs of employee fatigue appear frequently enough in doctors’ offices. Issues have been given a unique medical code. The cost of this syndrome across American society is enormous. After accounting for lost productivity and the cost of hiring new employees, it is estimated at $550 billion per year. According to a Gallup study, employees who experience burnout frequently are 2.6 times more likely to actively seek a new job. 20-50% of employee churn is caused by the feeling of ‘burnout’, and an angry employee who remains around has a negative impact on the business.
Watch for signs of employee burnout
Breakout and burnout are not exactly the same, but they are interconnected, as shown in the following five warning signs. Here are the five most prominent indicators of employee burnout to watch out for:
1. Break from work
WHO describes the elimination of burnout as follows: “You feel mentally distant at work, or you feel negative or cynical about your job.” How do I know if an employee is not participating in their work? If you are working directly with them, you can simply notice that their attention and energy are lagging behind. However, if your workforce is geographically dispersed, you may not have enough face-to-face meetings to make that decision. In the average company, statistics show that only 33% of workers are actively engaged in their work, making it more difficult to recognize a problem. It is important to measure your level of engagement on an ongoing basis, and there are many options for doing this. This can be done either directly with a pulse survey or indirectly through many indicators such as worker productivity or company profits.
2. Poor concentration and fatigue
Worker fatigue is a clear sign of employee burnout. Ask yourself, “Are my teammates tired?” One way to tell this is to track absenteeism. Exhaustion can have a variety of causes, and a discouraged worker may not immediately know whether fatigue is organic or is due to employee burnout. According to a Gallup study, employees who experience burnout frequently are “63% more likely to take sick leave and 23% more likely to visit the emergency room”. In addition, absenteeism costs an average of $3600 per hour per hour per worker per year and $2650 per year per paid worker. In addition, a survey of 94,000 workers found that absenteeism alone costs $84 billion annually.
3. Reduced productivity
The WHO describes this as “reduced occupational efficacy”, and an extensive research review of the burnout note documents “a decrease in personal achievement or inefficiency, i.e. a feeling of personal or occupational incompetence, as well as decreased productivity and coping skills.” According to another WHO report, the global figure for productivity loss due to anxiety and depression is US$1 trillion.
4. Hypersensitivity
Being irritable or getting angry quickly is sometimes combined with inability to concentrate. An irritable employee can make life difficult for co-workers, but can also seriously damage customer relationships. One study found that 74% of call center agents are at risk of burnout. And that risk is “serious” for 30% of individuals. It is impossible to provide great service to customers when the staff is in a bad mood.
5. Disruption of eating or sleeping habits
A study published by the National Institutes of Health found that in a study of more than 4,000 seemingly healthy employees, “burnout was found to be an important predictor of new cases of insomnia and increased levels of insomnia, respectively. ” The Mayo Clinic reminds us that an entire cluster of related physical problems can indicate an employee’s signs of burnout. These can include stomach problems, headaches, and increased use of alcohol or drugs to make you feel better.
All of the signs of employee burnout listed above are interconnected. Tired, poorly focused employees are less productive. As a result, poor performance can increase pressure, which can make a person more irritable. This, in turn, can lead to stress, digestive problems, and depression, which can eventually lead to sickness or absenteeism. This cloud-like symptom should be addressed with strong medications.
How to Fix or Prevent Employee Burnout
Gallup points out that managers are responsible for 70% of employee engagement. Because employee burnout signs and churn are closely related, strategies to reduce burnout can also increase engagement.
Listen to the staff
A key way to keep your employees energized and engaged is to put their voices first. Gallup reports that “Employees whose managers are always willing to listen to work-related issues are 62% less likely to tire.” As companies listen to their teams through open channels and act on feedback, employees hear their voices. Go beyond annual surveys to frequent pulse surveys and always-on workplace chatbots.
Empowering Employees
By trusting your employees and empowering them to change the way they work, and freely communicate issues to their managers, you avoid the risk of employee burnout. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends “involving employees in decision-making and communicating a feeling of control and participation” as a way to promote mental health in the workplace. “Managers should ask and listen to their employees and work more like a coach than a boss,” says Gallup. “You may not need a 30-minute check-in conversation every day, but you need to stay connected. Phone, email, instant or text message, or video conferencing. use .”
Recognize and reward your efforts
Recognizing and rewarding employees is one of the most effective ways to respond when you see signs of employee burnout. When employees feel overwhelmed, they want to be seen by the people they work with. The human component is important in the workplace. The Mayo Clinic advises weary employees to seek help. “Whether you’re reaching out to a colleague, friend, or loved one, support and collaboration can help you cope,” they say. Frequent recognition from colleagues and managers provides strong support. Among the interventions it recommends to promote workplace mental health, WHO recommends “recognizing and rewarding employees for their contributions”.
Focus on employee health and well-being
Addressing the root causes of signs of employee burnout you may have discovered when creating programs to promote employee health and well-being. You will also help your people focus on how well they eat, sleep, and relate to others. The HR Daily Advisor points out that a wellness program can be helpful if it is sustained and genuine. They point out that approaches to mental health care and meditation programs may make more sense than superficial modifications like healthier snacks.
Employee burnout exists
A recent Gallup study found that more than a quarter of employees reported being exhausted “very often” or “always”. Nearly another half of workers (48%) say they are tired from work “sometimes”. Taken together, this means that more than 75% of workers are spending part of their workday exhausted.
To learn more about how you can prevent your company from being included in these statistics, access the webinar “Staff Burnout: Signs and Action Steps to Prevent or Mitigate Its Impact”. | https://entrepreneurskill.com/5-signs-of-burnout-that-employees-should-watch-out-for/ |
Provides observations from the Metropolitan Economic Development Council in Richmond, Virginia regarding the development of hard-working employees. Focus on ways that human resource management affects the productivity of workers; Importance of adequate training for employees; Opportunities for...
- Simuladores para incrementar la productividad personal. Jabary, Ibrahim // Capital Humano;Jun2012, Vol. 25 Issue 266, p88
No abstract available.
- Career coach: Maximising training through coaching. Couzins, Martin; Seaborne, Diane // Personnel Today;3/23/2004, p34
Coaching is fast becoming one of the most effective ways of ensuring that new skills learned on training courses are used back in the workplace. A number of companies are now using targeted post-course coaching sessions to ensure that learners really apply the skills they learn in the classroom....
- Developing Your Workforce. McKenna, Terry // National Petroleum News;Jul2003, Vol. 95 Issue 7, p13
Presents guidelines for the development of employees in terms of job performance, motivation and career development. Employee segments; Motivation factors for employees; Informal conversation approach to understand employees.
- Productivity: Seeking That Old Magic. // Time;8/2/1971, Vol. 98 Issue 5, p64
The article focuses on the high rate of productivity in the U.S. It states that the high investments in technology and worker training have made the value of output per man hour in the U.S. the world's highest. It also states that the value has increased at the rate of three percent a year....
- Wendy's: Consistently Excellent Through Training. // T+D;Feb2006, Vol. 60 Issue 2, p68
The article discusses the employee training and development strategy of Wendy's International Inc., a reason behind its consistent operational excellence. The franchising company has more than 227,000 global employees and a labor turn over rate 180-200 percent per year. Moreover, it trains about...
- Creating an Effective Training Program. // Business NH Magazine;Nov2004, Vol. 21 Issue 11, p20
Presents tips in creating an effective training program for employees in New Hampshire. Emphasis on assessing the worker's understanding of her tasks; Role of the management in meeting production numbers and quality standards; Provision of internal and external course to improve skills.
- Team Talent Assessment: Optimizing Assessee Visibility and Assessment Accuracy. Edwards, Mark R.; Sproull, J. Ruth // Human Resource Planning;1985, Vol. 8 Issue 3, p157
Talent assessment represents a critical element in organizational success. Unless the correct people are identified, promoted and given other organizational rewards such as extra training and pay, organizational motivation and leadership wane. A new procedure called Team Evaluation, TE, provides...
- TJonline. Eyre, Elizabeth // Training Journal;May2012, p8
The article provides comments from members of a forum on the periodical's website www.trainingjournal.com about identifying high potential staff. Comments are provided by Jane Molloy about intelligence and emotional quotients and the concept of "growth mindset"; by Brigitte Bestgen about... | http://pdc-connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/31420513/boost-productivity-through-people-development |
Productivity v/s Efficiency: Who wins over the other?
By peopleHumSep 23, 2021
All employees and workplaces are unique. Today, a few modern companies adhere to the traditional 9 to 5 working hours. With the growing differences in organizations, founders often find their employees spiral out of control.
The upper management roles themselves struggle while choosing the right metrics to measure an employee’s efforts in deriving the desired business goals. Among these metrics, the two most popular ones to consider are – productivity and efficiency.
Productivity and efficiency are the two terms that are usually used interchangeable. But the relationship between the two is often more complex than what is generally presumed in day-to-day workforce management.
Productivity v/s Efficiency: What’s the difference?
Overall performance at work can be improved if employees learn to maximise their productivity. The speed at which a shoe factory can make shoes is an example of productivity.
On the other hand, the ability to produce something with the least amount of effort is defined as efficiency. A reduction in the number of people required to manufacture a car is one example of efficiency.
Take some time to understand the difference between productivity and efficiency, if this feels like the puzzling case of whether it is “tomato” or “tomahto.”
Quantity v/s Quality
While productivity stresses on the quantity of work completed, efficiency focuses on the quality of work completed.
For instance, assume you're constantly deriving results at a high rate. However, your work has far too many errors. This means you might need more time to review and correct these errors. Thus, even if your amount of productivity was higher, your inefficiency in your task won’t help you reach your goal.
Raw v/s Defined measure
Productivity may refer to the amount of work done within a specific duration. It's simple to measure productivity, which is why so many organizations concentrate on it. They usually calculate productivity by comparing output over a same length of time.
While productivity is defined as the amount of work done per unit of time, efficiency is defined as the best possible output for each unit of time. That is, by doing everything correctly, you accomplish your highest level of efficiency.
But how should you analyse the performance of anything?
Measure of productivity
Assume you own a business that generates $100,000 worth of goods per week (output). This is accomplished by the use of 1,000 labour hours (input). In order to calculate your company's labour productivity, divide 100,000 by 1,000, which equals 100. This means that for every hour of work, your organisation earns $100.
Measure of efficiency
Consider a writer A at an agency who produces 10,000 words per week. Whereas another writer B only produces 5,000 words per week. Here, writer A appears to be more productive writer B. That could be true if writer who wrote 10,000 words had minimal error rate.
In this case, writer B is definitely more efficient than writer A, since writer with 10,000 words requires 20 hours of editing and proofreading whereas writer with 5,000 words is error-free and can be posted easily.
How can you maximise productivity and efficiency at workplace?
Constantly switching from one task to another (multi-tasking) can prove to become stressful to the brain, making us less productive. Try incorporating the 1-3-5 rule into your work routine instead of handling multiple projects at once. This method works by handling the most difficult things first, then moving on to medium-level jobs, and finally finishing the day with the simplest and tiniest tasks.
Some of the effective ways in which business leaders may boost employee productivity and efficiency are as follows:
1. Build the right company culture
Employee productivity blooms in work culture where leaders emphasise on nurturing employee relations. Companies that focus on hierarchy-driven management style hinder productivity. This starts with organisations modifying their recruitment, assure that new employees work well with others to empower current employees.
2. Establish an employee wellness program
Almost any organisation can easily see the link between wellness and performance. When employees' needs are met via a wellness programme, employers spot high employee engagement, morale, presenteeism, and retention. A well-being programs builds better working environments where employees become assets that drive positive impact on productivity, eventually leading to greater profits.
3. Promote internal communication and collaboration
When you optimise the patterns of your internal communications, employees win an easy access to all the information he/she might need. When your employees get the right information at the right time, they get to spend productive hours doing their jobs, rather than screening through multiple documents or waiting for one of their colleagues to answer a mail, to receive the required data.
4. Set a platform for employee recognition and rewards
The reward for good work inspires an employee to work harder and more productive. Data from the Harvard Business Review suggests that 82 percent of Americans don’t feel their supervisors recognise them enough for their work. Additionally, 40 percent of Americans also stated they would put more effort into their work if they were recognised more often. So no matter how big your business is, awards based on your employees' preferences and tastes will enhance their work ethic. For example, you can look for ideas on Fineawards and customize awards more individually.
5. Design an effective feedback system
When employees are provided with regular, real-time feedback, they are more likely to stay engaged. Engaged employees ultimately rise as better performers. Additionally, new-age performance management tools provide better direction by allowing employees to skilfully progress towards their goal. This indeed boosts productivity and efficiency at workplace.
Finally, who wins over the other?
Business leaders who have a productivity mindset do everything they can to align the company's mission with employee goals. A productive work culture fosters an environment of accountability, giving each employee the freedom to do their best work. While these steps may not inspire every employee, they can help the organization's overall level of inspiration and, as a result, workforce productivity.
As per the findings of Harvard Business Review, the most productive companies are more than 40% more productive than the rest. This difference in productivity drives significantly higher profits, operating margins of 30–50 percent higher than industry leaders.
While the above gives us an edge towards productivity over efficiency at workplace, there are other factors that favour efficiency over productivity.
When evaluating the performance of processes, efficiency is a better area to focus. Even though efficiency covers similar grounds as productivity, it's most useful when used to assess the redundancy in the process of achieving a specific goal.
Both have their place, and neither can be ignored completely in order to get a complete picture of how something is performing. However, both have flaws in terms of their application.
It's worth noting that the true answer to the question of productivity vs. efficiency can be neither. If you focus on productivity and efficiency alone without consideration for employee well-being. | https://www.smarttask.io/blog/productivity-vs-efficiency-who-wins-over-the-other |
It was first established by David Allen in his book, Getting Things Done. The two-minute rule aims to banish procrastination and help people accomplish small tasks. Here’s what the rule says: if you can do an action in two minutes or less, tackle it at the moment — and don’t delay. Sept 21, 2022
What causes poor employee performance?
breaches of work practices, procedures and rules — such as breaching occupational health and safety requirements, excessive absenteeism, theft, harassment of other employees, etc; and. employees’ personal problems — usually ‘off-the-job’ issues that affect their performance at work.
What factors affect productivity?
Factors That Affect Productivity Work Environment. As you can imagine, no one enjoys working in a negative or toxic environment. … Training & Career Development Opportunities. … Processes. … Pay Structure. … Employee Wellness. … Diversity. … Technology And Production Factors. … Tools. More items… • Dec 1, 2021
How can office efficiency be improved?
7 office efficiency ideas Make sure staff take their breaks. … Take a rain-check on constant email checking. … Weigh up who needs to go to that meeting. … Delegate, delegate, delegate. … Shape the office environment for greater efficiency. … Choose the right tech and tools. … Plan for holidays and absences. Jul 16, 2019
How can employee increase productivity?
We have 5 methods for improving employee performance and productivity. Encourage Learning Opportunities. … Provide Employees with Technology. … Emphasize Company Culture. … Strengthen Communication Protocols. … Identify and Align Goals with Performance. Dec 29, 2020
What causes employee productivity?
There are several things that can affect productivity, such as engagement, good people management practices, workplace environment, appropriate tools, use of technology as an advantage, etc. Nov 6, 2019
What are the types of productivity?
Types of Productivity Measures Capital Productivity. Capital productivity tells you the ratio of products or services to physical capital. … Material Productivity. Another ratio is material productivity. … Labor Productivity. … Total Factor Productivity.
What is productivity growth?
In economics, productivity refers to how much output can be produced with a given set of inputs. Productivity increases when more output is produced with the same amount of inputs or when the same amount of output is produced with less inputs.
How do you master productivity?
7 Time Management Tips To Make You A Productivity Master Eat the live frog. Tackle the tasks as per priority. Don’t waste time while waiting or traveling. Stay away from the distractions. Make a list of tasks. Don’t forget to take a break. Maintain a well-organized desk. Sept 26, 2019
What is a productivity system?
Productivity systems are systematic methodologies, tools, guidelines, or practices that one uses to get things done efficiently. A sound productivity system, also known as a productivity method, helps you figure out what to do and when to do it. Jun 1, 2022
What are productivity skills?
These can be skills that help an individual excel at his/her job, but they can also be skills that bring teams together to work more effectively for the greater goal. Examples of productivity skills include time management, organizational and planning skills, problem solving and decision making abilities. Jan 4, 2022
What are productivity goals?
Productivity goals are targets to increase the amount of value you create in a unit of time such as an hour or month. Dec 17, 2019
What are the 10 ways to improve work performance?
10 Ways You Can Improve Your Work Performance Today: Set clear milestones. Plan and prioritize. Plan your meetings well. Communicate better. Conquer difficult tasks first. Don’t lose focus (eliminate interruptions) Acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses. Be aware of your limitations. More items…
How do you avoid mistakes at work?
Tips to reduce the likelihood of making mistakes at work Give your work full attention at optimal times. … Double-check all communications and presentations. … Create checklists. … Review your work. … Take breaks. … Eliminate distractions. … Ask questions. … Create a detailed schedule.
How can you improve poor performance?
How to manage poor performance Establish the issue. … Address the issue immediately. … Document the process. … Ask questions. … Encourage accountability. … Recognise the person’s strengths. … Provide honest feedback. … Form a performance improvement plan. More items… • Nov 30, 2021
How do I stop procrastination and laziness?
Tip: Keep a To-Do List. … Prioritize your To-Do List using Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Principle . … Become a master of scheduling and project planning. … Tackle the hardest tasks at your peak times . … Set yourself time-bound goals . … Use task- and time-management apps.
Why do I procrastinate at work?
Overall, people procrastinate at work because issues such as exhaustion and anxiety outweigh their self-control and motivation. Common personal causes of workplace procrastination include fear of failure and lack of motivation, while common situational causes include lack of support and a problematic work environment.
How can I be productive everyday at work?
How to be more productive Focus on most important tasks first. Cultivate deep work. Keep a distraction list to stay focused. Use the Eisenhower Matrix to identify long-term priorities. Use the 80/20 rule. Break tasks into smaller pieces. Take breaks. Make fewer decisions. More items… • Feb 2, 2021
What is an example of productivity in the workplace?
Breaking large projects into smaller tasks. Using the Pomodoro Technique (work in short 25-minute intervals) Developing a restorative morning routine. Prioritizing your to-do list to focus on the most important tasks. May 5, 2021
What are the key elements of productivity? | https://selfgrowthresources.com/what-is-the-two-minute-rule/ |
Productivity is of crucial importance to measuring a successful business. Still, many factors contribute to a productive workforce, not just getting a lot done in a short amount of time.
With the introduction of stay-at-home orders during 2020, remote and flexible work situations were implemented out of necessity and produced surprising results. Productivity statistics showed that workers are more productive working from home and aren’t too keen about returning back to the office work.
Top Productivity Statistics: Editor’s Choice
Productivity Statistics in 2021: The Global Situation
Since 2020, the pandemic has altered the way people work. Because of the global lockdown, many employees started to work remotely, changing the concept of the workplace’s effect on productivity forever. Let’s take a look at how the COVID-19 impacted worker productivity by country.
1. 55% of hiring managers in Russia say productivity doesn’t depend on the workplace.
Even in Russia, the COVID-19 outbreak caused many companies to switch their employees to remote working. Employee productivity statistics for 2021 state that only 20% of hiring managers believe that remote work affects productivity positively, while one-fifth of respondents recorded a decrease in performance.
2. In the second quarter of 2021, non-farm business productivity increased to 2.3%.
While the total output of US worker productivity increased to 7.9% during the pandemic, the hours worked also grew up to 5.5%. Thanks to the prevalence of technology and automation, productivity in white-collar jobs have seen astonishing results.
3. In Canada, labor productivity reached an all-time high of 9.8% in the second quarter of 2020.
While Canada saw an initial increase in productivity during the pandemic, rates have been steadily decreasing since then.
According to official reports from Canada, productivity statistics show the following three consecutive quarterly drops offset all the achievements registered in the first two quarters of 2020.
4. As of December 2020, workplace productivity in China dropped by 2.82% year-over-year.
Due to the spread of COVID-19, China registered a 3.86% unemployment rate in June 2021.
In China, productivity growth and CEIC statistics reported the highest productivity level in December 1970 (15.12%), and until recently, the country’s employment has been steadily growing ever since.
5. Productivity of the US workers has increased by 253% from 1948–2018.
The productivity rate has grown significantly, but the same can’t be said about workers’ compensation.
While employees have become 259.2% more productive, their hourly compensation grew by 115.6% over the same period.
6. In 2021, global productivity is estimated to rebound to 2.9% growth.
While these global productivity statistics might sound promising, nothing remains certain.
Economies from all over the world are slowly starting to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic, and impacts of ‘the new normal’ are still to be seen.
7. Only 21% of employees in the UK think they are productive for the whole day.
The majority—79%—of workers admitted that they do not feel productive for the entire workday. On an eight-hour basis, the average productive hours spent by workers per day amount to less than three hours.
Distractions such as social media, internet browsing, and co-workers were all reasons employees cited low productivity.
8. Ireland is the most productive country globally, with a productivity rate per hour of $99.13.
While Ireland is currently the most productive country in the world, Norway is a close second with $80.83 in productivity per hour. Switzerland completes the top three, with $69.26 worked per hour. These three countries contribute the most to their economy’s growth.
Workplace Productivity Statistics
Labor productivity primarily refers to how efficient a worker is in a specific work environment, be it an office, a restaurant, a laboratory, or a factory, over a particular period. Productivity measures both the quantity of work output performed, but also the quality of work produced.
9. On average, a worker is productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes per day.
When it comes to productivity hours worked, statistics prove that employees get interrupted about seven times per hour, with each interruption costing on average five minutes of their time. As a result, the average full-time worker loses up to 5 hours per day of quality time because of external distractions.
10. Multitasking decreases productivity by 40%.
Despite popular belief, undertaking many tasks at once hurts employee productivity levels. These fascinating multitasking productivity statistics confirm that switching from one task to another causes increased stress on the brain and reduces the power of focused intelligence.
11. Across all industries, the average worker is productive for 60% or less of their time at work.
Office workers are some of the most unproductive employees due to constant breaks, meetings, and other coworkers. In order to increase average employee productivity, statistics show that many companies use apps and tools to monitor their worker’s time management.
Consequently, employees feel more encouraged to avoid unnecessary interruptions while increasing productivity at the same time.
12. The ideal working time is about 7.6 hours per day.
To encourage more productive and happier workers, allowing slightly under the imposed 40 hours per week work model is a good idea.
Having employees work fewer hours, but put in more during their most productive work hours in the morning, studies show that workers feel less stressed and happier in the workplace.
For example, the 38-hour workweek is fully functional in Denmark, one of the top three happiest countries worldwide.
Working from Home and Productivity Statistics
Remote work has been growing in popularity over the last few years, but since the pandemic, its benefits have become undeniable to most employers. Contrary to popular belief, remote workers are far more productive than those employed in physical offices, as time management stats show.
13. Working from home one day a week increases productivity by 13%.
As workplace productivity studies from Stanford show, about 4% of increased productivity at home comes from employees managing to complete more tasks, and the remaining 9% belong to employees working more minutes per shift. Many workers cite that not having to commute to work allows them to start work earlier, maintain better focus, and take shorter lunch breaks.
14. Remote work has been successful for 83% of companies.
Shifting to remote working brought significant advantages to both employers and employees. Other than enhancing worker productivity, statistics confirmed that online working profoundly transformed the work setting. Notably, less than one in five workers would like to return to the office as in the pre-pandemic period.
15. Only 22% of employees would let a company monitor their productivity.
Although most of the employees felt more productive working from the comfort of their homes, employee productivity statistics reported that a shocking 43% would be unhappy with having their work time tracked by their employer. So much so that they would consider leaving their job if it was imposed.
16. Reduced employee productivity is the top concern for 82% of managers who don’t have training to manage remote workers.
Even though working from home is proven to be more productive than a traditional office job, productivity was the main concern for most managers who never used remote work strategies before. Workplace distractions waste time and cause stress to employees, statistics show. Still, managers have the ease of mind of being able to monitor employees’ behavior in the office. Notably, only 69% of managers who had training for remote work were concerned about this issue.
17. An employer can save, on average, an annual $11,000 per half-time telecommuter.
Telecommuting productivity is one of the main reasons companies save money with remote work strategies, statistics show. While this is just an estimate, the US Office of Management and Budget reports that companies can calculate their potential savings on an entirely free and comprehensive tool: the Telework Savings Calculator.
Impact of Mental Health and Employee Satisfaction on Productivity
It’s not a secret that poor mental health and stress negatively impact a worker’s performance. Depressed and stressed employees take more sick days, are less focused, and are more likely to leave their jobs.
By investing in practices that improve employee experience, employers are likely to improve productivity and save money.
18. Workers with undiagnosed depression experience a 35% decrease in productivity.
When it comes to happiness and productivity at work, statistics by the American Psychiatric Association confirm that mental health plays an essential role.
Employees with unresolved depression cost the US economy $210.5 billion per year in sick days and reduced productivity.
19. Around 41% of employees admit that stress made them less productive.
Vacation leaves, a flexible work schedule, and promotions are effective ways to help improve the average worker’s productivity and ease work-related stress. Every day, 50% of workers lose five precious hours of work due to external circumstances, such as meetings, breaks, and other interruptions that cause employees to feel stressed.
20. Taking care of one’s well-being at work can boost productivity by as much as 12%.
These time management stats prove how it’s essential to address mental health at work. Whether you’re already struggling or not, a toxic work environment can put your mental health and productivity levels down the drain.
21. More than 50% of students and younger generations experience high-stress at least once per month due to toxic productivity and hustle culture.
Student productivity statistics highlight the dark side of always being productive. Students and younger generations are subject to hustle culture, the need to constantly work in order to maintain a competitive edge. Notably, this population is highly stressed, with 54% reporting stress symptoms at least once per month.
Productivity Statistics: The Takeaway
With the coronavirus outbreak, employers embraced remote working and other types of hybrid work models. As workers reported higher productivity at home due to fewer distractions, many employers started to look for new ways to satisfy their workers and improve their overall productivity.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that productivity and job satisfaction are highly correlated with each other. According to personal productivity statistics, employers should focus on investing in workers’ well-being and happiness before anything else.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good productivity percentage?
According to the 70% rule, employees are most productive when working less intensely and without distractions. Plus, working as hard as you can reduce productivity more than you might expect. Overworking leads to burnout, which causes employees to perform poorly or even quit their jobs.
The 70% rule becomes effective once employers incorporate vacations and breaks, unscheduled days, and free days from irrational demands.
What are the key factors that determine labor productivity?
Labor productivity depends on physical capital (equipment and infrastructures), human capital (skills, expertise, and education), and technological change (a mix between invention and innovation).
Not only are these the key factors affecting productivity in the workplace, but they also affect economic growth. With that said, a worker’s high productivity and local economic growth come hand in hand. For example, a highly productive company will result in a significant source of profit for that country’s economy.
How does technology increase productivity?
Thanks to new technological tools adopted in the workplace, high productivity comes a lot easier. Nowadays, professionals use technology to enhance communication, customize the workflow, increase collaboration, automate daunting and repetitive tasks, and improve engagement.
Moreover, technology provides a better work-life balance and increases the company’s revenue. All these components play a vital role in improving the overall company’s productivity.
How could telecommuting increase worker productivity?
Telecommuting is a way for employees to save costs and time, allowing them to work from home. In the past, employers have felt skeptical about telecommuting, as they expected workers to slack off instead of focusing on their job. A recent experiment at Stanford University proved that telecommuting helped workers achieve better results than in a physical office due to:
- Greater job satisfaction.
