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Often plaintiffs either have pre-existing health conditions or have suffered non-work related health conditions by the time of trial resulting in the defendant seeking a discount of damages to account for the effect of the non-work related condition. This is especially so in the case of psychiatric conditions which are often considered to be multi factorial in origin. In White v Hertz Australia Pty Ltd QSC 82, Daubney J considered in detail, the evidentiary burden to be discharged by the defendant in order for such a discount to be applied.
Facts
The plaintiff was a car detailer who sustained a needlestick injury when removing rubbish from a car and then developed a psychiatric injury due largely to the fear he had contracted a blood borne illness. Three months after the injury, he was clear of having contracted such an illness but he continued to experience psychiatric symptoms which increased over time culminating in his admission as a psychiatric inpatient.
At trial, the defendant employer alleged the plaintiff’s work related psychiatric condition ceased after the blood test results were conveyed to the plaintiff and that after that time the psychiatric condition was maintained by other factors including:
- ongoing shoulder pain from a different injury;
- ongoing wrist pain from a different injury;
- workplace interpersonal issues;
- loss of employment; and
- relationship breakdown.
The defendant therefore contended a discount of the damages should be made to reflect the contribution of the non-work related factors to the plaintiff’s loss and damage.
Judgement
First, the plaintiff must establish that the defendant’s negligence caused the relevant injury. Here, the defendant conceded negligence in relation to the needlestick injury and the causal link between that injury and the psychiatric condition, albeit for a limited period. The evidential burden then falls on the defendant to establish that, had there been no negligence, the plaintiff would have suffered disability from the non-work related condition/s. If this is established, the court can then make a comparison between the plaintiff’s current position and the possible position, but for the negligence.
In considering the medical evidence, Daubney J found:
- the plaintiff suffered a mental disorder as a result of the needlstick injury and that disorder was continuous from that time on;
- having suffered the mental disorder, the plaintiff was more vulnerable to being adversely affected by other life stressors;
- even if the severe shoulder pain contributed to a deterioration of the plaintiff’s mental condition, it did not completely supplant the ongoing effect of the original mental condition;
- even if the negligence had not occurred, the ongoing shoulder pain was of such a severity that it would of itself more likely than not have caused the plaintiff to suffer a degree of mental decompensation;
- he was not persuaded by the medical evidence that the wrist pain or relationship breakdown adversely affected the plaintiff’s mental health;
- it was not established that the “interpersonal issues” at work did any more than contribute to the original condition; and
- there was nothing in the evidence to suggest that the plaintiff’s resignation in itself contributed to his mental disorder.
Having made those findings, Daubney J applied a 50% discount to the past and future economic loss awards to reflect the likelihood of the plaintiff suffering mental decompensation as a consequence of his pre-existing shoulder condition. He also applied a discount to future expenses by way of global allowance.
Key Points
Although the defendant was unable to demonstrate that the entirety of the plaintiff’s ongoing disability related solely to the pre-existing shoulder condition, they were successful in obtaining a very substantial discount to the damages to reflect the effect of the shoulder condition.
In order to obtain a discount in these circumstances, a defendant must prove:
- the existence of the non-work related condition, that is a diagnosable condition not related to the plaintiff’s work; and
- the possible consequences of the non-work related condition. In this regard, the evidence must be such that a reasonable person having considered the evidence of the non-work related condition could draw the inferences about the condition’s consequences contended for by the defendant. | https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=73c98a26-6ac1-46c2-afc7-588edb941faa |
Limb loss is devastatingly common across the United States. Statistics from the Amputee Coalition show that approximately two million people across the country have suffered amputations, and nearly 200,000 new amputations happen each year.
And as horrific as it may seem, unnecessary amputations often occur within medical institutions due to negligence on the behalf of a surgeon or other healthcare provider. If you’ve suffered from an amputation due to a doctor’s or healthcare provider’s negligent actions, speak with an attorney in Phoenix at our firm right away. You may be entitled to damages related to this serious medical error.
Causes of Health Care Related Amputations
The majority of amputations are necessary as a result of a traumatic accident that caused extensive and irreparable damage to the limb or appendage. For example, a car accident may warrant the need for an amputation or might lead to a traumatic amputation during the accident.
In other cases, complications from medical conditions might necessitate an amputation. However, some amputations would not be necessary but for the blatant errors of a medical professional.
Below are some possible health care errors that might lead to amputations:
- Healthcare-acquired infections
- Failure to treat/diagnose an infection
- Blood clots or circulation trouble during surgery
- Failure to diagnose tumors that may lead to amputation
- Errors in treating diabetic patients
- Amputating the wrong limb or body part during surgery
All of the above are preventable. For example, healthcare-acquired infections may be preventable with improved sanitization practices, more communication among hospital staff, and infection control standards. Work with an attorney to investigate the circumstances surrounding your healthcare-associated amputation so we can explore liability.
Who’s Liable for a Medical Error That Resulted in Amputation?
Doctors and health care providers are required to administer reasonable care to a patient. If a doctor amputates the wrong limb, fails to treat an infection properly, makes obvious errors in the diagnosis process, or causes an amputation for any other irresponsible actions, the doctor may be liable.
In order to prove liability, you’ll have to prove that the doctor or health care provider failed to act reasonably, and the lack of reasonable or skillful action was the cause of your amputation. A lawyer can help you collect and present evidence of negligence; thus, liability for your damages.
Recoverable Damages in a Case of Health Care Related Amputation
If you can prove the negligence and liability of the healthcare provider, you may be eligible to recover damages. Damages may be recoverable for medical expenses, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, pain and suffering, and more. While some states cap the amount of damages a plaintiff can receive in a medical malpractice case, there is no damage cap in Arizona, per Article 2, Section 31 of the Arizona Constitution.
If you’ve been the victim of an amputation that was caused by a healthcare provider’s negligent actions, you need to file a claim for damages immediately. In Arizona, the law stipulates that you only have two years to file a medical malpractice claim.
Speak with an Attorney about Your Case
Filing a medical malpractice claim can feel like a daunting process and may be the last thing that you want to do following such a serious healthcare-associated injury. If you’re a victim of medical malpractice, filing a claim for damages can help recover the money that you need to pay bills and recover losses. To handle all of the nitty-gritty legal details for you, contact an attorney in Phoenix at Snyder & Wenner, P.C. Contact us at 602-224-0005. | https://snyderwenner.com/medical-malpractice-arizona/amputations/ |
Have you been the victim of a worksite or construction accident in Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee or Mississippi? Although most people are familiar with the concept of workers compensation insurance, which is designed to compensate workers who are injured on the job, workers compensation is not the only remedy available to compensate those who are injured on a worksite. Under normal circumstances, if an employee is injured at work, workers’ compensation insurance will cover the injured party’s medical bills, medications, transportation costs, and other reasonable out-of-pocket expenses as well as a certain proportion of the employee’s lost wages. If you are non-employees, workers compensation laws do not cover your injuries on a worksite and you would instead have a personal injury claim against the owner and/or operator of the work site, depending on the circumstances. In addition, if your injuries were caused by defective equipment, a subcontractor or some other negligence, a third party may also be at fault. This would entitle the individual to recover any financial losses incurred as a result of the worksite incident, including any lost wages, medical bills, and pain and suffering the victim’s injuries caused him or her.
Common Injuries That Are Suffered by Non-Employees on a Worksite
Unlike employees of a business, for non-employees who are injured on a worksite, their recourse would be against the owner and/or operator of the worksite by means of a personal injury claim. Common scenarios in which non-employees are injured on worksites include slip and fall accidents, motor vehicle accidents and falling debris. For example, a pedestrian may be walking by a construction site and is struck by falling debris from a negligently maintained piece of scaffolding on a worksite. Another common worksite accident occurs when someone who may happen to visit a worksite is injured by slipping and falling on a foreign substance after it has rained. Finally, a pedestrian may be walking by a worksite and may be struck by an automobile that is backing out of the worksite without looking, knocking the pedestrian down and causing him or her to suffer injuries. These are just some of the common scenarios in which non-employees visiting a worksite may be injured, but is by no means an exclusive list.
Third Party Claims
In addition, sometimes a worker or other party can be injured due to the negligence of a third party other than the primary contractor or developer. For instance, a piece of defective equipment may collapse, a careless subcontractor may negligently install scaffolding that collapses, or some other problem may occur that gives rise to a claim against a third party in connection with their negligence on a worksite. This could result in an employee or other individual on the worksite having a legal claim, such as negligence or product liability, against the subcontractor or other person or entity that may be responsible for injuries suffered on a worksite. If you are injured on the worksite, contact Schwed, Adams & McGinley and our experienced personal injury attorneys will assess your situation and determine who the appropriate party that should be held responsible for your injuries is.
Damages Available in Florida, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi for Worksite Accidents Involving Non-Employees
If you have been injured in a worksite accident, you are entitled to recover damages commensurate with whatever losses you suffered as a result of the accident. This includes any medical bills relating to treatment you were forced to undergo as a result of your injuries suffered in a worksite accident, any pain and suffering you may have suffered as a result of those injuries, and any loss of income you were forced to forego as a result of your injury or injuries. In Tennessee any award for pain and suffering would be capped at $750,000, unless you suffered catastrophic injuries, in which case you could recover up to $1,000,000. In Mississippi, you would be entitled to recover up to $1,000,000 in non-economic damages, including pain and suffering. There would be no caps on the amount of pain and suffering that could be recovered in a personal injury action involving a worksite incident in Florida or Arkansas under either state’s respective laws. | https://schwedlawfirm.com/personal-injury/worksite-accidents/ |
There are many different forms of medical malpractice damages you may be able to obtain if you are successful in your case. These include medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering and more. If the malpractice led to the death of the patient, then their family members might also be able to obtain damages.
Medical malpractice occurs when a medical professional provides negligent or improper treatment to a patient that falls below the generally accepted standard of care within the medical community. To prevail in a medical malpractice suit, the patient must demonstrate that:
- A professional duty was owed to the patient.
- That duty was breached by the medical professional.
- The injury was directly caused as a result of that breach of duty.
The injured patient must file a medical malpractice suit within two years of the date of discovery of the injury (or the date the injury should have been discovered) as a result of a doctor’s or hospital’s actions. However, suit may not be brought more than seven years of the date the malpractice took place, regardless of when the injury was discovered.
Table of Contents
What Are Damages?
How to Put a Value on Pain and Suffering
Damages Awarded to the Patient’s Family If the Patient Dies as a Result of Medical Malpractice
Limitations on Damages
Why You Need a Lawyer to Help You With a Medical Malpractice Suit
A medical malpractice suit can be brought against a provider who may have contributed in any way to the damage or the injury caused by the malpractice. Examples of potentially responsible parties include:
- The doctor: If the doctor’s treatment or actions did not meet the accepted medical practice standards, then they are liable for the negative effects that resulted from their breach of duty.
- The hospital: If a patient’s injuries were the result of improper care by the hospital or poorly trained doctors or staff, then the hospital is liable. They may also be liable under the respondeat superior theory. This theory states that an employer may be held liable for the actions of an employee if the employee was acting in their employment capacity when the malpractice occurred. In other words, if a doctor is employed by the hospital and is responsible for medical malpractice, the hospital as the doctor’s employer may also be responsible for any damages.
- Nurses and other staff: Any medical personnel in attendance on the patient whose actions may have contributed to the patient’s damages or injuries could be liable as well.
What Are Damages?
The concept of damages carries a specific meaning in the legal world. It has to do with the negative impacts you have experienced as a result of someone else’s actions. In the case of a medical malpractice suit, the question to ask is, what losses have been suffered by the injured patient? In other words, what are the medical malpractice results for the patient?
The answers to these questions may include different types of losses — some may be more straightforward, while others are harder to pin down. Nevertheless, lawyers can calculate a financial amount that would appropriately compensate the injured party for all these types of losses.
There are two types of damages to consider in these cases:
- Compensatory damages: Note the root word: compensate. These damages are meant to compensate for the losses a person has experienced from their injury to make them whole again. These damages are split into two categories: economic and non-economic damages.
- Punitive damages: These damages are awarded to punish the defendant for outrageous conduct, where there has been willful or wanton misconduct or reckless indifference to the rights of others.
Being awarded damages in a medical malpractice suit can be challenging since you will need to prove your injuries were caused by malpractice. You will also need to place some sort of “price tag,” so to speak, on them.
Let’s look in greater detail at what types of damages you could recover, both within the categories of compensatory and punitive damages:
1. Compensatory Damages
Economic damages are easy to quantify. These damages are primarily focused on your medical expenses, past, present and future, and the wages you have lost due to missing work. While there are still some subjective aspects to general damages, such as future medical expenses, they are still usually tangible.
Special damages can be awarded for the income that you have lost while you have been recovering from the injury that was a result of medical malpractice, as well as any future earnings you may lose as a result. Special damages include future medical expenses, as defined by the IRS. Estimating future medical expenses can be difficult. It is critical for you and your attorney to sit down with the team of medical care providers and a life care planner to help estimate potential future costs.
When dealing with lost earning potential, you must calculate losses for many years, maybe even decades in the future. This is calculated in terms of present value. This is the financial concept that determines how much your weekly paycheck, or any other stream of income, would be worth if it were in your bank account today.
Think of it this way — if your employer was going to put all your salary in a bank account today to cover the next 20, 30 or 40 years, how much would that be? Your lawyer will hire a financial expert as an expert witness in your case who can speak to these difficult and complex financial calculations.
Several potential problems could arise in determining the economic damages that result from medical malpractice. It is important that you and your attorney discuss these possible hurdles to recovery. Economic damages could be affected if you:
- Were unemployed at the time of your injury.
- Had plans to take a new job that would pay you more money, but the injury prevented that.
- Are self-employed.
- Are retired.
Alternatively, non-economic damages are not as easy to identify and calculate. Non-economic damages are real, yet they cannot have a definitive price put on them. These include:
- Mental and physical pain and suffering.
- Loss of future earning potential.
- Loss of enjoyment of life and others.
- Loss of consortium (how the patient’s injury affects their relationships with their entire family).
While these are somewhat abstract concepts, you will still need to arrive at a dollar value when trying to recover compensation. To find that dollar value, you and your attorney will have to provide evidence of the damages you are claiming. You might need a medical expert to testify on your behalf regarding the seriousness of your injury.
2. Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are usually much more difficult to recover because you must prove that the doctor knew they were harming you or, at least, that they were willfully reckless. Punitive damages go beyond the primary purpose of repaying a patient for the negative effects of their injuries. Therefore, many view them as superfluous.
The cases where punitive damages are legitimate are where medical staff or hospitals deserve to be punished for especially reckless or nefarious behavior. For example, your doctor might leave a sponge or some other medical tool inside your body during surgery to ensure you would need a second operation to take it out. Another example is a hospital that allows a harmful virus to go untreated in a patient because calling attention to it may scare other patients away from the hospital.
The judge or the jury will decide the exact amount a patient can receive in punitive damages, somewhat similar to special damages, but it cannot be more than several times larger than the damages awarded in the general and the special categories.
How to Put a Value on Pain and Suffering
This can be the most challenging part of deciding upon an award for the plaintiff in a malpractice suit. How do you value pain and suffering? Some insurance companies use what is known as a “multiplier” in medical malpractice lawsuits. Insurance companies try to calculate the value of pain and suffering by making it worth some multiple of what you received in special damages. That is not always the case, however.
When most juries are considering damages, they do not think about things like multipliers. Sometimes what affects the amount awarded has much more to do with factors that are just as intangible as the award itself:
- Was the plaintiff a good witness for themselves?
- Was a plaintiff likable? Or did the jury seem to react to them negatively?
- Did the jury believe the plaintiff?
- Did the jury believe the defendant or their witnesses?
- Does the plaintiff have a criminal record?
- How difficult was it for the jury to understand the nature of the injuries caused by the medical malpractice?
As you can see, the preparation that you and your attorney need to do before any hearing involves preparing you for the trial. How you comport yourself can make an enormous difference in the amount of money that the jury will award you if they find the doctor or the hospital liable for your injuries.
Damages Awarded to the Patient’s Family If the Patient Dies as a Result of Medical Malpractice
If medical malpractice leads to your death, your family is eligible to recover damages. Every state has a law determining the amount of damages that can be recovered, both economic and non-economic. These are known as survival and wrongful death statutes:
1. Survival Statutes
These allow a patient’s family or their estate to recover damages that happened from the time the initial malpractice took place to the patient’s death. They include all relevant damages that would have been awarded if the patient had survived except for future damages such as earning capacity. But these damages may be awarded as part of wrongful death statutes.
2. Wrongful Death Statutes
These are specifically designed to help the patient’s family recover damages based on future monetary loss. It can be a more complicated calculation than the one used in a Special Damage award, as it takes into account factors like what the patient may have saved, spending habits, even their work habits. Loss of consortium is not normally considered under wrongful death suits, but those factors may be considered under Pennsylvania law.
Wrongful death claims must be brought about by the personal representative of the deceased’s estate on behalf of their beneficiaries. In Pennsylvania, this can also include the parents of the deceased patient.
According to a case decided by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2017, the statute of limitations for any medical malpractice case that involves survival or wrongful death situations will be two years from the date of the death of the patient and not two years from the date of their injury.
Limitations on Damages
In Pennsylvania, there are no limits on compensatory damages. There are no limits on how much a jury or a judge may award a plaintiff in a medical malpractice suit.
As for punitive damages, if a medical provider was reckless in their care of a patient, but the misconduct was not intentional, state law caps punitive damages at 200 percent of special damages. Also, 25 percent of all punitive damages awarded to a patient go into the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) fund, which helps to pay damages to patients in cases where the doctor’s malpractice insurance coverage will not cover the financial amount of damages awarded.
Why You Need a Lawyer to Help You With a Medical Malpractice Suit
Medical malpractice suits can be time-consuming and complicated. The time between when you first file a suit and when you go to trial can be as long as three years. Whether you eventually want to seek a settlement from the medical provider’s insurance company or if you decided to take your case to trial, you are going to need the help of an experienced medical malpractice attorney to make sure you get all the compensation to which you are entitled.
A medical malpractice attorney serves another useful purpose. After they have gathered all of your medical information, talked to all the relevant witnesses and examined your chances at a potentially successful outcome of a malpractice case, they will tell you whether you stand a reasonable chance of winning. If you do not, they will tell you so.
If you do, however, they know the best ways to ensure that your malpractice suit will be a success. Whether it is negotiating with insurance companies’ lawyers or trying the case in front of a judge or a jury, an experienced medical malpractice attorney is essential to a successful outcome.