- No long and stressful commutes.
- Less office distraction.
- Financial efficiency.
How to calculate productivity percentage?
The productivity rate is calculated by the total output of workers divided by worked hours. For example, a company generates $80,000 in goods and services (output), using 1,500 hours worked (input). In this case, the final result will be 53, meaning the business produces $53 per working hour.
You can also determine labor productivity by dividing the total number of employees instead of the hours worked. This way, you find how much any employee generates for the company per week.
What is the average productivity of an employee?
In an eight-hour workday, the average worker is productive for less than three hours per day. More precisely, for just 2 hours and 53 minutes out of the eight hours worked. Productivity statistics show that this number amounts to nearly 15 hours of high productivity out of the 40 hours worked every week.
Companies constantly look for new strategies and metrics that can increase employee productivity, such as flexible or hybrid work schedules. | https://writersblocklive.com/blog/productivity-statistics/ |
Not too long ago, State Department EFM Jen Denoia wrote about the reasonable expectation of family members to have access to the department’s online resources:
Eligible Family Members (EFMs) such as myself are still mired in the same backwards technology that existed when our family joined the State Department 15 years ago. Despite advances such as the development of fobs, a device many employees use to generate passwords for intranet access from off-site computers, EFMs have not been granted access to such tools. While we tend to do most of the post research, we are still reliant upon non-State resources in order to retrieve bidding information when we need it the most.
A year after Secretary Clinton arrived at State (and to this day), there is still no decent online access for family members of State Department employees. The Foreign Service version of MilitaryOneSource for family members may remain only a dream for the foreseeable future. In 2009, a senior adviser at the State Department helped justify the “fobs for everyone” by citing that the program “will produce new fewer than 624,000 more hours of productivity by end of year.”
On May 12, 2009, CIO Susan Swart wrote an email to Alec Ross, then State Department senior advisor for innovation:
I met with Pat today and we did discuss expansion of the fob program. He is supportive and asked that we do a decision memo to him. WE need this get decision on funding and longer term strategy but I don’t see this as slowing down an announcement the Secretary might make, we just need to coordinate timing.
A couple days later, Alec Ross sent an email to Cheryl Mills and Jake Sullivan:
We’re going to forward with the doubling of mobile access to email and productivity tools. It’s INSANE that fewer than 1 in 5 state Department are able to access their email or documents when they’re away from their desk.
It has contributed to the 9:00-5:00 culture here and exacerbates the disconnection between D.C. and the missions. This is a good short-term win and by my estimates will produce new fewer than 624,000 more hours of productivity by end of year one which I think is extremely conservative – it assumes just 1.5 additional hour online per employee per week.
Given that those being given the tools are principally foreign service officers and people more senior than the mean average DoS employee, I think this is very reasonable. Will put an evaluative instrument into this to see if I’m correct.
More detail on all this below if you want it.
I should point out that Pat Kennedy and the CIO have been great. This has been one of several instances where they listened, they got it, and they’re moving forward. The CIO said she’d thought of it before, just didn’t know if she could handle the politics. I’m not going to spend a ton of time on our “corporate IT” but in obvious cases like this I’ll keep jumping in.
Last thing — this idea got a lot of attention on The Sounding Board. I propose that HRC respond to the staff (maybe in a quick 60 second video that we post there) saying in effect – Thank you for sharing your thinking. I heard you. Because of you we’re doing this.
Re-enforce that HRC is still listening to the staff.
That same day, Cheryl Mills forwarded the email to HRC:
FYI – we’re going to get a short video from you that we’ll put on our site announcing this. It’s also one of the ideas we can use for how we are reforming the department for the reform committee.
Secretary Clinton replied:
Sounds great but you’ll have to explain to me!
So then Ms. Mills sent the following:
sure — bottom line – you need a special security code to get on line from a computer outside the building. Only 1 in 5 of our employees has gotten the device (fob) that allows you to do this access.
This effort is making sure they get fobs into the hands of more (or all) employees so folks can work from home thereby increasing productivity substantially since the 4 in 5 essentially do no work from home once they leave the building until they get in again b/c they don’t have access to their email.
On May 14, 2009, at 10:20 PM, the Secretary replied:
Got it. Is the other matter fixed. Anything else going on?
Whatever it was she was asking about, Ms. Mills told her, it was “fixed.” The rest of the email chain is redacted. Click C05761923 (pdf) to read this emails via foia.state.gov. | https://diplopundit.net/2015/07/03/ |
2 edition of Productivity measurement methods found in the catalog.
Productivity measurement methods
Thomas C Tuttle
Published
1981
by Air Force Human Resources Laboratory, Manpower and Personnel Division, Air Force Systems Command in Brooks Air Force Base, Tex
.
Written in English
Edition Notes
|Statement||by Thomas C. Tuttle|
|Series||AFHRL-TR -- 81-9|
|Contributions||Maryland Center for Productivity and Quality of Working Life, Air Force Human Resources Laboratory. Manpower and Personnel Division|
|The Physical Object|
|Pagination||v, 125 p. ;|
|Number of Pages||125|
|ID Numbers|
|Open Library||OL13607056M|
"This book describes a year research program on ways of measuring and improving an organization's productivity through a straightforward intervention, namely, the Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System (ProMES). This book does something rarely achieved; It combines theory, research, and practical s: 1. In the book Improving Software Development Productivity: Effective Leadership and Quantitative Methods in Software Management, Randall W. Jensen describes how you can measure and improve.
just productivity measurement. Productivity improvement requires measurement, but more importantly, it must use measurement data to evaluate and improve operations so agencies can operate more efficiently and effectively. This booklet describes four productivity systems—their design, implementation and use. Although these productivity. Technological change is making it harder to interpret disappointing productivity figures in many economies. Although there are likely to be many contributory factors, such as post-financial crisis debt overhang and demographic change, technological change complicates the interpretation of the evidence in two ways. One is the delay between companies adopting new technologies .
The methods for measurement of primary production vary depending on whether gross vs net production is the desired measure, and whether terrestrial or aquatic systems are the focus. Gross production is almost always harder to measure than net, because of respiration, which is a continuous and ongoing process that consumes some of the products. The task of measuring productivity has to consider many elements. In simple terms, the Harvard Business Review says: take the units of output, in other words the product, and divide that by the units of input, in other words things like capital, labour and materials.
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Methods Productivity measurement methods book perspectives to model and measure productivity and efficiency have made a number of important advances in the last decade. Using the standard and innovative formulations of the theory and practice of efficiency and productivity measurement, Robin C.
Sickles and Valentin Zelenyuk provide a comprehensive approach to productivity and efficiency analysis, Cited by: 5. Techniques for measurement of productivity 1. TECHNIQUES FOR MEASUREMENT OF PRODUCTIVITY: ANSHUL AHUJA (MMK15) Er. SAHIL SHARMA (MMK15) 2.
Productivity Productivity is the ratio between output and input. It is quantitative relationship between what we produce and what we have spent to produce. Work Measurement Techniques for Productivity Improvement Techniques of Work Study and their Relationship with Productivity Improvement Productivity and Productivity Improvement: Concept Productivity is the ratio between output and input.
It is quantitativeFile Size: KB. The quantitative method measures productivity by the number of parts or products an employed produces in a particular period of time, such as per hour, day or month.
This method works very well for small businesses, but even if you're managing large groups, this kind of performance measurement is simple and time-saving. This guide has been so popular since we first published it in that we decided to create a whole hub dedicated to documenting the world’s best productivity methods.
Browse the Productivity Methods Hub on your own or take the Productivity Methods Quiz to get a personalized recommendation based on your workstyle and goals. productivity level comparisons between industries have to address the tricky issue of currency conversion.1 Productivity growth measurement avoids this question and constitutes a useful starting point, given its frequent use in analysis and policy formulation.
• Second, the manual focuses on the measurement of productivity at the industry level. The alternative method of reporting I suggested dollarizes the results and have a direct link to the financials. OEE is the shop-floor piece of the plant productivity measure.
The costs of products are either going up or down when compared quarter-over-quarter, year-over-year. Productivity measurement is a prerequisite for improving productivity. As Peter Drucker, number of books printed). Such measures reflect the physical effectiveness and efficiency of a process, and are not affected by price fluctuations.
Financial Value Value added can be calculated using either the Subtraction Method or the Addition Method. Practical, up-to-date coverage for a new generation of engineering and management professionals. Lawrence S. Aft s Productivity, Measurement, and Improvement has long served as a seminal reference for students and professionals in industrial engineering, quality management, and other related fields.
Now Work Measurement and Methods. Keywords— productivity, theory, measurement, business This paper is based on the book with the same name in Finnish 1 INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to operationalize the concept of productivity in business.
Operationalization comprises. The Productivity Book: 30 Professionals Talk About Time Management. by Michael Brecht | out of 5 stars Kindle $ $ 0. The Day Productivity Plan: Break The 30 Bad Habits That Are Sabotaging Your Time Management - One Day At A Time.
(The Day Productivity Guide Series). Productivity - Productivity - Measurement of productivity: As a prelude to an examination of productivity trends over time, this section considers various methods of measuring the output and input components of productivity ratios and some of the difficulties and limitations of the resulting estimates.
With respect to output, ideally the numbers of units of each category of. ond set includes multifactor productivity for major sectors; manufacturing and 20 2-digit Standard Industrial Classifi-cation manufacturing industries.
Each set of measures in-volves a comparison of output and input measures. The traditional measure of labor productivity—output per hour—was first published inand represents the cul.
Methods of Measuring Productivity: Productivity is usually measured as the rate at which energy or biomass is produced per unit area per unit time. This rate is expressed in such terms as kilocalories per square per year (kcal/m2/yr) a measured or energy or germs per square meter per year a measure of biomass.
According to the British Standard Institution, “Work Study” is a general term for those techniques, particularly method study and work measurement, which are used in its context, and which lead systematically to the investigation of all the factors, which affect the efficiency and economy and the situation being reviewed in order to effect.
Most of the productivity measures used in industry are partial productivity ratios. Despite the fact that a number of total productivity measurement methods for business unit level have been presented in the literature, these models are not widely used.
Measuring workers’ productivity is important for public policy and private-sector decision-making. Due to a lack of reliable methods to determine workers’ productivity, firms often use specific performance measures, such as how different incentives affect employees’ behavior. and measure concepts related to productivity, such as technical and economic efficiency.
Productivity measurement has traditionally assumed the inexistence of technical inefficiencies in the production process. Starting with Nishimizu & Page (), followed by Fare et al. (), the research community has been.
Productivity measurement and analysis are the main topics addressed in this book, which brings together contributions presented and discussed in two international workshops organized by the Statistics Directorate and the Directorate for.
The objective of this paper is to analyze methods of measurement of labor productivity and introduce them to real business. The object of this paper is to investigate methods of measuring performance.
The subject of this paper is the process of implementing methods to increase productivity. Methods (procedures) of the study. Measuring productivity in manufacturing isn’t that difficult. It starts with some basic knowledge of the inputs: Machinery, Manpower, and Materials!
Individual Resource Productivity, or IRP, is a basic ratio of the output per individual resource. It is the calculation of the output per machinery, manpower, and material resources.Over the span of thirty years, Niklas Luhmann published more than 70 books and nearly academic articles—a measure of productivity that would make Stephen King .At lower levels, various methods are used to track productivity performance and identify opportunities for productivity improvement, but there is still a wide gap between International Journal of Performance Measurement,Vol.
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The Dreamtime is an endless beach with fragrant, light breezes where it is neither hot nor cold, where it feels good, always, enjoying an endless, eternal spring at the origin of the world.
Australian Aborigines are very familiar to this paradise of the origins, as soon as they can, they find it in a dream. And their dream mixes with the dreams of the first animal-gods, long ago, early in the Dreamtime.
“The dreamtime, also called the Dream, is the central theme of the culture of the Australian Aborigines. The dreamtime explains the origins of their world, Australia, the country and its people.
“At the beginning was Baiame the First Being,
who gave shape to the world by dreaming.
The Dream is the time before time, before the Earth was created, a time when everything was spiritual and immaterial. But the Dreamtime does not belong to the past, this magical world still exists and can be reached by the warriors for their spiritual progress.
Through the Dream, it is possible to communicate with spirits,
to decipher the meaning of omens,
to cure diseases and other misfortunes.
In the aboriginal conception of the world, every event leaves a trace on earth and everything in nature comes from the actions of metaphysical beings who created the world.
The meaning and significance of particular places and creatures is wedded to their origin in the Dreaming, and certain places have a particular potency, which the Aborigines call its dreaming. In this dreaming resides the sacredness of the earth.” (source)Wikipedia
The geobiologists who study cosmic-telluric energies, designate these places as the chakras of the earth. The most powerful is in the cathedral of Chartres. In these sacred places, naturally, are opening the doors of perception. And the insider sees what cannot be seen. He enters the next world, not to be confused with paradise. The world of Dream has its own traps, too.
In Nagualism, warriors speak of places of power. All these expressions refer to the same reality. There are doors. Nature is full of doors where the warrior teleports on the other side of reality. Before his steps are opening ways leading to the Dream.
It is that simple. Years are needed to clean the doors of perception. One day they will open before the impeccable warrior. It is called To see. Aborigines use it all the time, making them difficult to understand for rigid cerebrals. And yet, what a vista!
“For example, around Perth, the Noongar believe that the Darling Scarp is said to represent the body of a Wagyl – a giant serpent being that meandered over the land creating rivers, waterways and lakes.ˮ (source)wikipedia
This giant ophidian recalls other giants, the dinosaurs. According to legends and engravings, the man would have known them. Puzzling artifacts and fossils seem to support this hypothesis. Further confirmation: at the other side of the earth, the Yanomami use a ritual drug to enter the Dreamtime. This is Ayahuasca, which is known throughout Latin America. In the visions induced by ayahuasca, images of dinosaurs are often present.
“Traditional Australian indigenous peoples embrace all phenomena and life as part of a vast and complex system-reticulum of relationships which can be traced directly back to the ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings of The Dreaming.ˮ (source)wikipedia But they did not all come from that.
For the Aborigines, the Dream Time is not a finished and completed world. It is being done here and now. But the outlines are traced from the origin. Time the Dream is another way of living in this world. In this other world which is everywhere. This other world where we, the mutants, no longer go, except maybe during nights where we get drunk, though we then take the wrong door.
According to some versions, the spirits of the ancestors who created the Earth withdrew as the dream was vanishing, giving way to men. Note that this culture, the most sensible of all, knows that we had been created by our ancestors, not by gods. Our ancestors were made of pure light. They were erased as soon as we fully materialized. The Dreamtime is the time when beings of light lived among men.
The episodes of the Dream were transmitted by oral tradition and rock paintings. Even today, by following with his eyes the cave paintings, and guided by the memory of his ritual songs, an aboriginal shaman can “read” the multimillenial tradition of the Dream time. Then he can unwind, over the sacred trance, the new episodes that are the result of the eternal dream. | https://eden-saga.com/en/australian-mythology-aborigen-tjukurpa-balame-snake-waugal-wagyl-paradise-on-earth-.html |
The Dreamtime is the period in which life was created according to Aboriginal culture. Dreaming is the word used to explain how life came to be; it is the stories and beliefs behind creation. It is called different names in different Aboriginal languages, such as: Ngarranggarni, Tjukula Jukurrpa. In the Dreamtime, the natural world—animals, trees, plants, hills, rocks, waterholes, rivers. The term Dreamtime in Aboriginal mythology is not really about a person having a dream, but rather, a reference to this Creation Period. All aspects of Aboriginal culture are full of legends and beings associated with this Creation Period, or Dreamtime The Dreamtime came into being as a word to describe the Aboriginal Creation mythology, and was first used in the 1890s. It was developed from Aranda culture by a white man who was based in Alice Springs and had a very good working knowledge of the local Aboriginal languages The Dreamtime continues as the Dreaming in the spiritual lives of aboriginal people today. The events of the ancient era of creation are enacted in ceremonies and danced in mime form. Song chant incessantly to the accompaniment of the didgeridoo or clap sticks relates the story of events of those early times and brings to the power of the dreaming to bear of life today. Download the.
Facts about Aboriginal Culture 1: dreamtime. Based on the view of dreamtime, human, fish, bird and animal are a part of the unchanging network in the relationship. People could trace it from the Great Spirit in the dreamtime. Read More : 10 Facts about Dreamtime. Facts about Aboriginal Culture 2: the importance of dreamtime . Until this present day, the aboriginal people still believe in the. Since 1995 we have owned and operated the Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre in Alice Springs. Our community has been involved in Aboriginal Music for 40,000 years and we would like to now share our knowledge and experience with you. Music song and dance was and is still today a very important part of Aboriginal life and customs. We had songs for every occasion, hunting songs, funeral songs. Aboriginal Uluru Dreamtime Story For the Aboriginal people of Australia, Dreamtime represents the essence of their society, culture, traditions and spirituality. It is a time when ancestors, gods and living mortals come together to learn about the heritage and customs of the Aboriginal people
Aboriginal spirituality includes the Dreamtime (the Dreaming), songlines, and Aboriginal oral literature. Aboriginal spirituality often conveys descriptions of each group's local cultural landscape, adding meaning to the whole country's topography from oral history told by ancestors from some of the earliest recorded history Aboriginal people are very religious and spiritual, but rather than praying to a single god they cannot see, each group generally believes in a number of different deities, whose image is often depicted in some tangible, recognisable form. This form may be that of a particular landscape feature, an image in a rock art shelter, or in a plant or animal form. Wandjina bring the Wet Season rains. Australian Aboriginal culture varies throughout the continent and people from different regions have different languages, weaponry, utensils, tools, basketry, art styles, ceremonial dress, and beliefs in their Ancestral Beings. Since the visitation of Macassan (Indonesian and Malay) on northern Australian shores after 1700 AD, and later European colonisation in 1788, Aboriginal culture has. Dreamtime includes all of these four facets at the same time, being a condition beyond time and space as known in everyday life. The aborigines call it the 'all-at-once' time instead of the 'one-thing-after-another' time. This is because they experience Dreamtime as the past present and future coexisting. This condition - See: altered states of consciousness - is met when the. | https://odalgunos.com/3so11215fo-/aboriginal-culture-dreamtime.html |
Like other religions, Aboriginal belief includes when things were created. They believe that their Ancestral Beings created land forms and animals & plants. The Aboriginal word for this Creation Period varies according to each linguistic region throughout Australia. Aboriginal people often interpret dreams as being the memory of things that happened in this Creation Period. Dreams are important to Aboriginal people as it is a time when they are transformed back to their ancestral time. This connection of dreams to to the Creation Period has led to the commonly used term “The Dreamtime” to describe the time of creation in Aboriginal religion. The Dreamtime does not mean that a person is dreaming but it is a reference to the Creation Period.
The Dreamtime, or the Dreaming as it is sometimes referred to as, has no beginning or end but links the past with the present to determine the future. Dreaming stories explain the truth from the past together with a Code of Law for the present. The Dreaming or ‘Tjukurrpa’ also means ‘to see and understand the law’ as translated from the Arrernte language. Dreaming stories pass on important knowledge, cultural values and belief systems to later generations. Aborigines have maintained a link with the Dreaming from ancient times by expressing dreaming stories through song, dance, painting and story telling.
Every part of Aboriginal culture is full of legends and beings associated with the Dreamtime. Each tribe has many stories, often containing a moral or a lesson to be learned, about duties, animals, plants and other beings. These stories are told to children, talked about campfires, and are sung and acted out during ceremonies.
Today we know where the Ancestral Beings have been and where they came to rest. The Dreaming explains how people came to Australia and the links between the groups throughout Australia.
In essence, the Dreaming comes from the land. In Aboriginal society people do not own land but rather the land is part of them and it is their duty to respect and look after the land. The Dreaming did not cease when the Europeans arrived in Australia but just entered a different phase.
Dreaming stories connect theories of occupation to the Aborigines close relationship with the land. This is often described by Aboriginal people when they talk about the land as “my Mother”. Aboriginal people believe that the same spirits who created the land, sea, waterways and life are involved with the conception and birth of a child. There is a direct link between Ancestral Beings and life.
Land is fundamental to the well-being of Aboriginal people. For Aborigines the land is not just rocks or soil or minerals but it is the whole environment that sustains the people and is sustained by the people and culture. For Aboriginal people the land is the centre of all spirituality. This relationship between the land and the people continues to be central to the issues that are important to Aboriginal people today.
Australian Aborigines were originally hunters and gathers with each clan or tribe having its own territory from which they gathered all they needed to live. These territories or ‘traditional lands’ were contained by geographic boundaries such as rivers, lakes and mountains. Aboriginal people understood and cared for the different environments and adapted to them.
Once the Ancestor Beings had created the world they changed the stars, rocks, watering holes and other objects into sacred places. These sacred places have special properties. The Ancestral Beings did not disappear at the end of the Dreaming but, according to Aboriginal belief, they remained in these sacred places. This concept of the presence of the Ancestral Beings with the land reinforces the idea that the Dreaming is never ending and links the past and the present, the people and the land.
The Creation or Dreaming stories, which relate the travels of the spiritual ancestors, are integral to Aboriginal spirituality. Men’s and women’s stories are often separated in Aboriginal culture. Knowledge of the law and Dreaming stories is passed on at different periods of life for Aboriginal people. The serpent as a Creation Being is perhaps the oldest continuing religious belief in the world. It dates back several thousand years. The Rainbow Serpent is part of Dreamtime stories of many Aboriginal nations and is always linked with watercourses such as billabongs, rivers, creeks and lagoons. The Rainbow Serpent is the protector of the land, its people and the source of all life. However, the Rainbow Serpent can also be a force that destroys if it is not respected.
The most common version of the Rainbow Serpent story relates that during the Dreaming the world was flat, bare and cold. The Rainbow Serpent slept under the ground with all the animals tribes in her belly waiting to be born. When the time came she pushed up and called all the animals to come from their sleep. She pushed the land out, making rivers and lakes. She made the sun, the fire and all the colours.
The Gagudju people believe the Rainbow Serpent was called Almudji and was a major creature being. It made passages through rocks and created waterholes. Today they believe, Almudji is still a creator as it brings the wet season each year. This causes all forms of life to multiply and it appears in the sky as a rainbow. However, they also believe that Almudji is also to be feared as he can punish anyone who breaks the law by drowning them in floods. The Gagudju people still believe that Almudji lives in a pool under a waterfall.
The Jowoyn people of the Katherine Gorge area of the Northern Territory relate how the Rainbow Serpent slept under the ground until she awoke in the Dreaming. She pushed her way to the surface and travelled the land, sleeping when she was tired. She left behind her winding tracks and the imprint of her sleeping body on the ground. When she had finished travelling the earth she returned and called all the frogs to come out but they were slow because their bellies were full of water. The Rainbow Serpent tickled their bellies and when they laughed, water flowed out their mouths and filled the tracks and hollows left by the Rainbow Serpent, so creating rivers and lakes. This woke all the animals and plants who then followed the Rainbow Serpent across the land.
Ceremonial ceremonies are seen as the core of cultural life for Aboriginal people. Small ceremonies, or rituals, are still practised in some remote areas of Australia. These rituals take the form of chanting, singing, dancing or ritual action to ask the Ancestral Beings to ensure a good supply of food or rain.
The most important ceremonies are connected to initiation of boys and girls into adulthood. These ceremonies can last for weeks with nightly singing and dancing, story telling and use of body decorations and ceremonial objects. During the ceremonies, songs and dances about Ancestral Beings are told. Some of these are for women and children to see and hear while others are restricted just to initiates to learn.
Another important ritual is on the death of a person. Aboriginal people cover their bodies with white paint, cut themselves to show sorrow for the loss of their loved one and take part in a number of rituals, songs and dances to help the person’s spirit leave and return to its birth place where it can be reborn. Burial rites differ throughout Australia. People are buried in parts of southern and central Australia but have a different burial in northern Australia. In northern Australia a burial has two stages with each accompanied by ritual and ceremony. The primary burial takes place when the body is placed on a raised wooden platform, covered with leaves and branches and left for several months so the flesh rots from the bones. The secondary burial occurs when the bones are collected, painted with red ochre and then scattered in different ways. Sometimes a relative will carry some of the bones with them for a year or more. Sometimes they are wrapped in paperbark and placed in a cave. In parts of Arnhem Land the bones are placed in a large hollow log and left in the bush.
All parts of Aboriginal culture contain many legends and beings associated with the Creation Period or Dreamtime. Each tribe has its own stories, often with a lesson to be learned from the story, about the Creation Period spirits, animals, plants and other beings. These stories are told to children and at different ceremonies throughout the life of an Aborigine to ensure that the Dreamtime is passed on to each generation.
"Dreams In Aboriginal Beliefs." UKEssays.com. 11 2018. All Answers Ltd. 04 2019 <https://www.ukessays.com/essays/religion/the-dreaming-and-aboriginal-beliefs-religion-essay.php?vref=1>.
"Dreams In Aboriginal Beliefs." All Answers Ltd. ukessays.com, November 2018. Web. 24 April 2019. <https://www.ukessays.com/essays/religion/the-dreaming-and-aboriginal-beliefs-religion-essay.php?vref=1>.
UKEssays. November 2018. Dreams In Aboriginal Beliefs. [online]. Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/religion/the-dreaming-and-aboriginal-beliefs-religion-essay.php?vref=1 [Accessed 24 April 2019].
UKEssays. Dreams In Aboriginal Beliefs [Internet]. November 2018. [Accessed 24 April 2019]; Available from: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/religion/the-dreaming-and-aboriginal-beliefs-religion-essay.php?vref=1. | https://www.ukessays.com/essays/religion/the-dreaming-and-aboriginal-beliefs-religion-essay.php |
Contemporary Aboriginal Art has his origins in the 40.000-year-old history and culture of the Aborigine people of Australia. Most of the paintings reflect on a Dreamtime story. Dreamtime refers to the creation period when ancestral beings, cold Tingari or Tjukaritja, emerged from the earth and conducted activities that led to the formation of the landscape and its inhabitants. In these stories lie the basis for the religion, law and moral systems of life of the Aboriginals, which is strongly connected to the land that they live in. The content of these ancient stories remains the exclusive knowledge of the initiated men.
This painting depicts “tali tjuta”: many sandhills of the Marruwa area West of Lake McKay.
In a minimal linear style, the artist has depicted a particular site known as Wanapatangu, which is recorded as being northeast of Wilkinkarra (Lake McKay) in Western Australia. This is one of the points where the Tingari ancestors stopped for ceremonial and social activity in their long journey across the desert and now remains as a significant ceremony site for the Pintupi men.
According to the artist, the rectangles mark the watery areas that surround Wanapatangu.
In 1984 the international headlines were filled with the ’discovery’ of the last group of nine Australian Aborigines who had managed to retain their traditional lifestyle in complete isolation until the late 20th century. Until they looked for contact in 1984, they had never seen a white man. Six of these nine Aboriginals became artists, including Walala Tjapaltjarri. Walala was born ar . . . | http://lesliesmith.nl/works/view/2890 |
For millennia our ancestors have created codices of the animal and nature spirits that affect and inspire their cultures. Such systems are always built on the combining of the mytholo- gies of the tribal lineage together with a rich knowledge of the local fauna and flora. The Native Americans have their coyote medicine, the Mesoamericans have their jaguar shaman and the Celts have their stag totems. All cultures that have a strong shamanic background have created such codices, since they allow human beings to identify more powerfully with the natural world and to enter into the quantum field known to shamans as the ‘Dreamtime’. To move in and out of the Dreamtime, one must have some kind of language that enables the human psyche to integrate the lessons and wisdom that is found therein. This is why man has always intuitively created such ‘totem’ languages. | https://teachings.genekeys.com/the-dream-arc-codex/ |
In Aboriginal cultures, Tjukurrpa (the Dreaming) encompasses a diverse collection of beliefs and stories about creator ancestors who shaped the world.
These ancestral beings are responsible for not only the formation of the physical landscape, but also the moral order of the universe and the laws and patterns governing human life. Although Dreamtime is conceived of as a mythical past, it remains vital in the present both because human behavior is conditioned by it and because the ancestors left their traces in the earth.
Aborigines first began using the term “Dreaming” in the early twentieth century to convey metaphorically the idea of an ancestral realm beyond ordinary perception, accessible only through certain rituals. Much of contemporary Aboriginal painting portrays the themes and stories of the Dreaming, drawing a connection between the natural and spiritual worlds to make ancestral events visible to the viewer, whose comprehension of the work will vary depending on the level of sacred knowledge he or she possesses. Although these works often appear abstract to Western viewers, they are, in fact, representational, making use of traditional icons and symbols to refer to specific elements of the landscape, the particular ancestors involved in the story, and the relationship of those beings to the land.
Some Dreamings are tied to specific locations, while others cover a broad sweep of lands and people. Aboriginal artists generally paint stories related to the lands from with which they claim descent. Margaret Anjullu’s Women’s Dreamings of the Tanami Desert 2 tells the story of her female ancestors in one of the two desert regions associated with the Kutjungka in Western Australia.
Anjullu is a member of the Balgo (Wirrimanu) community in the remote desert of Australia’s southeastern Kimberley region. The ancestral presence in Balgo, which lies on the kingfisher Dreaming track, is thought to be especially strong, making it a center of ceremonial activity. Two art forms have traditionally been critical to Kutjungka ceremony—sand drawing and body painting. As Anjullu’s Women’s Dreamings demonstrates, the aesthetics of Balgo painting mirror those of these more ephemeral ritual arts. Anjullu’s work, for instance, renders traditional signs in bold colors that have been applied through a technique involving the placement of dots of paint on canvas using a thin stick. This technique is called wakaninpa, a word associated with poking that suggests the connection between painting and traditional Kutjungka sand drawings created by piercing the ground. The effect of this approach, in turn, produces a shimmering effect on the canvas that is likened to the shimmering body that has been covered with pigments, oils, and animal fat. In a broader sense, the vibrancy of Women’s Dreamings echoes the power of the ancestral beings that not only pulsates through the ritually engaged body, but is embodied in the earth as well.
Additional Resources
Benjamin, Roger, et al. Icons of the Desert: Early Aboriginal Paintings from Papunya (Distributed for the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University). Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009.
Caruana, Wally. Aboriginal Art. London: Thames & Hudson, 1993.
Myers, Fred R. Painting Culture: The Making of an Aboriginal High Art.Durham: Duke University Press, 2003.
Morphy, Howard. Ancestral Connections: Art and an Aboriginal System of Knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Morphy, Howard, Margo Smith Boles, and University of Virginia. Art from the Land: Dialogues With the Kluge-Ruhe Collection of Australian Aboriginal Art. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000. | https://www.learner.org/series/art-through-time-a-global-view/dreams-and-visions/womens-dreamings-of-the-tanami-desert-2/ |
Aboriginal art is a gift to all living beings. As a timeless expression of man´s relationship to everything that exists around him or her, Aboriginal art is, above all, a teaching and learning experience. The Aboriginal people regard everything within the universe with reverence and respect. There is a purpose to everything that exists and happens on the earth.
Teaching is done through narratives known as the “Dreaming” or “Dreamtime Stories”. The Aboriginal Dreamtime story is also expressed in different ways including body painting, dancing, bark painting and rock etchings and have been passed on from one generation to the next.
Dreamtime stories describe all that took place from the beginning of creation and the emergence of ancestor spirits. According to Aboriginal lore, in the beginning the land was barren. Then the totemic ancestors, who were supernatural beings, swooped upon the earth and created the landscape – rivers, mountains, valleys, oceans – they made people, plants and animals. They also created the atmosphere and the elements as well as the sun, moon and the cosmos.
When the ancestors became weary, they disappeared to whence they came or, in some cases, became animals or structures such as mountains, rocks or rivers. These landscape features then become sacred places.
For Aboriginals, the “Dreaming” is a spiritual experience that recounts all that was, is and will be. Protocol around customs, family relationships, laws and cultural practices are preserved thanks to this oral tradition
Many Dreamtime stories have become popular reading for young Australians. Stories such as Tiddalick the Frog and Min-na-wee (Why the Crocodile Rolls) not only teach history as seen through the eyes of the Aboriginal people, they also enable children to learn important moral values.
Each Aboriginal tribe has its own version of “Dreaming” which, in today´s world, would be regarded as their own intellectual property. If an artist wants to borrow from the “Dreaming” of another tribe, they first need to ask for permission from the elders or gatekeepers of that tribe.
In recent times, there has been a renewal of interest and appreciation in Aboriginal art from people of all walks of life and culture. Indigenous artists are producing artwork of very high quality that show particular reverence to their totemic beliefs.
The patterns are very distinctive and the colours – white, yellow and red from ochre and the black from charcoal, are easily recognisable . Since the 1970’s, the use of dots has become very popular and are used to cover up the sacred stories from the eyes of Westerners.
Aboriginal artwork is of exceptional and unique beauty. With its representation of lessons and stories that have evolved over millions of years, Aboriginal artwork is truly timeless and a means of connection to a spiritual past. Imagine how many conversations begin over the giving of a piece of Aboriginal art. Where does it come from? From which tribe? What is its inner meaning?
What better gift could one receive!
Here are some of our most popular Aboriginal gifts that are timeless and will be cherished forever.
I don’t think I have ever thrown away a good quality water bottle. Have you? I might have lost one but never thrown one away. These beautiful bottles are double-walled, insulated and of stainless steel. They are BPA free and just gorgeous! The designs are by our Aboriginal artist, Kathleen Buzzacott. Her artwork reflects the timelessness of her culture and her strong sense of identity.
Kathleen was raised by her family in a remote Aboriginal community in Central Australia. Living in an environment free of modern technology provided inspiration for her designs. Treasured family times were spent out bush on hunting trips, searching for bush tucker, seeking out desert waterholes and playing with desert creatures. Kathleen still lives in the bush with her husband and their two sons, on her husband´s maternal land west of Alice Springs. $34.95
If you are trying to bring a smile to someone’s face, it is guaranteed when you light one of these babies up! It’s a money-back guaranteed smile. The 11cm polymer clay/glass candle holders are hand-made and for every one you buy, a portion of the cost goes back to the artist and their community. Koh Living is a member of the Indigenous Art Code, which guarantees our commitment to ethical trading in indigenous art. $29.95
Who doesn’t need a beautiful and timeless mug? I think if a receiver knows that by receiving the gift they are also giving back, they would be feeling extra special – would’nt you? This design is inspired by the spirit of Kinship. The artist, Melanie Hava, was raised in the outback where she would often see emus travelling through the long grasses. Occasionally, she would observe two males joining forces to protect their chicks. This banding together in kinship to feed and protect their mob echoes the way aboriginals once lived.
This mug is made from fine bone china, holds 350ml and comes beautifully gift boxes. $29.95
View more here: | https://www.kohliving.com.au/journal/aboriginal-culture-we-need-to-discuss-this/ |
Classic Aboriginal Myths illustrated by Ainslie Roberts, in full colour, and back in print after 30 years.
A man's Dreaming merged with the Dreamtime. Everything in life, whether tangible or intangible, had been influenced by the people of the Dreamtime: the creators of the world and those who lived in the beginning. Therefore, everything that he saw, did, felt, and experienced was to some degree sacred. The landscape in which an Aboriginal lived was shaped in the form he could observe because the Dreamtime people made it so. Countless features had a Dreamtime explanation: the exploits of Dreamtime heroes and villains had influenced the shape of rocks, the colours of the earth, the windings of a watercourse. Such features were tangible memorials of his tribe's creative ancestors and mainstays of its emotional life. | https://www.aspectsofkingspark.com.au/collections/aboriginal-art-and-culture/products/the-dreamtime-heritage |
The Dreamtime is a widely used, but not well understood, term describing key aspects of Aboriginal spiritual beliefs and life. Following is an extract from an book by Geoff Moore. “Myth, Mystery and Meaning of the Dreamtime”. It explores the Dreamtime through elements of philosophy; psychology; spirituality, lore and secrecy that were the basis of the beliefs and practices of pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. He is the facilitator of the Australian Aborigines History and Culture Research Project.
“The Aborigines learned about the origins of the tribe through their Dreamtime creation myths, that told of the significant actions of the creators. The myths were the basis of Aboriginal society and were responsible for providing certainty about existence. They contributed to their survival and it is beyond dispute that they survived for thousands of years. The Australian aborigines believed that the land they occupied was once vacuous – empty. This belief was a source of great mystery to them. It was also a great truth that was known with absolute certainty, because the ancestors had said this was the way things once were. Then, during what has become known as the Dreamtime, the land, the sky above and all they contained were formed by the actions of supernatural and mysterious beings.
“The concept of the Dreamtime was first researched by Spencer and Gillen in their study of the Arunta (Arrernte) tribe of Central Australia. They came to understand the words Alchera and Aldjeringa, as identifying a ‘creative period’. Other tribes had words in their language for the same concept. As communication between the Arunta people and the non-Aboriginal scientists improved, it became apparent to them, that the aborigines understood the Dreamtime as a beginning. Here it is pointed out that there is a significant difference between Aboriginal thinking and that of others. In particular the belief that the Dreamtime is a period on a continuum of past, present and future.
“Aboriginal people understood the Dreamtime as a beginning that never ended. In one sense it was the past, the sacred past. But as Spencer and Gillen found, the word Tjurjunga was also associated with the Dreamtime. Tjurjunga identified a category of belief and action. A concept that will become more obvious as we proceed through this book. For the moment, it is sufficient to say that Tjurjunga identified the belief that the Dreamtime never ended.
“The Dreamtime itself has been explained in a number of ways. Various explanations refer to creators who were mysterious and supernatural beings. They include references to men and women ‘just like us’ who had the ability to shape-change into animals and other fauna; creators such as the Rainbow Serpent and also All-father and All-mother figures. There have also been references to the creators as heroes and heroines. The essential point is that each tribe had a collection of Dreamtime creation stories. In other words there were desert, mountain, alluvial plains and seacoast Dreamtime stories.
“Land itself was an icon because of the spiritual basis on which it was created and the fact that some of the creators continued to live in the land, or in the sky above watching over them. Broadly speaking they told of creative actions that resulted in the formation of the earth, the sky above and all they contain. Every hill, water hole and tree, every animals, bird and marine life along with every other living creature and natural phenomenon was believed to have come into existence in the Dreamtime.
“It was during the Dreamtime that the creators made men and women, decreed the laws which all must obey – their behavior to one another, the customs of food distribution, the rules of marriage, the rituals of initiation and the ceremonies of death which must be performed so that the spirit of the dead would travel peacefully to his or her spirit-place.
Copyright © 2019 Aboriginal Art Online. Powered by WordPress. Theme: Accelerate by ThemeGrill. | http://aboriginalartonline.com/culture-dreamtim-php/ |
They say we have been here for 40 000 years, but it is much longer.
We have been here since time began We have come directly out of the Dreamtime of our creative ancestors.
We have kept the earth as it was on the first day.
Our culture is focused on recording the origins of life.
We refer to forces and powers that created the world as creative ancestors.
Our beautiful world has been created only in accordance with the power, wisdom and intentions of our ancestral beings. | http://aboriginalart.com.au/culture/dreamtime.html |
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Colleen’s Dreamtime Sisters are spiritual ladies; ancestral beings who dance awelye – women’s ceremony. They dance the story for their country Annamurra, which lies north east of Alice Springs in the beautiful Harts Range. As the day ends and the evening stars appear in the darkening sky, the sister’s dance, they dance all night until the dawn breaks.
This story is associated with arlatyey – the pencil yam and its kame – seed. There are two different species but the same seed if found in both. The story line for arlatyey starts in Alhalkere country in the Utopia region and runs south to Annamurra country. The plant in Ahalkere country produces a long thin tuber while the plant in Annamurra country produces a short thick tuber. Growing prolifically any time of the year after rain these juicy, starchy storage organs are an important source of food.
The pencil yam – arlatyey often features in Aboriginal mythology. | http://www.shop.alpityeatport.com.au/product/dreamtime-sisters-2/ |
The myth of the Wandjinas remains one of the most intriguing legends of the Australian Aboriginal people, which relates to the supreme spirit beings and creators of the land and people. The land of the Wandjina stretched over an area of about 200,000 square kilometres; consisting of lands, waters, sea, and islands in the Kimberley region of north-western Australia with the unique continuous culture dating back to more than 60,000 years. In this region, the traditional Aboriginal law and culture are still practiced.
The oldest and distinctive figurative art
The three Wandjina tribes consist of the Worrorra, Ngarinyin, and Wunumbul– these tribal groups are the protectors of the oldest known figurative art, which can be found all throughout Kimberley.
The most interesting feature about their figurative art painted on rocks and in caves lies in the way in which the Wandjinas are described- white faces with a head surrounded with a helmet-like element, large black eyes, devoid of a mouth.
Paintings and their interpretations
Various interpretations have been attached to the ancient paintings by various observers-from abstract representations of people to varying portraits of animals, to ancient astronomical theories suggesting extraterrestrial beings visiting the Earth thousands of years ago making direct contact with the inhabitants. Some representations also hold that extraterrestrials played a direct role in earthly creations, which is reflected in both the Dreamtime stories of the Aboriginals as well as in the myths and legends of many ancient civilizations all over the globe.
Till today, the legend and oral accounts of the Wandjinas have been passed on from many generations similar to the other Aboriginal Dreamtime stories.
The belief in Wandjina
According to the story, the Wandjinas were “sky-beings” or “spirits from the clouds” who descended from the Milky Way during Dreamtime and led to the creation of the Earth along with its inhabitants. The Wandjina then realized the enormity of the task of creating so many inhabitants and returned home to bring more Wandjinas. The Dreamtime snake aided the Wandjina to descend and spent their Dreamtime creating, teaching, and representing the figure of Gods to the Aboriginals whom they created.
After some days following this routine, the Wandjinas disappeared. They descended into the earth and continued to live at the bottom of the water source associated with each of the paintings. According to the popular myth, they continually produced new ‘child-seeds’ there, which are regarded as the source of all human life. Some further say that many Wandjina also returned to the sky, which now can be traced as lights moving high across in the sky.
Aboriginal people residing in Kimberley believe that although the Wandjina disappeared, they continue to pull the strings of Earth and control everything that takes place on the land and in the sky and sea.
Myth or a reality?
Like the tales located in the teaching of modern-day religions, Aboriginal Dreamtime stories, rock art, and cave paintings have also often been considered more myth than reality. However, the reality of some Dreamtime stories has been confirmed by recent archaeological discoveries.
One such story spoke of huge mammals walking the Earth which were once considered as a fantasy. But in reality, animal fossils belonging to ‘mega fauna’ including giant mammals were discovered which confirmed that these stories were accounts of real-life events, belonging to thousands of centuries before.
Objects have been unearthed on geographical sites which suggest the area had been inhabited as long ago as 174,000 B.C. This argument contradicts the theory that Aboriginals had discovered routes in Africa and that inhabitants traveled from Africa to Australia as early as 60,000 years ago. This substantiates the claim of many researchers that Homo sapiens actually originated in Australia.
Today, the Wandjina is still revered by the Aboriginal tribes of the Worora, Ngarinyin, and Wunumbul, to the extent that only certain individuals are given permission to paint them. According to myth, the Wandjina punishes those to do not abide by the law; with floods, lightening, and cyclones. The Aboriginals hold that the paintings of the Wandjina are always to be approached with due respect since they are believed to possess the powers of punishing the guilty.
An intriguing question remains: why would ancient Aboriginal people create fanciful stories if it is so important to them and remains important to their culture till the present day? Many legends of the past have already been justified by archaeological findings, such as the legend of the labyrinth of the Minotaur, the legend of the city of Troy, Norse legends of navigational crystals, etc. It can thus be speculated that the Aboriginal people during that time were simply narrating events as they saw and perceived them to be. With time and further discoveries, perhaps one day these questions will be uncovered. | https://conspiracytheories.in/the-wandjinas-and-aboriginal-rock-art/ |
In the beginning, Altjira created the Earth and supplied everything that humans might need — then retired without leaving instructions. Luckily the world was slumbering quite happily in Dreamtime and the primordial spirits managed to dream their way out of trouble.
Footnote: Altjira is depicted as having emu’s feet, for no reason we can fathom.
Another footnote: due to linguistic confusion by early anthropologists, it’s possible Altjira is not a deity but refers to the Dreamtime itself. In which case we are at a loss to explain the emu feet.
Altjira Facts and Figures
Name: Altjira
Pronunciation: Coming soon
Alternative names: Alchera, Altjira Mara
Gender: Male
Type: God
Area or people: Aranda tribe of Northern Territory and others
Celebration or Feast Day: Unknown at present
In charge of: Creating
Area of expertise: Creation
Good/Evil Rating: GOOD, quite approachable
Popularity index: 7785
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Article last revised on April 22, 2019 by the Godchecker data dwarves.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders
References: Coming soon. | https://www.godchecker.com/australian-aboriginal-mythology/ALTJIRA/ |
Mparntwe its traditional name for Alice Springs, which is referred to by the Aboriginal Arrernte people, the native title owners of this area.
In the Dreamtime, it is said after the caterpillar's created Emily Gap, the ancestral caterpillar spread out in different directions of Alice Springs and formed many significant land features seen today, such as Heavitree and Jessie Gap- part of the MacDonnell Ranges in central Australia.
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Important copyright notice
The Copyright of all images and documentation remains with Sabine Haider. The Australian Copyright Act protects all artists from unauthorised copying by giving control over original works of art to the artist by law. However depending on the use proposed, Sabine Haider from Central Art – Aboriginal Art Store can facilitate reproduction of works with the permission of the artist as we have developed close relationships over the years with many individual painters and craftspeople. | http://www.aboriginalartstore.com.au/aboriginal-art-culture/aboriginal-words-glossary/arrernte/mparntwe/ |
In aboriginal culture, the “dreamtime” explains the origin of the land and its people. Australian aborigines have been remarkably isolated in Australia, and it is believed that their cultural history extends back as far as 65,000 years. Dreamtime is not just an origin myth, it is the basis of all aboriginal religion and culture. It explains what happened before, how the universe was created, how mankind came to be, and what the Creator intends for us.
As with many cultures, the gods and goddesses could be kindhearted or cruel, depending on their personality.
To the aborigines, any meaningful activity or event that occurs will deposit a vibrational residue at that location, much as a seed will contain an image of the complete plant within. The forces that created the land – its rocks, mountains, riverbeds, and more – echoed the forces of creation. This spiritual beings who created our world have left their symbolic footprint everywhere on Earth.
Aboriginal shamans are responsible for recording and reciting the events in their history. Sky gods arrived thousands of years ago, providing mankind with the tools he needed. Interestingly, these initiation accounts are very similar to modern day accounts of UFO contact and abduction.
Dreamtime Story – Earth Dying and Reborn
Long ago, the earth was dark and silent. In a deep cave, the Sun in the form of beautiful woman slept. The Great Father Spirit woke her and urged her to bring life to the land.
The Sun Mother crossed the land from north to south and east to west. Wherever her rays touched the earth, plants sprung forth. Insects and reptiles, slumbering for many years, were awoken and released into the world. As the snakes moved along, they created rivers which soon were filled with fish and other water life. The Sun Mother awoke the rest of the animals, giving them the earth as their home.
The Sun Mother created the seasons. She warned all life that changes would occur – from cold to hot, from wet to dry, and back again. She then departed to the west, sinking below the horizon. The darkness spread, and all the people and animals huddled together fearfully. Several hours later, the sun rose in the East, bringing light and warmth once again. By making this journey daily, the Sun Mother allowed people and animals to rest every day. | https://www.richardcassaro.com/creation-stories-australian-dreamtime/ |
Among the Wangkangurru the Dreamtime is called the History Time. The native wells were all connected with 1 or more of the ancestral beings from the History Time, travelling past the wells as they travelled across the country. As with Dreamtime stories elsewhere in Aboriginal Australia, they were associated with various features of the landscape.
Among the wells of the Simpson Desert that were associated with more than 1 myth was Balcoora, being passed by several of the History Time beings, the Two Boys, the Two Carpet Snakes and the Two Men. The Eastern Simpson Desert Rain History includes Perlanna Well and Kilpatha Well. Some wells were important in particular myths, such as Beelaka Well that was associated with the Wadla Grinding Stone History, and Beepla was one of the most important sites in the Crane and the Waterbirds myth. The ritual centre for the Acacia Seed History was at Pudlowinna Well.
In the mythology of the Wangkangurru people the myth of the Two Boys is one of the most important. The Two Boys who lived with their mother at Dalhousie were rainmakers who spent their days catching small birds. While chasing birds they gradually ended up in the Simpson Desert.
Here they met the Karanguru people, to whom they gave feathers from the birds they caught, initiating the cult of the Warrthampa, linking the Karanguru of the east with the Wangkangurru. Parra-Parranha Well (the long one) in the central Simpson Desert is the main centre for rituals connected with the Two Boys. The explorer David Lindsay called it Burraburrinna.
This myth is centred on the Palthirri Pithi grindstone quarry in the Peake and Denison Ranges, west of Lake Eyre. The Crane, as well as all the other birds in the area, were trying to catch the Two Big Fish. The Crane lost interest in the Two Big Fish, becoming more interested in his 2 daughters-in-law. The Fish escaped. The birds then followed the Macumba River and the Diamantina River to the Simpson Desert.
The Crane could think only of his daughters-in-law so he decided to kill the rest of the birds that were with him. Near Kallakoopah Creek he made the weather very hot and windy by singing songs, leading all the birds to areas where he knew there was no permanent water.
After returning to one of the waterholes to drink he created a very big dust storm as they approached Beelpa Well. To prevent the birds smelling the water he forced them to burrow into the sand on the northern side of the well. The Crane dug in the well until the water reached his neck. On returning to the other birds he begged them to cover him with cool sand because he was exhausted by the heat and lack of water.
The other birds now became suspicious of his intentions, though they continued on north until, as they approached the well at Toko Range, they could smell water though were getting very weak and were almost blind, ignoring the Crane when he tried to persuade them to burrow into the sand. In their frenzy they were changed into Waterbirds.
In the lighter vein of this story the Crane made suggestive gestures to his daughters-in-law as they travelled along. An evil spell was left at Beelpa Well because of what Crane did there. The Crane and the other birds are said to be a number of white limestone boulders that can still be seen on a sandhill north of Beelpa Well.
In the Simpson Desert there are 4 Ancestral Rain Histories linking the Wangkangurru with their neighbours in the west, the Arabana and the Lower Southern Aranda, and their eastern neighbours, the Karanguru and Ngamini. Ilbora on the Finke River is the beginning of the Western Rain History, extending into the Western Desert. Boolaburtinna Well and the surrounding area is the centre of the Rain Histories from the central part of the desert. Perlanna Well, Kilpatha Well, Yelkerrie Well, and Lake Mirranponga Pongunna are associated with the Eastern Simpson Desert Rain Histories. According to Irinjili, the Rain travelled all over Wangkangurru country in History Time just as clouds still travel about anywhere, so the 4 Histories are closely linked.
In the desert between Wolporican Well and Boolaburtinna Well, 2 knolls, low gypseous hills, the Approdinna Attora Knolls, were said to be near an important ceremonial site, the hills being landmarks that warned all but the fully initiated elders to approach no further, as told to Ted Colson on his desert crossing in 1936, though he later doubted the accuracy of the information he was given in respect of these particular knolls.
As with other tribes, the country of the Wangkangurru was crossed by trade routes, often following Dreamimg tracks of the ancestral Beings, with the result that they were mythologically significant. The Wangkangurru obtained stone from the Palthirri Pithi quarry, their red ochre from Parachilna in the Flinders Ranges. Fragments of bailer shell found at Boolaburtinna Well and Perlanna Well suggest the trade routs stretched all the way to the far northern part of the continent. Dolomite axes were obtained from the Mt Isa area and pituri, a narcotic plant, the leaves of which were chewed, came from western Queensland.
There were small pieces of shell of freshwater mussels found at Murraburt Well and Beelpa Well. Again indicating long trade routes. | http://www.desertexpeditions.org/desert-mythology.html |
Dreams that are Forgotten make their way to the Dreamscape in different ways; some of them simply find themselves in a part of the Dreamscape that corresponds to their nature, others have described it as a sensation of falling though darkness. Other events that can result in a Dream being Forgotten include, but are not limited to: the Dreamer’s death, or blocking of memories and thoughts via medication or psychological trauma.
CottonFluff Hollow is a place within the Dreamscape. While Cottonfluff Hollow is primarily populated by childhood Dreams, the idle daydreams of older folk live out their days in this world as well.
Glossary of terms:
Dream: a character, setting, or item that a Dreamer thinks of, for any amount of time. Many Dreams are formed in brief flashes of inspiration and quickly Forgotten.
Dreamer: any entity capable of flights of fancy. As of this writing, The World of CottonFluff Hollow deals primarily, if not exclusively with humans as Dreamers, but the concept of nonhuman Dreamers is possible.
Dreamtime: The period of time that a Dream spends linked to the consciousness of its Dreamer. While this might not be a continuous period for the Dreamer, who might revisit the same concept or idea several times over the course of several years, or even a lifetime in some cases, the Dream experiences their Dreamtime as an unbroken interval.
Forgotten: the state that a Dream enters once the person who originally thought of said dream stops thinking about it- not just actively thinking about it, but thinking about the Dream at all. All Forgotten Dreams eventually find their way to the Dreamscape.
The cast of the comic is as follows (Listed in order of appearance):
Amaranth: Amaranth is older than she looks; she has been Forgotten for longer than she really cares to admit. She was one of the first dreams to come to live in CottonFluff Hollow, and she acts as a mentor to newly arrived childhood fancies. Her house on the top of the hill is larger than it looks in order to accommodate the fluctuating number of Dreams who may be staying with her and her sister on any given day. She has a particular concern for Cuddles and his difficulties with adjusting to being Forgotten.
Cuddles: The “poster child” for The World of CottonFluff Hollow, Cuddles is having some difficulty adjusting to the fact that his Dreamer, a dark-haired little girl, could have Forgotten him. Part of this separation anxiety stems from the fact that remaining in CottonFluff Hollow means that reminders of childhood (and subsequently his Dreamer,) continually surround him. With no other ready recourse, he has decided to leave CottonFluff Hollow, and go Away for a while, but not Far Away.
Percival “Percy” Hoppington: Although his Forgetting is fresher than Cuddles’, Percy has been enjoying his Forgotten status immensely, seeing it as another big adventure to go on. Easygoing and affable, the blue-and-white bunny likes to see everyone having a good time, sometimes whether they like it or not.
Amaranth (Referred to in text as “Amaranth’ ” for the sake of differentiation): Amaranth’ is technically not Amaranth’s sister- strictly speaking, they are two purple dragons who share morphological similarities… and of course, a Dreamer. That having been said, the two of them share a certain kinship and appreciate each other’s differences… to a point. Where Amaranth is kind and sympathetic, Amaranth’ is a bit jaded; this comes in part from her Dreamtime, which was more like real life than Amaranth’s. She has a more sarcastic attitude, and often expects the worst of people.