Let the Experienced Attorneys at KBG Injury Law Help You With Your Medical Malpractice Suit
Medical malpractice damages are a complicated matter, but an experienced medical malpractice attorney can analyze the details of your case to help you determine if a medical malpractice suit is a wise course of action and what sorts of damages you may be entitled to. The professionals with KBG Injury Law can answer all your questions regarding medical malpractice damages. If you would like a free consultation, you can call us at 1-800-509-1011 or visit our contact us page where you can leave your contact information and details about your situation. A member of our team will get back to you as soon as possible. | https://resultsyoudeserve.com/practice-areas/medical-malpractice/what-types-of-damages-can-i-receive-from-my-medical-malpractice-case/ |
Growth of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in India is reduced over the last decade by an estimated 111 million tons. The key factors in these reductions have been economic restructuring, local environmental protection, and technological change. These drivers have been mediated through economic reform, enforcement of existing clean air laws, and renewable energy incentives and development programs funded by the national government and foreign donors. Market reform driven by domestic policy and international dynamics over the past decade has improved India’s fuel quality, technology standards, infrastructure, and operating practices. Lower carbon emissions also have resulted from important technological advancements in coal washing. India has instituted a sizable renewable energy program over the past 20 years, which is implemented by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, since 1992.
It is estimated that India could reduce projected emissions over the next 30 years by nearly one-quarter for less than $25 per ton of carbon equivalent, with a substantial portion available at a very low cost. Major opportunities include demand supply-side efficiency measures, fuel switching from coal to gas, afforestation, and power transmission improvements. India could in the midterm help finance these mitigation measures by selling emission reduction credits, either through the Clean Development Mechanism established under the Kyoto Protocol or in a futures market based on expectations. Given current scientific knowledge, deep cuts in emissions will be necessary to avoid dangerous climate change impacts. These must be achieved with the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities. | https://www.energy.cam.ac.uk/news-and-events/Events/policy-challenges-in-linking-energy-with-climate-change-indian-perspective |
Increased carbon dioxide (CO2) from the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities continues to affect our atmosphere, resulting in global warming and climate change. Less well known is that this carbon dioxide is altering the chemistry of the surface oceans and causing them to become more acidic. This Alert discusses the process called ocean acidification and its environmental impacts. Ocean acidification could have significant consequences on marine organisms which may alter species composition, disrupt marine food webs and ecosystems and potentially damage fishing, tourism and other human activities connected to the seas. The obvious solution to the potential threats posed by ocean acidification is to make rapid and substantial cuts to anthropogenic CO2 emissions to the atmosphere and hence, oceanic CO2 concentrations. However, the likelihood is that this will not occur in the immediate future.
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UNEP emerging issues: global honey bee colony disorder and other threats to insect pollinators
Has a “pollinator crisis” really been occurring during recent decades, or are these concerns just another sign of global biodiversity decline? Several studies have highlighted different factors leading to the pollinators’ decline that have been observed around the world. This Alert considers the latest scientific findings and analyses possible answers to this question. As the bee group is the most important pollinator worldwide, this Alert focuses on the instability of wild and managed bee populations, the driving forces, potential mitigating measures and recommendations. This Alert concludes that currently available global data and knowledge on the decline of pollinators are not sufficiently conclusive to demonstrate that there is a worldwide pollinator and related crop production crisis. Available agricultural production data, appears to indicate that global agriculture has become increasingly pollinator dependent over the last 50 years.
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Policy implications of warming permafrost
Permafrost is any ground that remains completely frozen for at least two years straight. These permanently frozen grounds are most common in regions with high mountains and in Earth’s higher latitudes—near the North and South Poles. Permafrost covers large regions of the Earth. Almost a quarter of the land area in the Northern Hemisphere has permafrost underneath. Although the ground is frozen, permafrost regions are not always covered in snow. The distribution of permafrost is controlled by air temperature and, to a lesser extent, by snow depth, vegetation, orientation to the sun and soil properties. This Alert reviews the policy implications of warming permafrost. The Alert also discusses specific policy recommendations to address the potential economic, social and environmental impacts of permafrost degradation in a warming climate.
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21 Issues for the 21st century: results of the UNEP foresight process on emerging environmental issues
The purpose of the UNEP Foresight Process is to regularly produce, a careful and authoritative ranking of the most important emerging issues related to the global environment. The concept of ‘emerging issues’ is subjective. It is used in this Alert to describe issues that are recognized as very important by the scientific community but are not yet receiving adequate attention from the policy community. This Alert explains the 21 emerging environmental issues identified through the UNEP 2011 Foresight Process. The Alert also determined the top 10 issues among the list of 21, middle 5 issues, and bottom 6 issues.
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The Future of Electric Vehicles and Material Resources
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C will require a rapid reduction of emissions from the transport sector, which is responsible for almost a quarter of direct greenhouse gas emissions. The main goals of this foresight brief are to highlight major opportunities and challenges in the mainstreaming of Electric Vehicles EVs; examine the sustainability case of EVs by focusing on material resources, and offer policy recommendations for ensuring the long-term resource sustainability of EVs. Based on recent trends, this brief identifies opportunities and challenges involved with the adoption of EVs. It also addresses concerns regarding material resources used in EVs and their batteries with a focus on their end-of-life management. | https://wesr.unep.org/article/special-foresight-publications |
The recent Broadbent Institute and Mowat Centre report, Step-Change: Federal Policy Ideas Towards a Low-Carbon Canada, appears at a critical time. Intended to provide concrete examples of mitigation policies that might be adopted in the long run by the new federal government, it is also a timely reminder of the need for Canada to revise its approach to negotiating an agreement in Paris.
To be seen as an effective force at the UN climate change summit Paris, Canada needs to modify its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) — an emission reductions target and strategy submitted to the UNFCCC in May of this year by the Harper government, part of a final set of submissions to be used as a basis for the Paris Agreement.
(As of October 1, there were 128 INDC submissions, reflecting 146 countries and covering around 87% of global emissions in 2010 and 88% of global population). Tabling a revised INDC ahead of Paris would be an important gesture, putting Canada in the forefront of the 180+ nations attending the conference, and making up for the negative and disruptive role carved out by the Harper government in previous Kyoto meetings.)
The existing Canadian INDC outlines measures that would in theory lead to an overall reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. The document is notably un-ambitious and has been rated “inadequate” by Climate Action Tracker (CAT) in its efforts to assess and rate INDCs from key countries.
Canada based its INDC target on adjustments to existing regulations, for example elimination of coal-fired power stations and compliance with US-based vehicle emission standards. It proposed regulatory initiatives for other sectors, for example methane emissions from the oil and gas sector and emissions from natural gas fired electricity, chemicals and nitrogen fertilizers.
Not surprisingly, there was only passing reference to oil sands emissions, proposing an increased focus on “…climate-related investments in innovative production technologies to (improve) environmental performance in the oil sands.” The INDC provides no specific link between such actions and the proposed 30% target—a critical weakness in the Canadian INDC, given that oil sands could contribute up to 14% of Canada’s emissions by 2020.
Can Canada revise its INDC “contributions” and introduce plausible and realistic measures in time for Paris? The Broadbent/Mowat report provides a basis for such an initiative but needs to be re-formulated to provide government negotiators with a realistic and plausible alternative to the existing INDC. Three of the main policy recommendations can provide a basis for this, albeit with some tweaking: accelerated coal phase-out; green building compact; and a clean transportation strategy.
A fourth recommendation, the so-called “Bio-Strategy,” covering “best practices in the agricultural and forestry sectors,” might also be included to address CAT’s concern that the Canadian INDC include “more details” on land-use and forestry gains.
The report's coal phase-out concept is based on the assumption that provincial and private utilities in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Maritimes — the remaining users of coal-fuelled electricity — will agree to gradually phase out coal and replace it with natural gas or renewables. The main difference between this and the INDC proposal is one of degree: making regulations more stringent and changing the “useful life” allowance to ensure total phase-out of power plants built between 1974 and 1986 by 2019 in order to achieve the 2030 target. This small tweak can easily be incorporated in the revised INDC.
The second and third recommendations are entirely absent from the INDC document. Energy efficiency is mentioned only in passing in the INDC, essentially as a pat on the back by the Conservatives for their various “green” investments, but with no indication as to how much additional investment in efficiency would be needed to achieve the INDC targets.
Transportation also receives scant notice, mentioned only in connection with the government’s support for “…emerging technologies and federal regulatory action (which) has limited emissions in the transportation sector, despite growth in vehicle fleets.”
By comparison, the Broadbent/Mowat paper outlines a more coherent programme (the Green Building Compact) for energy efficiency in buildings, using existing regulations and reviving the defunct Eco-Energy initiative. It also proposes a low-carbon approach to transport, for example through a progressive Vehicle Emissions Tax and a Zero Emissions Mandate for a portion of new vehicle production.
Disappointingly, the report does not include increased support for mass transit, an area in which the Conservative government has been active, albeit primarily through supplements to municipal and provincial financing. Still, by going beyond simple regulation of vehicle fleet emissions, the B/M paper breaks new ground and provides a useful approach to reducing transport emissions, which comprise 23% of Canada’s total.
These latter two recommendations would need to be added, with slight adjustments, to the limited set of programmes in the current INDC.
Finally, it is crucial that Canada’s INDC provides a serious, quantifiable strategy for reducing oil sands emissions — either by curtailment of future expansion, or through improved extractive and refining efficiencies. Without a serious effort to address this major emissions source by providing specific policy recommendations, a revised INDC will lack credibility in the Paris discourse.
This leaves us with a pressing question: How will these changes be incorporated in government’s preparations for Paris? And can it be done by tabling a pre-Paris revision to the INDC? As it happens, protocols for reviewing and amending INDCs are built into the Lima Call for Climate Action, endorsed at COP-20 in 2014.
As of November 1, the UNFCCC has also presented a summary review of all INDCs that made clear the aggregate effect of national contributions would still result in a 2.7°C increase in global temperature — well beyond the target of 2°C agreed at Copenhagen, though slightly better than an earlier assessment which placed the contributions at 3°C.
So while Lima does not specifically allow for modifications to INDCs prior to Paris, it does clearly endorse the need for such modifications in response to periodic UNFCCC reviews. Canada should therefore use the failure of current INDCs to meet the 2°C target as a justification for carrying a revised version to Paris, using the Mowat/Broadbent document as a framework for its detailed submission, with the addition of an aggressive and coherent strategy for reducing oil sands emissions.
Geoff Stiles is Principal at Carbon Impact Consultants in Ottawa.
Photo: Emax-photo. Used under a Creative Commons License. | https://www.broadbentinstitute.ca/federal_government_can_lead_on_climate_in_paris_here_s_how |
Towards the quest to reduce income inequality in Africa: is there a synergy between tourism development and governance?
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- Environmental Science
- 2022
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of…
Planetary Economics: Energy, climate change and the three domains of sustainable development
- Economics
- 2014
Preface 1. Trapped? 2. The Three Domains Pillar I: Standards and Engagement for Smarter Choices 3. Energy and Emissions: Technologies and systems 4. Why So Wasteful? 5. Tried and Tested: Four decades…
The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review
- Economics
- 2007
There is now clear scientific evidence that emissions from economic activity, particularly the burning of fossil fuels for energy, are causing changes to the Earth´s climate. A sound understanding of…
Financing the Response to Climate Change
- Economics
- 2010
This note outlines a scheme for mobilizing financing to help developing countries confront the challenges posed by climate change. The idea is to create a “Green Fund” with the capacity to raise…
Comparing the cost effectiveness of nature-based and coastal adaptation: A case study from the Gulf Coast of the United States
- Environmental SciencePloS one
- 2018
It is shown that investments in nature-based adaptation could meet multiple objectives for environmental restoration, adaptation and flood risk reduction, and that the cost effectiveness of adaptation becomes more attractive as climate change and coastal development intensifies in the future.
Integrating Green and Gray: Creating Next Generation Infrastructure
- EngineeringWorld Resources Institute
- 2019
Traditional infrastructure systems worldwide rely on built solutions to support the smooth and safe functioning of societies. in the face of multiplying environmental threats, this approach alone can…
The changing wealth of nations 2018 : building a sustainable future
- Economics
- 2018
Countries regularly track gross domestic product (GDP) as an indicator of their economic progress, but not wealth—the assets such as infrastructure, forests, minerals, and human capital that produce…
Will COVID-19 fiscal recovery packages accelerate or retard progress on climate change? | https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Climate-Action-to-Unlock-the-Inclusive-Growth-Story-Bhattacharya-Ivanyna/bfea1290746991ffc3517ef39afed0f3c334352e |
Regenesis is a breathtaking vision of a new future for food and for humanity. Drawing on astonishing advances in soil ecology, Monbiot reveals how our changing understanding of the world beneath our feet could allow us to grow more food with less farming. He meets the people who are unlocking these methods, from the fruit and vegetable grower revolutionising our understanding of fertility; through breeders of perennial grains, liberating the land from ploughs and poisons; to the scientists pioneering new ways to grow protein and fat. Together, they show how the tiniest life forms could help us make peace with the planet, restore its living systems, and replace the age of extinction with an age of regenesis.
Where to buy:
Key Reports
Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change
Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Authors: IPCC Working Group III
The Working Group III report provides an updated global assessment of climate change mitigation progress and pledges, and examines the sources of global emissions. It explains developments in emission reduction and mitigation efforts, assessing the impact of national climate pledges in relation to long-term emissions goals.
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2021)
Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Authors: IPCC Working Group I
The report addresses the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence and highlighting the critical need for humanity to act urgently to tackle the climate crisis.
Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss (2021)
Source: Chatham House
Authors: Tim G. Benton, Carling Bieg, Helen Harwatt, Roshan Pudasaini and Laura Wellesley
Collaborated by a top UK policy advisory body, this paper explores the role of the global food system as the principal driver of accelerating biodiversity loss. It explains how food production is degrading or destroying natural habitats and contributing to species extinction. The paper outlines the challenges and trade-offs involved in redesigning food systems to restore biodiversity and/or prevent further biodiversity loss, and presents recommendations for action.
IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land (2020)
Source: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Authors: IPCC Working Groups I, II and III
This report addresses greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes in land-based ecosystems, land use and sustainable land management in relation to climate change adaptation and mitigation, desertification, land degradation and food security.
Changing Climate, Changing Diets: Pathways to Lower Meat Consumption (2015)
Source: Chatham House
Authors: Laura Wellesley, Catherine Happer and Antony Froggatt
This Chatham House report highlights the important issues of diet – in particular meat consumption – and the significant contributions such dietary choices make to climate change. Pathways to transforming our food system, as well as analysis of the core problems, are outlined alongside essential recommendations.
Plant Based Treaty Position Papers
Appetite for a Plant Based Treaty?
The IPCC repeatedly demonstrates that a vegan diet is the optimal diet to drastically reduce food related emissions.
Release date: June 6th, 2022
Immediate, rapid, and sustained cuts to greenhouse gas emissions from both fossil fuels and animal agriculture is imperative to avoiding catastrophic climate breakdown.
The Plant Based Treaty offers a roadmap for a fast and just transition to a plant-based food system this decade in response to the climate emergency.
Books
Breaking Boundaries (2021)
Authors: Johan Rockström and Owen Gaffney
On the brink of a critical moment in human history, this book presents a vision of “planetary stewardship” – a rethinking of our relationship with our planet – and plots a new course for our future.
The authors, whose work is the subject of a new Netflix documentary released in summer 2021 and narrated by Sir David Attenborough, reveal the full scale of the planetary emergency we face – but also how we can stabilise Earth’s life support systems.
Scientific studies
Estimating the environmental impact of 57,000 food products
Authors: Michael Clark, Marco Springmann, Mike Rayner and Richard A. Harrington
Published: 2022
Abstract:
Understanding and communicating the environmental impacts of food products is key to enabling transitions to environmentally sustainable food systems [El Bilali and Allahyari, Inf. Process. Agric. 5, 456–464 (2018)]. While previous analyses compared the impacts of food commodities such as fruits, wheat, and beef [Poore and Nemecek, Science 360, 987–992 (2018)], most food products contain numerous ingredients. However, because the amount of each ingredient in a product is often known only by the manufacturer, it has been difficult to assess their environmental impacts. Here, we develop an approach to overcome this limitation. It uses prior knowledge from ingredient lists to infer the composition of each ingredient, and then pairs this with environmental databases [Poore and Nemecek Science 360, 987–992 (2018); Gephart et al., Nature 597, 360–365 (2021)] to derive estimates of a food product’s environmental impact across four indicators: greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water stress, and eutrophication potential. Using the approach on 57,000 products in the United Kingdom and Ireland shows food types have low (e.g., sugary beverages, fruits, breads), to intermediate (e.g., many desserts, pastries), to high environmental impacts (e.g., meat, fish, cheese). Incorporating NutriScore reveals more nutritious products are often more environmentally sustainable but there are exceptions to this trend, and foods consumers may view as substitutable can have markedly different impacts. Sensitivity analyses indicate the approach is robust to uncertainty in ingredient composition and in most cases sourcing. This approach provides a step toward enabling consumers, retailers, and policy makers to make informed decisions on the environmental impacts of food products.
Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods
Authors: Xiaoming Xu, Prateek Sharma, Shijie Shu, Tzu-Shun Lin, Philippe Ciais, Francesco N. Tubiello, Pete Smith, Nelson Campbell & Atul K. Jain
Published: 2021
Abstract:
Agriculture and land use are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but previous estimates were either highly aggregate or provided spatial details for subsectors obtained via different methodologies. Using a model–data integration approach that ensures full consistency between subsectors, we provide spatially explicit estimates of production- and consumption-based GHG emissions worldwide from plant- and animal-based human food in circa 2010. Global GHG emissions from the production of food were found to be 17,318 ± 1,675 TgCO2eq yr−1, of which 57% corresponds to the production of animal-based food (including livestock feed), 29% to plant-based foods and 14% to other utilizations. Farmland management and land-use change represented major shares of total emissions (38% and 29%, respectively), whereas rice and beef were the largest contributing plant- and animal-based commodities (12% and 25%, respectively), and South and Southeast Asia and South America were the largest emitters of production-based GHGs.
Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers
Authors: J. Poore and T. Nemecek
Published: 2018
Abstract:
Food’s environmental impacts are created by millions of diverse producers. To identify solutions that are effective under this heterogeneity, we consolidated data covering five environmental indicators; 38,700 farms; and 1600 processors, packaging types, and retailers. Impact can vary 50-fold among producers of the same product, creating substantial mitigation opportunities. However, mitigation is complicated by trade-offs, multiple ways for producers to achieve low impacts, and interactions throughout the supply chain. Producers have limits on how far they can reduce impacts. Most strikingly, impacts of the lowest-impact animal products typically exceed those of vegetable substitutes, providing new evidence for the importance of dietary change. Cumulatively, our findings support an approach where producers monitor their own impacts, flexibly meet environmental targets by choosing from multiple practices, and communicate their impacts to consumers. | https://plantbasedtreaty.org/pl/further-reading/ |
Eighty prominent scientists, researchers and environmental business leaders - many of them physicists - have called on the American Physical Society (APS), the nation’s leading physics organization, to revise its policy statement on climate change. The century-old APS is the premier scholarly group in the U.S. dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of the knowledge of physics.
The signers of an open letter to the APS Council, the governing body of APS, are current and past members of APS. They disagree with the current APS policy statement on climate change, which contains such language as, “Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth’s climate,” and “The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring.”