Ladybug: Ladybug enjoys cooking and taking care of others, and staying with Amaranth has given her the chance to do both, in spades. In addition, she is best friends with Theo(dore). No one’s really sure why everyone keeps finishing her sentences for her…
Theodore Tortoise: Theodore is a stickler for proper grammar. Slow, reliable, and very polite, he and Ladybug can often be found in each other’s company.
Roy: Roy always has a plan. Or a map, or a schematic, or something along those lines. He is the “king of all he surveys,” or at least he was in his Dreamtime, so he likes to stay on top of things.
Stan: Stan doesn’t say much. This is probably because he’s a giraffe. But he’s got keen observational skills.
Kitty: Kitty came to Amaranth’s house a long time ago, like many cats before her, real and imagined; she just sort of… stayed. While not nearly as old as Amaranth, she has seen a number of Dreams come and go from the house on the hill, and seems to more enjoy the company than anything else.
Red Ninja Guard (RNG): The Red Ninja Guard is the equivalent of an “extra” in terms of his Dreamtime; quickly dreamt up, and Forgotten almost as fast. As a result, his focus is rather narrow; he is chiefly concerned with, well, guarding things, and defeating the folk who might want to interact with them.
Head Ninja: Leader of all the ninjas in CottonFluff Hollow (there are more than you think; they are just good at hiding), the Head Ninja performs a task similar to Amaranth’s, but he only mentors ninjas and similar Dreams. | http://www.sapoentertainment.com/?page_id=785 |
Notwithstanding these contentions, let us say that there is an axiom to the ancient astronaut theory. Then we need to ask, who were these beings? What did they represent to the inhabitants of earth? Where these beings the ancient Gods of antiquity?
I would like to periodically chronicle my speculation of how the native people interpreted these unknown entities. This edition describes the Wandjina.
In 1838, a party led by Captain George Grey stumbled across paintings in the Kimberley district of Western Australia that have been the subject of controversy ever since. Exploring among the hills near the Prince Regent River, Grey's group found a number of caves in which many extraordinary figures were painted.
Describing the main painting in one of the caves Grey investigated, he wrote in his journal that "It was the figure of a man, ten feet 6 inches [3.2 metres] in length, clothed from the chin downwards in a red garment, which reached to the wrist and ankles"
"...The face and head of the figure were enveloped in a succession of circular bandages or rollers...these were colored red, yellow and white: and the eyes were the only features represented on the face. Upon the highest bandage or roller, a series of lines were painted in red, but...it was impossible to tell whether they were intended to depict written characters, or some ornament for the head.."
Grey continued to state that the paintings: "...had the appearance of being much more defaced, and ancient, than any of the other's that the party had seen".
To the Australian Aborigines, the Wandjina (or Wondjina) were cloud and rain spirits who, during the Dreamtime, painted their images (as humans but without mouths) on cave walls. Dreamtime is a sacred era in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed The Creation. It has been said if the Wandjina had mouths, the rain would never cease. They also lacked limbs and had a skull-like face. Their ghosts still exist in small ponds. Walaganda, one of the Wandjina, became the Milky Way.
The Wandjinas have common colors of black, red and yellow on a white background. Wandjinas are believed to have made the sea, the earth and all its inhabitants. The Wandjina is thought to have special powers and if offended, can cause flooding and intense lightning. The paintings are still believed to have special powers and therefore are to be approached cautiously.
Aboriginal actor-historian Ben Blakenley tells of "The Legend of the Silver Bird", "Long long ago, far back in the Dream Time, a great red coloured egg (spaceship) came down from the skies. It tried to land safely on the ground but broke (crash landed). Out of it emerged white-skinned culture-heroes (gods) and their children."
"The children's elders soon died, either through their old age or because they could not accustom themselves to our atmosphere. The children however were young and able to adapt more easily to their new surroundings. They carved and painted the likenesses of their parents upon cave walls to perpetrate their memory. In time the great red colored egg rusted away until its remains had merged with the ground, thus creating the red soil of Central Australia. The children of the culture heroes who came from the sky grew in numbers until they eventually populated the whole land, their skins turning black due to the hot climate."
Scholars have long argues whether these are visiting astronauts and their spacecraft, or mythical culture heroes and toltemic designs. Ufologists have pointed out that many of these puzzling shapes are similar to UFO shapes which have been sighted and reported in the 20th century. The implications are that 15,000 years ago strange shapes were observed in the skies. Whether these were spacecraft containing ancient astronauts remains unknown. There is evidence both for and against the theory of ancient astronauts and that they may once have visited and had some influence upon the ancient history of Australia.
An ancient astronaut legend comes from the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. This was told by the Dharuk tribe which formerly occupied a vast area stretching from the Hawkesbury River-Sydney District across to the western slopes of the Blue Mountains. The legend concerns "Biramee the Bird Man," who laid a great egg near what is now the town of Linden, from which the ancestors of the Aborigines hatched.
Although these finds may not be proof of extraterrestrial civilizations having visited earth in antiquity, there is certainly evidence which could be said to lend considerable weight to the ancient astronaut theory in Australia. The evidence primarily consists of archaeological finds which imply the former existence on this continent of a race of non-aboriginal man who inhabited Australia before the dawn of history, and who have left behind them traces of a vast astronomical knowledge. Similar features are to be found elsewhere throughout the ancient world. However, the mystery remains as to how these ancient peoples came by their knowledge often without sophisticated equipment which is only now available too modern man. | https://www.phantomsandmonsters.com/2010/12/arguments-can-be-made-that-evidence-for.html |
The Aboriginal Dreamtime Oracle are a gift from our Aboriginal Ancestors and are channelled from the universal wisdom of past Caretakers of this ancient land.
The Aboriginal Dreamtime Oracle is inspired by the close connection between author/artist Mel Brown's spirituality and her relationship with ancestors of the past.
These cards were inspired by Australian Aboriginal Peoples Dreamtime stories for the purpose of exploring and clarifying issues that impact on our lives, together with celebrating the wonders of our successes. | https://tarotopia.com.au/aboriginal-dreamtime-oracle/ |
Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is a revolutionary method to monitor marine biodiversity from animal DNA traces. Examining the capacity of eDNA to provide accurate biodiversity measures in species-rich ecosystems such as coral reefs is a prerequisite for their application in long-term monitoring. Here, we surveyed two Colombian tropical marine reefs, the island of Providencia and Gayraca Bay near Santa Marta, using eDNA and underwater visual census (UVC) methods. We collected a large quantity of surface water (30 L per filter) above the reefs and applied a meta- barcoding protocol using three different primer sets targeting the 12S mitochondrial DNA, which are specific to the vertebrates Actinopterygii and Elasmobranchii. By assigning eDNA sequences to species using a public reference database, we detected the presence of 107 and 85 fish species, 106 and 92 genera, and 73 and 57 families in Providencia and Gayraca Bay, respectively. Of the species identified using eDNA, 32.7% (Providencia) and 18.8% (Gayraca) were also found in the UVCs. We further found congruence in genus and species richness and abundance between eDNA and UVC had a phylogenetic and ecological signal, with eDNA detecting a broader cies and those in deeper habitats. Altogether, eDNA can be used for fast and broad biodiversity surveys and is applicable to species-rich ecosystems in the tropics, but improved coverage of the reference database is required before this new method could serve as an effective complement to traditional census methods. | https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03810224 |
Our study of 164 diatom samples from Catalonia (NE Spain) is the first to evaluate the applicability of DNA metabarcoding, based on high throughput sequencing (HTS) using a 312-bp rbcL marker, for ...
Avoiding quantification bias in metabarcoding: Application of a cell biovolume correction factor in diatom molecular biomonitoring
(Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 2017-12-26)
In recent years, remarkable progress has been made in developing environmental DNA metabarcoding. However, its ability to quantify species relative abundance remains uncertain, limiting its application ...
The future of biotic indices in the ecogenomic era: Integrating (e)DNA metabarcoding in biological assessment of aquatic ecosystems
(Science of the Total Environment, 2018-05-22)
The bioassessment of aquatic ecosystems is currently based on various biotic indices that use the occurrence and/or abundance of selected taxonomic groups to define ecological status. These conventional ...
Diat.barcode, an open-access curated barcode library for diatoms
(Scientific Reports, 2019-10-22)
Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) are ubiquitous microalgae which produce a siliceous exoskeleton and which make a major contribution to the productivity of oceans and freshwaters. They display a huge diversity, ...
The potential of High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS) of natural samples as a source of primary taxonomic information for reference libraries of diatom barcodes
(Fottea, 2018-02-27)
Diatoms are used routinely to assess pollution level in rivers and lakes. Current methods are based on identification by light microscopy, which is laborious. An alternative is to identify species based ...
Metadata standards and practical guidelines for specimen and DNA curation when building barcode reference libraries for aquatic life
(Metabarcoding and Metagenomics (MBMG), 2021-02-26)
DNA barcoding and metabarcoding is increasingly used to effectively and precisely assess and monitor biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems. As these methods rely on data availability and quality of barcode ... | https://repositori.irta.cat/handle/20.500.12327/4/discover?filtertype_0=author&filtertype_1=programa&filter_relational_operator_1=equals&filter_relational_operator_0=equals&filter_1=Aig%C3%BCes+Marines+i+Continentals&filter_0=Trobajo%2C+Rosa&filtertype=author&filter_relational_operator=equals&filter=Vasselon%2C+Valentin |
Over the last two decades, the use of DNA barcodes has transformed our ability to identify and assess life on our planet. Both strengths and weaknesses of the method have been exemplified through thousands of peer-reviewed scientific articles. Given the novel sequencing approaches, currently capable of generating millions of reads at low cost, we reflect on the questions: What will the future bring for DNA barcoding? Will identification of species using short, standardized fragments of DNA stand the test of time? We present reflected opinions of early career biodiversity researchers in the form of a SWOT analysis and discuss answers to these questions. | https://bora.uib.no/bora-xmlui/handle/11250/2768745 |
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Insights into biodiversity sampling strategies for freshwater microinvertebrate faunas through bioblitz campaigns and DNA barcoding
BMC Ecology volume 13, Article number: 13 (2013)
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Abstract
Background
Biodiversity surveys have long depended on traditional methods of taxonomy to inform sampling protocols and to determine when a representative sample of a given species pool of interest has been obtained. Questions remain as to how to design appropriate sampling efforts to accurately estimate total biodiversity. Here we consider the biodiversity of freshwater ostracods (crustacean class Ostracoda) from the region of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. Through an analysis of observed species richness and complementarity, accumulation curves, and richness estimators, we conduct an a posteriori analysis of five bioblitz-style collection strategies that differed in terms of total duration, number of sites, protocol flexibility to heterogeneous habitats, sorting of specimens for analysis, and primary purpose of collection. We used DNA barcoding to group specimens into molecular operational taxonomic units for comparison.
Results
Forty-eight provisional species were identified through genetic divergences, up from the 30 species previously known and documented in literature from the Churchill region. We found differential sampling efficiency among the five strategies, with liberal sorting of specimens for molecular analysis, protocol flexibility (and particularly a focus on covering diverse microhabitats), and a taxon-specific focus to collection having strong influences on garnering more accurate species richness estimates.
Conclusions
Our findings have implications for the successful design of future biodiversity surveys and citizen-science collection projects, which are becoming increasingly popular and have been shown to produce reliable results for a variety of taxa despite relying on largely untrained collectors. We propose that efficiency of biodiversity surveys can be increased by non-experts deliberately selecting diverse microhabitats; by conducting two rounds of molecular analysis, with the numbers of samples processed during round two informed by the singleton prevalence during round one; and by having sub-teams (even if all non-experts) focus on select taxa. Our study also provides new insights into subarctic diversity of freshwater Ostracoda and contributes to the broader “Barcoding Biotas” campaign at Churchill. Finally, we comment on the associated implications and future research directions for community ecology analyses and biodiversity surveys through DNA barcoding, which we show here to be an efficient technique enabling rapid biodiversity quantification in understudied taxa.
Background
One of the biggest impediments to conducting large-scale biodiversity surveys lies in the taxonomic identification of target organisms. This is especially true when dealing with microinvertebrates, where defining morphological features are often discernible only through intensive methods such as slide preparation and microscopy. One group of organisms that exemplifies this dilemma is the small-bodied crustacean class Ostracoda. Ostracods are very common in benthic freshwater communities, but also occur in marine, intertidal, or semi-terrestrial environments. They are useful model organisms for studies on various aspects of ecology and evolution [1–5], given the high prevalence of their calcified bivalve shells in the freshwater fossil record as well as their variability in breeding systems [6, 7]. In freshwater systems alone, the class Ostracoda has been conservatively estimated to number close to 2,000 described species , with 420 freshwater species recorded for North America [9, 10]. Taxonomic keys are available to the species level for North America and Europe [10–13], and many surveys describe the regional diversity of the class (e.g. [14–20]). The projected global diversity in all habitat types is estimated to be approximately 13,000 .
An infrequently discussed challenge in conducting biodiversity surveys is how to design and implement a suitable sampling strategy. While many studies have compared the efficacy of various field collection methods for capturing accurate estimates of planktonic invertebrate community structure [21–29], there has been little discussion of the idea of sampling strategy as a whole in terms of study objectives, sampling instrumentation, time commitments, adaptation of field methods in response to environmental heterogeneity, and sorting of samples prior to identification both in the field and in the laboratory. Given that the sample size of microinvertebrate community analyses is always much greater than the resources available to identify each individual organism to the appropriate taxonomic level, this sorting of organisms representing the sample community is of utmost importance. Previous studies have demonstrated the presence of cryptic species in microinvertebrates [30–32], and highlight the potential to overlook species with cryptic morphology as well as those with low abundance .
Establishing timeframes for microinvertebrate surveys can be linked to many different factors such as limited funding associated with fieldwork, appropriate weather windows for collection, and the availability of trained personnel. These limitations are especially applicable to studies conducted in remote locations, as well as areas of intense seasonality. Conducting fieldwork in these regions should be made as efficient as possible not only to limit associated costs, but to limit human interference on the natural system. Furthermore, while there is discussion in the literature on appropriate standards for comparing sampling strategies for freshwater bodies of various size and habitat diversity [23, 29], there is less discussion on the rationale behind intensive sampling. This is a key point as more scientists participate in public research, and more research projects involve an aspect of citizen science.
Citizen science involves collaboration between scientists and volunteers to gather field and observational data , and several studies have found that these types of collaborations produce reliable data that would be difficult to gather by any individual research group or scientist [35, 36]. For biodiversity studies, citizen science projects often encompass large-scale “bioblitzes” that involve collecting a large number of organisms in a short time period, often as short as a few hours (e.g. http://www.get-to-know.org/bioblitz/). Originally coined in 1996 by Susan Rudy of the U.S. National Park Service, the term bioblitz is now widely employed, with citizen-science bioblitzes recorded in countries such as Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Taiwan. The results of bioblitzes are typically not published in the scientific literature, despite their widespread occurrence and potential for inclusion . This may be changing, as demonstrated by the August 2012 issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a special issue dedicated to the publishing of citizen-science research. For these sampling campaigns to remain an effective and efficient use of citizen-scientist collaborations, sampling strategies and specific objectives that may be served by these efforts should be discussed and evaluated. Here, we quantify and compare the outcomes of different student bioblitzes within the Churchill barcoding biotas campaign to measure collection effort in relation to biodiversity yield.
For animals, DNA barcoding using a region of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) is an increasingly common method both for identifying species and for quantifying provisional species diversity [38–41], and can be used to evaluate and compare sampling strategies for biodiversity surveys. Through separating a sample of organisms into molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs), it is possible to calculate provisional species richness without the need for morphology-based identifications. DNA barcoding has been previously employed to build accumulation curves for understudied taxa such as parasitoid wasps (Ichneumonidae, Braconidae, Cynipidae and Diapriidae), with barcode-based accumulation curves indicating higher diversity, but the same shape, than accumulation curves built using morphospecies . While Linnean identifications are useful for community ecology studies, due to the possibility of linking with environmental data, the rapid quantification of biodiversity lends itself nicely to answering questions of species richness, species assemblage patterns, and sampling strategy comparison. As the reference library for the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) grows, more of these unknown MOTUs will be linked to known species and allow for more sophisticated community ecology questions to be asked.
We employed DNA barcoding to compare five sampling strategies of subarctic freshwater ostracods in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada from 2007–2011, using MOTUs as surrogates for species. The present study does not test the effectiveness of DNA barcoding in recovering species boundaries for this group; rather, we use DNA barcoding as a tool to address our main study objective. We assume here that genetic patterns in the freshwater Ostracoda of Churchill mirror those of other microcrustaceans. For example, studies of the Branchiopoda of Churchill , freshwater microcrustaceans of Mexico and Guatemala , and marine zooplanktonic ostracods have shown strong separation of described species based upon DNA barcodes.
This study presents an a posteriori analysis evaluating the success of five sampling strategies in both capturing and estimating the regional diversity of freshwater ostracods in the Churchill region, as this site was selected for an intensive “barcoding biotas” regional biodiversity survey employing DNA barcoding methods (introduced in ). Methodological differences among the sampling strategies prevent analysis into the effect of individual variables on strategy success, but still allow for broad-scale exploration of factors influencing the success of collection events at the scale of bioblitzes. The strategies differed in their primary objectives, duration of time spent sampling, number of sites sampled, and method of sorting of samples prior to analysis and deciding which samples to submit for DNA barcoding analysis. It was predicted that our comparison of these strategies would reveal differences in their effectiveness, yielding useful information for the design of future microinvertebrate surveys, with an emphasis on student or citizen bioblitzes. Previous studies [21–29] have compared sampling methods (e.g. tow nets, D-nets, hand nets) but did not use the same methods to measure or compare sampling effectiveness. By contrast, our study provides evidence that the rationale behind a sampling strategy is as important as the equipment used during bioblitzes (especially those with non-expert volunteers). We suggest that a focus on sampling diverse microhabitats is effective and that having two rounds of specimen selection for DNA barcoding will increase efficiency of molecular resource use for quantifying species diversity.
Methods
Description of study site
Five sampling and specimen sorting strategies, identified as time-based (2007), rapid-blitz (2008), liberal re-sort (2007/2008), fixed-protocol field method (2010), and flexible-protocol field method (2011) (Table 1), were used to sample ostracods from freshwater habitats across the landscape near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada (latitude N58°47′, longitude W94°11′). The habitats sampled included standing and flowing fresh and brackish waters, both permanent and ephemeral. All sampling strategies were conducted during and around July, which is expected to be at the height of freshwater invertebrate activity in Churchill. All specimens were preserved in 95% ethanol within hours of collection.
Field sampling strategies and morphological sorting
Time-based sampling (2007)
From July 7–21, 2007, we sampled nine sites including four coastal rock pool sites, three tundra ponds, and two flowing freshwater habitats, with a complete focus on ostracod biodiversity. Each site was sampled for up to one hour, or when the specimens collected were thought to accurately represent the ostracod biodiversity of the location based on broad-scale morphological classification, whichever came first. Samples were gathered using a standard home aquarium fish net with a mesh size of 100 μm and a 100 μm D-net employed using a poke-and-collect method. All specimens were live-sorted into gross morphospecies using a standard dissecting microscope (20x magnification) in a field laboratory setting based on colour, size, shape, collection date, and collection site. A total of 21 morphospecies was identified in the field, but this was considered to be a liberal number as morphospecies were numbered for each site and not harmonized regionally across sites. A minimum of one individual per morphospecies per site was included in the genetic analysis, but most cases included at least two individuals of each morphospecies from each site, for a total of 94 specimens. This method was based on the time targets associated with collection, the use of a single methodology during collection, and a reliance on field morphospecies when sorting specimens for analysis.
Rapid-blitz sampling (2008)
Over six collecting dates from July 9–17, 2008, we sampled 16 sites including eight tundra or fen ponds, one coastal rock bluff pool, three lakes or reservoirs, and four flowing habitats. A rapid-blitz sampling strategy was employed, with time varying across sites according to habitat size and complexity. At each site, a deliberate, active search was performed to sample the variety of microhabitats present, including both planktonic zones and littoral zones to a depth of approximately 0.5 m. While this strategy did employ different methods across habitats, the variability was unsystematic in that there was no set objective for the study prior to sampling, other than contributing to the general species survey at Churchill, with a focus on microcrustaceans. Therefore, no sampling protocol was developed prior to the collection. An aquarium net of 100 μm mesh size was employed, with the net run through the water column rapidly, over and through vegetation, and over the surface of the substrate. Sampling time was at least 10 minutes per site, with the least time spent at rock bluff pools and more time spent at larger habitats and those with abundant vegetation. Samples were brought back to the field laboratory alive, in water from their own habitat, to be sorted on a light box. From each site, specimens were identified by eye to gross morphospecies (including sorting by size, colour, and shape). The intent was to fill a single plate (95 specimens) for DNA barcoding, with the preliminary results used to inform a second round of sorting of the same samples. Typically, at least two individuals per gross morphospecies per site were selected when available, and sometimes up to five in cases of substantial variability within provisional morphospecies. Selected samples were placed individually into small tubes. This method employed a single method of collection and relied on field morphospecies when sorting specimens for analysis.
Liberal re-sort of previous sampling methods (2007/2008)
To test the efficiency of live sorting ostracods into morphospecies in a field laboratory setting immediately following collection, we re-sampled extra specimens from the above two collection efforts, spanning 14 collection sites. We originally did not select these specimens for genetic analysis as it was thought that they represented replicates. We sampled 190 additional individuals from the unused sample pools originally sorted in the field following their collection event (with 93 from the 2007 and 97 from the 2008 samples). Multiple replicates of morphospecies were selected (sample size limited by availability of archived samples), and broader-scale methods of classification of morphospecies were employed as much of the colour had faded from the specimens due to storage. We also avoided one conspicuous species of ostracod (large-bodied, blue morphospecies) which had been overrepresented in previous analyses. This method built upon preliminary evidence of undersampling and liberally included specimens for analysis from the other projects, representing a deviation from previously established methodologies which had placed emphasis on field morphospecies to inform sorting procedure.
Fixed-protocol field method (2010)
From early June to late August, 2010, we sampled 75 sites across five freshwater habitat types (30 tundra ponds, 30 coastal rock pools, five shallow lakes, seven creeks, and three points along the Churchill River). Each site was sampled three times throughout the spring/summer season, one sampling event for each site in June, July, and August. The sites were sampled in approximately the same order each month. The sites were sampled for the entire aquatic insect and zooplankton community; thus, ostracods were not the sole or main focus of collection. Of these 75 sites, we found ostracods in only 27, and therefore only these sites were included for further analysis in this study. For each site, we selected a sampling location of 20 metres in length parallel to the water edge/shore and sampled 1.5 metres and 5 metres from the edge along this 20 metre transect. If the habitat was too small to mark out a 20 metre transect, we sampled along a transect that covered the longest length of the habitat. Two collection methods were employed as a sampling strategy for these sites. The first collection method involved moving along the 20 metre transect with a dip net (either 100 μm or 250 μm), disturbing the substrate to acquire benthic organisms, in addition to running the dip net throughout the water column to collect any pelagic species. This walking of the transect was done twice at each site. The second collection method involved tossing a plankton tow net (64 μm) up to 10 m from shore twice from a different point each time along the transect and pulling it back towards the collector. Both of these methods were employed to the best of our abilities at all sites, regardless of habitat type. We immediately separated the ostracods into morphospecies based on site, colour, size, and shape using a light box and a standard dissecting microscope in a field laboratory setting, and preserved them in ethanol. Upon return from the field station, samples were stored at −20°C. Two individuals per morphospecies per sampling event were included in the genetic analyses, for a total of 90 specimens. This field method used a pre-defined protocol at each site without consideration of site-specific appropriateness in an attempt to increase consistency to allow for direct comparisons between sites and over time.
Flexible-protocol field method (2011)
Specimens were collected from the planktonic and benthic zones of 20 small freshwater or brackish pools located on rock bluffs along the Hudson Bay coast, and 22 tundra ponds from July 22- August 2, 2011. Sites were sampled using separate planktonic and benthic protocols, with the major focus being on microcrustaceans although other taxa were retained as well. Planktonic samples were collected using a plankton net (153 μm), with a total of three tosses encompassing as many different parts of the water body as possible (varying microhabitats, direction, position along shore). While the 153 μm plankton net was a larger mesh size than the nets used for the other strategies, similar or larger mesh sizes have proven effective in other ostracod surveys [17, 18], and this is close to the 100–150 μm range recommended for surveying Ostracoda . For each toss, the net was allowed to sink as close to the bottom as possible (without touching) and then pulled to shore at a slightly upward angle. If the water body was too shallow for a plankton net toss; then collection was conducted with a 100 μm hand net using figure-eight patterns over the accessible parts of the water body. Benthic samples were collected with a 250 μm dip net for water bodies with rocky substrates and with a 153 μm weighted plankton net for softer substrates. For dip net collection, the substrate was kicked up and the net was moved in figure-eight patterns over a 2–3 m transect perpendicular to shore. For plankton net collection, the net sank to the bottom and was pulled to shore along a 2–3 m transect. Clean planktonic samples were filtered using a 100 μm hand net. Plankton samples containing debris and all benthic samples were refrigerated in their own water. Morphospecies were sorted as per the above protocols. At least 10 individuals per gross morphospecies were selected for preservation. Preserved specimens were stored at room temperature until August 3rd 2010, at which point they were moved to −20°C freezer storage. Under a dissecting microscope (with 10-80X magnification range), two to three individuals per morphospecies per site per zone (planktonic/benthic) were selected for barcoding, for a total of 283 specimens. This field method considered which methods were appropriate for a given habitat, in that two methods were not employed for small and shallow habitats, and the project was focused on microcrustaceans.
DNA barcoding
Specimen locality data, digital photos, and sequences were uploaded to the Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) database . All data are available as one dataset, entitled DS-Freshwater Ostracoda of Churchill [OSTCHU], accessible via the following permanent DOI (Will be assigned upon acceptance of the manuscript). The five different codes for the “Process IDs” (specimen identifiers assigned by BOLD to refer to the sequences for all specimens) reflect a total of 5 former projects on BOLD, each linked to one of the five collecting/sorting strategies (Table 1). DNA barcoding and sequence alignment was conducted according to standard methods , with the specifics of the protocols further described in Additional file 1: Appendix A.
For inclusion in analysis, sequences must have had >200 bp and <2% Ns. This is below the cut-off for the barcode standard for building a reference database of DNA barcodes (>500 bp and <1% Ns). However, shorter sequences can still be reliably matched to conspecifics . All analyses were based on a provisional genetic definition of species, MOTUs. We named our MOTUs using sequential numbers added onto the institutional code for the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, University of Guelph (e.g. Podocopid BIOUG001, etc.). MOTUs were assigned using Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) from BOLD3 , accessed March 16, 2012. BINs are genetic groupings assigned by BOLD for sequences >500 bp based on a 2% initial sequence divergence that is combined with an algorithm permitting deviations from this threshold in cases of genetic distance continuity or discontinuity . We assigned our shorter sequences to these MOTUs if they clustered within a particular BIN on a neighbour-joining tree. The maximum pairwise sequence divergence within each MOTU, as well as the distance to the nearest neighbouring sequence belonging to a different MOTU, was calculated for all sequences of at least 500 bp using the Barcode Gap Analysis function in BOLD3 using the Kimura-2-parameter (K2P) distance model . K2P distances have been more prevalent in the barcoding literature and were selected to facilitate comparison across studies. While two recent papers have argued for the use of p-distances instead, results using p-distances vs. K2P are very similar [50, 51].
A neighbour-joining (NJ) tree was constructed in MEGA v. 5.0 using the K2P model for nucleotide substitutions and pairwise deletions of missing sites. One thousand bootstrap replicates were performed to assess nodal support of the clusters/MOTUs, without the assumption that this phenogram will accurately represent deeper phylogenetic relationships. Of 498 sequences recovered, 496 were used in the construction of this tree; 2 sequences were removed as they contained no overlapping sites with a number of other sequences and therefore would not allow distances to be calculated using MEGA. Clusters at the tips of the tree were collapsed for tree visualization.
Statistical analyses
We performed basic summary statistics to elucidate the sequencing success rate for the specimens submitted for genetic analyses, as well as determined the number of genetic clusters recovered by each sampling strategy. To accommodate differing sample sizes, we compared provisional species richness among strategies using accumulation curves for successfully barcoded individuals. Curves were built in R version 2.14 using the packages “picante” and “vegan” , with the curves randomized on a per-individual basis, without replacement, and with 1000 permutations. We further built curves that were rarefied by the number of sites sampled to ensure that there was no bias among studies having different numbers of sampling sites. Unless otherwise specified, sites without ostracods were excluded from their respective studies for analysis purposes. Curves based upon all sites would not be comparable because some studies were designed to be ostracod or microcrustacean focused, and therefore all or nearly all selected sites contained ostracods for those strategies. For the rarefied curves, we used the specaccum function in the package “picante”. We calculated Bray dissimilarity coefficients between the sampling strategies using normalized presence-absence data using the function decostand in the “vegan” package . We performed 1-way ANOVAs and ad hoc tests of significance using the Bonferroni control to look for significant differences in dissimilarity between sampling strategies in their resulting species composition, i.e. genetic cluster composition. We did not perform an ANOVA on count data, but on dissimilarity coefficients. Upon plotting histograms of the dissimilarity values, they were approximately normally distributed.
Species richness estimators
Even if species accumulation curves do not reach an asymptote, species richness estimators can be used to compare the richness of collections and to assess the stability of the biodiversity estimates with increasing sampling. We used the program EstimateS® version 8.2 to compute the mean of the incidence-based, non-parametric richness estimators Chao2, first-order Jackknife (Jack1), and Incidence Coverage Estimate (ICE) for each sampling strategy, as well as the standard deviation for each and 95% confidence interval for Chao2. Chao2 is expected to be a robust and conservative estimate of diversity and uses the number of singletons and doubletons (species present in one or two samples) to infer the richness of additional species present but not detected . We used the resulting indicators to generate plots showing total number of expected species with number of sites sampled, and compared the stability across the five strategies for the different richness estimators. We generated the set of richness estimators twice for the fixed-protocol and flexible-protocol strategies, once using only the total number of sites where ostracods were actually located and once using the total number of sites surveyed (refer back to Table 1).
Results
We produced DNA barcodes for 498 individual Ostracoda, from an initial sample pool of 752 individuals selected for molecular analysis. This represented a sequencing success rate of 66.2%, which varied between 54% and 87% among the five strategies (Table 2). While we employed a cut-off of 200 base pairs for inclusion in this analysis, most sequences (97.4%) were >400 bp. We obtained 13 additional sequences >400 bp, but these were removed due to the presence of >2% ambiguous nucleotides (Ns).
We identified 48 genetic clusters of Ostracoda in the Churchill region from 2007 to 2011 (Figure 1), most of which were genetically differentiated from one another and well supported. The majority of the clusters that contained multiple individuals (35 of 38) were supported by high bootstrap values of >95%. Based upon sequences of at least 500 bp, maximum K2P distances within MOTUs ranged from 0–4.1%, with the mean of these maxima being 0.8%. All but four MOTUs had intra-MOTU maxima below 2%, and only 1 was above 2.6%. By contrast, inter-MOTU distances to the nearest neighbouring sequence of a different species ranged from 0.7-24.6%, with the mean being 12.3%. All but one of the nearest neighbour distances were >2.5%, with the exception involving a single poorly resolved MOTU pair having <70% bootstrap support for each cluster (MOTUs 020 and 048; Figure 1). This pair had an average distance of 1.9% between the two clusters, although some pairwise divergences were <2%.
Presence/absence data
The liberal re-sort and flexible-protocol strategy captured 29 (~60%) of these clusters, while the time-based, rapid-blitz, and fixed-protocol strategies captured 18 (~38%), 18 (~38%), and 17 (~35%) MOTUs, respectively. Of the 48 genetic clusters identified in this analysis, only three (~6%) were captured by all five sampling strategies. Sixteen (~33%) genetic clusters were captured by only one of the five individual sampling strategies, and only 29 (~60%) clusters were captured by any two of the five sampling strategies. The flexible-protocol and liberal re-sort strategies proved highly efficient at capturing ‘rare’ clusters, here defined as appearing in only one or two of the five sampling strategies, but were also equally successful as the other sampling strategies at capturing common clusters, here defined as clusters appearing in three to five sampling strategies (Table 1). Of the 31 clusters appearing in only one or two sampling strategies, 14 and 15 (~45 and 48%) were identified in the liberal re-sort and flexible-protocol strategies respectively, compared to five or six (~16 or 19%) for each of the other strategies. The liberal re-sort and flexible-protocol also captured 83% of abundant clusters, compared to the remaining strategies, which captured 66-72% of abundant clusters.
Accumulation curves
The site-based rarefaction curves similarly revealed differences among the sampling methods and provided further differentiation among them (Figure 2a). At approximately 10 sites, the liberal re-sort emerged as the best method for maximizing MOTU richness, with the time-based method (focused on Ostracoda) being second. The flexible-protocol and rapid-blitz methods (both microcrustacean-focused) had intermediate effectiveness, with the fixed-protocol (and general invertebrate-focused) method being least effective. Moreover, this curve showed that the fixed-protocol strategy not only underestimated the number of genetic clusters found in this landscape but also gives the impression of approaching an asymptote, while the other methods continued to encounter additional species. When all sampling strategies are considered, it becomes apparent that there is a high level of diversity in this system captured by studies with fewer sampling sites than the fixed-protocol method, which appears to approach an asymptote due to methodological limitations. As studies differed in their target taxa and some included sites unsuitable for Ostracoda, we repeated this analysis including only sites containing Ostracoda. The fixed-protocol method remained the poorest in detecting ostracod MOTU richness, while the performance of the flexible-protocol method improved (results not shown). Individual-based rarefaction curves also showed differences in sampling effectiveness (Figure 2b). The liberal re-sort and flexible-protocol strategies emerged as superior for increasing MOTU richness with increasing sampling of individuals, while the other methods were similar. This means that MOTU richness for the liberal re-sort and flexible-protocol strategies increased with a greater slope with increasing sampling effort than the other strategies.
Dissimilarity indices of methods
Bray dissimilarity coefficients were used to quantify the similarity between the sampling strategies (Table 3) in terms of MOTU composition. The strategies ranged from 36% similar to each other (rapid-blitz to flexible-protocol based) to 54% similar (time-based to intensive re-sorting). There were no significant differences in similarity comparisons between any of the strategies (mean P-value for ad hoc comparisons =0.055), with the majority of strategies being around 50% similar to each other. The time-based and rapid-blitz strategies were 54% and 50% similar, respectively, to the liberal re-sort method, which is made up of re-sorted specimens from those two strategies. When the time-based and rapid-blitz strategies were statistically pooled together, the resulting strategy remained 26% dissimilar from the liberal re-sort, showing that the liberal re-sort strategy captured additional richness initially missed by both strategies.
Species richness estimators
There was variation among strategies in the MOTU richness estimators and their stability with increasing sampling (Table 4, Figure 3). For the time-based strategy (Figure 3a), the number of observed species does not approach the expected, as indicated by any of the richness estimators, by the total of nine sites sampled. Moreover, several of the estimators (Table 4) fall well short of the total observed richness for the Churchill region (total of 48 MOTUs for all 5 strategies). For the rapid-blitz strategy (Figure 3b), the Chao2 estimator of 90 is well beyond that of the observed total MOTU richness and does not appear to draw close to an asymptote. In the liberal re-sort, the observed richness falls short of the estimated (Figure 3c), as expected, but the estimators do reach asymptote by 14 sites sampled, with the Chao2 estimator of richness being 60.4 (reasonably above the observed total richness of 48). In comparing the fixed-protocol strategy (Figure 3d) and the flexible-protocol strategy (Figure 3e), both show stabilization of Chao2 and ICE, with the flexible-protocol method indicating lower richness estimates. Nine sites were not sufficient to estimate biodiversity in this system (thus excluding the time-based protocol). When all other strategies were compared at the 14 site mark, the rapid blitz (Figure 3b) and liberal re-sort (Figure 3c) provided the largest biodiversity estimators, with Chao2 of 90 and 60, respectively (Table 4). These are likely more accurate than the lower estimators, given that we have observed 48 MOTUs across strategies. Ten of these MOTUs are represented by a single specimen across all strategies.
Richness estimators were also generated a second time for the fixed- and flexible-protocol methods using the total number of sites surveyed, regardless of whether they contained Ostracoda. Values for the richness estimators were similar in magnitude between the two datasets, but decreased for all metrics for the fixed-protocol strategy and increased for two metrics for the flexible-protocol strategy (Table 4).
Discussion
Comparisons of sampling strategies
This study presents an a posteriori assessment of the effectiveness of five freshwater ostracod collecting strategies, in order to help to inform the design of non-expert bioblitzes. We have found that the five sampling strategies differed both in the composition of the MOTUs they yielded and in total richness. We noted that only three MOTUs were found in all of the sampling strategies, and 16 MOTUs were only captured by a single strategy (Figure 1). Differences in composition were further verified by the Bray dissimilarity coefficients, which computed the dissimilarity of the different sampling strategies based on resulting MOTU composition. This analysis found low levels of similarity between the sampling methods (Table 3). This lack of similarity between sampling methods is not particularly surprising, however, considering that all strategies under sampled the total diversity. Moreover, we have confounded differences in site selection, some temporal differences between the different sampling strategies, as well as with some differences in equipment used. What is of greater interest in this study however, is the effectiveness of the different sampling strategies to capture a proportion of the total detected diversity and to serve as a predictor of total diversity in the region.
Both site-based and individual-based rarefaction curves revealed the liberal re-sort method to be superior in capturing total richness in this system. While it is not surprising that sequencing more specimens would yield more MOTUs, what was unexpected was that this pattern held for a given sampling intensity. This method was based upon field collections for two other strategies (time-based and rapid-blitz), which were either ostracod or microcrustacean focused or which aimed to include a variety of suitable microhabitats. This method involved more liberal inclusion of specimens for molecular processing and deliberately excluded one large-bodied, conspicuous (blue-coloured), and common morphospecies.
We also computed richness estimates using non-parametric methods for each of the sampling strategies. While these analyses showed that none of the employed sampling strategies captured the total richness present in the system, there was variability among the strategies in their ability to estimate richness. We conclude that the most appropriate of the five strategies for non-expert bioblitzes, in terms of both capturing and estimating diversity in this system, is the liberal re-sort because it captured the highest number of MOTUs, resulted in the second-highest Chao2 total richness estimator, and the Chao2 estimator remained stable after only 6 sites sampled. These results confirm that building upon field methods that included selecting a diversity of microhabitat and then more liberally including specimens for molecular analysis was most successful in characterizing diversity in this system.
Implications of the evaluation of sampling strategies
In the past, deficiencies in freshwater ostracod sampling techniques led to the false conclusion that these animals were rare components of aquatic habitats . While this is no longer the case, care must still be taken to use appropriate sampling strategies for ostracods. Two factors that influenced sampling effectiveness were whether morphospecies-based or liberal sorting of specimens was used, and whether microcrustaceans were the main goal of a collection. This study demonstrated that the greatest amount of ostracod diversity was uncovered in a microinvertebrate bioblitz aimed at the collection of specific taxa using an micro-habitat focused field strategy and a liberal sorting strategy, both of which allowed for higher numbers of specimens to be analyzed regardless of field morphospecies status. The two-phase method of a preliminary genetic analysis followed by a liberal resort (initiated specifically because of the detection of numerous singletons during phase 1) was an efficient way to direct resources. While we have provided partial evidence for this conclusion, we recognize that the differences among the five sampling strategies analyzed retrospectively in this paper (e.g., number of sites, season, equipment used, and PCR primers) may have affected our results. We suggest that partial evidence based upon considering available data can inform micro-invertebrate sampling design, pending further evidence from studies on other habitats and taxa. We recommend the following guidelines for designing non-expert biodiversity sampling programs that can use DNA barcoding for identification of samples: (a) Sampling strategies must include various macro and microhabitats. This study showed that non-experts were able to improve biodiversity estimators by actively selecting a variety of microhabitats. (b) A minimum of two sorting sessions should be done post collection when preparing specimens for DNA barcoding. The first session should include the dividing of organisms into gross morphospecies and selecting a representative number from each unit for DNA barcoding. A second, more liberal sorting strategy should include more replicates from the existing taxonomic units (as was the case in the intensive re-sort featured in this study); this sorting should be informed by phase one, as time and cost efficiency can be increased by deliberately excluding abundant morphospecies detected during phase one. (c) The objective of the study should be considered along with recognition of the benefits of a taxon-specific approach to collection compared to whole-community analyses. Whenever possible, sub-teams (even if all are non-experts) should focus on particular taxa within a broader whole-community analysis.
We note that our findings are applicable only to regions where the expected diversity of the system is relatively low (i.e. subarctic or temperate systems), thus facilitating reaching asymptotes in the biodiversity estimators, as we observed here. Understanding patterns of global diversity as well as alpha and beta diversity patterns would require far more sampling in tropical systems to elucidate regional biodiversity.
Richness of the ostracoda of Churchill
This study also increased the known richness of the Churchill freshwater ostracod fauna. A previous multi-year study of ostracod diversity in the Churchill region by trained aquatic ecologists, including a multitude of sites and employing similar collection methods to our sampling strategies, yielded a total of 30 species identified through traditional taxonomy . Through DNA barcoding, we have here identified 48 genetic clusters, which we interpret as provisional species due to comparison with genetic divergences in other microcrustaceans [e.g. ; this represents an increase in species richness of 56%. Nevertheless, the Churchill system is still undoubtedly under sampled for Ostracoda, as we found 10 MOTUs represented by a single individual across all strategies.
The prior underestimation of invertebrate species richness in this sub-arctic site is common to a variety of taxa. For example, the diversity of the crustacean class Branchiopoda has been characterized in Churchill using similar collecting methods as employed here, combined with DNA barcoding and morphological examination . Interestingly, the known richness increased from 25 to 42 species/MOTUs , a similar proportional increase (68%) as we report here for the Ostracoda. This enhanced knowledge of MOTU richness in the microcrustaceans of Churchill, combined with their strong clustering patterns suggestive of species-level status of MOTUs, will be valuable for future studies of this site. Churchill has long been used as a model site for freshwater zooplankton community and population genetics studies [e.g. and is now being developed as a site for comprehensive community studies through the creation of a comprehensive DNA barcode library .
Next steps: whole-community bioblitzes?
DNA barcoding, arguably, originated with taxon-focused studies that consolidated data from many different sources . Many of the early DNA barcoding papers were focused on defining methods and showing the efficacy of DNA barcoding for different taxonomic groups (e.g. ). In this way, early DNA barcoding was often focused on questions such as “how can we reliably differentiate closely related species?” This question and these seminal works were important for establishing DNA barcoding as a key technique in ecology and biodiversity studies, but the focus behind DNA barcoding has partially shifted in recent years. In addition to creating reference libraries and uncovering cryptic species or species complexes, DNA barcoding is increasingly being used to answer complex mechanistic ecological questions [e.g. [58–60]. The further shift from single-taxa to whole-community sampling represents a significant trend in DNA barcoding research and one that is undoubtedly important. As DNA barcoding methods begin to be applied to whole communities to answer ecological questions, it is possible that despite increased taxonomic resolution with the genetic techniques, sampling programs aimed at whole communities may not be effective at capturing total diversity of certain groups. While collection efforts will remain a human effort, further advancement in next-generation sequencing technologies will contribute to the field of environmental DNA analysis , allowing for bulk sample analysis without the need for a sorting protocol. As demonstrated in this analysis, sorting protocol can have a profound impact on the results of a sampling strategy. After much-needed methodological advancements in understudied invertebrate taxa, environmental DNA analysis is poised to greatly contribute to community-level analyses of aquatic microinvertebrates [61, 62].
While our study has shown definite differences in how much of the ostracod community each sampling strategy was able to capture, different strategies still have their merits for different study objectives and research programs. Storey et al. tested two types of sampling methods for the collection of aquatic macroinvertebrates and noted that one method cost significantly less and was likely appropriate for research objectives such as long-term monitoring. The alternative method that they tested, however more costly and time consuming, proved to be more appropriate for studying new and unexplored areas . This has implications for our earlier discussion of citizen science and the popularity of bioblitzes; while time-based or rapid-blitz approaches may be attractive to this type of citizen scientist sampling campaign because they allow large groups of participants to be involved simultaneously, they may not be the most appropriate depending on the goals of the study.
Conclusion
While the main objective of this study was not to produce rigid rules for ostracod sampling programs conducted by non-experts, we nonetheless think that our findings have a place in current biodiversity science and the design of biodiversity sampling programs. By considering our findings, we hope that freshwater ecologists, and particularly those who engage in large-scale citizen science, can develop a set of best practices for these types of surveys and also recognize the utility of incorporating DNA barcoding into these programs. We found that sampling strategy had a substantial impact on species richness estimates of biodiversity surveys for a freshwater microinvertebrate fauna. Accumulation curves may approach an asymptote indicating completeness of sampling, but this can be attributed to artifacts of a sampling strategy limited not in scope but in methodological considerations. In our study, sampling strategies that were flexible in nature yielded higher species richness estimates than non-flexible sampling strategies, though consideration should be given to the benefits of a fixed-collection protocol in terms of comparative ecological analyses. We found that increasing the number of specimens analyzed during biodiversity surveys through the implementation of a liberal sorting strategy that is not reliant on morphospecies exposed additional diversity that was not originally appreciated by collectors based strictly on external morphological characteristics. This points to why DNA barcoding represents an excellent avenue with which to conduct biodiversity surveys of small-bodied organisms. Finally, strategies with an ostracod-specific or microcrustacean-focused collection mandate were more efficient than whole-community analyses at elucidating ostracod diversity on a per-site/time invested basis. Even with advanced molecular techniques, there should continue to be a balance when designing sampling programs.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful for support provided by the International Polar Year and Discovery Grant programs of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to SJA and to P. Hebert, as well as for support provided by the Government of Canada through Genome Canada and the Ontario Genomics Institute to the International Barcode of Life Project. We also thank the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation for funding the ongoing development of BOLD, which was essential for data management and analysis for this project. We thank staff at the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding at the University of Guelph for specimen preparation and molecular analysis. We are grateful to D. Steinke and S. Prosser for providing primer sequences. The staff at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre (CNSC) provided valuable logistical support throughout this endeavour as well as financial support through their Northern Research Fund. AKW and EEB received further support from the Northern Scientific Training Program of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (DIAND) federal agency of Canada. We thank J. Witt and P. Hebert for mentoring and guidance in the field. We also thank E. Noel, J. Wang, M. Young, K. Layton, and E. Chambers, for assistance in the field. Finally, we thank J. Sones, G. Martin, S. Eagle, N. Serrao, R. Hanner, and A. Smith for assistance in successful barcoding. Eight reviewers provided comments that greatly improved the manuscript.
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Authors’ contributions
BJL, AKW, and SJA conceived and designed the study. BJL and OZ completed the molecular laboratory analysis. BJL, AKW, EEB, and NWJ analyzed the data and prepared the figures. All authors conducted a portion of the field work and specimen sorting, wrote sections of the draft manuscript, and approved the final manuscript.
Brandon J Laforest, Amanda K Winegardner contributed equally to this work.
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Laforest, B.J., Winegardner, A.K., Zaheer, O.A. et al. Insights into biodiversity sampling strategies for freshwater microinvertebrate faunas through bioblitz campaigns and DNA barcoding. BMC Ecol 13, 13 (2013). https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/1472-6785-13-13
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- Species identification and delimitation with DNA. Which methods can be used to differentiate species by molecular data? Do different methods and different markers provide conflicting results?
- Characteristics of reference databases. Emphasis on BOLD and UNITE as barcode reference depositories. How to retrieve and analyze data and how to use the available tools in these databases. Creating and retrieving datasets for analysis with other software (e.g. MEGA, PTP, ABGD, GMYC).
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- Opportunities and challenges with DNA barcoding of plants.
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Estimating sample sizes for DNA barcoding
Zhang, A.B., He, L.J., Crozier, R.H., Muster, C., and Zhu, C-D. (2010) Estimating sample sizes for DNA barcoding. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 54 (3). pp. 1035-1039.
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Abstract
Sample size has long been one of the basic issues since the start of the DNA barcoding initiative and the global biodiversity investigation. As a contribution to resolving this problem, we propose a simple resampling approach to estimate several key sampling sizes for a DNA barcoding project. We illustrate our approach using both structured populations simulated under coalescent and real species of skipper butterflies. We found that sample sizes widely used in DNA barcoding are insufficient to assess the genetic diversity of a species, population structure impacts the estimation of the sample sizes, and hence will bias the species identification potentially. | https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/16988/ |
Since its introduction in 2003, DNA barcoding has proven to be a promising method for the identification of many taxa, including mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae). Many mosquito species are potential vectors of pathogens, and correct identification in all life stages is essential for effective mosquito monitoring and control. To use DNA barcoding for species identification, a reliable and comprehensive reference database of verified DNA ...
Nationwide inventory of mosquito biodiversity (Diptera: Culicidae) in Belgium, Europe Institute of Tropical Medicine
Pesticide resistance and characterization of resistance mechanisms in populations of Anopheles arabiensis (Diptera : Culicidae) and Tetranychus urticae (Acari : Tetranychidae) from Ethiopia Ghent University
Belgium on the lookout for exotic mosquito species (Diptera: Culicidae) Research Institute for Nature and Forest
number of interceptions in Belgium and suitability models developed for Aedes
albopictus (Skuse) in Europe, EMS are likely to establish and spread in Belgium.
A prerequisite for their control is their early detection. Therefore, the Belgian
federal authorities and the federated entities funded a 3-year active monitoring
project (MEMO) (July ...
Changes in species richness and spatial distribution of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) inferred from museum specimen records and a recent inventory: a case study from Belgium suggests recent expanded distribution of arbovirus and malaria vectors Institute of Tropical Medicine
First evidence of high knockdown resistance frequency in Anopheles arabiensis (Diptera: Culicidae) from Ethiopia Institute of Tropical Medicine Ghent University University of Antwerp
Introduction and establishment of the exotic mosquito species **Aedes japonicus japonicus** (Diptera: Culicidae) in Belgium University of Antwerp
First record of the West Nile virus bridge vector Culex modestus Ficalbi (Diptera Culicidae) in Belgium, validated by DNA barcoding Institute of Tropical Medicine
A thorough knowledge of the presence and spatio-temporal distribution patterns of vector species are pivotal to assess the risk of mosquito-borne diseases in Europe. In 2018, a Culex larva was collected during routine monitoring activities to intercept exotic Aedes mosquito species in the port of Antwerp (Kallo, Belgium). The larva, collected from a pond in mid-September, was morphologically identified as Culex modestus, and this ... | https://researchportal.be/en/search?search_api_fulltext=Culicidae&f%5B0%5D=fris_content_type%3Apublication |
© 2017 Jose D. Zúñiga, Morgan R. Gostel, Daniel G. Mulcahy, Katharine Barker, Asia Hill, Maryam Sedaghatpour, Samantha Q. Vo, Vicki A. Funk, Jonathan A. Coddington.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Zúñiga JD, Gostel MR, Mulcahy DG, Barker K, Hill A, Sedaghatpour M, Vo SQ, Funk VA, Coddington JA (2017) Data Release: DNA barcodes of plant species collected for the Global Genome Initiative for Gardens Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. PhytoKeys 88: 119-122. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.88.14607
The Global Genome Initiative has sequenced and released 1961 DNA barcodes for genetic samples obtained as part of the Global Genome Initiative for Gardens Program. The dataset includes barcodes for 29 plant families and 309 genera that did not have sequences flagged as barcodes in GenBank and sequences from officially recognized barcoding genetic markers meet the data standard of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life. The genetic samples were deposited in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History Biorepository and their records were made public through the Global Genome Biodiversity Network’s portal. The DNA barcodes are now available on GenBank.
DNA barcoding, GenBank, land plants
The Global Genome Initiative (GGI) is a Smithsonian Institution program to collect, organize, share, and study genomic samples of non-human species. The mission of GGI is to preserve and understand Earth’s genomic biodiversity. In pursuit of this mission, GGI aims to collect and preserve genome-quality tissue samples from all major lineages of life on Earth; foster biodiversity genomics research by generating DNA barcodes for dark taxa (i.e., those with no genetic data in online repositories); and promote the use of new technologies to study genomics across the tree of life. GGI supports the Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN), an international network of institutions interested in the preservation of non-human genomic samples (
The Global Genome Initiative for Gardens Program (GGI-Gardens) is a GGI-funded effort to collect and preserve genetic material from the plant Tree of Life that is not yet represented in any of GGBN’s partner institutions, and that are currently found in living collections around the globe. In its first phase, the program targeted living plant collections in the Washington, DC area and collected more than 1,800 genome-quality tissues from 209 families, 1007 genera and 1631 species. Moving forward, GGI-Gardens is focused on expanding its partnerships internationally to continue sample and preserve genomic biodiversity from all families and genera, and, potentially, species of plants on Earth.
The genetic samples collected to date have been deposited in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History Biorepository (http://naturalhistory.si.edu/rc/biorepository) and are available upon request to researchers across the globe (regulations on sampling leaf material can be found here). All corresponding specimen vouchers have been accessioned in the United States National Herbarium (US) or other recognized, partner herbaria. The GGI-Gardens protocol (
GGI’s barcoding strategy data-mines GenBank to detect taxonomic groups that do not have sequences flagged as barcodes, thus allowing GGI to focus sequencing efforts on lineages that are not represented in this repository. Using this method, GGI selected more than 500 plant genera from GGI-Gardens collections and generated sequences for four genetic markers according to the DNA barcode data standard (
Data are deposited in GenBank under accession numbers MF348326-MF350286 (see supplementary file 1 for the full list of accession numbers). A total of 1961 sequences have been submitted to GenBank representing 160 families and 521 plant genera, including 29 families and 309 genera that previously did not have sequences flagged as barcodes in this data repository. Two of the four genetic markers sequenced, rbcL and matK, have been officially recognized as barcoding regions for land plants (
All laboratory procedures and computer work were conducted in the Laboratories for Analytical Biology facilities at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC and at the Museum Support Center in Suitland, MD. The authors wish to thank Natalia Agudelo and Gabriel Johnson for their continuous support in the lab, Kathryn Faulconer, Sarah Gabler, Kadiera Ingram, Carol Kelloff, Monica Marcelli, Jacob Suissa and Kristen Van Nest for their participation in the collection and curation of the genetic samples and the associated voucher specimens, and Niamh Redmond and Michael Trizna for their advice on post-sequencing data management. This material is based upon work supported by the Global Genome Initiative and Smithsonian Institution Barcoding Network. Any paper(s) resulting directly from this specimen-processing project should reference support from the Smithsonian Institution’s DNA Barcode Network and the Laboratories of Analytical Biology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. | https://phytokeys.pensoft.net/article_preview.php?id=14607 |
DNA BARCODING TECHNOLOGY DISCUSSED AS AN INVALUABLE TOOL FOR GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION AT COP14
The 196 governments who are parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) met for their 14th conference (COP14) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, between the 17 and 29th of November 2018 under the slogan:
‘investing in biodiversity for people and planet’.