The group of 80 scientists and academic leaders is urging APS to revise its statement on climate change to read as follows:
Greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, accompany human industrial and agricultural activity. While substantial concern has been expressed that emissions may cause significant climate change, measured or reconstructed temperature records indicate that 20th [and] 21st century changes are neither exceptional nor persistent, and the historical and geological records show many periods warmer than today. In addition, there is an extensive scientific literature that examines beneficial effects of increased levels of carbon dioxide for both plants and animals.
Studies of a variety of natural processes, including ocean cycles and solar variability, indicate that they can account for variations in the Earth’s climate on the time scale of decades and centuries. Current climate models appear insufficiently reliable to properly account for natural and anthropogenic contributions to past climate change, much less project future climate.
The APS supports an objective scientific effort to understand the effects of all processes - natural and human - on the Earth’s climate and the biosphere’s response to climate change, and promotes technological options for meeting challenges of future climate changes, regardless of cause.
This is a far cry from what we are reading in the very unscientific mainstream media. As a matter of fact, it would be a great surprise if the major media even report the challenge of these courageous scientists to the APS status quo.
When asked for a comment on the open letter, APS Executive Officer Kate Kirby issued the following statement: “The APS president Cherry Murray has formed an ad hoc committee to examine the APS statement. The committee will advise Dr. Murray and the APS council on whether any changes to the statement are necessary.”
The current APS policy statement on climate change was issued in November 2007. But since then, a growing body of evidence has been emerging that challenges the facts and conclusions of the APS statement. It remains to be seen if APS will consider all of the available evidence and recent research. Much of this new information would be embarrassing to politicians, including the President of the United States, because it will show that global warming as a result of human activity is a myth.
The Administration and congressional leaders are in the heat of a legislative battle over health care, but they are also pushing a radical climate change or “cap-and-trade” bill that would dramatically increase the cost of energy for U.S. consumers and businesses. If APS reviews its statement in light of recent, more accurate research, its council may be inclined to adopt the revised statement on climate change from the open letter. But will APS leaders have the courage to do so in the face of intimidation by political leaders who don�t want to change their policies? It wouldn’t be the first time that political power trumped science.
This open letter is just one more piece of evidence that the theory of man-made global warming is losing credibility. Is anyone in Washington listening, or will misguided members of Congress enact their big-government “cap-and-trade (tax)” legislation without so much as a healthy debate about whether man-made global warming theory is even scientifically valid? See post here.
Update: Also note in Bloomberg the story Democrats say Climate Change Legislation Should Be Set Aside. The U.S. Senate should abandon efforts to pass legislation curbing greenhouse-gas emissions this year and concentrate on a narrower bill to require use of renewable energy, four Democratic lawmakers say. | http://www.wtvy.com/weather/headlines/53400232.html |
A report released yesterday reveals wide disparities in air pollution emissions from the 100 largest electric generating companies.
"Benchmarking Air Emissions of the 100 Largest Electric Generation Owners in the U.S. - 2000" concludes that fewer than 20 power generation companies in the United States account for 50 percent of carbon dioxide (CO2), mercury (Hg), oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emitted into the air by the 100 largest public and private electric power companies. Some four to six companies accounted for 25 percent of emissions of each pollutant.
American Electric Power, which generated the most electricity in the country in 2000, was the largest emitter of CO2, Hg, Nox and SO2. The company accounted for 7 percent to 10 percent of industry emissions. Rounding out the top five were Southern Co. (2), Tennessee Valley Authority (3), Exelon (4) and Entergy (5).
The report was released by CERES, a national coalition of environmental and investor groups, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG), one of the electric power generation companies included in the report. The report analyzes data submitted by the companies to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other government agencies for the year 2000.
"Like other publicly available environmental information, such as EPA Toxic Release Inventory, this information will be valuable to corporate leaders, government policy makers, investors, and the public as they determine our clean air policies," said David Gardiner, one of the report''s authors and former assistant administrator of the EPA and executive director of the White House Climate Change Task Force under the Clinton administration. "Government decision makers, electric utility executives, investors and the public should use this information to improve the nation''s air quality. Government will use this information to determine appropriate energy and environmental policy. Environmentally responsible corporate citizens will use this information to improve their own environmental report card. Investors will use it to invest in responsible corporate citizens, and consumers can use it to judge the companies that operate in their neighborhoods."
There are a number of proposals now being debated that would reduce power plant air emissions. In mid-February President Bush proposed a new power plant emissions reduction program for mercury, NOx and SO2, with a separate, voluntary reduction program for CO2. A "four-pollutant" bill sponsored by Senator James Jeffords (I-VT) proposes required reduction programs for all four pollutants, including CO2. PSEG, along with other members of an industry coalition called the Clean Energy Group, also is advocating a comprehensive, four-pollutant proposal for federal legislation.
At the same time, EPA is considering proposals that would substantially revise or eliminate the New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act that requires utilities and other emitting industries to update pollution prevention equipment when doing major facility modifications. Federal legislators are also considering proposals for comprehensive energy legislation, renewable energy portfolio standards and efficiency standards.
There is an internal debate going on within the electric industry on how to balance business interests with reduction of emissions.
"This information helps us understand how our environmental performance compares to our competitors," Mark Brownstein, PSEG director of Environmental Policy and Strategy. "Frankly, some of the data in the report convinced us that we have work to do, and was a factor in our decision to make significant additional environmental investments in our coal units in New Jersey."
CERES plans to mail copies of "Benchmarking Air Emissions of the 100 Largest Electric Generation Owners in the U.S. - 2000" to the CEOs of all 100 companies named in the report, with an invitation to participate in a series of "utility dialogues" sponsored by CERES to discuss industry emissions reduction. The yearlong dialogue would include companies, investors, and environmental organizations, and would recommend financial incentives specifically to reduce CO2 emissions. Pollution effects associated with the four emissions include acid deposition, fine particulates, and regional haze (NOx and SO2), global warming (CO2), mercury deposition, nitrogen deposition and ozone smog (NOx).
"In the wake of Enron, investors are anxious to have as much information as possible to help assess a company''s worth and liability. Air pollutant emissions are one of the most measurable, relevant, and significant indicators of risk for this particular industry, while climate change could pose the single most devastating economic impact economy-wide," said Robert Massie, executive director of CERES. "We know these emissions are harmful, and we can require their elimination over time in a way that''s fair to the entire industry. This is the piece of the puzzle that''s been missing."
To see a copy of the report, go to Ceres Web site at www.ceres.org/publications/main.htm. | https://www.ehstoday.com/news/ehs_imp_35295 |
County Supervisors voted Wednesday to adopt a first-ever Environmental Justice Element for the County’s general plan and heard updates on the County’s new Climate Action Plan and the regional zero-carbon plan they approved pursuing in January.
The County general plan guides community development in San Diego County’s unincorporated communities, setting the long-term vision for housing, jobs, infrastructure and public services.
The Board’s unanimous vote to adopt the new Environmental Justice Element will help ensure the County’s general plan promotes fair treatment for people of all races, cultures and incomes when it comes to having access to safe and livable communities, and opportunities for civic engagement.
The Environmental Justice Element will also help to improve underserved communities that are more prone than others to have environmental disadvantages, like more exposure to air and chemical pollution because of traffic or industry, fewer public facilities, infrastructure and services, and less access to healthy food and recreation.
Board Chair Nathan Fletcher applauded the addition and said a lot of positive passion and energy went into developing the Environmental Justice element.
“I think the EJ element is absolutely essential, and I think it’s important,” Fletcher said. “I think it’s a wonderful addition to (the general plan).”
Using County Live Well and state Environmental Protection Agency criteria, the new element currently identifies 17 census tracts in four unincorporated communities as environmental justice communities: north El Cajon, north Lemon Grove, Spring Valley and Sweetwater.
With the Board’s vote to adopt the Environmental Justice Element, County staff plan to continue stakeholder and public meetings to develop additional criteria to identify additional environmental justice communities.
Supervisors also voted Wednesday to update two of the general plan’s other seven elements, the housing and safety elements.
Climate Action Plan Update and Regional Zero-carbon Plan
The Board of Supervisors also received updates on two related, but different climate-related plans Wednesday. The first was the County’s Climate Action Plan Update. The second was the regionwide decarbonization plan, called a Regional Decarbonization Framework, the Board voted to pursue in January to move the San Diego region toward zero carbon by 2035.
County staff said both plans would seek to reduce greenhouse gas and carbon emissions, focusing on both equity and zero-carbon goals, but they differ in scope and approval process.
The County’s Climate Action Plan Update will be designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated by anticipated future development in unincorporated San Diego County communities — the 772,000 acres over which the County has land-use authority — and from County operations. That plan can be approved by the County Board of Supervisors alone.
In contrast, the Regional Decarbonization Framework will affect the entire region, not just the unincorporated areas. That plan would require the County to work with, and have the participation of, other public agencies including cities, transportation agencies and school districts.
The County is working with the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Energy Policy Initiatives Center at the University of San Diego School of Law to create a framework for its proposed regional zero-carbon plan. County staff said they’re also studying the best emissions reduction plans from across the nation. Staff members said Wednesday they expect to complete a draft framework for the regional effort in November and bring it to the Board for consideration in February.
Creating the Climate Action Plan Update
To prepare the Climate Action Plan Update, County staff is collecting emissions data from five sectors throughout 2019 to establish a baseline from which reduction goals can be set and progress measured. The goal is to reach net-zero emissions by 2035-2045.
County Planning & Development Services staff have already started working on several aspects of the Climate Action Plan Update, processing emissions data to create the inventory, reviewing emissions-reduction measures and preparing an environmental study.
The department is also preparing to hold several more public workshops to gather community feedback, starting July 28. County staff estimate they will complete a draft plan next year. They expect to bring a completed Climate Action Plan and Supplemental Environmental Impact Report to the Board for consideration in winter 2022.
The County is currently continuing to implement many of the 26 greenhouse gas reduction measures that were in the County’s 2018 Climate Action Plan. The Board of Supervisors rescinded that plan in September 2020 after deciding not to further appeal a court ruling. That ruling and legal challenge, however, took no issue with the measures, which decreased carbon dioxide emissions by 160,743 metric tons, exceeding the County’s 2020 goal by 22%. | https://www.countynewscenter.com/county-board-adopts-first-environmental-justice-element-for-general-plan/ |
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Building energy conservation and carbon reduction in building energy are two key ways to achieve the global target of u2018carbon freenessu2019. To increase the building and power system's comprehensive carbon reduction capabilities, an optimization approach of building low-u2010carbon energy consumption strategy considering both the building and power carbon emission was established. The objective function can be included by incorporating the dynamic energy carbon transaction cost into the objective function, so that the dynamic CEF's dynamic climate behaviours can be considered.
Source link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1049/stg2.12085
The estimation of anthropogenic N2O emissions inventories is dependent on global riverine N2O emissions estimates. The indirect N2O emission factor model, one of the lowest-up options, adopts a set EF5R value to determine riverine N2O emissions based on IPCC methods, which is one of the bottom-up approaches. Our results indicate that the EF5r values in China and other regions with high N loads are lower than those in regions with lower N loads. While the global mean EF5r value is similar to the IPCC default value, the global mean EF5r figure is highly skewed, showing that adopting region-specific EF5r values rather than revising the default value is more appropriate for the estimation of regional and global riverine N2O emissions.
Source link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16458
We explore in this article how a group of companies can have optimally flexible carbon pollution control. We first demonstrate in closed form the market equilibrium in function of the regulator's dynamic allocation of jobs using variational techniques. The regulator and the companies then solve the Stackelberg puzzle, which we then solve. The result is a closedu20form representation of the optimal dynamic allocation policies that promote a desired emission reduction that meets a desired target emission reduction. The optimal strategy is unusual in the presence of market impact. In the absence of market disruption, the most appropriate policy is nonunique, but all the optimal policies endorse common characteristics, but most of the best practices follow common standards.
Source link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mafi.12364
Sustainable growth goals are one of the primary targets for many countries around the world to achieve. Between 1990 and 2020, the new report examines the effect of economic growth and global trade, particularly by considering trade separately, energy efficiency, and environmental levies on consumptionu2010 based carbon emissions for the Gu20107 countries. According to the report, economic growth and imports are declining, affecting the CCO2 emission of the G-u20107 countries' CCO2 emissions, while exports, energy conservation, and environmental legislation are having a positive effect on the CCO2 emissions.
Source link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sd.2400
No single carbon levy is imposed in several countries on all greenhouse gas emissions. The United Kingdom has adopted a patchwork of laws that increase the cost of various aspects of energy and polluting activities, resulting in implicit carbon taxes that vary widely among sources of emissions and energy users. We advocate for increased environmental rationing in the UK and other developed economies. | https://scholar.plex.page/Carbon_Emissions-Wiley_Online_Library |
Zhang, zhongxiang (2015), carbon emissions trading in china: the evolution from pilots to a nationwide scheme, ccep working paper 1503, april 2015 school of economics, fudan and influencing australia, asia and the pacific through advanced policy research, graduate and executive education, and policy impact. In a brief but much noted passage of laudato si, pope francis criticized so- called “cap and trade” approaches to reducing carbon emissions “the strategy of buy carbon trading and the morality of markets in laudato si cornell legal studies research paper no 17-03 18 pages posted: 2 feb 2017. Taking one less flight per year saves far more carbon than installing energy efficient light bulbs this paper introduces and discusses the rationale behind a downstream cap-and-trade policy approach and sets it in the context of climate mitigation policies it gives a brief summary of the status of pct in policy and research,. Ristino, laurie a and michel, katie hannon, carbon trading in the united states (march 25, 2014) forthcoming in van calster, g, vandenberghe, w, and reins, l (eds), research handbook on climate mitigation law, cheltenham, edward elgar, 2014 vermont law school research paper no 5-14. Epa action is called for as a result of the 2006 us supreme court decision in massachusetts versus epa, the obama administration's subsequent “ endangerment finding” that carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases) endanger public health and welfare, and the consequent designation in 2010 of.
What is emissions trading emissions trading (or emissions allowance trading) is a mar- ket-based environmental policy instrument the basic idea of emissions trading was put forward in 1968 by the canadian economist j h dales in his book “pollution, property and prices” he suggested setting up a market for pollution. At the beginning of 2009 clive spash wrote a paper, the brave new world of carbon trading, that was critical of carbon emissions trading schemes and argued redesign would not address the concerns raised he was employed at the time by the australian commonwealth scientific and research organization ( csiro),. Bchina automotive energy research center, tsinghua university, china abstract emissions trading systems (etss) as cost-effective methods to facilitate emission abatement are raising more concerns this paper implements different scenario analysis and simulates the establishing of a conceivable global emission.
Climate change and carbon markets: a panoramic history raphael calel july 2011 centre for climate change economics and policy working paper no 62 grantham research institute on climate change and the environment working paper no 52. This policy idea is unique because it provides an overarching approach to personal emissions from energy use and because it combines a number of mechanisms to drive behavior change: economic, psychological, and social this paper presents a review of research evidence and real-world experience.
This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution- global journal of management and business research credit it also emphasizes on the methods used to save the environment this paper also discusses the business opportunities in the global emissions market in. Die dis cus si on pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len ver brei tung von neue ren for schungs arbei ten des zew die bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger ver ant wor tung der auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die mei nung des zew dar dis cus si on papers are inten ded to make results of zew research. Linking emissions trading systems: a summary of current research january 2015, berlin, germany aki kachi, charlotte unger, niels böhm, kateryna stelmakh, constanze haug, michel frerk disclaimer: the findings and opinions expressed in this paper are the sole responsibility of its authors they do not necessarily.
Very instructive comments on the paper presented by caney at the ' commodifying carbon' conference (oxford, 16 july 2007) to dale jamieson and participants the environmental studies research seminar at new york university for comments on the paper presented by hepburn on 21 april 2009 to members of. Research paper no 3 2008–09 leslie nielson economics section 20 august 2008 the recent government carbon pollution reduction scheme green paper also adopted a cap and trade approach australia is very firmly committed to a cap and trade approach for controlling its greenhouse gas emissions. | http://ifpaperfhoy.n2g.us/carbon-tradingresearch-papers.html |
How does this food fit into your daily goals?
Percentages are based on a diet of 2000 calories a day.
Activity Needed to Burn:
200 calories
Frosted cherry pomegranate toaster pastries
Nature’s Path Organic
Nature's Path Organic Frosted Cherry Pomegranate
Frosted Cherry Pomegranate Toaster Pasteries
Nature's Path Organic
Organic Toaster Pastries - Frosted Strawberry
Nature's Path
Raspberry Frosted Toaster Pastries
Nature's Path Organic
You're taking control of your fitness and wellness journey, so take control of your data, too. Learn more about your rights and options.Or click here to opt-out of certain cookies. | https://sync.myfitnesspal.com/food/calories/organic-frosted-cherry-pomegranate-toaster-pastries-1163010350 |
Thaw puff pastry dough in the refrigerator according to package directions (usually a few hours).
Step 2
Remove puff pastry from the fridge and work with one sheet of puff pastry at a time. On a pastry mat, begin by rolling the puff pastry lightly to smooth out the seams and to make the dough thinner. The dough should be approximately 11x11 inches.
Step 3
Cut the dough into 9 even squares/rectangles. Next, score the inside of each pastry with a paring knife to make a 1/4 inch border all the way around. Be careful not to cut all the way through the dough. Lightly scoring it will get the job done.
Step 4
Pop the pastries into the fridge on a parchment lined baking sheet, and repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry. If the dough seems too warm or soft at any point during the preparation, return it to the refrigerator for 10 minutes. We don't want the butter or fat in the dough to melt before hitting the oven, otherwise the pastries will be heavy and oil instead of light and flaky.
Step 5
Once the pastries are chilling, cream the cream cheese filling ingredients in a bowl with a hand mixer until smooth and creamy. Slice the strawberries thinly and crush some fresh raspberries in a bowl until juicy with small pieces remaining.
Step 6
Remove the puff pastry squares from the refrigerator and portion the lemon cream cheese filling into the center of each one. Fill the centers all the way to the borders, but try not to get the filling in the scored lines so that the pastries bake properly.
Step 7
Next, top with strawberries and raspberry, then place in the fridge for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Step 8
Right before placing the cheese danishes in the oven, mix an egg and water in a bowl, and brush the pastry borders lightly with the egg wash.
Step 9
Bake the danish pastries for 13-16 minutes, or until golden brown and puffed. Remove from the oven, transfer to a cooling rack, and let cool.
Step 10
If adding the shiny fruit glaze, warm the apricot jam and water in a pot until liquid. Brush the cooked fruit with the glaze to add shine and freshness.
Step 11
Lastly, mix the lemon icing ingredients. Drizzle the icing over the danishes and enjoy warm or at room temperature.
Step 12
These danishes are best eaten the same day that they are made. You can still eat them 1-2 days after, but they will diminish in quality as the pastries soften. | https://thefeedfeed.com/justataste/video/how-to-make-an-easy-cream-cheese-danish-w-kelly-senyei |
Right after New Year when our bellies have gorged on for days, my mum made this delicious almond pastries for the first time and we all started struggling with our new year resolutions since the very first days. And I’m sorry if you’re trying to engage with a healthier lifestyle lately, but I can’t really help but share when I come across a recipe that is that good that we went for a second round in less than 24 hours! The fact that January 6 was around the corner was the perfect excuse to experiment with the new recipe to be ready and well tested for when they’d to go in our stockings – I’m not quite sure this is a tradition somewhere else in the world outside of Italy too, but on the Twelfth Night after Christmas children are used to receive a stocking full of candies and sweet treats and this year my mum went for something more on the handmade side of things (which was lovely!) and of course I received a stocking too. After all, I’m 21, yes, but I feel 10 when candies and pastries come around!
30 Pastries | Ingredients:
145g almond flour
90g white sugar
2 egg whites
1/2 tsp almond extract
Icing sugar to top
1 :: In a big bowl mix together the almond flour with the white sugar until well incorporated.
2 :: Mix the egg whites with the almond extract in another bowl and stir well.
3 :: Pour the egg mixture into the flour and white sugar mixture and stir well until you’ll be able to shape a quite firm but wet dough.
4 :: Put the dough into a pastry bag and using a closed star tip, create little meringues onto a baking tin lined with parchment paper by swirling the pastry dough into a circle and building up a tip on top. You should be able to shape around 15 pastries but not more.
5 :: Sprinkle icing sugar in abundance over all the pastries and let them rest on the tin for 15 minutes before moving on. In the meanwhile preheat the oven to 160°C.
6 :: Then bake the pastries in the oven for 10 minutes. Do not overcook – they might seem a bit too soft and not ready yet, but after 10 minutes remove from oven and leave them rest for 20 minutes or until they are completely cool and solid.
This is something a bit different from what I’m used to share on here, and I’m happy I stole my mum’s recipe and experimented with almond flour, as I’ve always loved the taste of almond flour based cookies and pastries but never tried it myself! They are totally worth a try if you’re a fan of almond and nutty flavours – probably one of the most delicious non-chocolate recipe I’ve ever tried! Experimenting with new recipes was one of my 2015 goals, now back to the boring ‘be healthier’ stuff…
These almond pastries will last up to 2 weeks, but I bet you’ll have no difficulties in devouring them in less than a day! Let me know if you give this recipe a try and don’t forget to tweet me pictures if you do! x
My mum probably found this recipe online and re-adapted it slightly, but I can’t find the original source, sorry! | http://www.miel-cafe.com/2015/01/recipe-almond-pastries.html |
This one's a winner! Make your own flaky puff pastry, then stuff it with an ooey-gooey cinnamony filling. Oh yeah! These pastries are perfect for any special occasion, or a Sunday baking project. You could also substitute your favorite type of jam (or vegan Nutella!) for the cinnamon sugar filling.
Cinnamon Sugar Toaster Pastries [Vegan]
Ingredients
Puff Pastry:
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons organic non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening, cold
- 1 1/2 cup organic flour or cake flour
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup vodka, very cold (or water, very cold)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar or coconut sugar
- 2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 tablespoon flax seed, ground
- 3 tablespoons warm water
- 2 teaspoons almond milk, plus more for brushing
Preparation
To Make the Pastry:
- Before you begin, make sure your vodka (or water) is in the freezer and place your measured shortening in the fridge/freezer for 30 minutes. (I put both in the freezer.)
- In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Using a pastry cutter, or your fingers, add in the shortening and work it into a meal. Don't eliminate all of the chunks of shortening though. When all of the shortening is worked in, add your cold vodka. Work the dough again – it should resemble a traditional dough now. If it's too soft, you can add a little more flour.
- Between two pieces of parchment paper, roll out your dough. Use a little flour to keep the paper from sticking too much. Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape if you can. When you're ready, fold the dough length-wise into a crepe or burrito shape. After, fold it two more times, into a little square. You should be able to still see some shortening spots. Wrap it in plastic and chill the dough for two hours, at the very least.
- Combine the filling ingredients in a small bowl, until everything is well mixed. It's that easy! Set the bowl aside.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Take the chilled dough out of the fridge and roll it out, again between two pieces of floured parchment paper. Again, try your best to keep it in a square shape, though it doesn't have to be perfect (as you will see with my dough). Remove the top piece of parchment and cut the dough into six pop tart-sized shapes. (Mine measured about 6 inches long and 5 inches wide.) Take a look at the pictures below. After, you'll make small ladder shapes. It's just a series of simple, symmetrical cuts.
- If you want, you can also make three traditional-looking pop tart pastries by cutting six equal rectangles. It's up to you! I took the excess dough and make mini pastries with it.
- Once all of the pastries are folded and ready to go, place them on a piece of parchment paper. No matter what you do, these beauties will leak. The shortening melts and the filling will ooze a little. If you're worried about your baking pans, I suggest that you line the pan with aluminum foil to seal it and then place the parchment and pastries on top. That way, you have double protection.
- When the pastries are on the tray with parchment paper, brush each one with a little more almond milk. Bake the pastries for 20-25 minutes. They should be golden brown on the top.
- After they're done, use a knife to cut away any excess filling that has come out the sides. It should come away, no problem.
- If you want, you can make a quick cinnamon sugar glaze for the top – I do recommend it! It really enhances the flavor of these pastries. Take 1/2 cup of organic powdered sugar and add a teaspoon of water at a time – stir. You want the glaze to be the consistency of glue. Add in a few shakes of cinnamon.
- Drizzle as much or as little over your pastries as you want! | https://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/cinnamon-sugar-toaster-pastries/ |
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Line a baking plan with parchment paper.
Divide puff pasty into 3 rectangles and then cut again to make 6 squares.
Place the pastry squares on the parchment paper & set aside.
In a mixer add cream cheese, granulated sugar, vanilla extract and optional lemon juice. Blend until evenly mixed.
Crack an egg and drop into a bowl with 1-2 teaspoons water. Beat together like you are going to scrambled eggs & set aside.
Drop a dollop of cheese mixture in the middle of each pastry square. About the side of an ice cream scoop (roughly 1/8 cup). Unless you are making more than 6 pasties you will have some left over cheese filling. Bag the rest and place in the fridge (I make anther batch in a couple days).
Fold each corner in towards the middle, just barely touching.
Now give the egg mixture another mix and lightly brush the pastries with it.
Place the pastries in the oven for 17-19 minutes. You should see a little golden brown on the edges.
While the pastries are baking it’s time to work on the frosting drizzle.
In a bowl or mixer, mix powered sugar, vanilla extract and milk (or milk substitute.) I used oat milk for mine.
Once the pastries are done baking, place each on a cooling rack.
Allow the pastries to cool a bit and then drizzle the frosting back and forth over the pastries.
Now enjoy, or wait a few hours to eat. My favorite is the next day! They stay well in a container, baggy or pastry dome display (wooden bottom, with glass cover). I’ve tried each way of storing them.
XO Eryka
My husband and I were talking about how continental breakfast will probably never come back. If you never went to a hotel or resort and enjoyed the never ending buffet of eggs, bacon, muffins, donuts, cereal & assorted danishes… google it! Anyway, our love and sadness for the end of simple things like this is what inspired me to create my favorite item found at a continental breakfast. I played around with the cheese filling to get the best flavor. And as you will see, I added an option to make them lemon, because I do love the lemon ones as well. The next time I make these, I’ll be trying some with part cheese and part jam. | https://busylittleizzy.com/2020/12/27/the-best-cheese-danish-quick-easy-recipe/ |
Cakes, Pastries & Sweet Pies (Bakery & Cereals) Market in Brazil-Outlook to 2022: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics is a broad level market review of Cakes, Pastries & Sweet Pies market in Brazil.
Cakes, Pastries & Sweet Pies market in Brazil registered a positive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.72% during the period 2012 to 2017 with a sales value of BRL 7,924.76 Million in 2017, an increase of 10.37% over 2016. The market achieved its strongest performance in 2013, when it grew by 17.12% over its previous year and its weakest performance in 2017, when it increased to 10.37% over 2016.
The research handbook acts as an essential tool for companies active or planning to venture in to Brazil's Cakes, Pastries & Sweet Pies (Bakery & Cereals) market. The comprehensive statistics within the research handbook provides insight into the operating environment of the market and also ensures right business decision making based on historical trends and industry model based forecasting. | https://www.kenresearch.com/food-beverage-and-tobacco/general-food/cakes-pastries-sweet-pies-market/152551-11.html |
This is a recipe for a delicious almond danish pastry complete with an almond glaze.
Print Recipe
Pin Recipe
Prep Time
5
hrs
Cook Time
15
mins
Total Time
5
hrs
15
mins
Course
Viennoiserie
Cuisine
French
Servings
16
Ingredients
**DANISH PASTRY**
375
g
Strong White Flour
or white bread flour
25
g
Granulated Sugar
5
g
Salt
15
g
Powdered Milk
25
g
Fresh Yeast
2¾ tsps of dried fast action yeast
2
large eggs
115
ml
Water
40
g
Cubed Softened Unsalted Butter
250
g
Chilled Unsalted Butter
***Almond Paste***
150
g
Ground Almonds
75
g
Icing Sugar
2
Tbsp
Milk
2
Egg Yolks
Flaked Almonds to decorate
***Almond Glaze***
6
Drops Almond Extract
225
g
Icing Sugar
60
ml
Milk
Instructions
Place the flour, sugar, salt and powdered milk in a large bowl. Crumble in the yeast, making sure it doesn't touch the salt. Add the egg and the water and knead with your hands until the dough is firm, it will be quite dense at this point. Add the softened butter and knead until it is fully mixed in.
Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Shape it into a ball, cover with cling film and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Ten minutes before your pastry is ready to come out of the fridge, place your remaining block of butter in the freezer.
On a floured surface roll out the dough to a rectangle that is 6mm thick.
Place the butter between two pieces of greaseproof paper and roll it out into a rectangle half the size of the dough.Arrange the dough so a short edge is facing you and place the butter on the bottom half of the dough. Press the edges of the butter into the dough with your fingers. Fold down the top half of the dough to completely enclose the butter.
Turn the dough 90 degrees clockwise. Roll out the dough lengthwise until it is 7mm thick.
Fold up the bottom third of the dough, fold the top part of the dough down so it touches the edge of the dough. Then fold the dough in half, encasing the edges so that they are on the inside of the fold.
You should now have four layers of dough, if you look at the side. Cover in cling film and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
Take the dough out of the fridge, roll it out to a rectangle about 7mm thick. Fold the bottom third up and the top third down to cover the bottom third, like a letter. Cover with cling film and chill for 1 hour.
***Make the Almond Paste***
Combine the ground almonds and icing sugar in a medium bowl. Add the milk and egg yolks and beat with a wooden spoon to make a firm paste.
***Danish Pastry***
Take the dough from the fridge and cut it in half so that it is easier to work with. Wrap the other half in clingfilm and return it to the fridge.
Roll out half the pastry into a rectangle that is 32cm by 16cm approximately 4mm thick. Cut the rectangle in half lengthways so you have two 8cm by 32cm strips. Using a sharp knife cut each rectangle into 8, 8cm squares.
Place about 1 tsp of the almond paste into the centre of each square, fold the corners of the pastry into the centre and press the almond paste down. This should give you squares with loosely open corners.
Repeat the same steps with the other pastry in the fridge.
At this stage you can place the pastries on a baking tray and let them prove for around 2 hours, or you can freeze these pastries for baking at a later day.
If freezing, freeze the pastries flat on a baking tray and when frozen, place them in a ziplock bag. When you come to cook the pastries allow them to defrost overnight in the fridge and then prove them for 2 hours in a warm area.
When the pastries have doubled in size, brush them with an egg wash and scatter them with flaked almonds.
Cook the pastries for 12 to 15 minutes at 180C until they are golden brown.
Allow the pastries to cool on a wire rack and make the almond glaze by mixing together the icing sugar, milk and almond extract until they form a smooth glaze.
Drizzle the glaze over the top of the danishes and allow them to cool. | https://www.patisseriemakesperfect.co.uk/wprm_print/recipe/7172 |
A delightful combination of apple chunks, juicy raisins and a hint of cinnamon wrapped in our signature puff pastry.
*Pastry is best consumed within 2 hours upon delivery.
To ensure the best quality of our pastries, our pastries will be delivered chilled.
Kindly re-heat before consumption. | https://polarpuffs-cakes.com/products/apple-strudel-1/ |
You heard me.
Nutella. Bananas. Cinnamon. Pastry.
These are GOOD, kids.
Remember way back five seconds ago when we had our first giveaway that our blogging buddy Tim won? Well, part of that giveaway was two other winners that suggested puff pastry recipes for us to try. This is the first one!
One of the winners, Angela, suggested that we make something involving chocolate. I was super psyched about this assignment because pastry and chocolate are delicious, no matter what you do to them. Then I remembered this one time I was in Philly with my friend Bryn and we had brunch at this super awesome place near here house and I ate crepes with bananas and nutella.
And then I made pastries with bananas and nutella.
It made sense to me at the time.
So, for these little nuggets of joy, you need the following things:
- 1 sheet puff pastry
- 1 medium banana
- nutella
- cinnamon
- white sugar
- flour
- cooking spray
This is pretty basic stuff, guys! Puff pastry stays frozen, so you'll want to let it thaw in the fridge overnight or on the counter for 30 minutes or so until it's soft.
Go ahead and slice the banana into slices - not too thin, not too thick. ⅙th of an inch. Yes.
Ignore that part.
When you're ready to assemble the pastries, separate the puff pastry into three equal panels - use the fold lines that are already on it! Use as much flour as you need while you're working with the pastry to be sure it doesn't stick to the board you're working on.
Then, use your fingers to lightly stretch the panel to be a bit wider than it's original size. If you're measuring using the banana, you should be able to make two rows of banana slices with some room to spare - stretch the pastry to THAT width. I stretched mine to about 3.5 inches wide - the length didn't change much.
Then, use a sharp knife to cut the pastry into two long strips, and then cut the strips into little squares - I got 12 - 14 squares per panel of pastry. This will depend on how thick your banana is. Hehe.
Once you have your pastry squares, place a slice of banana on half of the squares.
Then, put a little blob of nutella on the other squares!
Now, place a nutella pastry square on top of a banana slice...
....and use a fork to press the pieces together like little ravioli.
CUTE!
Now, spray a large pan with cooking spray and place the pastries 1 inch apart on the pan. Then, spray the tops of the pastries as well.
Sprinkle the tops of the pastries with a little cinnamon and sugar. Yum!
Now, at this point you can leave the pastries alone for awhile, or you can go ahead and bake them! Whenever you're ready to bake them, preheat the oven to 400F and bake the pastries for 12 - 15 minutes until they're golden brown and puffy.
That's it! Because I didn't cut vents in the pastry, some of the nutella escaped around the edges, but I didn't mind that one bit. You're welcome to poke a hole in the top of the pastry before you bake them, but I'm not sure that's necessary.
These are great hot, cold, room temperature...WHATEVER. If you want to reheat them, we've found that a toaster oven works really nicely!
Enjoy these, and thanks to Angela for the idea! They're great fun, and I'd imagine that you could fill tiny pastries like this with, um, anything you freaking want.
Hurray for pastry!
P.S. the other winning suggestion was beef wellington. That's coming up as soon as we do enough yoga to make up for a week of eating these little guys. Wait for it.
This is definitely weekendy enough to be a part of a Weekend Potluck – check out the delicious Tonya and her family over at 4LittleFergusons. She, Marsha, Kim&Julie, Holly, Brandie, and Tabitha all have this fun roundup of recipes each Friday – there are some great ideas for what you might make at some point this weekend! Click here to see the latest list! | https://mytherapistcooks.com/nutella-mini-pastries-with-banana-and-cinnamon/ |
Personal is powerful. We engineer bespoke cells, tissues, and organs that resist rejection by the human immune system.
Our therapeutic platform begins with safety. In September 2019, XenoTherapeutics performed the first non-human organ transplant with Xeno-Skin. This proof of concept has established safety via a regulatory pathway and is advancing the future of xenotransplantation. We envision future xeno solutions utilizing immune-compatible, patient-specific cells, tissues, and organs via CRISPR technology.
We Believe
Mission
We exist to radically solve the unforgiving need
for cell, tissue, and organ transplantation
- for all humankind. | https://www.xenotherapeutics.com/about |
# Xenotransplantation
Xenotransplantation (xenos- from the Greek meaning "foreign" or strange), or heterologous transplant, is the transplantation of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another. Such cells, tissues or organs are called xenografts or xenotransplants. It is contrasted with allotransplantation (from other individual of same species), syngeneic transplantation or isotransplantation (grafts transplanted between two genetically identical individuals of the same species) and autotransplantation (from one part of the body to another in the same person).
Xenotransplantation of human tumor cells into immunocompromised mice is a research technique frequently used in pre-clinical oncology research.
Human xenotransplantation offers a potential treatment for end-stage organ failure, a significant health problem in parts of the industrialized world. It also raises many novel medical, legal and ethical issues. A continuing concern is that many animals, such as pigs, have a shorter lifespan than humans, meaning that their tissues age at a quicker rate. (Pigs have a maximum life span of about 27 years.) Disease transmission (xenozoonosis) and permanent alteration to the genetic code of animals are also causes for concern. Similarly to objections to animal testing, animal rights activists have also objected to xenotransplantation on ethical grounds. A few temporarily successful cases of xenotransplantation are published.
It is common for patients and physicians to use the term "allograft" imprecisely to refer to either allograft (human-to-human) or xenograft (animal-to-human), but it is helpful scientifically (for those searching or reading the scientific literature) to maintain the more precise distinction in usage.
## History
The first serious attempts at xenotransplantation (then called heterotransplantation) appeared in the scientific literature in 1905, when slices of rabbit kidney were transplanted into a child with chronic kidney disease. In the first two decades of the 20th century, several subsequent efforts to use organs from lambs, pigs, and primates were published.
Scientific interest in xenotransplantation declined when the immunological basis of the organ rejection process was described. The next waves of studies on the topic came with the discovery of immunosuppressive drugs. Even more studies followed Joseph Murray's first successful renal transplantation in 1954 and scientists, facing the ethical questions of organ donation for the first time, accelerated their effort in looking for alternatives to human organs.
### Non-human kidney to a human
In 1963, doctors at Tulane University attempted chimpanzee-to-human renal transplantations in six people who were near death; after this and several subsequent unsuccessful attempts to use primates as organ donors and the development of a working cadaver organ procuring program, interest in xenotransplantation for kidney failure dissipated. Out of 13 such transplants performed by Keith Reemtsma, one kidney recipient lived for nine months, returning to work as a schoolteacher. At autopsy, the chimpanzee kidneys appeared normal and showed no signs of acute or chronic rejection.
### Non-human heart to a human
An American infant girl known as "Baby Fae" with hypoplastic left heart syndrome was the first infant recipient of a xenotransplantation, when she received a baboon heart in 1984. The procedure was performed by Leonard Lee Bailey at Loma Linda University Medical Center in Loma Linda, California. Fae died 21 days later due to a humoral-based graft rejection thought to be caused mainly by an ABO blood type mismatch, considered unavoidable due to the rarity of type O baboons. The graft was meant to be temporary, but unfortunately a suitable allograft replacement could not be found in time. While the procedure itself did not advance the progress on xenotransplantation, it did shed a light on the insufficient amount of organs for infants. The story made such an impact that the crisis of infant organ shortage improved for that time.