COP14 signs along the roads in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt
The Convention’s objectives include developing national strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, as well as the fair and equitable sharing of genetic resources. DNA barcoding was officially introduced at the 11th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) held in Hyderabad, India, in 2012. It was further reinforced in decisions at COP 13 (Mexico, 2016) and COP14 (Egypt, 2018).
DNA barcoding was first proposed in 2003 as a tool for specimen identification and species discovery. Today, it is being used for various regulatory purposes including product testing for consumer protection, rapid identification of invasive alien species and endangered species being trafficked illegally. At COP14, Parties were encouraged not only to foster the use of DNA barcoding technology for rapid identification of priority taxa but also to support related capacity-building activities in line with the strategy for the Global Taxonomy Initiative.
Making biodiversity identification accessible: the GTI Forum
GTI Forum live stream> https://www.cbd.int/webcast/gti-live
The Global Taxonomy Initiative Forum (GTIF), titled ‘Removing the taxonomic impediment for all citizens’, was held on the margins of COP14 on November 16, 2018, and was organized with the financial support of the Japan Biodiversity Fund. To aid in implementing the CBD, scientists and government representatives discussed ways of overcoming the taxonomic impediment, our inability to efficiently identify species.
The GTIF symposium opened with a keynote speech from Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Minister of the Environment and Energy of Costa Rica. When asked what we can do to overcome the taxonomic impediment, Rodriguez said that the two most important tools changing the rules of the game are the internet and DNA barcoding.
Dan Janzen, DiMaura Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Pennsylvania and the Co-coordinator of BioAlfa gave a virtual presentation via Skype on BioAlfa, an ambitious project to ‘biodevelop Costa Rica for itself and for the world’. BioAlfa aims to make Costa Rica ‘a model
From barcoding a whole country to
Interview with Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Minister of the Environment and Energy of Costa Rica at the
Interview with Tim Hirsch, the Deputy Director of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) at the
On behalf of all these workshops, Ibrahim (Department of Medicinal Plant Research and Traditional Medicine at the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD) in Abuja, Nigeria) discussed the outcomes and sustainable plans developed by the trainers. In addition, ten posters on each national course were displayed for the duration of COP14 at the Expert Kiosk on ‘Taxonomy and Invasive Alien Species’.
Including Ibrahim, two trainers (Mouna Rifi, National Institute of Agronomic Research of Tunisia, Tunis, Tunisia; Tatsiana Lipinskaya, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus) and one member of the project coordination team (Adriana Radulovici, CBG, Canada) joined
Belarus
Tatsiana Lipinskaya, Elena Makeyeva, Anna Moldovan
Bhutan
Kencho Dorji
Colombia
Nigeria
Jemilat Aliyu Ibrahim
Philippines
Adrian U. Luczon
Sri Lanka
W.J. Nimanthika, D.M.J.B. Senanayake
Suriname
Vanessa Kadosoe
Tunisia
Mouna Rifi
Turkey
Ayse Yildiz
Uruguay
Mariana Cosse
Posters on each national course displayed at the Expert Kiosk on ‘Taxonomy and Invasive Alien Species’.
GTI-DNA-tech posters displayed at the Expert Kiosk on ‘Taxonomy and Invasive Alien Species’.
GTI-DNA-tech posters displayed at the Expert Kiosk on ‘Taxonomy and Invasive Alien Species’ (top). GTI-DNA-tech trainers (right) Jemilat Ibrahim, Adriana Radulovici, Mouna Rifi, Junko Shimura, Tatsiana Lipinskaya (left to right).
GTI-DNA-tech trainers Jemilat Ibrahim, Adriana Radulovici, Mouna Rifi, Junko Shimura, Tatsiana Lipinskaya (left to right).
The forum included other talks related to biological collections, databases, DNA barcoding, and classical taxonomy from representatives of the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities, ASEAN Center for Biodiversity, and Nature & Science Foundation, an Egyptian NGO.
The GTIF symposium concluded with a presentation from Mehrdad Hajibabaei, Faculty Advisor for the Genomics Unit of CBG at the University of Guelph, Canada. Hajibabaei discussed BIOSCAN, the second project of the International Barcode of Life Consortium and its role in providing a baseline for biodiversity monitoring.
Mehrdad Hajibabaei, Faculty Advisor for the Genomics Unit of CBG at the University of Guelph, Canada discussing BIOSCAN.
The GTIF forum concluded with a round-table discussion on the importance of taxonomy for CBD implementation included suggestions for reducing the taxonomic impediment for all citizens, and increasing opportunities for capacity-building in new technologies related to taxonomy, such as DNA barcoding. The outcome of the discussion was incorporated into a report submitted for consideration during the COP14 negotiations.
Read more on:
COP14 Negotiations & Outcomes
The COP14 negotiations resulted in several outcomes related to DNA barcoding technologies:
Capacity-building and Technical and Scientific Cooperation
CBD/COP/14/24
COP invites Parties to:
“promote open access to biodiversity-related data that facilitates capacity-building as well as technical and scientific cooperation”
COP requests the Executive Secretary to:
“promote and facilitate training in DNA technologies, such as DNA barcoding for rapid species identification”
Digital Sequence Information (DSI) on Genetic Resources
CBD/COP/DEC/14/20
COP recognizes:
“the importance of digital sequence information on genetic resources…”
“that access to and use of digital sequence information on genetic resources contributes to scientific research”
“that further capacity to access, use, generate and
An Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group will be established (2019-2020) and tasked to:
- Define the concept, scope, and use of DSI
- Synthesize information on traceability of DSI and public/private databases of importance in the DSI context
- Synthesize information on benefit-sharing arising from commercial and non-commercial use of DSI
- Identify key areas for capacity building.
COP14 Side Events
During COP14, attendees were encouraged to present their research at side events. We highlight some events that discussed DNA barcoding.
Molecular Markers for Species Identification – organized by Nature & Science Foundation (Egypt)
Adriana Radulovici (CBG, Canada) introduced DNA barcoding and its role in biodiversity assessments, identification of priority species and various applications with regulatory importance. In addition, iBOL, BIOSCAN, GTI-DNA-tech and the role of citizen-science were highlighted and discussed with participants.
BioAlfa – Bioliteracy for all – organized by the Ministry of Environment and Energy, Costa Rica (MINAE)
Yeimy Cedeño Solis (MINAE) and colleagues presented on the goal and strategy of BioAlfa, as well as the legal aspects of conducting a whole-country species inventory.
Showcasing the work of the Consortium of Scientific Partners on Biodiversity – organized by CBD
The Consortium includes 24-member institutions, some of them involved in DNA barcoding projects. While not all partners were present, the Humboldt Institute and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS) discussed their respective DNA barcoding activities. The Humboldt Institute presented work related to CBD implementation, involvement in BIOSCAN, and the hosting of a GTI-DNA-tech training workshop in October 2018. RBINS presented on projects related to the validation of fish and seafood labeling, detection of invasive alien species, endangered and protected species, barcoding tissue of policy concern and RBINS collections.
Technical and Scientific Cooperation – Bio-Bridge Initiative (BBI) – organized by CBD
One example of technical and scientific cooperation showcased during the event was the training course titled, ‘Using DNA technologies for identification and study of alien and rare species’, organized jointly by BBI and GTI with funding from the Korean and Japanese governments. The GTI trained-trainers provided expertise for a regional course organized in Belarus that was open to CEE member countries that aimed to train people in DNA barcoding and lay the foundation of a regional barcoding network focused on aquatic invasive alien species and endemic plant species.
Closing thoughts
- COP14 requested the Secretariat of the CBD to facilitate capacity-building activities, especially for developing countries and those with economies in transition, to enable all countries to participate in the development and application of scenarios for the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity – ‘Living in harmony with nature’ where ‘by 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people’.
- Participants were invited to include opinions on a range of issues related to the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. The general message around the biodiversity crisis and climate change
wasthat we need to act quickly! This action requires involvement from everyone in society including women, youth, local communities, and Indigenous peoples.
The International Barcode of Life (iBOL) Consortium is using DNA barcoding in aid of this endeavor; iBOL is a research alliance of 31 nations with a mission to develop and apply a globally accessible, DNA-based system for the discovery and identification of all multi-cellular life. Their vision is to illuminate biodiversity for the benefit of all life. | http://ibol.org/blog/cop14-discuss-dna-barcoding/ |
Using this novel approach, Paul Barber, an assistant professor of biology at BU, discovered that biodiversity is greatly underestimated in the region of the Pacific known as the "Coral Triangle" and in the Red Sea. The study, which focused on coral reef-dwelling mantis shrimp (stomatopods), is the first to compare larval stage organisms to adults.
Through DNA barcoding – a new method not commonly used in aquatic settings – Dr. Barber and his colleague, Sarah Boyce of Harvard University, compared the DNA sequences of a random sampling of stomatopod larvae to a sequence database of most known mature species of mantis shrimp. The comparisons revealed numerous new varieties of shrimp that are completely unknown in their adult forms.
"Our results show that biodiversity in mantis shrimp in these regions is estimated to be at least 50 to 150 percent higher than presently believed," said Barber. "Given that few groups of marine organisms are as well studied as mantis shrimp, the biodiversity in other groups is likely even more poorly known. What’s unique about this study is that we didn’t just discover new species, we used DNA barcoding to quantify how much biodiversity is out there that we don’t know about."
According to Barber, the results suggest that examining marine life in the larval stage offers a new and highly effective way to estimate biodiversity since most organisms have a developmental phase where minute larvae disperse on ocean currents.
"For some groups of organisms, scientists can more easily collect larvae for sampling since the habitats of the mature marine species can be totally unreachable," said Barber. "This method gives us a better idea of how well we know a particular area. There may be parts of the world that we think we know a lot about, like the Caribbean for example, but the sequencing of larva there may uncover countless more species that we never knew existed."
In addition to an alternative way to explore marine biodiversity, Barber hopes the findings will promote conservation. Despite being considered a "biodiversity hotspot," the Coral Triangle is one of the most threatened marine environments in the world. Often areas with particularly high rates of biodiversity are targeted for conservation, so the new method could help by highlighting potential regions for protection.
Barber also believes this new information will move scientists one step closer to the goal of documenting the entire world’s species, both in aquatic and terrestrial settings.
Boston University. May 2006. | https://www.biologyonline.com/articles/research-finds-surveys-larval-stage |
Tempestini, Astrid et Rysgaard, Søren et Dufresne, France (2018). Species identification and connectivity of marine amphipods in Canada’s three oceans. PLoS ONE, 13 (5).
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Résumé
Monitoring the distribution of marine biodiversity is a crucial step to better assess the impacts of global changes. Arctic marine fauna is dominated by amphipods in terms of abundance and biomass. These peracarids are an important marine order of crustaceans but the number of species found in the different Canadian oceans is currently unknown. Furthermore, most species are difficult to identify due to poor taxonomic descriptions and morphological convergence. The aim of this study was to assess the species diversity of marine amphipods in the three Canadian oceans using DNA barcoding. To do so, we produced a database of DNA barcodes of amphipods from the three Canadian Oceans publicly available from the BOLD website to which we added 310 new sequences from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. We first delimited amphipod species based on barcode gap detection techniques and tree based method (bPTP) and then compared the composition of amphipods among the three oceans in order to assess the influence of past transarctic exchanges on Arctic diversity. Our analysis of 2309 sequences which represent more than 250 provisional species revealed a high connectivity between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Our results also suggest that a single threshold to delimitate species is not suitable for amphipods. This study highlights the challenges involved in species delimitation and the need to obtain complete barcoding inventories in marine invertebrates. | http://semaphore.uqar.ca/id/eprint/1719/ |
View: 4819Volume One of the thoroughly revised and updated guide to the study of biodiversity in insects The second edition of Insect Biodiversity: Science and Society brings together in one comprehensive text contributions from leading scientific experts to assess the influence insects have on humankind and the earth’s fragile ecosystems. Revised and updated, this new edition includes information on the number of substantial changes to entomology and the study of biodiversity. It includes current research on insect groups, classification, regional diversity, and a wide range of concepts and developing methodologies. The authors examine why insect biodiversity matters and how the rapid evolution of insects is affecting us all. This book explores the wide variety of insect species and their evolutionary relationships. Case studies offer assessments on how insect biodiversity can help meet the needs of a rapidly expanding human population, and also examine the consequences that an increased loss of insect species will have on the world. This important text: Explores the rapidly increasing influence on systematics of genomics and next-generation sequencing Includes developments in the use of DNA barcoding in insect systematics and in the broader study of insect biodiversity, including the detection of cryptic species Discusses the advances in information science that influence the increased capability to gather, manipulate, and analyze biodiversity information Comprises scholarly contributions from leading scientists in the field Insect Biodiversity: Science and Society highlights the rapid growth of insect biodiversity research and includes an expanded treatment of the topic that addresses the major insect groups, the zoogeographic regions of biodiversity, and the scope of systematics approaches for handling biodiversity data. | http://usakochan.net/download/insect-biodiversity-science-and-society-volume-1/ |
There is a push to document the biodiversity of the world within 25 years. However, the magnitude of this challenge is not well known, especially when it comes to vast and often inaccessible marine environments. To date, surveys of species diversity in the world’s oceans have focused on adult organisms, but new research from Boston University has found that studying marine life in its larval phase with DNA barcoding is a valuable way to estimate biodiversity.
Using this novel approach, Paul Barber, an assistant professor of biology at BU, discovered that biodiversity is greatly underestimated in the region of the Pacific known as the "Coral Triangle" and in the Red Sea. The study, which focused on coral reef-dwelling mantis shrimp (stomatopods), is the first to compare larval stage organisms to adults.
Through DNA barcoding – a new method not commonly used in aquatic settings – Dr. Barber and his colleague, Sarah Boyce of Harvard University, compared the DNA sequences of a random sampling of stomatopod larvae to a sequence database of most known mature species of mantis shrimp. The comparisons revealed numerous new varieties of shrimp that are completely unknown in their adult forms.
"Our results show that biodiversity in mantis shrimp in these regions is estimated to be at least 50 to 150 percent higher than presently believed," said Barber. "Given that few groups of marine organisms are as well studied as mantis shrimp, the biodiversity in other groups is likely even more poorly known. What’s unique about this study is that we didn’t just discover new species, we used DNA barcoding to quantify how much biodiversity is out there that we don’t know about."
According to Barber, the results suggest that examining marine life in the larval stage offers a new and highly effective way to estimate biodiversity since most organisms have a developmental phase where minute larvae disperse on ocean currents.
"For some groups of organisms, scientists can more easily collect larvae for sampling since the habitats of the mature marine species can be totally unreachable," said Barber. "This method gives us a better idea of how well we know a particular area. There may be parts of the world that we think we know a lot about, like the Caribbean for example, but the sequencing of larva there may uncover countless more species that we never knew existed."
In addition to an alternative way to explore marine biodiversity, Barber hopes the findings will promote conservation. Despite being considered a "biodiversity hotspot," the Coral Triangle is one of the most threatened marine environments in the world. Often areas with particularly high rates of biodiversity are targeted for conservation, so the new method could help by highlighting potential regions for protection.
Barber also believes this new information will move scientists one step closer to the goal of documenting the entire world’s species, both in aquatic and terrestrial settings.
Kira Edler | EurekAlert!
Further information:
http://www.bu.edu
At last, butterflies get a bigger, better evolutionary tree
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New treatment strategies for chronic kidney disease from the animal kingdom
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Let’s say the armrest is broken in your vintage car. As things stand, you would need a lot of luck and persistence to find the right spare part. But in the world of Industrie 4.0 and production with batch sizes of one, you can simply scan the armrest and print it out. This is made possible by the first ever 3D scanner capable of working autonomously and in real time. The autonomous scanning system will be on display at the Hannover Messe Preview on February 6 and at the Hannover Messe proper from April 23 to 27, 2018 (Hall 6, Booth A30).
Part of the charm of vintage cars is that they stopped making them long ago, so it is special when you do see one out on the roads. If something breaks or... | http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life-sciences/report-59049.html |
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial.
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Abstract
Invasive apple snails, Pomacea canaliculata and P. maculata, have a widespread distribution globally and are regarded as devastating pests of agricultural wetlands. The two species are morphologically similar, which hinders species identification via morphological approaches and species-specific management efforts. Advances in molecular genetics may contribute effective diagnostic tools to potentially resolve morphological ambiguity. DNA barcoding has revolutionized the field of taxonomy by providing an alternative, simple approach for species discrimination, where short sections of DNA, the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene in particular, are used as ‘barcodes’ to delineate species boundaries. In our study, we aimed to assess the effectiveness of two mitochondrial markers, the COI and 16S ribosomal deoxyribonucleic acid (16S rDNA) markers for DNA barcoding of P. canaliculata and P. maculata. The COI and 16S rDNA sequences of 40 Pomacea specimens collected from six localities in Peninsular Malaysia were analyzed to assess their barcoding performance using phylogenetic methods and distance-based assessments. The results confirmed both markers were suitable for barcoding P. canaliculata and P. maculata. The phylogenies of the COI and 16S rDNA markers demonstrated species-specific monophyly and were largely congruent with the exception of one individual. The COI marker exhibited a larger barcoding gap (6.06–6.58%) than the 16S rDNA marker (1.54%); however, the magnitude of barcoding gap generated within the barcoding region of the 16S rDNA marker (12-fold) was bigger than the COI counterpart (approximately 9-fold). Both markers were generally successful in identifying P. canaliculata and P. maculata in the similarity-based DNA identifications. The COI + 16S rDNA concatenated dataset successfully recovered monophylies of P. canaliculata and P. maculata but concatenation did not improve individual datasets in distance-based analyses. Overall, although both markers were successful for the identification of apple snails, the COI molecular marker is a better barcoding marker and could be utilized in various population genetic studies of P. canaliculata and P. maculata. | http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/1719/ |
Some considerations for analyzing biodiversity using integrative metagenomics and gene networks
- Lucie Bittner†1,
- Sébastien Halary†2,
- Claude Payri3,
- Corinne Cruaud4,
- Bruno de Reviers1,
- Philippe Lopez2 and
- Eric Bapteste2Email author
DOI: 10.1186/1745-6150-5-47
© Bittner et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010
Received: 21 July 2010
Accepted: 30 July 2010
Published: 30 July 2010
Abstract
Background
Improving knowledge of biodiversity will benefit conservation biology, enhance bioremediation studies, and could lead to new medical treatments. However there is no standard approach to estimate and to compare the diversity of different environments, or to study its past, and possibly, future evolution.
Presentation of the hypothesis
We argue that there are two conditions for significant progress in the identification and quantification of biodiversity. First, integrative metagenomic studies - aiming at the simultaneous examination (or even better at the integration) of observations about the elements, functions and evolutionary processes captured by the massive sequencing of multiple markers - should be preferred over DNA barcoding projects and over metagenomic projects based on a single marker. Second, such metagenomic data should be studied with novel inclusive network-based approaches, designed to draw inferences both on the many units and on the many processes present in the environments.
Testing the hypothesis
We reached these conclusions through a comparison of the theoretical foundations of two molecular approaches seeking to assess biodiversity: metagenomics (mostly used on prokaryotes and protists) and DNA barcoding (mostly used on multicellular eukaryotes), and by pragmatic considerations of the issues caused by the 'species problem' in biodiversity studies.
Implications of the hypothesis
Evolutionary gene networks reduce the risk of producing biodiversity estimates with limited explanatory power, biased either by unequal rates of LGT, or difficult to interpret due to (practical) problems caused by type I and type II grey zones. Moreover, these networks would easily accommodate additional (meta)transcriptomic and (meta)proteomic data.
Reviewers
This article was reviewed by Pr. William Martin, Dr. David Williams (nominated by Pr. J Peter Gogarten) & Dr. James McInerney (nominated by Pr. John Logsdon).
Background
Studying biodiversity
Improving knowledge of biodiversity will benefit conservation biology, enhance bioremediation studies, and could lead to new medical treatments. However there is no standard approach to estimate and to compare the diversity of different environments, or to study its past, and possibly, future evolution. Part of the problem is that analyses of biodiversity require both a clear definition of the term biodiversity, e.g. what are the relevant units of biodiversity considered, and a consensus on the methods relevant to quantify these units. However, biodiversity is a complex notion, which raises multiple questions that can be addressed from distinct perspectives. First, compositional or element-based accounts of biodiversity can inquire "What is there?". Then, scientists describe the variety of life forms (or bio-specifics) present in an ecosystem, such as the genes, organisms, species, clades, and communities. Second, functional account of biodiversity can examine what these elements are doing: "What is happening out there?". Here, the focus shifts towards the many functions fulfilled in the ecosystem. Third, a process-based perspective can address evolutionary questions, such as: "How did these elements and functions evolve?". Studies thus concentrate on how diversity is generated and sustained by processes, such as mutation, recombination, lateral gene transfer, ecological pressures, and the like. These profoundly different viewpoints lead to distinct estimates of natural diversity, highlighting most important issues regarding the identification and systematisation of biodiversity.
The element-based perspective typically offers various measures of biodiversity reflecting either the number and/or the phylogenetic diversity of bio-specifics, or their complementarity in various environments[7, 8]. It resulted in multiple biodiversity indices serving different purposes. In particular, Faith[6, 10] suggested to account for the whole hierarchy of bio- specifics (from lower-level genetic units to higher clades) and for within species diversity. However, the inventory of species - and the inventory of elements in general - has been criticized by philosophers for providing a static rather than a dynamic account of biodiversity, neglecting biological processes. Element-based approaches cleave the ecosystem into known static bits and pieces[12, 13], while deeper analyses of natural variation require a more integrated and dynamic understanding of the processes affecting the ecosystem as a whole. Then, relevant estimates of biodiversity cannot only be based on indices derived from lists of elements, they should also quantify the likelihood that a given ecosystem, as a whole, will continue producing natural diversity. Problematically, details of the functional integration of the many elements of an ecosystem, and of the evolutionary processes affecting their diversity, are almost always largely unknown. Hence, practical (and quantitative) process-based studies of biodiversity have only recently got under way.
Since no single perspective provides a satisfactory account of biodiversity, confronting multiple approaches can suggest possible improvements in biodiversity studies. Here we contrast two approaches that are among the many tools used for studying biodiversity: microbial metagenomics and DNA barcoding. Based on their divergences, we propose an integrative approach aiming at the simultaneous examination (or even better at the integration) of the elements-based, function-based and process-based perspectives in biodiversity studies, thanks to massive sequencing of multiple environmental markers. We argue that it should be preferred over DNA barcoding and metagenomic studies based on a single marker for a variety of organisms for which the definition of species is ambiguous (prokaryotes and eukaryotes alike). Finally, we discuss how network-based analyses of such molecular datasets could benefit biodiversity studies.
The two diverging tracks of microbial metagenomics and DNA barcoding Species is not the relevant unit in metagenomic studies
Both studies of microbial metagenomics and DNA barcoding initially adopted an element-based perspective of biodiversity. They focused on the identification and the quantification of compositional units rather than on the processes sustaining the diversity (with, later, major exceptions concerning metagenomics). Interestingly however, microbial metagenomics and DNA barcoding differed in their units of interest.
Microbial metagenomics is an assumed gene-centric perspective, that consists of the direct sequencing of environmental DNA. It uses either one marker (sequenced at very high depth) or many (generally randomly amplified) to analyze phylotypes and/or functional categories. Phylotypes are groups of homologous sequences (usually the 16 S rRNA) whose members share more than a given percentage of similarity (e.g. over 99% of sequence identity). They are defined to assign environmental sequences to a taxon of reference, by BLASTing the phylotypes against databases of identified taxa[25, 26]. This 'taxonomic' assignation highly depends on the gene's conservation across taxa, the depth of the taxonomic sampling in the databases, the taxon richness and evenness in the environmental sample, the sequence read length and the impact of lateral gene transfer (LGT) in the environment and in the reference database. LGT is caused by processes such as transposition, transduction, and conjugation. LGT results in significant variations in the gene content of even closely related strains thriving in different environments. Consequently, a single gene, even the 16 S, provides limited information about biodiversity[29–32], and does not necessarily allow reliable prediction of community metabolism, physiology, biochemistry and ecology. Typically, different ecosystems that cannot be distinguished by their phylotypes can be distinguished by their functions.
Importantly, microbial metagenomicists acknowledge that phylotypes are defined ad hoc in order to obtain discrete categories, usable in various calculations of diversity (such as rarefaction curves or Chao1 estimates[8, 9]). Likewise, environmental sequences are binned into functional categories, based on BLAST searches against reference databases[23, 34] (KEGG, Pfam, SEED). Such practical units aim at sampling the total genetic diversity to expand our knowledge of the gene content, functional significance and genetic variability in natural communities[1, 22, 33]. A key point here is that microbial metagenomics does not use species as the standard unit to describe and to quantify biodiversity.
Second, species raise the issue of intra-approach pluralism in microbial biodiversity studies (Figure 1A). Even with a given species concept, one can sort the same organisms into conflicting classifications, depending on the empirical evidence at hand. In prokaryotes, this conflict in species definition is largely due to the prevalence of LGT. For instance, since recombination is usually limited to parts of a genome, the definition of recombining-species depends on which part of the genome is selected[46, 49]. Likewise, given the frequency of LGT, and since genetic isolation occurs on a gene-by-gene basis in prokaryotes, different clusters of genes of an organism's genome legitimately support different -uncoupled- evolutionary histories. It affects the identification of phylogenetic- species. Hence, in the absence of a unified species concept, counting species will always be problematic, method-, marker-, and possibly sample-dependent. Instead, more precise operational units could be used to capture genetic biodiversity at multiple levels, and ideally to reveal the evolutionary processes taking place in an environment[38, 39].
Species is the relevant unit in DNA barcoding studies
DNA barcoding contrasts with metagenomics. DNA barcoding is currently mostly used on multicellular eukaryotes but with the ambition of studying the entire diversity of life. It is a minimalistic strategy, that has aided taxonomic work and biodiversity studies, by sorting and clustering specimens collected in the field, contributing to species discovery by flagging genetically distinct lineages. Barcoders sequence 400-600 base pairs of a single molecular marker (or barcode) with a strict uniparental inheritance[17, 50], such as the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 gene, to divide life into such natural units. Comparative analyses of these barcodes can serve to define species boundaries (although it is not their only use), and to study genetic diversity within these species. Pairwise distances (usually p-distances) are inferred from the barcodes of all specimens under study. Under the assumption that pairs of sequences from a same species are more similar than pairs of sequences from different species, the presence of multiple species in a sample should produce a characteristic barcode-gap[50, 52], separating sequences with low p-distances from sequences with high p-distances on an histogram of p-distances frequencies (Figure 1B). Such graphs are used to compute a minimal p-distance over which two sequences do not belong to the same species. Alternative approaches use maximum likelihood-based methods, models of coalescence and speciation processes, to delineate groups of specimens belonging to a same species from barcode sequences[53, 54]. In both cases, these barcode-based species are tentatively assigned to a known species by comparison with sequences from previously recognized taxa to refine estimates of intra-specific genetic variation. In absence of matches with reference species, each group of specimens sharing very similar barcodes is identified and counted as a new species. Their monophyly on a representative gene tree is sometimes a further condition[50, 56]. Finally, in DNA barcoding, when such groups are proposed, no additional genes are generally required to evaluate biodiversity. No functional analysis is achieved.