### Non-human heart, lungs, and kidneys to a human
The first transplant of a non-genetically modified pig's heart, lungs and kidneys into a human was performed in Sonapur, Assam in India in mid-December 1996, and was announced in January 1997. The recipient was Purno Saikia, a 32-year-old terminally-ill man; he died shortly after the operation of multiple infections. The Indian cardiothoracic surgeon Dhani Ram Baruah and two of his associates, Jonathan Ho Kei-shing (of the Hong Kong-based Prince of Wales Medical Institute) and C.S. James, performed the surgeries. Baruah claimed that Saikia had failed to respond to conventional surgery, and that the patient and his family had consented to the procedure.
All three involved in the surgery were arrested on January 9, 1997, for the alleged violation of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act of 1994. Baruah was dismissed in medical circles as a "mad scientist" and the procedure was dubbed a "hoax". Baruah himself signed a statement saying he had done no transplant, but then alleged that the confession was forced from him. They were found guilty of unethical procedure and culpable homicide and imprisoned for 40 days. Dhani Ram Baruah's surgical institute was also found to be without necessary registration.
Critics said Dhani Bam Baruah's claims and medical procedures were neither taken seriously nor accepted by the scientific community because he never got his findings scientifically peer-reviewed. Past complaints of ethics violations during surgeries in Hong Kong by Baruah and Ho had occurred in 1992, when they had implanted heart valves, developed by Baruah, made of animal tissue. A year later, six patients died. The Asian Medical News reported that "grave concerns" were expressed "over the procedure and ethics of the implementation".
### Genetically engineered non-human kidney to a human
In September 2021, surgeons led by Robert Montgomery performed the first genetically engineered pig kidney xenotransplant to a brain-dead human at NYU Langone Health with no sign of immediate rejection (partly because the pig thymus gland was transplanted as well). The kidney was procured from a pig with only a single gene modification: the removal of alpha-gal.
### Genetically engineered non-human heart to a human
In January 2022, doctors led by cardiothoracic surgeon Bartley P. Griffith and Muhammad M. Mohiuddin at the University of Maryland Medical Center and University of Maryland School of Medicine performed a heart transplant from a genetically modified pig to a terminally ill patient, David Bennett Sr., who was ineligible for a standard human heart transplant. The pig had undergone specific gene editing to remove enzymes responsible for producing sugar antigens that lead to hyperacute organ rejection in humans. The US medical regulator gave special dispensation to carry out the procedure under compassionate use criteria. The recipient died two months after the transplantation.
In June and July 2022, surgeons at NYU Langone Health performed two genetically modified pig heart transplants into recently deceased humans. The hearts were from pigs that had the identical 10 genetic modifications used in the University of Maryland Medical Center heart xenotransplantation in January 2022. All three hearts came from Revivicor, Inc., a facility based in Blacksburg, Va., and a subsidiary of United Therapeutics.
## Potential uses
A worldwide shortage of organs for clinical implantation causes about 20–35% of patients who need replacement organs to die on the waiting list. Certain procedures, some of which are being investigated in early clinical trials, aim to use cells or tissues from other species to treat life-threatening and debilitating illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, liver failure and Parkinson's disease. If vitrification can be perfected, it could allow for long-term storage of xenogenic cells, tissues and organs so that they would be more readily available for transplant.
Xenotransplants could save thousands of patients waiting for donated organs. The animal organ, probably from a pig or baboon could be genetically altered with human genes to trick a patient's immune system into accepting it as a part of its own body. They have re-emerged because of the lack of organs available and the constant battle to keep immune systems from rejecting allotransplants. Xenotransplants are thus potentially a more effective alternative.
Xenotransplantation of human tumor cells into immunocompromised mice is a research technique frequently used in oncology research. It is used to predict the sensitivity of the transplanted tumor to various cancer treatments; several companies offer this service, including the Jackson Laboratory.
Human organs have been transplanted into animals as a powerful research technique for studying human biology without harming human patients. This technique has also been proposed as an alternative source of human organs for future transplantation into human patients. For example, researchers from the Ganogen Research Institute transplanted human fetal kidneys into rats which demonstrated life supporting function and growth.
## Potential animal organ donors
Since they are the closest relatives to humans, non-human primates were first considered as a potential organ source for xenotransplantation to humans. Chimpanzees were originally considered the best option since their organs are of similar size, and they have good blood type compatibility with humans, which makes them potential candidates for xenotransfusions. However, since chimpanzees are listed as an endangered species, other potential donors were sought. Baboons are more readily available, but impractical as potential donors. Problems include their smaller body size, the infrequency of blood group O (the universal donor), their long gestation period, and their typically small number of offspring. In addition, a major problem with the use of nonhuman primates is the increased risk of disease transmission, since they are so closely related to humans.
Pigs (Sus scrofa domesticus) are currently thought to be the best candidates for organ donation. The risk of cross-species disease transmission is decreased because of their increased phylogenetic distance from humans. Pigs have relatively short gestation periods, large litters, and are easy to breed, making them readily available. They are inexpensive and easy to maintain in pathogen-free facilities, and current gene editing tools are adapted to pigs to combat rejection and potential zoonoses. Pig organs are anatomically comparable in size, and new infectious agents are less likely since they have been in close contact with humans through domestication for many generations. Treatments sourced from pigs have proven to be successful such as porcine-derived insulin for patients with diabetes mellitus. Increasingly, genetically engineered pigs are becoming the norm, which raises moral qualms, but also increases the success rate of the transplant. Current experiments in xenotransplantation most often use pigs as the donor, and baboons as human models. In 2020 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a genetic modification of pigs so they do not produce alpha-gal sugars. Pig organs have been used for kidney and heart transplants into humans.
In the field of regenerative medicine, pancreatogenesis- or nephrogenesis-disabled pig embryos, unable to form a specific organ, allow experimentation toward the in vivo generation of functional organs from xenogenic pluripotent stem cells in large animals via compensation for an empty developmental niche (blastocyst complementation). Such experiments provide the basis for potential future application of blastocyst complementation to generate transplantable human organs from the patient's own cells, using livestock animals, to increase quality of life for those with end-stage organ failure.
## Barriers and issues
### Immunologic barriers
To date, no xenotransplantation trials have been entirely successful due to the many obstacles arising from the response of the recipient's immune system. "Xenozoonoses" are one of the biggest threats to rejections, as they are xenogenetic infections. The introduction of these microorganisms are a big issue that lead to the fatal infections and then rejection of the organs. This response, which is generally more extreme than in allotransplantations, ultimately results in rejection of the xenograft, and can in some cases result in the immediate death of the recipient. There are several types of rejection organ xenografts are faced with, these include hyperacute rejection, acute vascular rejection, cellular rejection, and chronic rejection.
A rapid, violent, and hyperacute response comes as a result of antibodies present in the host organism. These antibodies are known as xenoreactive natural antibodies (XNAs).
#### Hyperacute rejection
This rapid and violent type of rejection occurs within minutes to hours from the time of the transplant. It is mediated by the binding of XNAs (xenoreactive natural antibodies) to the donor endothelium, causing activation of the human complement system, which results in endothelial damage, inflammation, thrombosis and necrosis of the transplant. XNAs are first produced and begin circulating in the blood in neonates, after colonization of the bowel by bacteria with galactose moieties on their cell walls. Most of these antibodies are the IgM class, but also include IgG, and IgA.
The epitope XNAs target is an α-linked galactose moiety, galactose-alpha-1,3-galactose (also called the α-Gal epitope), produced by the enzyme alpha-galactosyltransferase. Most non-primates contain this enzyme thus, this epitope is present on the organ epithelium and is perceived as a foreign antigen by primates, which lack the galactosyl transferase enzyme. In pig to primate xenotransplantation, XNAs recognize porcine glycoproteins of the integrin family.
The binding of XNAs initiate complement activation through the classical complement pathway. Complement activation causes a cascade of events leading to: destruction of endothelial cells, platelet degranulation, inflammation, coagulation, fibrin deposition, and hemorrhage. The result is thrombosis and necrosis of the xenograft.
#### Overcoming hyperacute rejection
Since hyperacute rejection presents such a barrier to the success of xenografts, several strategies to overcome it are under investigation:
Interruption of the complement cascade
The recipient's complement cascade can be inhibited through the use of cobra venom factor (which depletes C3), soluble complement receptor type 1, anti-C5 antibodies, or C1 inhibitor (C1-INH). Disadvantages of this approach include the toxicity of cobra venom factor, and most importantly these treatments would deprive the individual of a functional complement system.
Transgenic organs (Genetically engineered pigs)
1,3 galactosyl transferase gene knockouts – These pigs do not contain the gene that codes for the enzyme responsible for expression of the immunogeneic gal-α-1,3Gal moiety (the α-Gal epitope). Increased expression of H-transferase (α 1,2 fucosyltransferase), an enzyme that competes with galactosyl transferase. Experiments have shown this reduces α-Gal expression by 70%. Expression of human complement regulators (CD55, CD46, and CD59) to inhibit the complement cascade. Plasmaphoresis, on humans to remove 1,3 galactosyltransferase, reduces the risk of activation of effector cells such as CTL (CD8 T cells), complement pathway activation and delayed type hypersensitivity (DTH).
#### Acute vascular rejection
Also known as delayed xenoactive rejection, this type of rejection occurs in discordant xenografts within 2 to 3 days, if hyperacute rejection is prevented. The process is much more complex than hyperacute rejection and is currently not completely understood. Acute vascular rejection requires de novo protein synthesis and is driven by interactions between the graft endothelial cells and host antibodies, macrophages, and platelets. The response is characterized by an inflammatory infiltrate of mostly macrophages and natural killer cells (with small numbers of T cells), intravascular thrombosis, and fibrinoid necrosis of vessel walls.
Binding of the previously mentioned XNAs to the donor endothelium leads to the activation of host macrophages as well as the endothelium itself. The endothelium activation is considered type II since gene induction and protein synthesis are involved. The binding of XNAs ultimately leads to the development of a procoagulant state, the secretion of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, as well as expression of leukocyte adhesion molecules such as E-selectin, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1).
This response is further perpetuated as normally binding between regulatory proteins and their ligands aid in the control of coagulation and inflammatory responses. However, due to molecular incompatibilities between the molecules of the donor species and recipient (such as porcine major histocompatibility complex molecules and human natural killer cells), this may not occur.
#### Overcoming acute vascular rejection
Due to its complexity, the use of immunosuppressive drugs along with a wide array of approaches are necessary to prevent acute vascular rejection, and include administering a synthetic thrombin inhibitor to modulate thrombogenesis, depletion of anti-galactose antibodies (XNAs) by techniques such as immunoadsorption, to prevent endothelial cell activation, and inhibiting activation of macrophages (stimulated by CD4+ T cells) and NK cells (stimulated by the release of Il-2). Thus, the role of MHC molecules and T cell responses in activation would have to be reassessed for each species combo.
#### Accommodation
If hyperacute and acute vascular rejection are avoided accommodation is possible, which is the survival of the xenograft despite the presence of circulating XNAs. The graft is given a break from humoral rejection when the complement cascade is interrupted, circulating antibodies are removed, or their function is changed, or there is a change in the expression of surface antigens on the graft. This allows the xenograft to up-regulate and express protective genes, which aid in resistance to injury, such as heme oxygenase-1 (an enzyme that catalyzes the degradation of heme).
#### Cellular rejection
Rejection of the xenograft in hyperacute and acute vascular rejection is due to the response of the humoral immune system, since the response is elicited by the XNAs. Cellular rejection is based on cellular immunity, and is mediated by natural killer cells that accumulate in and damage the xenograft and T-lymphocytes which are activated by MHC molecules through both direct and indirect xenorecognition.
In direct xenorecognition, antigen presenting cells from the xenograft present peptides to recipient CD4+ T cells via xenogeneic MHC class II molecules, resulting in the production of interleukin 2 (IL-2). Indirect xenorecognition involves the presentation of antigens from the xenograft by recipient antigen presenting cells to CD4+ T cells. Antigens of phagocytosed graft cells can also be presented by the host's class I MHC molecules to CD8+ T cells.
The strength of cellular rejection in xenografts remains uncertain, however, it is expected to be stronger than in allografts due to differences in peptides among different animals. This leads to more antigens potentially recognized as foreign, thus eliciting a greater indirect xenogenic response.
#### Overcoming cellular rejection
A proposed strategy to avoid cellular rejection is to induce donor non-responsiveness using hematopoietic chimerism. Donor stem cells are introduced into the bone marrow of the recipient, where they coexist with the recipient's stem cells. The bone marrow stem cells give rise to cells of all hematopoietic lineages, through the process of hematopoiesis. Lymphoid progenitor cells are created by this process and move to the thymus where negative selection eliminates T cells found to be reactive to self. The existence of donor stem cells in the recipient's bone marrow causes donor reactive T cells to be considered self and undergo apoptosis.
#### Chronic rejection
Chronic rejection is slow and progressive, and usually occurs in transplants that survive the initial rejection phases. Scientists are still unclear how chronic rejection exactly works, research in this area is difficult since xenografts rarely survive past the initial acute rejection phases. Nonetheless, it is known that XNAs and the complement system are not primarily involved. Fibrosis in the xenograft occurs as a result of immune reactions, cytokines (which stimulate fibroblasts), or healing (following cellular necrosis in acute rejection). Perhaps the major cause of chronic rejection is arteriosclerosis. Lymphocytes, which were previously activated by antigens in the vessel wall of the graft, activate macrophages to secrete smooth muscle growth factors. This results in a build up of smooth muscle cells on the vessel walls, causing the hardening and narrowing of vessels within the graft. Chronic rejection leads to pathologic changes of the organ, and is why transplants must be replaced after so many years. It is also anticipated that chronic rejection will be more aggressive in xenotransplants as opposed to allotransplants.
#### Dysregulated coagulation
Successful efforts have been made to create knockout mice without α1,3GT; the resulting reduction in the highly immunogenic αGal epitope has resulted in the reduction of the occurrence of hyperacute rejection, but has not eliminated other barriers to xenotransplantation such as dysregulated coagulation, also known as coagulopathy.
Different organ xenotransplants result in different responses in clotting. For example, kidney transplants result in a higher degree of coagulopathy, or impaired clotting, than cardiac transplants, whereas liver xenografts result in severe thrombocytopenia, causing recipient death within a few days due to bleeding. An alternate clotting disorder, thrombosis, may be initiated by preexisting antibodies that affect the protein C anticoagulant system. Due to this effect, porcine donors must be extensively screened before transplantation. Studies have also shown that some porcine transplant cells are able to induce human tissue factor expression, thus stimulating platelet and monocyte aggregation around the xenotransplanted organ, causing severe clotting. Additionally, spontaneous platelet accumulation may be caused by contact with pig von Willebrand factor.
Just as the α1,3G epitope is a major problem in xenotransplantation, so too is dysregulated coagulation a cause of concern. Transgenic pigs that can control for variable coagulant activity based on the specific organ transplanted would make xenotransplantation a more readily available solution for the 70,000 patients per year who do not receive a human donation of the organ or tissue they need.
### Physiology
Extensive research is required to determine whether animal organs can replace the physiological functions of human organs. Many issues include size – differences in organ size limit the range of potential recipients of xenotransplants; longevity – The lifespan of most pigs is roughly 15 years, currently it is unknown whether or not a xenograft may be able to last longer than that; hormone and protein differences – some proteins will be molecularly incompatible, which could cause malfunction of important regulatory processes. These differences also make the prospect of hepatic xenotransplantation less promising, since the liver plays an important role in the production of so many proteins; environment – for example, pig hearts work in a different anatomical site and under different hydrostatic pressure than in humans; temperature – the body temperature of pigs is 39 °C (2 °C above the average human body temperature). Implications of this difference, if any, on the activity of important enzymes are currently unknown.
### Xenozoonosis
Xenozoonosis, also known as zoonosis or xenosis, is the transmission of infectious agents between species via xenograft. Animal to human infection is normally rare, but has occurred in the past. An example of such is the avian influenza, when an influenza A virus was passed from birds to humans. Xenotransplantation may increase the chance of disease transmission for 3 reasons: (1) implantation breaches the physical barrier that normally helps to prevent disease transmission, (2) the recipient of the transplant will be severely immunosuppressed, and (3) human complement regulators (CD46, CD55, and CD59) expressed in transgenic pigs have been shown to serve as virus receptors, and may also help to protect viruses from attack by the complement system.
Examples of viruses carried by pigs include porcine herpesvirus, rotavirus, parvovirus, and circovirus. Porcine herpesviruses and rotaviruses can be eliminated from the donor pool by screening, however others (such as parvovirus and circovirus) may contaminate food and footwear then re-infect the herd. Thus, pigs to be used as organ donors must be housed under strict regulations and screened regularly for microbes and pathogens. Unknown viruses, as well as those not harmful in the animal, may also pose risks. Of particular concern are PERVS (porcine endogenous retroviruses), vertically transmitted microbes that embed in swine genomes. The risks with xenosis are twofold, as not only could the individual become infected, but a novel infection could initiate an epidemic in the human population. Because of this risk, the FDA has suggested any recipients of xenotransplants shall be closely monitored for the remainder of their life, and quarantined if they show signs of xenosis.
Baboons and pigs carry myriad transmittable agents that are harmless in their natural host, but extremely toxic and deadly in humans. HIV is an example of a disease believed to have jumped from monkeys to humans. Researchers also do not know if an outbreak of infectious diseases could occur and if they could contain the outbreak even though they have measures for control. Another obstacle facing xenotransplants is that of the body's rejection of foreign objects by its immune system. These antigens (foreign objects) are often treated with powerful immunosuppressive drugs that could, in turn, make the patient vulnerable to other infections and actually aid the disease. This is the reason the organs would have to be altered to fit the patients' DNA (histocompatibility).
In 2005, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) declared an eighteen-year moratorium on all animal-to-human transplantation, concluding that the risks of transmission of animal viruses to patients and the wider community had not been resolved. This was repealed in 2009 after an NHMRC review stated "... the risks, if appropriately regulated, are minimal and acceptable given the potential benefits.", citing international developments on the management and regulation of xenotransplantation by the World Health Organisation and the European Medicines Agency.