In what follows, we won't question DNA barcoding first objective (i.e. to assign unknown specimens to already recognized species, thanks to a DNA-library of named specimens). This approach has the potential to produce estimates of the genetic diversity within accepted species. Our claim will only concern DNA barcoding second - exploratory- goal (i.e. enhancing the discovery of new species, particularly in cryptic, microscopic and other organisms with complex or inaccessible morphology, considering that genetic-species could be delineated based on the analysis of the genetic distances between unassigned specimens, using the working hypothesis that inter-specific genetic distances should have greater values than intra-specific ones). More precisely, the fact that DNA barcoding and microbial metagenomics offer separate recipes to estimate biodiversity raises questions concerning which units and methods provide the most informative account of biodiversity using molecules.
Presentation of the hypothesis
The pragmatical road to integrative metagenomics
Differences in assessment of biodiversity by DNA barcoding and microbial metagenomics may be reasoned by contrasting their biological scope: microbial metagenomics mostly studies prokaryotes (affected by LGT) and DNA barcoding has yet mostly studied eukaryotes (resistant to LGT). Certainly, estimates of the diversity of elephants and the diversity of E. coli are pretty different questions. However, a deeper explanation of the differences between DNA barcoding and microbial metagenomics probably lies in their distinct underlying philosophies, with respect to the 'species problem'.
Identifying species problems
Unlike microbial metagenomics, DNA barcoding implicitly endorses a unified species concept (USC). At first look, an USC offers a unique advantage: the possibility of unambiguous definitions of species, and thus of informative units that can be compared in biodiversity studies. The most popular USC is the general lineage concept [57, 58] of de Queiroz. In that theory, species correspond to separately evolving lineages of metapopulations. The various rules defining diverse species taxa (ecological, phylogenetic, biological, and so on) do not directly define the species boundaries. They only capture distinct secondary properties of the species, providing operational criteria that emphasize different processes responsible for some coherence between organisms. The species boundaries can however be derived by analyzing how the groups defined by these distinct secondary operational criteria overlap. In particular, if they all largely agree, the species is simply bounded by the intersection of the groups (Figure 1C). All the species members then share a common biochemistry, physiology, sexual behaviour, phylogeny, and ecology. In that ideal case, a group of organisms identified by DNA barcoding only provides a good proxy for the species boundaries, and a valuable measure of biodiversity. One might however wonder whether the different groups proposed by distinct secondary concepts should always largely intersect, and if not, whether counting species, using DNA barcoding groups as a proxy, provides meaningful estimates of biodiversity.
When different criteria support conflicting (or weakly overlapping) groups of organisms, a 'grey zone' appears. For us, two sorts of grey zones (Figure 1D&1E) strongly confuse species-based estimates of biodiversity attempted by DNA barcoding. First, when the various secondary properties defining the groups arose at different times in the process of speciation, the groups that can be proposed will be typically nested (Type I grey zone, Figure 1D). Such compatible albeit incongruent groups have been very often reported in studies of eukaryotic diversity[60–63]. Second, the different criteria can define partly overlapping (e.g. not nested) sets of organisms (Type II grey zone, Figure 1E). Many biological processes lead to this result, such as incomplete lineage sorting associated with very rapid or recent speciations, introgression, hybridization and polyploïdy. Differences in organellar and/or nuclear evolution also produce legitimate disagreement between groups inferred using these two sources of characters, when nuclear and organellar genomes have distinct coalescence times , effective population sizes[65, 66], or when biparental inheritance[67, 68] and heteroplasmy of the organelles is undetected. Moreover, in organisms and lineages with variable frequencies of sexual reproduction and clonality, several combinations of the migration rates, ranges and modes of dispersal equally generate non-nested genetic, morphological, ecological, and phylogenetic groups. Type II grey zones were notably reported in 17% of the 89 studies conducted using phylogenetic and non- phylogenetic concepts to analyze the diversity of multicellular eukaryotes (e.g. grass, fungi, and metazoans). Importantly, no such estimate has yet been compiled for unicellular eukaryotes: the level of incongruence between groups used to define the species boundaries may be comparable to that of multicellular eukaryotes, but the correspondence between DNA sequence clusters, ecotypes and morphospecies is still largely unknown for protists [61–63, 70, 71].
Dealing with species problems
Type I grey zones confronts DNA barcoding studies of biodiversity to serious practical issues. Identifying bona fide species in such a continuum of groups within groups poses the famous ranking problem, e.g. the need for decision criteria to assign monophyletic lineages to distinct taxonomical ranks. Unfortunately, the USC, that justifies DNA barcoding approach, does not offer any additional operational criteria to decide where the species ends and starts. A comparable conundrum was for thinstance met when biologists attempted to discriminate species from varieties in the XIX century. When no real boundary but only arbitrary differences existed between the two, Darwin compared the ranking problem to defining the indefinable. He concluded that we, not nature, draw divisions - and identify species - for pragmatic reasons.
It is thus important to wonder whether DNA barcoding operates pragmatic divisions, relevant for biodiversity analyses, and in particular defines species so they can be compared between studies. Some considerations suggest that it is unfortunately not the case. First, there is no universal barcode[72–76]: different markers must be used for different organisms. Thus, biodiversity studies cannot always compare like to like. Second, not all datasets present a nice barcode gap, which affects the delineation of groups. Moreover many artefacts produce barcode gaps, hindering the identification of bona fide species[76, 77]. For instance, the threshold over which two sequences are considered too distant to belong to the same species is directly affected by the sampling effort[61, 78], and by the biology of the organisms under study. In particular, issues of hidden paralogy, presence of nuclear copies of mitochondrial genes, cases of biparental inheritance[67, 68], variable coalescence times[80, 81], unequal molecular evolutionary rates and migration rates can bias groups definitions. Unlike phylotypes in microbial metagenomics analyses, units by which biodiversity is counted are not held constant in independent DNA barcoding studies. Typically, the pairwise distance corresponding to species membership changes with the sampling effort and between samples . Thus direct quantitative and qualitative comparisons of biodiversity estimates are not feasible, which seriously limits the evaluation of the extent and of the evolution of biodiversity, across environments and over time.
Type II grey zones, which result from the genuine identification of different types of lineages, caused by distinct processes pose a different practical puzzle. It extends the problem of inter-approach pluralism to DNA barcoding analyses. The USC leads to the identification of species that are actually heterogeneous in terms of biological processes and structures. For that reason, species have limited explanatory power. The groups proposed by DNA barcoding approaches no longer convey much information about the ecology, physiology, etc. of the species and about the processes (migration, interbreeding, adaptations, duplications, transpositions, etc.) sustaining these properties. Biodiversity measures based on a single feature will unfortunately provide an unrepresentative estimate. The larger the type II grey zone, the bigger the issue. Hence, it might appear more pragmatic to devise additional units with explanatory and predictive utility, for instance interbreeding groups, ecological groups, smallest phylogenetic groups worthy of recognition, to assess what processes crucially maintain biodiversity[60, 84, 85]. This solution seems even more relevant if, for type II grey zone, the use of different barcodes produces different groups (Figure 1E). Such cases of intra- approach pluralism may further distort biodiversity estimates in DNA barcoding studies, since disagreement between barcodes is not unexpected[61, 71, 86].
Corallinales as a case-study
Corallinales are a worldwide distributed order of red algae with calcite in their cell walls. They often reproduce asexually via thallus fragmentation, direct asexual spores, produce unattached rhodoliths and grow on every favourable substratum (i.e. shells, drifting woods, drifting algae). Delineating species within Corallinales is difficult, because environmental conditions (such as the strength of currents) impact their morphology and collected specimens are generally sterile. DNA barcoding approaches were recently applied to small, geographically restricted, datasets of Corallinales[87, 88]. It was reported that intra- specific genetic diversity was at least twice smaller than the inter-specific genetic diversity between already recognized morpho-species, suggesting that DNA barcode studies could help discovering new species of Corallinales. However, analyses of additional sequences from two markers (240 mitochondrial CO1 genes and 495 plastidial psbA genes), mainly from South Pacific Ocean (Additional file 1) unravelled both type I and type II grey zone related issues for these taxa.
Second, the mutually incompatible groupings proposed by these markers could reflect lineage sorting, as illustrated in previous studies on seaweeds. Since CO1 and psbA maximum likelihood trees (reconstructed with a GTR+I+G4 model, 1000 bootstrap replicates by RaxML) showed at least one strongly supported phylogenetic conflict, we also suspect that organellar inheritance has not been strictly maternal in these Corallinales. Two processes - the coalescence of sporelings and the fusion of crustose individuals- may have produced genetic mergers. In addition, phylogeographic analyses indicated that individual Corallinales are good dispersers, as identical sequences of CO1 and psbA were found over 1800 to 6300 kms of distance (Figure 3.B). Thallus fragmentation and reattachment on drifting substrates, and a quick dispersal of haploid spores by strong currents can introduce individuals in a locality, which generates apparent "barcode gaps", if the incoming individuals are genetically different from the majority of the local population. Yet, at a larger scale, this dispersal of Corallinales results in a continuum of genetic diversity (Figure 2).
Both theories and case-studies indicate that grey-zone related issues are common[51, 60] rather than the exception, which too often limits the efficacy of methods based on a single marker to enumerate "what is there" in a pragmatic way. Consistently, the use of a larger number of barcodes[8, 27] and of more data is recommended to test when DNA barcoding proposes robust groupings[51, 64, 94–96], as advocated by the tenants of an integrative taxonomy combining DNA barcoding with other lines of evidence[97, 98]. Typically, corroborative data (ecology, morphology, other genes) can help to assign species status to barcode groups. When groups are robust, intra-approach pluralism is - at least - not an issue. Yet, as the sequencing of additional independent barcodes is increasingly recognized a requirement to design robust DNA barcoding analyses, the scope of DNA barcoding will likely expand, and become some sort of multi-marker ... metagenomics. This transition is possible because, although these approaches are rooted in distinct philosophies about species, for most organisms, they largely face similar practical issues as they lack a pragmatic way to define these units.
Testing the hypothesis
The highway of strategic networks
To date, metagenomic analyses of multiple random markers seem the most pragmatic recipe to study "what is out there" when informative species taxa cannot be easily identified. However, an inclusive framework is still required to organize vast amounts of molecular data, and to provide information about two other key questions of biodiversity studies: "what is happening?" and "how did this diversity evolve?" Remarkable biodiversity studies have already offered deep biological insights by integrating the results of genetic, taxonomic (using phylotypes) and functional analyses of metagenomic (and metatranscriptomic) datasets, with explicit concerns for the processes maintaining the diversity in communities and environments [31, 33, 99–102]. For instance, Qu et al. unravelled dynamic microbial communities in chicken cecal microbiomes, adjusting to their hosts diet, thanks to mobile DNA elements carrying abundant antibiotic resistances. We will briefly argue that further developments of evolutionary gene networks (EGN) may be a natural follow-up for such studies of integrative metagenomics, be they used to investigate the diversity of one or several environments, or of a set of specimens.
Observing what and how many OGF are shared (or not) between various samples may be a first step for a biodiversity study. OGF will vary with the threshold retained to define significant similarities, and in that regard OGF definition is just as arbitrary as the decision on where to apply new species names. However, since EGN analysis is inclusive, OGF are defined simultaneously for different samples and environments, and the diversity of different samples can then be compared in one study. The richness and evenness of OGF in a sample, or the complementarity between samples, can be measured with usual diversity indices and methods applied to OGF (Shannon, Pielou, Chao1, ACE, rank-abundance or saturation curves)[7–9]. Furthermore, since EGNs are mathematical objects, their topological properties[103, 104] (Figure 4) can be exploited to the benefit of biodiversity studies.
For instance, let's assume that sodium exporters are strongly enriched in marine environments, while potassium exporters are strongly enriched in soils, reflecting the abundance of these ions in these environments. In an EGN comprising sequences from soil and marine samples, OGF with sequences of potassium exporters, and OGF with sequences of sodium exporters, should have more representatives, thus comprise more nodes than average OGF. If in addition novel forms of potassium exporters recently evolved in some soils only (e.g. in farm soils), these new sequences will occupy remarkable -peripheral- positions in OGF with potassium exporters, affecting the very topology of the EGN. Centrality measures, useful for identifying nodes with remarkable positions in a graph can be used to single out such peripheral sequences, since sequences only associated with farm soils will loosely connect with the other potassium exporters sequences. Moreover, the genetic diversity introduced by these new forms of potassium exporters can be quantified by measuring their impact on the diameter of the OGF (the larger its diameter, the more genetically diverse the OGF is). In general, EGNs may thus prove helpful to identify what sequences and gene families play an important functional role, and had their evolution likely impacted by their milieu (Figure 5).
Suppose now that the novel forms of potassium exporters from a given farm soil are all strongly connected in one OGF. In terms of graph theory, they belong to a module, which may typically serve to reveal the evolutionary and ecological processes sustaining the diversity in this environment. If the number of organisms in the farm sample was large relatively to the number of sequences obtained, each sequence in the module likely comes from a different organism. Thus, standard population genetics techniques applied on these sequences could provide both refined estimates on the extent of recombination and on the selective pressures acting on potassium exporters sequences in that sample. Similar investigations could be extended to get global estimates, by considering all the sequences from a given sample, falling in all the modules present in the EGN. Finally, global estimates on the processes maintaining the genetic and functional diversity in the samples (e.g. transposition, transfer, molecular regulation and duplication) can also be obtained by counting the relative proportions of OGF with duplicated sequences, homology to transposons[101, 109], phages[22, 33] or plasmids, or harbouring toxin/antitoxin systems. Integration of these various lines of knowledge on bioprocesses and biospecifics in a single EGN might then suggest what evolutionary process affect what OGF (and thus what functions), in what environment (Figure 5).
Implications of the hypothesis
Biodiversity is far too complex to be adequately addressed by any single approach. For that reason, DNA barcoding approaches and the massive sequencing of multiple markers are obviously not mutually exclusive. However, the latter can comprise the former (while the opposite is not true). Since integrative metagenomics is more inclusive than DNA barcoding, we recommend scientists designing biodiversity studies to use either both approaches as complementary, or for pragmatic reasons - when species problems are observed or expected-, to couple integrative metagenomics with EGNs methods. This latter protocol has the potential to improve the identification and the quantification of biodiversity. It reduces the risk of producing biodiversity estimates with limited explanatory power, biased either by unequal rates of LGT, or difficult to interpret due to (practical) problems caused by type I and type II grey zones. Moreover, it would be easy to include (meta)transcriptomic and (meta)proteomic data in such EGNs, as it would only require the inclusion of such additional molecular sequences in the analyses. The resulting EGNs would then provide a precious framework and useful mathematical tools for studying the almost instantaneous changes in biodiversity, and the immediate catalytic potential of different environments. Relative variations in EGNs, for environmental samples obtained over time or across sites, would thus return relevant indications on the flexibility and resilience of the environment.
Reviewers' comments
Review by William Martin (Institut fuer Botanik III, Heinrich-Heine Universitaet Duesseldorf Universitaetsstr. 1, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany)
This is a fine paper underscoring the need to take metagenomic data and network approaches into consideration in biodiversity issues. There is no need for major revision in my view, but I came away with three impressions.
Number one, a real life example comparing barcode and "metanet" data for biodiversity investigation, head to head, would perhaps be instructive.
We agree. We added a new section entitled 'Corallinales as a case-study' to better illustrate the limit of barcode approaches on real datasets, and how this limit could be in part explained by highlighting two evolutionary processes (unequal evolutionary rates in markers and high organismal dispersal range) using two very simple gene networks (Figure 3A and 3B). First, using identical settings for the display, a metanet showed that, for the same 206 specimens, CO1 sequences present more divergence than psbA sequences, which means that CO1 had a higher rate of evolution than psbA in these organisms. Second, we used metanets to identify which identical sequences (or nearly identical ones, depending on the threshold selected) were found in geographically different sites, thus testifying of the long distance dispersal of these taxa. We hope that this very simple case study will encourage future metanet analyses of Corallinales (through the sequencing of additional genes from such specimens), and then allow a much finer head to head comparison. We also revised our example of a real environmental metanet (Figure 5) to better illustrate modules, environmental specific gene families, abundant families, rare families, transferred families and what parts of the graph singled out markers that are amenable to population genetics analyses.
Second, in the network analyses, a threshold of sequence similarity has to be introduced; in the paper, the sentence reads: "Two nodes are connected by edges if their sequences show significant similarity". Deciding where to draw that line is just as arbitrary as the decision on where to apply new species names or where to delineate taxon × from taxon y using barcode data. That needs to be said, I think, to be honest that there is no easy way out of these problems and that networks pose new problems of similar nature as the old ones.
We agree and edited the text to make this point clear. An important difference however with separated DNA barcode analyses and the metanet approach is that metanets are inclusive. Thus the diversity of various datasets can be directly compared, as a same threshold is applied to quantify comparable 'elements' in all of these datasets simultaneously.
Third, taxonomists often used, and still use, the trusty concept of "discontinuous variation" when it comes to drawing lines. That concept would be useful here, as much of these biodiversity debates concern the question of discontinuity in variation. (Darwin recognized that).
Discontinuous variation is indeed of great importance, and we now mention it in the revised version of the MS. In metanet analyses, discontinuous variations can be easily identified at two levels. First there are discontinuities between the different Operational Genes Families (OGFs). Second, certain type of discontinuous variation can be unambiguously detected within a OGF using centralities. Typically, OGFs comprising two clusters of sequences only bridged by one intermediate sequence but no other direct connections is an obvious case of discontinuity. These remarkable patterns can be quantified, and their numbers between datasets compared in a single inclusive analysis.
Some thought could be give to that, or not.
These are definitely important questions. We thank the referee very much for his helpful comments on these three essential points.
Review by Dr. David Williams (nominated by J Peter Gogarten) (Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-31258, USA)
This article tackles two areas linked by the 'species concept' problem: the ideal of a universally applicable measure of biodiversity across all Domains of life, and a standardised and inclusive way of dealing with the nebulous data from metagenomic surveys. The arguments are clearly presented and I agree with them. Ultimately, EGNs fulfill the authors' billing as a useful addition to the metagenomic toolkit with more potential for integrative analyses.
Many metagenome studies group similar sequences together ('binning') to allow quantitative analyses. Evolutionary Gene Networks (EGNs) place clustered sequences into operational gene families (OGFs) which are analogous to bins but place an emphasis on the diversity and process information within and between these units which I think is a good thing. However, OGFs and lower-level modules are ultimately determined by arbitrary cutoffs in BLAST scores or a chosen clustering method respectively. The authors state there are multiple ways of defining clusters and EGN sub-units. To what extent do biodiversity conclusions vary with different BLAST cutoff scores and module definitions/clustering approaches? Are potential variations great enough for a recommendation towards specific, standardised clustering approaches or cutoff scores?
Indeed, conclusions may vary with the different BLAST cutoff scores selected: higher cutoff scores will define more stringent OGFs (e.g. OGFs with sequences showing more identity), lower cutoff scores will define looser OGFs (e.g. OGFs with more divergent sequences, such as fused or fissioned sequences, fast evolving sequences, and so on). Importantly, EGNs can then be different as the cutoff changes, especially when the processes sustaining diversity changed over time. As such, EGNs provide a great way to test whether such changes occurred (and for which gene families it occured). That's why we would recommend to explore a range of cutoff scores: from very low ones (e.g. BLAST scores of 1e-5 to study the evolution of biodiversity over the longest time period possible) to very high ones (e.g. BLAST scores of 0 plus 100% of identity between sequences). If the number of OGFs plateaus as a function of these cutoff scores, then one can be confident that the structure and the biodiversity observed in the EGN is robust over time. What is essential however is that the EGNs are both inclusive and grounded in a pragmatic perspective: the questions one wants to address determine what level of cut-off is required. Consequently, it is also important to keep in mind that both high and low cutoff scores have their merits. Consider two extreme cases. First, at low BLAST scores (e.g. of 1e-5), some families will show diverging sequences, but other won't, suggesting that the later have a much more constrained evolution than the former. Second, very high cutoff scores (e.g. BLAST scores of 0 plus 100% of identity) will allow for instance to identify identical sequences dispersed over long geographical distances.
If rates of evolution across a metagenome vary, is a common BLAST cutoff score across one or more datasets appropriate for inferring the potentially heterogenous processes causing diversity? If inferences of evolutionary processes are to be inferred from network topology, do the authors consider it feasible or desirable to use models of sequence evolution to provide evolutionary distances for weighting edges instead of BLAST scores?
For some studies, simple EGNs (with homology or BLAST scores) will be very useful and sufficient to improve our knowledge on biodiversity and its evolution. In other cases, it can certainly be desirable to use models of sequence evolution to provide evolutionary distances to weight the edges of EGNs, instead of BLAST scores, in particular when sequences fall in a tight cluster (which means that all of them can be aligned). In general though, developing new evolutionary models (and distances) to generate EGNs with weighted edges that take into account heterogenous evolutionary processes seems a most interesting prospect.
Review by Dr. James McInerney (nominated by John Logsdon) (Molecular Evolution and Bioinformatics Unit, Biology Department, NUI Maynooth, Ireland)
I think this is a very interesting manuscript. The authors step back from any particular ecological dataset and consider the approaches that are being taken, their likely outcomes and their potential shortfalls. My own personal opinion is that we will really only begin to do meaningful microbial ecology when sequencing methods are invented that provide us with very long sequences. Some of the results presented here give a glimpse of the kinds of analysis that should be carried out (specifically the homology networks).
We agree with the referee and thank him very much for his interest in homology networks.
I agree with the authors that barcoding cannot get us very far in the prokaryotic world and there are serious limitations and serious questions about what is really being addressed when a barcode is derived from an organism.
We feel that it is a very important point: there are cases where the aims and scopes of DNA barcoding should be critically assessed. Assuming that this approach can be used as an exploratory tool to identify new species (which is the second aim of DNA barcoding, the first being to assign unknown specimens to already recognized species, thanks to a DNA-library of named specimens) will work in every case might lead to misleading results, caused by sampling artefacts and an excessive confidence in the existence of discontinuous variations (assumed rather than tested) in one's dataset. This claim should not be seen as a negative one however, but as a positive incentive for further critical developments in molecular based biodiversity studies (e.g. by promoting critical barcoding analyses, as well as the use of other approaches, when needed).
My points are relatively minor and relate to the text and some clarifications I would like to see with certain sentences. I hope this manuscript encourages more discussion of microbial ecology and in particular the methods and what the experiments really mean.
Specific points:
In your abstract you say that you came to your conclusions by evaluating the" two molecular approaches for assessing biodiversity. However, there are more than these two approaches, so perhaps it is best to drop the word 'the'.
We agree and corrected the sentence.
on page 3, you write: "Based on their divergences, we propose that an integrative approach aiming at the simultaneous examination (or even better at the integration) of the elements- based, function-based and process-based perspectives in biodiversity studies, thanks to massive sequencing of multiple environmental markers." This sentence does not read properly. Perhaps you did not mean to include the word 'that'?
We agree and corrected the sentence.
On page 4, when discussing LGT, you use the sentence "It affects the identification of phylogenetic-species." I presume it is LGT that affects the identification of phylogenetic species (also, I am not sure the hyphen is necessary). Perhaps this sentence can be changed to be more explicit?
We changed the text accordingly.
On page 4, you start a paragraph with "The contrast with DNA barcoding [...]" I found this opener difficult to interpret. What is being contrasted with what?
We revised that part of the MS, including additional sub-titles to clarify what was contrasted with what.
On page 5, the sentence "First, when the various secondary properties defining the groups arose at different times in the process of speciation, the proposed groupings are nested (Type I grey zone, Figure 1D)" changes tense and makes it difficult to read.
We changed the text accordingly.
Notes
Declarations
Acknowledgements
We thank Ford Doolittle, J. Leigh, F.J. Lapointe for critical reading of this manuscript, and two anonymous referees on a former version of the manuscript, as well as all the collectors. LB was supported by an MENRT grant from the French government.
Authors’ Affiliations
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Growing threats to biodiversity from pressure of land use, climate change, and invasive pests and diseases highlight the importance of obtaining accurate baseline measurements of current forest biodiversity, as well as improved monitoring to detect early signals of change. Developments in molecular techniques have advanced to the stage that there are now practical methods available that help reduce the costs and overcome the practical difficulties that restrict the breadth, speed and repeatability of species identification. This Research Note provides an overview of two molecular techniques, DNA barcoding and DNA metabarcoding, and the scope to use them in forest biodiversity surveys in support of a broad range of management and conservation objectives. DNA barcoding is widely used for the unambiguous identification of single species based on DNA extracted either directly from the organism itself, or from environmental DNA via hair, droppings and other cellular debris left in the environment it inhabits. DNA metabarcoding enables the identification of multiple species present in a single sample in a timely and cost-efficient manner. This creates opportunities to explore species interactions, to identify species within a community that may pose a biosecurity risk, and to investigate multiple species responses to environmental change arising naturally or through management interventions. | https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/research/using-dna-barcoding-and-metabarcoding-to-detect-species-and-improve-forest-biodiversity-monitoring/ |
- ACCIONA acknowledges that biodiversity in itself is a vital natural resource of great value and supports its appreciation and preservation as a pre-requisite for economic development and social progress.
Today, Monday 22 May 2017, is International Day for Biological Diversity whose motto this year is Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism; moreover, the United Nations has declared 2017 to be the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development. This day commemorates the adoption of the Agreed Text of the Convention on Biological Diversity, an international treaty whose general aim is to promote measures leading to a sustainable future.
As we know, climate change is seriously threatening biodiversity, whereas biodiversity has the potential to mitigate the impact of climate change. Biodiversity preservation must be a key consideration when designing development strategies. Accordingly, ACCIONA identifies and assesses potential impacts on biodiversity in the design, construction, operation and maintenance phases of its activities. Under its Sustainability Master Plan 2020, ACCIONA's strategic objective is to achieve a neutral biodiversity footprint.
The company recently published a report entitled 'ACCIONA, Global Commitment to Biodiversity', which presents some of the most interesting biodiversity preservation practices linked to ACCIONA's business activities, as well as outstanding actions within the company's Programme to Preserve and Improve Biodiversity.
Since 2012, ACCIONA has established a number of principles on biodiversity which are applied throughout the company and defined in its Biodiversity Policy. | https://www.acciona.com/updates/news/accionas-global-commitment-biodiversity/ |
6th Mass Extinction Of Wildlife Threatens Global Food Supplies
6th Mass Extinction Of Wildlife Threatens Global Food Supplies.
As the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity (2011–2020) reaches its mid-point, the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition has just begun (2016–2025). This 5 year overlap of global action offers a rare opportunity to bring together biodiversity and nutrition in novel ways for positive benefits to both. When people think of good nutrition, and about the diverse food groups that should be in a balanced diet, they rarely think about where those foods come from. By the same token, when people think about biological diversity, they may think about our animals, plants and birds in the wild, but they may not make the link to the amazing diversity that contributes to our food systems – the awe-inspiring diversity of species and varieties of cereals, pulses, fruits, vegetables, animals and fish – which have been developed by farmers over millennia and which are adapted to local customs and to different environments. Those links between production and consumption are important to sustainable food systems in order to have the richest possible food diversity on plates, sustainably sourced from the biological diversity that underpins agricultural systems. The Convention on Biological Diversity – with partners including Bioversity International – has spearheaded for ten years a Cross-cutting Initiative on Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition. Much progress has been made in bridging agricultural biodiversity and nutrition in these ten years, but more can be done to integrate these two agendas. Silo thinking still prevails in many cases, leaving nutrition practitioners and agricultural practitioners blind to the benefits of agricultural biodiversity to healthy, year-round diets and to resilient, adapted farming systems. The Sustainable Development Goals provide a renewed impetus for a focus on using biodiversity for food and nutrition and linking that to the sustainability of farming systems. Mainstreaming biodiversity in sustainable food systems is vital if we are to achieve those Goals by 2030. Using biodiversity for sustainable farming systems that produce diverse, nutritious foods will contribute to the conservation of these precious resources; conserving biodiversity resources will make them available for future climate scenarios and today’s nutrient needs. For this reason, the creation of an Agrobiodiversity Index, which can help bring production and consumption together for sustainable biodiversity-based solutions could go a long way to raise awareness about the multiple links between biodiversity, healthy nutrition and sustainable food production and, thereby, help promote the multiple aspects of sustainable food systems. Credit: Dr Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, Ex Sec for the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Read Article Here: | https://www.livingcoramdeo.com/2017/09/28/6th-mass-extinction-of-wildlife-threatens-global-food-supplies/ |
POWERED BY YOUTH:
Created and mandated by the UN General Assembly, UN MGCY is the formal mechanism for young people to meaningfully engage in the UN. UNMGCY works on a range of issues at the global, regional and national levels across the pillars of the UN- human rights, sustainable development - environmental, economic, social, and peace and security and organs of the UN- general assembly (GA), economic and social council (ECOSOC), security council, and secretariat.