#### Porcine endogenous retroviruses
Endogenous retroviruses are remnants of ancient viral infections, found in the genomes of most, if not all, mammalian species. Integrated into the chromosomal DNA, they are vertically transferred through inheritance. Due to the many deletions and mutations they accumulate over time, they usually are not infectious in the host species, however the virus may become infectious in another species. PERVS were originally discovered as retrovirus particles released from cultured porcine kidney cells. Most breeds of swine harbor approximately 50 PERV genomes in their DNA. Although it is likely that most of these are defective, some may be able to produce infectious viruses so every proviral genome must be sequenced to identify which ones pose a threat. In addition, through complementation and genetic recombination, two defective PERV genomes could give rise to an infectious virus. There are three subgroups of infectious PERVs (PERV-A, PERV-B, and PERV-C). Experiments have shown that PERV-A and PERV-B can infect human cells in culture. To date no experimental xenotransplantations have demonstrated PERV transmission, yet this does not mean PERV infections in humans are impossible. Pig cells have been engineered to inactivate all 62 PERVs in the genome using CRISPR Cas9 genome editing technology, and eliminated infection from the pig to human cells in culture.
### Ethics
Xenografts have been a controversial procedure since they were first attempted. Many, including animal rights groups, strongly oppose killing animals to harvest their organs for human use. In the 1960s, many organs came from the chimpanzees, and were transferred into people that were deathly ill, and in turn, did not live much longer afterwards. Modern scientific supporters of xenotransplantation argue that the potential benefits to society outweigh the risks, making pursuing xenotransplantation the moral choice. None of the major religions object to the use of genetically modified pig organs for life-saving transplantation. Religions such as Buddhism and Jainism, however, have long espoused non-violence towards all living creatures. In general, the use of pig and cow tissue in humans has been met with little resistance, save some religious beliefs and a few philosophical objections. Experimentation without consent doctrines are now followed, which was not the case in the past, which may lead to new religious guidelines to further medical research on pronounced ecumenical guidelines. The "Common Rule" is the United States bio-ethics mandate as of 2011.
#### History of xenotransplantation in ethics
At the beginning of the 20th century when studies in xenotransplantation were just beginning, few questioned the morality of it, turning to animals as a "natural" alternative to allografts. While satirical plays mocked xenografters such as Serge Voronoff, and some images showing emotionally distraught primates appeared - who Voronoff had deprived of their testicles - no serious attempts were yet made to question the science based on animal rights concerns. Xenotransplantation was not taken seriously, at least in France, during the first half of the 20th century.
With the Baby Fae incident of 1984 as the impetus, animal rights activists began to protest, gathering media attention and proving that some people felt that it was unethical and a violation of the animal's own rights to use its organs to preserve a sick human's life. Treating animals as mere tools for the slaughter on demand by human will would lead to a world they would not prefer. Supporters of the transplant pushed back, claiming that saving a human life justifies the sacrifice of an animal one. Most animal rights activists found the use of primate organs more reprehensible than those of, for example, pigs. As Peter Singer et al. have expressed, many primates exhibit greater social structure, communication skills, and affection than mentally deficient humans and human infants. Despite this, it is considerably unlikely that animal suffering will provide sufficient impetus for regulators to prevent xenotransplantation.
#### Informed consent of patient
Autonomy and informed consent are important when considering the future uses of xenotransplantation. A patient undergoing xenotransplantation should be fully aware of the procedure and should have no outside force influencing their choice. The patient should understand the risks and benefits of such a transplantation. However, it has been suggested that friends and family members should also give consent, because the repercussions of transplantation are high, with the potential of diseases and viruses crossing over to humans from the transplantation. Close contacts are at risk for such infections. Monitoring of close relations may also be required to ensure that xenozoonosis is not occurring. The question then becomes: does the autonomy of the patient become limited based on the willingness or unwillingness of friends and family to give consent, and are the principles of confidentiality broken?
The safety of public health is a factor to be considered. If there is any risk to the public at all for an outbreak from transplantation there must be procedures in place to protect the public. Not only does the recipient of the transplantation have to understand the risks and benefits, but society must also understand and consent to such an agreement.
The Ethics Committee of the International Xenotransplantation Association points out one major ethical issue is the societal response to such a procedure. The assumption is that the recipient of the transplantation will be asked to undergo lifelong monitoring, which would deny the recipient the ability to terminate the monitoring at any time, which is in direct opposition of the Declaration of Helsinki and the US Code of Federal Regulations. In 2007, xenotransplantation was banned under ethical grounds in all countries but Argentina, Russia and New Zealand. Since then, the practice has only been carried out to treatment for diabetes type 1 to serve as a substitute for insulin injections.
The application of the four bioethics principal is found to be everywhere because it is now standardized in the moral conducts of a laboratory. The four principles emphasize on the informed consent, the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, apply one's skill to help others, and protecting the rights of others to quality care.
Problems with xenotransplantation is that even though it has future medical benefits, it also has the serious risk of introducing and spreading the infectious diseases, into the human population. There have been guidelines that have been drafted by the government that have the purpose of forming the foundation of infectious disease surveillance. In the United Kingdom, the guideline that were introduced state that first, "the periodic provision of bodily samples that would then be archived for epidemiological purposes;" second, "post-mortem analysis in case of death, the storage of samples post-mortem, and the disclosure of this agreement to their family;" third, "refrain from donating blood, tissue or organs;" fourth, "the use of barrier contraception when engaging in sexual intercourse;" fifth, keep both name and current address on register and to notify the relevant health authorities when moving abroad;" and lastly "divulge confidential information, including one's status as a xenotransplantation recipient to researchers, all health care professionals from whom one seeks professional services, and close contacts such as current and future sexual partners." With these guidelines in place the patient has to abide to these rules until either their lifetime or until the government determines that there is no need for public health safe guards.
#### Xenotransplantation guidelines in the United States
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also stated that if a transplantation takes place the recipient must undergo monitoring for the rest of that recipient's lifetime and waive their right to withdraw. The reason for requiring lifelong monitoring is due to the risk of acute infections that may occur. The FDA suggests that a passive screening program should be implemented and should extend for the life of the recipient. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenogeneic |
For many years, only organs from an identical twin closer or a close relative could be used for transplant. However, new ant rejection drug that either fool the immune system or block its action have been developed. The enables organs to be use even if the donor is not a family member. However, there are people needing transplants that there are organ donors.
Sources of Organs
Most organs used for transplantation today are from accident victims. These organs come from individuals who are brain dead, but whose organs continue to function. Some potential donors have been kept ?alive? by machines. When their families have agreed to donate their organs are saved and implanted in recipients who need them. | http://spanishschoolcooperacion.com/26450/ |
Organ transplant is the surgical transfer of a healthy organ from a human donor into a person whose organ has failed to function properly.
Symptoms
Symptoms vary greatly depending on the organ. Organs with the potential for transplant include:
Treatments
Patients will be prescribed immunosuppressants following transplantation to prevent the body’s immune system from attacking the new organ (which is a common cause of rejection). One of the most important ways to protect the transplant is by sticking to the prescribed medication regimen. | https://ameripharmaspecialty.com/condition-treatments/organ-transplant |
Dr. Minnie Sarwal Profiled as Innovator in the Targeted Management of Kidney Transplants
International Innovation, an online forum for the communication and dissemination of cutting-edge research, recently reported on the pioneering efforts of the Sarwal Lab to develop novel translational approaches for improving the management of kidney transplant patients and treating renal disease. The article reports on the lab's breakthrough assays, the kidney solid organ rejection test (kSORT) and the kidney spontaneous operational tolerance test (kSPOT), and their potential to revolutionize the way kidney transplant patients are managed after transplantation by predicting acute rejection.
For those with organ failure or severe disease, organ transplantation can offer a new lease of life that would otherwise be impossible. Kidneys are the most common candidate organs for transplantation in the US, but there are still a number of ways in which scientists are looking to improve the procedure.
One such scientist is Dr. Minnie Sarwal, who has dedicated her career to developing a personalised approach to organ transplantation and overseeing the translation of these efforts into clinical practice. She leads a dedicated team of researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, where they are making use of high-throughput technologies to develop assays that will ultimately lead to reduced morbidity and improved quality of life................... | https://surgery.ucsf.edu/news--events/ucsf-news/50282/Dr-Minnie-Sarwal-Profiled-as-Innovator-in-the-Targeted-Management-of-Kidney-Transplants |
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mianna Lotz, Associate Professor in Philosophy & Chair of Faculty of Arts Human Research Ethics Committee, Macquarie University
The opportunity to conceive, carry and give birth to a biologically related child is a deep desire for many women and their partners. Since the introduction of IVF in 1978, many people in countries such as Australia have accessed support and resources to help realise their reproductive goals.
For some women, the lack a functioning uterus has kept that opportunity out of reach. This includes those with a congenital condition such as Mayer-Rokitansky-Küster-Hauser syndrome, and those who had a hysterectomy for medical reasons.
For these women, the only options for parenthood have been surrogacy or adoption. Access to both is often difficult.
Uterus transplants are changing that. From next year, uterus transplants are being trialled in Australia. However, there are risks involved and ethical concerns which must addressed before it can become mainstream clinical treatment.
How does the process work?
Uterus transplantation is a set of medical procedures in which a donated uterus is surgically removed from a suitable donor and transplanted into an eligible recipient.
Hormones are used to stimulate menstruation in the recipient, and once the uterus is functioning normally, an IVF-created embryo is transferred into the woman’s uterus.
Following successful implantation and healthy development, the baby is delivered via caesarean section. This is because a uterus transplant pregnancy is regarded as high risk, and the woman may not be able to feel contractions. Women with the congenital absence of a uterus will not be able to deliver vaginally.
Read more:
Explainer: what are womb transplants and who could they help?
As with all transplants, the uterus recipient is prescribed immunosuppression medication to prevent rejection of the donor organ. These drugs are administered at levels deemed safe for the developing foetus. Close monitoring continues throughout the pregnancy to ensure the safety of both woman and foetus.
Immunosuppression continues until the delivery of up to two healthy babies or five years after the transplant, whichever is first.
The uterus is then surgically removed via hysterectomy, enabling immunosuppression – which carries risks and side-effects – to be ceased. Risks from immunosuppression include infection, reduced blood cell count, heart disease and suppression of bone marrow growth. And these risks increase with time.
Uterus transplantation is an “ephemeral” transplant: a non-life-saving temporary transplant, aimed solely at enabling reproduction. These features make it medically and ethically distinct from other transplants.
When did uterus transplants start?
Scientists started developing uterus transplantation in animals in the 1970s. The first attempts in humans occurred in 2000 (Saudi Arabia) and 2011 (Turkey), both of which failed.
After 14 years of research, Professor Mats Brannstrom and his team at Sweden’s Sahlgrenska University Hospital started the world’s first human trials in 2013. In 2014, the first healthy baby was born.
With more than 25 countries now performing or planning uterus transplants, it is estimated that at least 80 procedures have been performed, resulting in more than 40 healthy live births. While not all transplants are successful, the live birth rate from a uterus that is functioning successfully after transplantation is estimated at over 80%.
In Australia, two trials have been approved and plan to start within the next 12-18 months.
Who donates?
Most uterus transplants so far have used altruistic living donors, typically a mother donating to her daughter or an aunt to her niece.
But cases using uteruses from deceased donors have also been successful, with at least four healthy live births reported.
Uteruses from deceased donors are mostly provided through standard family consent methods for medical research. But in future they could be provided through organ donor registration processes modified to include the uterus.
Currently, only pre-menopausal women can be uterus donors, and living donors need to have had a successful pregnancy to be eligible to donate. But this may not need to be a requirement for deceased donors, potentially enabling younger donors and increasing the availability of uteruses for transplantation.
Of the two approved Australian trials, only one (led by Royal Hospital for Women, for which I provide independent ethical advice) will conduct both living and deceased donor uterus transplantation. The other (through Royal Prince Alfred hospital) will trial only living donor transplantation.
Participation in these uterus transplant trials will remain limited while uterus transplantation is still in the research phase, and will depend on the availability of funding.
What are the risks of living donation?
For recipients, the main surgical risks are organ rejection, infection, and blood clots or thrombosis, as well as risks arising from the surgery duration (average 5 hours) such as blood clots (including in the lung) and from immunosuppression.
While challenging, these risks have been minimised through close monitoring and early intervention using blood thinners and encouraging recipients to move around soon after surgery.
For living donors, physical risks arise from surgery duration (6-11 hours) and operative and postoperative complications, the most common being urinary tract injury and infection.
There are also ethical and psychological risks. These include the possibility of a potential donor feeling pressured to donate to a family member, and experiencing guilt and failure if the transplant is not successful or results in adverse outcomes.
These risks may be reduced with appropriate counselling and support. But as with all altruistic organ donation, they cannot be entirely eliminated.
What about deceased donation?
Deceased donor transplantation also carries risks but involves less surgical time than living donor transplantation (typically 1-2 hours) and therefore less demand on medical resources and personnel.
Deceased donor transplantation may be less ethically fraught. There is no prospect of pressure, guilt or surgical risk to the deceased donor, who must have been declared brain dead and be suitable for multi-organ donation. Their organs may only be procured with proper consent, following the usual protocols and procedures.
Read more:
Would you donate your womb when you die?
In Australia, as elsewhere, organ donors are in short supply. But deceased donors might be found via existing donation registries and consent processes, such as those managed by DonateLife and NSW Organ and Tissue Donation Services.
Why investigate both types of donation?
It’s important to be able to compare the outcomes of living and deceased donation in similar recipients and contexts. This will inform future guidelines and policies around uterus donation, and determine whether it can become mainstream clinical practice.
Emerging evidence suggests deceased donation may yield better results for recipients. Using deceased donor organs allows longer veins and arteries to be retrieved, enabling better blood flow for the uterus and potentially greater success in transplants and pregnancies.
So although there are currently fewer cases of deceased donors, there are sound medical and ethical reasons for Australian uterus transplant research with both deceased and living donors.
Mianna Lotz provides independent ethical advice to the uterus transplant trial at Royal Hospital for Women. | https://eveningreport.nz/2022/09/16/what-are-uterus-transplants-who-donates-their-uterus-and-what-are-the-risks-190443/ |
The sum of two positive numbers is 100. Let one of the numbers be x and express the product P of the two numbers as a function of x.
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Algebra 2
What is the maximum product of two numbers whose sum is 22? What numbers yield this product?
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math
The sum of two positive numbers is 90. Find a function that models their product P in terms of x, one of the numbers.
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Advanced Math
1.Tasha believes that she can rewrite the difference 120-36 as a product of the GCF of the two numbers and another difference.Is she correct?Explain your answer. 2.Explain how to find the GCF of three numbers 3.Xiao's teacher
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high school (math)
Match the mathematical expression with its translation. 1. the product of two numbers 2. y divided by x 3. six less than a number is y 4. x subtracted from y 5. the sum of two numbers is six 6. x minus y 7. the sum of x and y 8. x
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maths - HCF
The product of HCF and LCM of two numbers is 119. Find the two numbers if one of the numbers is not 1. Please help me to solve this.
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math
A. Find 3 pairs of numbers for which the least common multiple equals the product of the the 2 numbers. B. Look at the pairs of numbers you found in part a. What is true about all 3 pairs of numbers?
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math
the sum of two numbers exceeds their product by one. their differences is equal to their product less five . find the two numbers
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math
Find the product of √30 and 6√10. Express it in standard form (i.e., a√b. Enter the product of the coefficients followed by the product of the numbers under the square roots separated by a comma. How I solve for it 1*30=30
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Calculus
The product of 2 positive numbers is 48. find the value of the numbers if the sum of one of the numbers and the cube of the other is a minimum.
You can view more similar questions or ask a new question. | https://www.jiskha.com/questions/297706/two-numbers-differ-by-6-and-have-a-product-of-9 |
# Arg max
In mathematics, the arguments of the maxima (abbreviated arg max or argmax) are the points, or elements, of the domain of some function at which the function values are maximized. In contrast to global maxima, which refers to the largest outputs of a function, arg max refers to the inputs, or arguments, at which the function outputs are as large as possible.
## Definition
Given an arbitrary set X {\displaystyle X} , a totally ordered set Y {\displaystyle Y} , and a function, f : X → Y {\displaystyle f\colon X\to Y} , the argmax {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} } over some subset S {\displaystyle S} of X {\displaystyle X} is defined by
If S = X {\displaystyle S=X} or S {\displaystyle S} is clear from the context, then S {\displaystyle S} is often left out, as in a r g m a x x f ( x ) := { x : f ( s ) ≤ f ( x ) for all s ∈ X } . {\displaystyle {\underset {x}{\operatorname {arg\,max} }}\,f(x):=\{x~:~f(s)\leq f(x){\text{ for all }}s\in X\}.} In other words, argmax {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} } is the set of points x {\displaystyle x} for which f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(x)} attains the function's largest value (if it exists). Argmax {\displaystyle \operatorname {Argmax} } may be the empty set, a singleton, or contain multiple elements.
In the fields of convex analysis and variational analysis, a slightly different definition is used in the special case where Y = = R ∪ { ± ∞ } {\displaystyle Y==\mathbb {R} \cup \{\pm \infty \}} are the extended real numbers. In this case, if f {\displaystyle f} is identically equal to ∞ {\displaystyle \infty } on S {\displaystyle S} then argmax S f := ∅ {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} _{S}f:=\varnothing } (that is, argmax S ∞ := ∅ {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} _{S}\infty :=\varnothing } ) and otherwise argmax S f {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} _{S}f} is defined as above, where in this case argmax S f {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} _{S}f} can also be written as:
where it is emphasized that this equality involving sup S f {\displaystyle \sup {}_{S}f} holds only when f {\displaystyle f} is not identically ∞ {\displaystyle \infty } on S {\displaystyle S} .
### Arg min
The notion of argmin {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmin} } (or a r g m i n {\displaystyle \operatorname {arg\,min} } ), which stands for argument of the minimum, is defined analogously. For instance,
are points x {\displaystyle x} for which f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(x)} attains its smallest value. It is the complementary operator of a r g m a x {\displaystyle \operatorname {arg\,max} } .
In the special case where Y = = R ∪ { ± ∞ } {\displaystyle Y==\mathbb {R} \cup \{\pm \infty \}} are the extended real numbers, if f {\displaystyle f} is identically equal to − ∞ {\displaystyle -\infty } on S {\displaystyle S} then argmin S f := ∅ {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmin} _{S}f:=\varnothing } (that is, argmin S − ∞ := ∅ {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmin} _{S}-\infty :=\varnothing } ) and otherwise argmin S f {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmin} _{S}f} is defined as above and moreover, in this case (of f {\displaystyle f} not identically equal to − ∞ {\displaystyle -\infty } ) it also satisfies:
## Examples and properties
For example, if f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(x)} is 1 − | x | , {\displaystyle 1-|x|,} then f {\displaystyle f} attains its maximum value of 1 {\displaystyle 1} only at the point x = 0. {\displaystyle x=0.} Thus
The argmax {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} } operator is different from the max {\displaystyle \max } operator. The max {\displaystyle \max } operator, when given the same function, returns the maximum value of the function instead of the point or points that cause that function to reach that value; in other words
Like argmax , {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} ,} max may be the empty set (in which case the maximum is undefined) or a singleton, but unlike argmax , {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} ,} max {\displaystyle \operatorname {max} } may not contain multiple elements: for example, if f ( x ) {\displaystyle f(x)} is 4 x 2 − x 4 , {\displaystyle 4x^{2}-x^{4},} then a r g m a x x ( 4 x 2 − x 4 ) = { − 2 , 2 } , {\displaystyle {\underset {x}{\operatorname {arg\,max} }}\,\left(4x^{2}-x^{4}\right)=\left\{-{\sqrt {2}},{\sqrt {2}}\right\},} but max x ( 4 x 2 − x 4 ) = { 4 } {\displaystyle {\underset {x}{\operatorname {max} }}\,\left(4x^{2}-x^{4}\right)=\{4\}} because the function attains the same value at every element of argmax . {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} .}
Equivalently, if M {\displaystyle M} is the maximum of f , {\displaystyle f,} then the argmax {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} } is the level set of the maximum:
We can rearrange to give the simple identity
If the maximum is reached at a single point then this point is often referred to as the argmax , {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} ,} and argmax {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} } is considered a point, not a set of points. So, for example,
(rather than the singleton set { 5 } {\displaystyle \{5\}} ), since the maximum value of x ( 10 − x ) {\displaystyle x(10-x)} is 25 , {\displaystyle 25,} which occurs for x = 5. {\displaystyle x=5.} However, in case the maximum is reached at many points, argmax {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} } needs to be considered a set of points.