With membership of over 6000 youth-led and youth-focussed organisations, its avenues of engagement span across 40+ intergovernmental and over 150+ multi stakeholder processes/avenues.
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Youth for Our Planet is a global movement of young people, calling on world leaders to urgently address the climate and biodiversity crises. The movement is made up of youth all over the world, with ‘mobilisers’ in 53 countries. Most YfOP mobilisers live in the Global South: there are 141 youth ‘mobilisers in Africa, 64 mobilisers in Asia, 31 mobilisers in Latin America and 21 mobilisers in Europe & Middle east.
Mobilisers are active young people that lead local and national campaigns and actions in their country. They are supported by Regional Mobilisers, who are leading young people that represent each global region. They in turn are supported by a Global Coordinator who supports the youth to build movements and mobilise their countries at a global level.
Youth for Our Planet is an independent youth-led movement that is supported by a steering group of organisations: WWF-UK, RSPB, CoalitionWILD, Youth for Wildlife Conservation, Restless Development, GYBN, Engajamundo, Arctic Youth Network, Fridays for Future US, Youth Earth Advocates. Regional mobilisers and the communications manager also sit on the steering committee.
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Created in 2010, the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) is a network of individuals and youth organizations from around the world whose common goal is to prevent and halt the loss of biodiversity
The network encompasses 550 member organizations from 145 countries and 43 national and regional chapters, representing a total of 1.1 million members. GYBN is the international coordination platform for youth participation under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and is committed to bring young people’s perspectives and positions into the negotiations so that they are heard and taken into consideration. GYBN promotes and facilitates collaboration between youth from diverse backgrounds in order to build a stronger and unified voice to advocate for the rights of future generations within the biodiversity policy arena. GYBN seeks to inspire global youth and future leaders to lead society towards the sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity for a healthy planet.
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Formed in 2009, YOUNGO (Youth + NGO) is the official youth constituency to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It consists of many youth-led organisations, groups, delegations, and individuals working in climate change-related fields. YOUNGO runs various working groups focusing each on specific aspects of the climate change within the UNFCCC negotiations and events to ensure that perspectives of the youth are taken into account in the multilateral decision-making processes. YOUNGO members also observe and report on climate negotiations, and the implications of their outcomes.
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UNEP Major Group for Children and Youth - Global Youth for Environment is the formal youth engagement mechanism to the UN Environment Programme. It serves as the self-organised platform of youth and youth organizations from different parts of the world working on environmental governance and conservation. The constituency is youth-led and independent, and advocates for inclusion, empowerment and meaningful engagement of young people in environmental processes, especially those of UNEP and UNEAs. UNEP MGCY came into existence in 2012, as part of a restructure process in the Major groups within the UNEP processes and by following a broader UNEP strategy entitled the Tunza Youth Strategy initiated in 2003, with the aim to create a global movement in which children and youth could participate in sustainable development and UNEP’s activities.
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The Global Youth Caucus on Desertification and Land is the formal youth constituency to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Formed in 2019, during the UNCCD COP 14, the Caucus is composed by youth and youth organisations who are involved in issues related to desertification, land-use, forests, and related matters. Their aim is to bring together youth advocates from different parts of the world, to build their capacity, share knowledge, build networks and to engage them meaningfully in the UNCCD processes.
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Climate Cardinals is an international youth-led non-profit working to make the climate movement more accessible to those who don’t speak English. Climate Cardinals
aim to educate and empower a diverse coalition of people to tackle the climate crisis. Climate Cardinals have over 6,000 volunteers who are translating and sourcing climate information into over 100 languages. To date, this international movement spans 41 countries and has reached over 350,000 people.
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Formed in 2009, the Youth and United Nations Global Alliance (YUNGA) is a partnership between United Nations agencies, civil society organizations and other entities that work with children and young people.
YUNGA acts as a gateway for children and youth from around the world to participate in the activities and initiatives of the United Nations. YUNGA seeks to empower children and young people to have a greater role in society, raise awareness and become active agents of change. YUNGA aims to engage young people in activities of key environmental and social concern at both national and international levels.
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UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in nearly 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations.
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UNEP is the leading global voice on the environment. It provides leadership and encourages partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
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Opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and entering into force in December 1993, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is an international treaty for the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of the components of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits derived from the use of genetic resources. With 196 Parties, the Convention has near universal participation among countries. The Convention seeks to address all threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services, including threats from climate change, through scientific assessments, the development of tools, incentives and processes, the transfer of technologies and good practices and the full and active involvement of relevant stakeholders including indigenous and local communities, youth, NGOs, women and the business community.
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The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.
FAO's goal is to achieve food security for all and make sure that people have regular access to enough high-quality food to lead active, healthy lives. With over 194 member states, FAO works in over 130 countries worldwide. FAO believes that everyone can play a part in ending hunger.
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WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) is an independent conservation organization, with over 30 million followers and a global network active in nearly 100 countries. WWF works to sustain the natural world for the benefit of people and nature by conserving the world's biological diversity; by ensuring that the use of renewable natural resources is sustainable; and promoting the reduction of pollution and wasteful consumption.
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Led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and a coalition of businesses and UN partners, the Fund aims to raise over $100 million per year within the next five years for animal conservation, biodiversity and climate by asking brands to contribute 0.5% of their media spend every time an animal is featured in their advertisements. | https://fornature.undp.org/content/fornature/en/home/partners.html |
A paper published by an international team of 32 scientists, including GIIS researcher Dr. Uttam Babu Shrestha on Nature Sustainability, identifies key knowledge gaps to achieve global sustainability goals. The study compared the knowledge gaps identified in the seven reports published by the leading scientific body—the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)—to key international sustainability goals set out by the United Nations for both the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, agreed in 2010 under the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Sustainable Development Goals, agreed in 2015. It found critical knowledge gaps that need to be answered to tackle the root causes of biodiversity loss and calls for more relevant, solutions-focused research that can address the social-ecological crisis. These findings will add to a policy-relevant agenda for global, long-term social-ecological action. Dr. Shrestha is one of the Lead Author/Fellows of the on biodiversity and ecosystem services. | https://www.thegiis.org/publication-details/nature-sustainability-paper%E2%80%99s-identified-knowledge-gaps-to-achieve-sustainability-goals.html |
The Global Environment Facility was established in October 1991 as a pilot program with the World Bank to assist in the protection of the global environment and to promote environmental sustainability development. It was restructured and become a permanent, separate institution in 1992 during the Rio Earth Summit with objectives to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems.
It is independently operated as a financial organization that provides grants for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), mercury, sustainable forest management, food security, sustainable cities.
It has well-structured governing bodies which are organized around an Assembly, the Council, the Secretariat, 18 Agencies, a Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) and the Evaluation Office.
1. It has a unique partnership with 18 agencies, including United Nations agencies, multilateral development banks, national entities and international NGOs-working worldwide to address the world’s most challenging environmental issues.
Today, the GEF is an international partnership of 183 countries, international institutions, civil society organizations and the private sector that addresses global environmental issues.
2. It has a unique financial mechanism for 5 major international environmental conventions: the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD), the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs), the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
3. It works as an innovator and catalyst through the supports multi-stakeholder alliances to preserve threatened ecosystems on land and in the oceans, build greener cities, boost food security and promote clean energy for a more prosperous, climate-resilient world.
Working Areas of Global Environmental Facility (GEF)
It works in seven main areas, including biodiversity, climate change (mitigation and adaptation), chemicals, international waters, land degradation, sustainable forest management/REDD+, Ozone layer depletion.
India and Global Environmental Facility (GEF)
India is one of developing country in the world that has been a participant of GEF since its inception in 1991. It has played a major role in shaping GEF. India is both donor and recipient of GEF. | https://m.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/what-is-global-environmental-facility-1524664812-1?ref=amp_nxt |
The first and second editions of the Handbook, on which this Pacific version is substantially based, were prepared as a practical introduction to negotiating or working on Mulitlateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs). They were prepared for people with little or no technical background in negotiations.They were also intended to function as a key reference tool for experienced negotiators. As a result the subject matter is developed at a relatively broad level.
Pacific species face heightened levels of threat due to the relatively small size, fragility and rapid environmental changes from human development and invasive species in many Pacific Island Countries and Territories.
The first of two workshops on Marine and Coastal Biodiversity in the Tropical Island Pacific Region was held at the East-West Center in Honolulu on 2 - 4 November 1994. The goal of the first workshop was to review the status of species systematics and database management studies and develop an action plan for marine and coastal biodiversity information management for the region. The workshop was divided into three parts...
At its tenth meeting, the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 10) requested the Executive Secretary to work with Parties and other Government as well as competent organisations and regional initiatives, such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAo), regional seas conventions and action plans, and where appropriate, regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs), with regards to fisheries management, to organise, including the setting of terms of reference, a series of regional workshop, with a primary objective to facilit
Rodents are a key pest to agricultural and rural island communities of the South Pacific, but there is limited information of their impact on the crops and livelihoods of small-scale farmers.
This report estimates the benefits of making Rakiura and surrounding islands predator free. The proposal is to do this in two phases, starting with the Halfmoon Bay area (denoted in this report as HMB) before progressing to the rest of the island (denoted in this report as full).
Invasive species are a key threat to terrestrial biodiversity and the livelihoods of Pacific Island communities.
This paper focuses on the environmental challenges of sustainable development issues with particular attention to natural resource management, environment and climate change in the food and agriculture sector (including crops, livestock, fisheries and forestry). FAO’s agriculture, fisheries, forestry and technical assistance programmes provide considerable resources to assist member countries promote conservation, ustainable use and management of natural resources and to reduce the risks associated with climate extremes as well as resilience building.
The SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway underscores the need for a more integrated approach to sustainable development as emphasized in the 2030 Agenda. It calls for strengthened international cooperation and partnerships, with adequate investment and coordinated implementation, to address and halt the persistent development challenges of SIDS. As a key follow-up to the SAMOA Pathway, the Global Action Programme on Food Security and Nutrition in Small Island Developing States (GAP) aims to accelerate action on food security and nutrition in SIDS.
Resilience underpins the sustainability of both ecological and social systems. Extensive loss of reef corals following recent mass bleaching events have challenged the notion that support of system resilience is a viable reef management strategy. | https://piln.sprep.org/pein-tags/pacific-strategy |
Concordia researchers are joining thousands of visitors from around the world, including heads of state, other dignitaries and protesters, as they converge on Montreal for the United Nations’ biodiversity conference.
The 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, also known as COP15, runs from December 7 to 19. For two weeks, international delegates will gather with the aim of negotiating targets to protect nature for the next decade.
Biodiversity is declining at unprecedented rates globally, which threatens wildlife, ecosystems, human food security and the ability to produce medicine.
Despite strides forward, many countries, including Canada, have failed to meet past biodiversity targets they committed to, including protecting at least 17 per cent of their territories by the end of 2020.
At this year’s conference, one of the key global targets will be conserving at least 30 per cent of land and oceans by 2030, also known as 30 by 30.
As a leader in sustainable development, Concordia is sending many prominent biology, geography and sustainability researchers to COP15.
The university recently launched Sustainability in the Digital Age, a think tank that brings together subject-matter experts who will explore how digital innovation can help with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Concordia committed to supporting the SDGs in 2020. It has since placed among the 100 best universities in the world in the 2022 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which track the progress of the international higher education sector toward achieving the SDGs.
The university’s COP15 delegation includes researchers at the forefront of Indigenous-led conservation like Monica Mulrennan, Concordia’s associate vice-president of research, development and outreach, Eleni Panagiotarakou, lecturer in political science, philosophy, and religions and cultures in the Faculty of Arts and Science, and Leila Vaziri, a PhD candidate in geography, urban and environmental studies.
The representatives also include biology and sustainability expert Robert Weladji, professor and graduate program director of biology, Emma Despland, professor of biology, Sarah Turner, associate professor of geography, planning and environment, Rebecca Tittler, lecturer, academic advisor and research administration coordinator at the Loyola College for Diversity and Sustainability, and Julia Aman, lecturer in the Department of Mechanical, Industrial and Aerospace Engineering at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science.
A delegation of nine graduate students from the Synthetic Biology Applications (SynBioApps) NSERC-CREATE program will also attend the conference.
Mulrennan, who is also a professor of geography, planning and environment, says she will be paying special attention to the role Indigenous knowledge and rights play in the negotiations.
Mulrennan has supported Indigenous land stewardship for more than 30 years through her research and says Indigenous peoples play a pivotal role in the conservation of biodiversity.
“We’ve finally recognized that the extensive tracts of land and water that are under the stewardship of Indigenous people are the areas where we still have hope of protecting biodiversity,” she notes.
Although Indigenous peoples make up less than five per cent of the world’s population, their lands contain 80 per cent of the world’s biodiversity.
“This push for protecting 30 per cent of the world’s land and water by 2030 needs to include safeguards for Indigenous rights and responsibilities,” Mulrennan stresses.
“Biodiversity is in crisis,” says Turner, who is also the co-director of the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre.
Turner, who studies primate behavioural ecology, points out that we are losing species, habitats and forests at an alarming rate. She says she hopes well-off countries at COP15 will agree to financially support countries in the Global South to help them meet their biodiversity goals.
“Brazil and the Congo Basin and forests in Indonesia, for example, are hotspots of biodiversity. But countries in the Global South can’t be expected to carry the world’s biodiversity without financial support from countries like Canada, when, as with climate change, the Global North has been primarily responsible for global biodiversity loss.”
Nine graduate students with Concordia’s SynBioApps program will be at COP15 to learn how international regulations are developed.
Synthetic biology involves engineering living organisms and biomolecules for novel changes. It is an emerging field that is being used to tackle many environmental problems, like invasive species, contaminant remediation and food insecurity.
With living modified organisms, biosafety and equitable access to genetic engineering technologies high on the COP15 agenda, students will get a chance to learn about international concerns that feed policy discussions in this area.
“If we are to train the technological leaders of tomorrow, they need to be aware of how these transformational technologies will impact the lives of real people and assure that those impacts are not detrimental in any way,” says Orly Weinberg, SynBioApps program manager.
Learn more about Concordia’s commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Concordia faculty and researchers interested in attending the next United Nations biodiversity conference are invited to contact Andrew Lang at [email protected].
© Concordia University
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Sunday the 22nd of May is International Day for Biological Diversity 2016, this year’s theme is ‘Mainstreaming Biodiversity; Sustaining People and their Livelihoods’.
The United Nations and Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) state: Biodiversity is the foundation for life and for the essential services provided by ecosystems. It therefore underpins peoples’ livelihoods and sustainable development in all areas of activity, including economic sectors such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism, among others. By halting biodiversity loss, we are investing in people, their lives and their well-being. The thirteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 13) to be held in Cancun, Mexico from 4 to 17 December 2016, will focus on the mainstreaming of biodiversity within and across sectors.
One of those key sectors is health. The recent Convention on Biodiversity COP 12 decision (XII/21) encourages parties to ‘consider the linkages between biodiversity and human health in the preparation of national biodiversity strategies and action plans, development plans, and national health strategies’ and emphasised ‘the relevance of the linkages between biodiversity and human health for the post-2015 United Nations development agenda and the sustainable development goals’.
There is increasing recognition of the importance of biodiversity to health. This is, for example, reflected in the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recent report on links between the environment and health outcomes, with Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General, noting that ‘A healthy environment underpins a healthy population’. In 2015 the WHO worked with the CBD to produce a comprehensive State of Knowledge Review of the multiple relationships between biodiversity and human health (we contributed to the mental health chapter).
Here at the European Center for Environment and Human Health we have also been working towards better understanding the linkages between biodiversity and the many dimensions of human health wellbeing.
Over the past few years we have used systematic review methodologies to address specific aspects of the linkages between biodiversity and health. We have shown that there is some evidence that more biodiverse environments are associated with good health, particularly quality of life, and that taking part in environmental conservation activities may benefit health through a number of pathways including physical activity, social contact, contact with nature and opportunities for achievement.
We have used a range of other methodologies including secondary analysis of large scale environment and health data sets to show an association between indicators of biodiversity and population health, qualitative approaches to explore the richness of the impacts of our interactions with nature, and psychological experiments to identify how biodiversity influences people’s behavioral, physiological, and psychological reactions.
Our colleague Dr Ruth Garside collaborated with the Science for Nature and People (SNAP) Partnership to undertake a mapping review, using systematic methods of identification and categorisation, to identify over 60 studies which had examined the impacts of ecological conservation activities in low and middle income countries on human health and wellbeing outcomes. The authors note, in an article for Nature News and Comment, more effective use of existing (and future) evidence is needed to help meet the aims of initiatives, such as The Sustainable Development Goals which were launched in September by the United Nations, which seek to make the connections between biodiversity and health.
We are using the outcomes of our research to inform policy and decision makers at all scales and to contribute to the UN’s aim to mainstream ‘biodiversity within and across sectors’. Our activities range from helping identify how the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) can better address health through it’s policy and service delivery, presenting to the House of Lords Rural Economy Group and at Local Nature Partnership meetings, to working with Cornwall Council to consider how to manage the environment to balance biodiversity with human health. ECEHH are also working at an international level, including contributing to chapter 12 of the WHO and CBD’s State of Knowledge Review, which considered the contribution of biodiversity and green spaces to mental and physical fitness,and cultural dimensions of health. | https://beyondgreenspace.net/2016/05/22/international-day-for-biological-diversity-2016/ |
Indigenous Peoples have been caring for the lands and waters of Canada since time immemorial. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis have unique relationships with nature and knowledge of responsible stewardship as a way of life. By working together and supporting Indigenous Peoples in protecting more nature across the country, we are continuing to listen to their voices and helping ensure the world we leave to future generations is safe and healthy.
The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced up to $800 million over seven years, starting in 2023-24, to support up to four Indigenous-led conservation initiatives. Once completed, these projects could protect an additional up to one million square kilometres. This investment is a major step forward in protecting nature across the country and will drive progress toward Canada’s ambitious goals of conserving 25 per cent of land and waters by 2025, and 30 per cent of each by 2030.
To protect and conserve more nature, advance reconciliation, and make sure the world we leave for future generations is safe and healthy, we’re supporting four Indigenous-led conservation projects across the country. In total, they would cover nearly a million square kilometers. pic.twitter.com/tMzPsutQOF
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) December 7, 2022
This investment will support the establishment of protected areas through an innovative funding model – Project Finance for Permanence (PFP) – which is based on partnership. It brings together Indigenous organizations, governments, and the philanthropic community to identify shared goals for protecting nature and ultimately halting biodiversity loss. The government recognizes the community leadership and the work of philanthropic organizations in support of this important work.
With this funding, the Government of Canada is helping to bring together 30 Indigenous governments and organizations in the Northwest Territories. Funding is also intended to support the conservation of lands and waters in the Northernshelf Bioregion in British Columbia, in Qikiqtani Region in Nunavut, and in Ontario’s Hudson Bay Lowlands, as well as the coastline of Western Hudson Bay and southwestern James Bay – one of North America’s most carbon-rich and biodiverse ecosystems.
As delegates from around the world come to Montréal for the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, Canada will continue to champion its role as a leader in nature conservation. We will continue to support Indigenous-led efforts to conserve nature and biodiversity, protect Indigenous cultures and ways of life, and build a healthy future for generations to come, while making significant progress toward meeting Canada’s conservation goals.
Quotes
“Our government is here as a partner. And today, we took an important step forward – together – to deliver a vision of conservation that has partnership and reconciliation at its core. I’m looking forward to our shared work to deliver results for communities and for the nature that sustains us all.”
“Indigenous Peoples have been guardians of the land, waters, and ice of this continent for millennia. Canada’s ambitious biodiversity goals can only be met in partnership with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. By coupling Indigenous and Western science, we can fight the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, strengthen our relationships with Indigenous communities, and build a better future for everyone.”
“Indigenous Peoples have been stewards of the land and water for generations, and are profoundly connected to them. This new funding will support Indigenous-led marine conservation initiatives to protect our shared coasts and oceans for the next seven generations.”
Quick Facts
- Today’s funding will help leverage third-party investments to contribute toward Canada’s conservation targets, and advance reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
- The Government of Canada has made historic investments in Indigenous-led conservation initiatives that support Indigenous rights and responsibilities in protecting and conserving ecosystems, developing and maintaining sustainable economies, and continuing the profound connections between natural landscapes and Indigenous cultures including:
- Investing more than $118 million in Budget 2018, to support Indigenous-led conservation initiatives, including Indigenous Guardians and Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas; and
- Investing almost $454 million in Budget 2021 to support a host of Indigenous-led conservation initiatives, such as Indigenous-Led Area-Based Conservation, Indigenous Guardians, conservation on Inuit Owned Lands, and Indigenous Partnerships for Species at Risk.
- Grounded in science, Indigenous knowledge, and local perspectives, Canada is committed to working with partners to conserve 25 per cent of lands and waters by 2025, and 30 per cent by 2030.
- United Nations data suggests that lands for which Indigenous Peoples are stewards comprise around 20 per cent of the Earth’s territory and contain as much as 80 per cent of the world’s remaining biodiversity.
- The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity is the international legal instrument for the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources. The Convention has been ratified by 196 nations.
- Canada stepped up to be the host location of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity from December 7 to 19, 2022, in Montréal, where we will renew the call for ambitious action to protect nature.
- Along with international partners, Canada is committed to both the development of an ambitious Global Biodiversity Framework with clear targets, as well as the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge, to conserve and protect natural environments at home and around the world. | https://www.gtaweekly.ca/protecting-more-nature-in-partnership-with-indigenous-peoples/ |
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, the Rio Summit, the Rio Conference, and the Earth Summit (Portuguese: ECO92), was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992. A number of agreements were presented during the conference, among which the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), United Nations Convention on Combat of Desertification/Land Degradation (UNCCD) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), commonly referred to as the three Rio Conventions. The three are intrinsically linked. It is in this context that the Joint Liaison Group was set up to boost cooperation among the three Conventions, with the ultimate aim of developing synergies in their activities on issues of mutual concern. It now also incorporates the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
The issues addressed at the 1992 Rio UNCED included:
- systematic scrutiny of patterns of production — particularly the production of toxic components, such as lead in gasoline, or poisonous waste including radioactive chemicals
- alternative sources of energy to replace the use of fossil fuels which delegates linked to global climate change
- new reliance on public transportation systems in order to reduce vehicle emissions, congestion in cities and the health problems caused by polluted air and smoke
- the growing usage and limited supply of water
The Earth Summit resulted in the following documents:
- Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (document can be downloaded here)
- Agenda 21 (document can be downloaded here)
- Forest Principles (document can be downloaded here)
Moreover, important legally binding multilateral environmental agreements (Rio Conventions) were opened for signature:
- Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) – link to specific 3Rio subsite
- Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – link to specific 3Rio subsite
- United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) – link to specific 3Rio subsite
In order to ensure compliance to the agreements at Rio (particularly the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21), delegates to the Earth Summit established the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). In 2013, the CSD was replaced by the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development that meets every year as part of the ECOSOC meetings, and every fourth year as part of the General Assembly meetings.
Rio+20 and SDGs
In 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development was also held in Rio, and is also commonly called Rio+20 or Rio Earth Summit 2012. It resulted in a focused political outcome document which contains clear and practical measures for implementing sustainable development.
In Rio, Member States decided to launch a process to develop a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will build upon the Millennium Development Goals and converge with the post 2015 development agenda. The Conference adopted ground-breaking guidelines on green economy policies and parties decided to establish an intergovernmental process under the General Assembly to prepare options on a strategy for sustainable development financing. They also agreed to establish a high-level political forum for sustainable development.
On the institutional front, Parties agreed to strengthen the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on several fronts and requested the United Nations Statistical Commission, in consultation with relevant United Nations system entities and other relevant organizations, to launch a programme of work in the area of measures of progress to complement gross domestic product in order to better inform policy decisions.
A 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production patterns was adopted, as contained in document A/CONF.216/5, and forward-looking decisions on a number of thematic areas, including energy, food security, oceans, cities were taken. To specifically address the dire straits in which Small Island States find themselves, the Parties decided to convene a Third International Conference on SIDS in 2014.
The Rio +20 Conference galvanized the attention of thousands of representatives of the UN system and major groups. It resulted in over 700 voluntary commitments and witnessed the formation of new partnerships to advance sustainable development.
Cambodia also presented its Rio+20 Report at the Conference (document can be downloaded here). | http://3rio.chm.gdancp-moe.org/en/the-rio-conventions.html |
Conservation and Water
An expanding global population, rapid conversion of critical habitat to other uses, and the spread of invasive species to non-native habitats pose a serious threat to the world's natural resources and to all of us who depend on them for food, fuel, shelter and medicine. Policies that distort markets and provide incentives for unsustainable development intensify the problem. Every year, there is a net loss of 22 million acres of forest area worldwide.
Many environmental problems respect no borders and threaten the health, prosperity and even the national security of Americans. Pesticide contamination of food and water, polluted air, and invasive plant and animal species can take their toll on our welfare and economy. When people around the globe lack access to energy, clean water, food, or a livable environment, the economic instability and political unrest that may result can be felt at home in the form of costly peacekeeping and humanitarian interventions or lost markets.
Addressing these problems and achieving sustainable management of natural resources worldwide requires the cooperation and commitment of all countries. The State Department, through its environmental offices in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs and working with other federal agencies, is seeking to forge this cooperation and these commitments through a variety of diplomatic approaches globally, regionally and bilaterally. These include negotiating effective science-based global treaties and promoting their enforcement, developing international initiatives with key countries to harness market forces to the cause of sustainable development, and creating a foreign policy framework in which innovative public-private partnerships involving U.S. interests can flourish in developed and developing countries worldwide.
The Office of Conservation and Water (ECW) coordinates the development of U.S. foreign policy approaches to conserving and sustainably managing the world's ecologically and economically important ecosystems, including forests, wetlands, drylands and coral reefs, and the species that depend on them. ECW also leads the formulation of policies to address international threats to biodiversity, notably land degradation, invasive species and illegal trade, as well as issues associated with the safe handling of living modified organisms and with access to genetic resources and the sharing of benefits arising from subsequent resource use. The Office advances U.S. interests on these matters in a wide variety of international organizations, institutions, treaties and other fora within and outside the United Nations system. Among these are the UN Forum on Forests, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, the Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, the Convention of Wetlands of International Importance, and the International Coral Reef Initiative. ECW also oversees bilateral agreements under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, an innovative program of debt reduction. | https://2009-2017.state.gov/e/oes/ecw/index.htm |
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