For example
because the maximum value of cos x {\displaystyle \cos x} is 1 , {\displaystyle 1,} which occurs on this interval for x = 0 , 2 π {\displaystyle x=0,2\pi } or 4 π . {\displaystyle 4\pi .} On the whole real line
Functions need not in general attain a maximum value, and hence the argmax {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} } is sometimes the empty set; for example, a r g m a x x ∈ R x 3 = ∅ , {\displaystyle {\underset {x\in \mathbb {R} }{\operatorname {arg\,max} }}\,x^{3}=\varnothing ,} since x 3 {\displaystyle x^{3}} is unbounded on the real line. As another example, a r g m a x x ∈ R arctan ( x ) = ∅ , {\displaystyle {\underset {x\in \mathbb {R} }{\operatorname {arg\,max} }}\,\arctan(x)=\varnothing ,} although arctan {\displaystyle \arctan } is bounded by ± π / 2. {\displaystyle \pm \pi /2.} However, by the extreme value theorem, a continuous real-valued function on a closed interval has a maximum, and thus a nonempty argmax . {\displaystyle \operatorname {argmax} .} | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arg_inf |
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
It’s well documented that the humans who program artificial intelligence (AI) also unintentionally program their social biases into the systems.
Even if the programmers manage to evade bias, per se, the majority of contemporary programmers tend to retain only shallow understandings of demographics that aren’t their own.
“Biased algorithms are linked to discrimination in hiring practices, performance management, and mortgage lending,” reports Security Intelligence.
To improve the accuracy and efficacy of artificial intelligence-based systems, cognitive and physical diversity are needed within the development phase.
But it’s not just hiring diversity that makes a difference. It’s also taking the time to walk your new hires through your operations, getting them up to speed. Within the corporate environment, micro inequities are often present, meaning that those who speak other languages, come from other cultures and are not of the dominant age range may experience hidden challenges. You’ll want to make every effort to create a level playing field. It’ll pay off in the long run.
Once you’ve hired a diverse workforce, the next issue is retaining it. “Biased performance management practices are part of the problem, as workplace cultures and policies can be especially detrimental to women and minorities. For example, an absence of flex-time policies can disproportionately hurt women.”
Academic analysis shows that organizations that close the gender pay gap and take other equalizing measures see higher revenue gains than those that don’t. Retaining your workforce is just as important as hiring it.
For more on eliminating bias from AI technologies, read this CyberTalk article. | https://www.cybertalk.org/2020/02/18/cisos-in-ai-keep-this-in-mind-to-stay-competitive/ |
Hearing and saying. The functional neuro-anatomy of auditory word processing.
Details
Serval ID
serval:BIB_48B6CB10931B
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Fund
Title
Hearing and saying. The functional neuro-anatomy of auditory word processing.
Journal
Brain
ISSN
0006-8950 (Print)
ISSN-L
0006-8950
Publication state
Published
Issued date
1996
Volume
119 ( Pt 3)
Pages
919-931
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tPublication Status: ppublish
Abstract
The neural systems involved in hearing and repeating single words were investigated in a series of experiments using PET. Neuropsychological and psycholinguistic studies implicate the involvement of posterior and anterior left perisylvian regions (Wernicke's and Broca's areas). Although previous functional neuroimaging studies have consistently shown activation of Wernicke's area, there has been only variable implication of Broca's area. This study demonstrates that Broca's area is involved in both auditory word perception and repetition but activation is dependent on task (greater during repetition than hearing) and stimulus presentation (greater when hearing words at a slow rate). The peak of frontal activation in response to hearing words is anterior to that associated with repeating words; the former is probably located in Brodmann's area 45, the latter in Brodmann's area 44 and the adjacent precentral sulcus. As Broca's area activation is more subtle and complex than that in Wernicke's area during these tasks, the likelihood of observing it is influenced by both the study design and the image analysis technique employed. As a secondary outcome from the study, the response of bilateral auditory association cortex to 'own voice' during repetition was shown to be the same as when listening to "other voice' from a prerecorded tape. | https://serval.unil.ch/notice/serval:BIB_48B6CB10931B |
- This event has passed.
Evelina FEDORENKO
10/19/2012 @ 11:00 - 12:00
Evelina FEDORENKO (MIT)
What cognitive and neural mechanisms do we use to understand language? Since Broca's and Wernicke's seminal discoveries in the 19th century, a broad array of brain regions have been implicated in linguistic processing spanning frontal, temporal and parietal lobes, both hemispheres, and subcortical and cerebellar structures. However, characterizing the precise contribution of these different structures to linguistic processing has proven challenging. In this talk I will argue that high-level linguistic processing - including understanding individual word meanings and combining them into more complex structures/meanings - is accomplished by the joint engagement of two functionally and computationally distinct brain systems. The first is comprised of the classic “language regions” on the lateral surfaces of left frontal and temporal lobes that appear to be functionally specialized for linguistic processing (e.g., Fedorenko et al., 2011; Monti et al., 2009, 2012). And the second is the fronto-parietal ""multiple demand"" network, a set of regions that are engaged across a wide range of cognitive demands (e.g., Duncan, 2001, 2010). Most past neuroimaging work on language processing has not explicitly distinguished between these two systems, especially in the frontal lobes, where subsets of each system reside side by side within the region referred to as “Broca’s area” (Fedorenko et al., in press). Using methods which surpass traditional neuroimaging methods in sensitivity and functional resolution (Fedorenko et al., 2010; Nieto-Castañon & Fedorenko, in press; Saxe et al., 2006), we are beginning to characterize the important roles played by both domain-specific and domain-general brain regions in linguistic processing. | https://www.ilcb.fr/event/evelina-fedorenko/ |
You may perceive language as one big function the brain performs. Interestingly, though, it's divided into a lot of sub-functions. In this video, we'll discuss how your brain speaks and understands language and what happens when those functions are disrupted. First, let's go over some basic neuroanatomy. For about 90% of right-handed people, language functions are centralized in the left hemisphere of the brain. Lefties and ambidextrous folks are somewhat more likely to have language centralized in the right hemisphere, but still about 70% of them will have language centralized in the left hemisphere. Within whichever hemisphere is dominant, the two main areas associated with language are Broca's area, which helps us speak, and Wernicke's area, which helps us understand language. Broca's area is in the frontal lobe, usually the left frontal lobe, and it's responsible for language expression. When Broca's area is damaged, people tend to have trouble producing speech. Their words become halting or slurred. This is called non-fluent aphasia, or Broca's aphasia. I remember this by thinking that Broca's aphasia means "broken speech," and aphasia is just any type of disorder that involves language. When Wernicke's area, back in the temporal lobe, is damaged, you get Wernicke's aphasia, which is quite a different pattern of behavior than you get with Broca's apahasia. People have no trouble producing words-- in fact, words kind of just tumble out of them-- but the words that do come out don't make any sense. It's like listening to a bunch of nonsense sentences. People with Wernicke's aphasia, which is also sometimes called "fluent aphasia," can also have trouble understanding what other people say. And when both Broca's aphasia and Wernicke's aphasia are present, then you have something called "global aphasia," because it globally affects language instead of only affecting a subsection of it. Broca's area and Wernicke's area are connected in the brain by a bundle of nerve fibers called the arcuate fasciculus. One cool thing is that this loop is also found in deaf people who know sign language. So it's not specific to a spoken language, but the brain adapts to use whatever modality is necessary for communication. When this connection is damaged, people experience something called "conduction aphasia." Their ability to conduct information between listening and speaking is disrupted, which makes them unable to repeat things, even though they understand what's being said. Pretty crazy. And once you think about how many language-specific functions you do every day, you might wonder how many different types of aphasia there are. And the answer is "a lot." We have agraphia, which is the inability to write, anomia, which is the inability to name things, and other specific difficulties in reading, spelling, grammar, pronunciation-- all sorts of things you may not even realize that you do effortlessly with a healthy brain. But Broca's apahasia and Wernicke's aphasia are the most common. Language is just one example of how our brain works in general. Big tasks are subdivided into small tasks, which are then spread around in different parts of the brain. And this can actually be a good thing, because it means if you have very localized or very specific brain damage, then you probably won't completely lose your ability to perform some highly important function like communication. In fact, when functions are divided like that, it's easier for your brain to adapt. For example, when people have strokes that affect the left hemisphere of their brain, they may have trouble speaking or something right after the stroke, but over time and with proper therapy, some of those people are able to retrain other speech-related parts of their brain by creating new connections between neurons. Building these connections, in combination with some recovery of the originally damaged part of the brain, can help these people speak again with at least some degree of fluency. And the brain's ability to adapt and move functions to new parts is called neural plasticity, or synaptic plasticity. The neurons are plastic, or flexible enough, to learn new routes and connections, thus allowing undamaged parts of the brain to take over functions that the damaged parts previously performed. Even with perfectly functioning hemispheres, you might still have trouble naming objects. This can happen if communication between the hemispheres is disrupted by severing the corpus callosum, which is a band of nerve fibers that connects your brain's two hemispheres. This creates what's called a split-brain patient, because your brain is now split into two parts. People used to have to do this sometimes as a treatment for seizures, but in addition to helping with that problem, this surgery creates some pretty interesting side effects in terms of language. So assuming that language is centralized in the left hemisphere, this means that the right side of your brain can't connect to the language side. So anything that you perceive in the right side of your brain can't be named or dealt with in terms of language. Now, you may have heard before that your brain has what's called a contralateral organization, meaning that information that you perceive in your left visual field gets processed by the right side of your brain and vice-versa. So let's think about what that means for a split-brain patient. If you see an object on your left, and it gets sent to your right hemisphere, you won't be able to name it. You'd still be able to pick it up with your left hand, because again, your right hemisphere is controlling your left-side motor neurons, but you'd have to kind of turn your head so that the object would be in your right visual field before the language part of your brain would have any access to it. Now, when I say the right visual field, that doesn't mean just your right eye. It means the right side of your body, which you can view with half of each eye. So there you go. Lots of pretty cool implications for how our brain is organized and subdivided in terms of language. | https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/processing-the-environment/language/v/language-and-the-brain |
Adults conversing with kids strengthens their brain development
A new study discovers that engaging in back-and-forth conversations with a child builds stronger connections between two of their brains’ vital critical speech areas, regardless of socioeconomic status.
A team led by Rachel R. Romeo of Harvard and MIT has just published research that finds conversing more with children results in stronger connections between two brain regions vital for language development. Obviously, younger kids may not yet have words at their disposal, but sounds count—the important thing is that parent and child take conversational turns. The more turns, the stronger the brain connections.
This is an exciting development for parents on a practical level, particularly those of lower socioeconomic status (SES). Prior to this research, the focus had been on the well-documented “30-million word gap”—a vocabulary deficit in their parents—as the factor that leaves many children of SES families with poorer language skills as adults. The new study finds instead that the amount of back-and-forth with a child is an independent and even more critical factor since it affects the physical strength of connections between two speech-critical areas of the brain.
The brain areas involved
The pathways studied are those that connect two regions important to speech: Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area.
Broca’s area
Broca’s area has long been known to be involved in the production of speech, though its precise role wasn’t known until recently, as revealed in “Broca's Area Is the Brains Scriptwriter Shaping Speech.” It’s located in the frontal cortex. According to Johns Hopkins, “Broca’s area is active early in the process of forming sentences and ends its work before a word is actually spoken, which is sooner than was previously believed.” (Until this research, it had been thought to control the physical act of speaking. Broca’s aphasia causes its sufferers to have difficulties producing sounds.)
Wernicke’s area
Wernicke’s area is associated with the comprehension of speech. It’s usually considered to be in the brain’s left hemisphere, though there’s some controversy about that. Damage to the area causes Wernicke’s aphasia, where victims “string together incongruous syllables, neologisms, similar-sounding words substituted for one another, and so on, to produce speech that made little sense.”
About the pathway between them
Romeo’s research focuses on how conversational turns affect the strength of the connection between Broca’s and Wernicke’s, as measured by diffusion coherence in two dorsal tracts, the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and the arcuate fasciculus (AF).
The superior longitudinal fasciculus is red. The arcuate fasciculus is blue (Credit: Romeo, et al)
The new research
Who was studied
The participants in Romeo’s study were 40 pre-K or kindergarten children and their parents.
Each was to submit home recordings of two consecutive weekend days for analysis by software that “automatically processes the recordings and estimates the number of words spoken by an adult in the child’s vicinity (“adult words"), the number of utterances the key child made (“child utterances”), and the number of dyadic conversational turns, defined as a discrete pair of consecutive adult and child utterances in any order, with no more than 5 seconds of separation (“conversational turns”).” In addition, subjects were required to submit to MRI scans.
Not everyone did everything: six didn’t submit recordings, seven didn’t get scanned, and the scans for 10 subjects were unusable due to movement. Participants were also assessed for SES.
What researchers were looking at
The scientists used diffusion tensor imaging to measure the level of anisotropy of water molecules in the SLF and AF tracts—lower Fractional Anisotropy, or “FA,” values mean a tract is exhibiting isotropy, where the molecules spread indiscriminately in different directions. A higher FA value signifies greater anisotropy, a more tightly directed flow of water and thus greater structural integrity. Of particular interest, according to the study, was the “coherence of diffusion parallel to the tracts, which is often considered a marker of greater axonal myelination.” Myelin is a sheath material that protects and reinforces axons, making them stronger.
What they saw
The number of adult-child conversational turns young children experienced, independent of SES, was positively correlated with greater white matter and stronger brain connectivity, i.e. the strength of coherence associated with the left arcuate fasciculus and the left superior longitudinal fasciculus.
The power of conversation
The takeaway here is that, for any parent, conversing with a child frequently—even if one of you is just babbling—is a great way to increase their speech capabilities. And that this can be done by mom or dad, regardless of SES, is great news. As the authors conclude:
"This suggests that early intervention programs should not only encourage parents to talk to their children, but to talk with their children to promote optimal brain development."
LinkedIn meets Tinder in this mindful networking app
Swipe right to make the connections that could change your career.
Swipe right. Match. Meet over coffee or set up a call.
No, we aren't talking about Tinder. Introducing Shapr, a free app that helps people with synergistic professional goals and skill sets easily meet and collaborate.
The dos and don’ts of helping a drug-addicted person recover
How you talk to people with drug addiction might save their life.
- Addiction is a learning disorder; it's not a sign that someone is a bad person.
- Tough love doesn't help drug-addicted people. Research shows that the best way to get people help is through compassion, empathy and support. Approach them as an equal human being deserving of respect.
- As a first step to recovery, Maia Szalavitz recommends the family or friends of people with addiction get them a complete psychiatric evaluation by somebody who is not affiliated with any treatment organization. Unfortunately, warns Szalavitz, some people will try to make a profit off of an addicted person without informing them of their full options.
4 anti-scientific beliefs and their damaging consequences
The rise of anti-scientific thinking and conspiracy is a concerning trend.
- Fifty years later after one of the greatest achievements of mankind, there's a growing number of moon landing deniers. They are part of a larger trend of anti-scientific thinking.
- Climate change, anti-vaccination and other assorted conspiratorial mindsets are a detriment and show a tangible impediment to fostering real progress or societal change.
- All of these separate anti-scientific beliefs share a troubling root of intellectual dishonesty and ignorance.
In a first for humankind, China successfully sprouts a seed on the Moon
China's Chang'e 4 biosphere experiment marks a first for humankind.
- China's Chang'e 4 lunar lander touched down on the far side of the moon on January 3.
- In addition to a lunar rover, the lander carried a biosphere experiment that contains five sets of plants and some insects.
- The experiment is designed to test how astronauts might someday grow plants in space to sustain long-term settlements.
SMARTER FASTER trademarks owned by The Big Think, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://bigthink.com/robby-berman/conversing-with-babies-strengthens-their-wee-brains |
Gamedev@IU aims to serve as the premier game development community of Bloomington, Indiana, bringing together people of all skill levels, interests, and identities to form a supportive and productive learning environment.
Members of all skill levels are able to work, share ideas, and learn new techniques in an open collaborative environment. Additionally, individuals can form or join teams centered around either personal development and portfolio building or the creation of a full game.
Please visit http://gdiu.org/ to keep up with events and get involved! | https://careers.college.indiana.edu/organizations/game-dev-at-iu/ |
When you get into a relationship, you start as two individuals with very distinct interests and priorities. Even when the members of a couple seem to share a lot of things in common, at the end of the day they're still different people.
But once you get together, things start to change. You focus on the things that you have in common or more often than not you discover new things to share and enjoy together. And that's really part of the wonders of being in a relationship I guess. Instead of being two shapes trying to fit together, the two of you change into a completely new shape that fits perfectly together.
Sometimes I think to how different I was just over 5 years when my outward interests reflected my ex a lot more. We'd have all these nights at out dance clubs like Bed with different groups of friends and all that jazz. I'm still present in the local club scene, at least as far as O Bar is concerned, but definitely not as frequently as before. It's still a part of me, but not one that is as dominant or important as the other bits.
Instead a greater part of my life is centered around our gaming activities and the people that we interact with as part of these game nights and RPG sessions and hangouts at places like Ludo. This is more than just some passing fancy but it's really more something that Tobie and I celebrate together and enjoy a heck of a lot. And it's become the ideal way to interact with friends on a regular basis through a hobby that we all love and enjoy. There's a honesty to such relationships that I'm really liking - it all feels a lot more relevant than some of the casual hangouts with more fair weather friends that we have - or had.
And we see the same thing time and time again. I know of a bar friend who was pretty much just into the scene in general and now he always seems to be talking about how well certain singers since and even posting his own covers of different songs online, all because his partner is pretty passionate about singing as well. We see couples that find themselves in their hobbies whether it means dressing up as Stormtroopers or creating baked goods.
Good relationships find that common ground - or even create it - and then celebrate it. And you should always feel that you are free to celebrate what you love and have the support of your loved ones to do just that. | https://www.rockysunico.com/2014/08/01864-when-two-are-joined.html |
In 2005, Criterion launched the first of 16 Convergences, bringing leaders from across sectors and regions together in conversation to think through new ideas to change the world. We have taken the key lessons from this work and applied them to how we design our invitations and engagements. In order to share what we have learned, we are providing background on the event, the design of the sessions, and links to materials used. We hope our reflection on our approach to Convergence can be a resource in your work.
We are excited to announce that Convergence will be returning in 2021, focused on Financing the Reduction of Gender-based Violence. We hope that you will join us. Secure your spot today.
The model for Convergence is not like that of most other conferences. We design each Convergence to reflect the interests, passions, and current work of the participants. It brings together leaders in social change from many disciplines, sectors, and walks of life with a shared dedication to changing the world.
For many, coming to Convergence requires a leap of faith. The event promises conversations; not defined content, speakers or proscribed outcomes. Those who take this leap trust Criterion to bring together people to create something worthwhile, something extraordinary.
Before the gathering, Criterion listens to the participants and designs conversations and questions that reflect the passions and commitments of the participants. When they arrive, each participant receives a personalized schedule which allows them to explore their interests and advance their agendas. The schedule allows for both structured conversation and informal exchanges over drinks or during a walk. You can view the basic agenda here and are welcome to look at this conversation from a past Convergence as an example of how the conference is structured.
Interests, passions, and current activities shape the conversations. Conversations move from the abstract to the concrete. In two days, topics are explored in a variety of directions – practical and conceptual. Visions, ideas, and practical suggestions are swapped and possibilities begin to emerge. At Convergence,
- Perspective and thinking evolves.
- People make connections – both expected and unexpected.
- Relationships develop.
- New ideas emerge.
- Projects move forward.
The leap of faith is rewarded with new relationships, ideas, and partners. Each participant get the energy that results from being in authentic dialog with others. Each one meets individuals who would have never crossed our paths – but who pushed thinking beyond everyday boxes. They form relationships with others who will share their visions into the future. They change.
Design of Convergence
Prior to the event, we gather information from all participants and create a personalized schedule that enables everyone to connect around your questions, ideas, and initiatives. This personalized schedule of conversations and working sessions sits within a simple overall structure.
Convergence opens on the first day with an optional grounding session from 12pm to 4pm. We then transition into a casual evening of snacks, dinner and drinks, interspersed with three minute introductions of participants to the whole group. The unique set up of introductions the first evening is specifically designed to let people ‘trickle in’ and latecomers will have no problem integrating. The introductions go beyond the typical bio, which we distribute beforehand. Instead we get a sense of the multiple identities of the people in the room and how we are all connected. The members of the group gathered learn about one another through a carefully configured process, punctuated by appetizers, dinner, and dessert.
The second day begins with a whole group conversation that explores the theme of the conference, investing with a gender lens. The balance of the day is focused on your personalized schedule of conversations and working sessions – and another large group conversation in the afternoon. Then, the third day continues with your personal schedules and a a whole group conversation, which weaves in emerging ideas and initiatives. Convergence ends the third day at 4pm.
Selected Materials from Convergences Over the Years
Convergence I: Questions That Matter
Convergence II: A Time to Dance
Convergence III: A Time to Dance
Convergence IV: The Ecology of Change
Convergence V: Structures of Change
Convergence VI: Language of Transformation
Convergence VII: Systems of Change
Convergence VIII: The Power of Invitation
Convergence IX: Church as an Economic Being
Convergence X: Investing with a Gender Lens
Convergence XI: Church as an Economic Being
Convergence XII: Investing with a Gender Lens
Convergence XIII: Church as an Economic Being
Convergence XIV: Investing with a Gender Lens
Convergence XV: Shaping Market Systems
Convergence XVI: Investing with a Gender Lens
Convergence XVII: Financing the Reduction of Gender-based Violence
Convergence XVIII: Financing the Reduction of Gender-based Violence (Virtual Event)
If you’re interested in sponsoring this transformational event, please click here for more information, or contact Christina Madden at [email protected]. | https://criterioninstitute.org/about/our-history/convergence |
Community. As humans, we cannot live without community.
Gardeners, homesteaders, herbalists, writers, nature lovers, preppers, crafters, survivalists, permaculturalists (and more) enjoy coming together at steem, a social blogging platform. Steem provides a safe space to congregate around our shared passions and interests.
Our Steem communities are as diverse as our interests as individuals.
As we share our interests, our hobbies, our lives’ challenges, our joys, our activities and our knowledge we are rewarded by fellow community members through interaction and reciprocation.
Many of us are inspired to continue sharing, continue growing as individuals, to challenge ourselves and create a better world together.
Our Homesteaders Co-op, represented in part by this website and marketplace, is a community. It was formed by individuals gathering together to support each other and help each other have more economic opportunities. Read more about the Homesteaders Co-op Community here.
There are other Steem communities that relate to gardening, homesteading, sustainability or similar topics. We understand that diversity is important and so we encourage our members to thrive by interacting and associating with communities that speak to them! Please visit some of our favorite communities by browsing the links in the Community menu on the left (in desktop) or towards the bottom of this page (in your mobile device). | https://homesteaderscoop.com/community/ |
What does community mean to you? Does it simply refer to the people within your neighborhood? Does it mean the place in which you live? Do you have a deeper meaning of the word community, such as the people that you can connect with, understand, build intimacy and mutual valuing with?
According to the dictionary, community is a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often have a common cultural and historical heritage or a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.
Community is many things and can be found in many places with many different types of people. I share community with the people I grew up with, where I live and raise my family, with my extended families and online. I have also created a deeper sense of community with various like minded women through different connections such as children, hobbies and work.
Where do you find a deeper connection? For many it is through their church and family traditions, and for many others it is connecting through common interests such as hobbies or community service. What happens if you feel like you cannot connect, understand or be understood in your community? Can you seek and find a group that serves you and provides a deeper connection and deeper sense of community?
Kindness to Self:
Since community is technically with other people, we can think of building a community that serves us, that nurtures us, that connects us and builds value and mutual understanding. If you feel like you need to change or add to your existing communities in order to feel a deeper connection that feeds your soul and provides mutual valuing, I encourage you to seek it out and make it a regular part of your Self Kindness practice.
Kindness to Others:
Building community is all about connecting with others and having that sense of belonging. It is the coming together of like minded people who support and love one another through both victories and challenges. Ask yourself if you are getting what you need from your communities and if the answer is no, maybe it’s time for a change. One of my favorite places to connect with other women and feel nurtured and supported in my town is at Bloom Retreat. If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, check it out, it might just be what you need.
Kindness to Strangers:
There are endless opportunities to reach out to our larger communities, counties and even our home states We can connect with others and help strangers through community service. To see what one woman and her volunteers are doing to help her larger community in the state of New Jersey, check out Humanity Refresh Press.
Kindness to Our Planet:
We are all part of the same community, the humankind community. We all share this land, this planet. We are all stakeholders in the health and wellness of our home. Let’s continue to work together and treat this precious community with the utmost kindness. For some tips on creating a healthy planet please visit Global Stewards. | https://4actsofkindness.com/2016/01/07/community-kindness/ |
Engage in a process where you will share desires, create goals and explore challenging issues with a group of individuals with common interests and desires to begin, develop, or advance the internal trauma-informed work.
The structure is open and the outcome will be something as powerful as creating an affirmation or an image of what it will look and feel like when you achieve your goal.
Each group is different.
The group will set the ground rules to keep the space safe and comfortable for all.
Examples of common ground rules are...
Confidentiality
Open Dialogue
No Cell Phones During the Session
Judgement-Free Zone
Respect for One Another
Taking Turns Speaking
Learning Collaboratives
We are a network focusing on bringing people together to learn, connect, and innovate. We are excited to launch virtual learning cohorts and collaboratives covering specific focus areas for a specified group of professionals. These cohorts meet either weekly or weekly for six to nine weeks.
Our facilitators will develop interactive and engaging sessions that not only share specific content but, more importantly, facilitate conversation and problem-solving brought to the collaborative by its members.
Some of the considered topics we will launch are:
-
School Leadership: Developing a Trauma-Informed School Culture
-
Educators: Cultivating a Trauma-Informed Classroom
-
You’re Getting on My Nerves! A Deep Dive into Trauma Science
-
I Understand Trauma Science, Now What?
-
Disrupters Unite, Let’s Innovate!
-
Historical Trauma in Education - A Transparent Look at the Past
-
How will we Disrupt the School-to-Prison Pipeline?
Cost per session will vary depending on the learning collaborative's length and the content's depth.
If you have ideas or would be interested in leading a learning collaborative, please fill out the form below: | https://www.tienetwork.org/coaching |
Are you growing together or growing apart in your relationship?/
My grandparents have been married 65 years.
Some couples stay together for 20, 30, or 40 years and the deep passion or love they once had slowly disappears as the years drift by. These couples stay together for a multitude of reasons (children, family, religion), but don’t seem to be very happy.
My grandparent’s relationship is not like this.
As humans, deep in our authentic core, we desire and crave meaningful connections with others.
So what is the formula for a long-term, committed relationship?
Over the years I’ve watched my grandparents keep their relationship committed, loving and passionate toward each other.
While there are many factors that have made their relationship work, when it comes down to it, for my grandparents at least, there is one that stands out above the rest: they grew together.
Throughout their 65 year marriage, my grandparents have had many interests, hobbies, passions and adventures together. They began their relationship with common goals and desires for their future, they supported each other throughout their careers, they supported each other raising a family, and they supported each other in their own individual friendships and personal goals.
Most importantly, they found ways to constantly evolve their relationship interests together.
Over the past 65 years together, their interests have changed. The activities and adventures they participated in 50 years ago are different than the pursuits they have now.
When I was a young child, I remember watching (and helping) my grandparents build their dream home together and play fiercely competitive games of gin rummy at lunch time.
As a young adult, I recall my grandparents traveling the US and world together.
They’re older now, so their interests have changed again.
The important thing is their interests change TOGETHER.
As individuals we evolve and grow throughout our lives in many ways: emotionally, relationally, and intellectually.
It’s no different for the relationships we are in. This is easy to see in the friendships we’ve had from childhood. Keeping a friendship active from childhood means evolving and changing as we enter teen years and into adulthood. The things you shared in childhood differ from the activities you participated in as a teenager or adult. To remain friends, to remain close, it’s vital to remain connected. To shift and change as each person develops individually. It’s a natural process, but without some effort there will be increased distance and separation, and the relationship will drift apart and end.
Are you growing together or growing apart in your relationship?
Ask yourself a few questions to evaluate this:
- What am I doing in my relationship to stay connected with my mate?
- How am I working to evolve in my relationship?
- What activities do I enjoy doing with my partner?
- What are some things that are on my ‘bucket’ list? Have I shared them with my mate?
- How am I communicating with others about my interests?
- What new things would I like to try with my partner?
- If I notice that we are drifting apart what am I doing to reconnect?
- How am I showing my significant other that I’m committed to making our relationship last?
It only takes fifteen minutes to starting evolving with your mate.
Begin by exploring the activities, interests and passions you and your mate both have individually. Listen as the other shares about their ‘bucket’ list desires. Are there things in common? Maybe you’ve both dreamed about traveling through South America, starting a business together, living in the mountains, raising foster children, the sky is the limit!
Starting this discussion will serve as a foundation to creating a life map together. Having a common goal or passion that you both work toward together will start your relationship on the path of growing together.
What small step can you take today to create this passion together?
Remember… Grow Together.
I’d love to hear about how you are working to grow and evolve in your relationship. Share with me in the comments or email me here.
Adriana
Adriana Joyner, LMFT, is a Sacramento Area therapist specializing in counseling for people healing from painful life experiences and traumas, support for individuals exploring their gender identity and expression, and the LGBTQIA community. Her office is located in Gold River, CA located off Highway 50 at Sunrise Blvd. For more information or to schedule a consultation, please call (916) 547-3997 or email [email protected]. | http://adrianajoynertherapy.com/blog/2016/6/7/are-you-growing-together-or-growing-apart-in-your-relationship |
What are TriBEs?
TriBEs are small groups of individuals, couples, or families that help make our big community feel small. They help every person be a part of something sacred. They help to deepen your connection with other congregants who share similar interests or life stages. They elevate your soul and repair the world. They enable you to share Jewish experiences, conversations, and celebrations with other congregants.
TriBEs are designed to inspire us and transform our lives and the world around us, with deeper relationships and a greater experience of joy and meaning. TriBEs strive to build a vibrant, inclusive community where members feel strongly connected to our congregation and to each other. We want TriBEs to foster relationships that motivate members to live active, meaningful, and impactful Jewish lives. Take a leap with us and find your TriBE!
TriBEs are regular gatherings of five to fifteen congregants in people’s homes, offices, or anywhere around Charlotte that promote relationship building. They are led by TriBE Leaders with the frequency, dates, and locations of meetings determined by the group in its first meeting. Some TriBEs will connect around common interests, affinities, geography, demographic, or profession. Other TriBEs will gather to discuss topics of deep concern or importance to their lives. All will engage in meaningful conversations and learning through curriculum provided by Temple Beth El.
Click here for the TriBE Snapshot Worksheet
Click here for a complete list of TriBEs
Click here to find your TriBE
For more information, please contact Andy Harkavy, Director of Congregational Engagement (704)-366-1948. | http://templebethel.org/community/tribes/ |
- You Create Real Connections: Volunteering is a great way to meet new people from all walks of life. Dedicating your time as a volunteer helps strengthen your ties to the community, expand your network, boost your social skills, and expose you to people with common interests, helping you make new friends.
- You Make a Difference: Volunteering gives you the opportunity to be a part of something bigger than yourself. Your actions will have a positive impact on someone’s life.
- You Get to Have Fun: Volunteering gives you a reason to explore your interests and passions, meet new people, and experience new adventures.
If you are looking for a way to become more active and involved in your community, United Methodist Communities has a volunteer opportunity in New Jersey for you! We welcome individuals, community groups, and student organizations to share their time, talents and interests with residents onsite at our communities. Come one time or on a regular basis. The broad range of opportunities also include virtual volunteer assignments. For more information about specific volunteer opportunities visit our website.
Compassionately Serving in Community So That All Are Free to Choose Abundant Life
The United Methodist Communities Foundation, established in 1985, supports the missional focus of the communities and acts as an independent entity, enhancing the mission, philosophy, and ministry of the organization.
To find out more about our the Foundation, please contact us today. | https://umcommunities.org/foundation/3-reasons-volunteer/ |
Jacopo joined the Automobili Lamborghini Research and Development team more than three years ago thanks to an internship, and today he is Set Leader for the Huracán product line. His course of studies started from Rome, with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, to then go on to Trento to take a degree in Mechatronics Engineering. This latter choice was also linked to his grandmother, a great mathematician who was able to hand down to him a love for formulas and numbers.
Working at Lamborghini has allowed him to attain his goal, which is to say, to combine his private interests with his daily activities. His hobbies have, in fact, several points in common with his job, such as engineering, speed and reaching his limits, characteristics that he finds in one of his biggest passions: skiing. | https://www.lamborghini-paris.com/news/interview-on-the-move-inherited-passion-and-affinity-between-hobbies-and-work/ |
This is the third in the series of blog posts on tips for busy moms to keep their sanity. As introverted as some of us can be, we as humans are still social beings and we have a need for interpersonal connections
Being a mom is the most rewarding things in the world, but it can also often be a very lonely place to be. We often feel like we lose our individual identities after becoming a parent and live our lives to serve others.
Sometimes we grow apart from people who were once our friends because our lives becomes busy and with different priorities, we may even lose long lasting friendships and relationships.
We often feel alone, not realizing that there are thousands of us feeling the exact same way!
It’s important to connect with like minded people, people who have the same interests, hobbies, daily activities as you.
Remember last week when we talked about finding hobbies? That’s a great way to find those like-minded people to connect with.
Not a people person? You don’t actually have to have face to face connections. In today’s day and age, it’s so easy to form virtual friendships.
So many facebook groups you can join that will connect you with similar people. I absolutely believe you can form a genuine relationship with someone you may never meet in real life.
There are so many local “mommy and me” play date groups and mommies night out groups.
What hobbies did you identify last week? Where can you start to look for those people to connect with? | https://shapiroholistichealth.com/2019/10/09/connect-with-like-minded-people/ |
SEATTLE, Washington — Church events large and small were postponed or cancelled during the last year due to COVID-19. Church leaders have worked hard to find ways to avoid cancelling long-planned events for a second year in a row.
The Abundant Life Conference for Single Adults is one example of flexibility and ingenuity that helped thousands of individuals come together this weekend in a fun and meaningful way.
Organized for members in the North America West Area, classes, workshops, devotionals and service projects took place in-person and virtually addressing a variety of topics.
The flexibility and hybrid virtual and in-person nature of the conference allowed Church leaders to participate from unique locations while speaking to the same audience. President Dallin H. Oaks, first counselor in the First Presidency, along with his wife, Sister Kristen Oaks, attended Saturday’s service projects in Tacoma, Washington, and will speak in a devotional to close the conference on Sunday. Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles participated from Oakland, California. Brother Bradley R. Wilcox, second counselor in the Young Men general presidency, participated from Wasilla, Alaska.
Read more: ‘Stay in the lifeboat,’ Brother Brad Wilcox tells single adults
The technology that allowed for everything from the registration process to the broadcasting of classes and devotionals from unique locations to the strengthening of accuracy in family history work stood out to President Oaks as an indication of the Lord’s hand guiding His work.
“When we’re ready and desirous, the Lord sends us the technology needed,” he said.
Speaking of the innovations that led to a hybrid, multi-state event that was the first of its kind, Sister Oaks saw hope in the challenges of the last year.
All that has been learned about the use of technology during COVID “has been a blessing,” she said. “Because this wouldn’t have been possible without COVID.”
In each physical location where the conference was held, service projects allowed attendees to spend time together helping those in need — on both sides of the veil.
Caitlin Olive, one of the organizers from the Seattle, Washington, area, talked about both the challenges attendees face and the commonality that brings them together.
“People just don’t know who people are,” she said. “But we’re all brothers and sisters in the gospel.”
Serving together is one way to get to know each other.
Several hundred conference attendees in Tacoma, Washington, participated in one of three different activities.
Some visited local cemeteries to shoot photographs of headstones that were then uploaded to a website to help loved ones identify the locations of deceased family members.
Some wrote letters of appreciation and care to veterans, injured veterans, active duty servicemen and women, and caretakers of injured veterans.
And others participated in a family history project that will continue into next year to help put together the family trees of African Americans in the Pierce County, Washington, area.
Kris Clayton has seen his share of wards in the midwestern United States, the Rocky Mountains, and now the Pacific Northwest. For him, activities like this are about more than service.
“So many people just need a friend,” he said. “Attending is like getting a booster shot of the Spirit.”
Clayton said conferences like this one provide similar results to Young Women camp or youth conferences. There are many activities attendees participate in together, but it’s the experiences with the Holy Ghost that really stand out.
“The Spirit is what’s important because it teaches us,” he said.
Larry Eastland, from Los Angeles, California, helped organize the conference and said 40 virtual workshops took place.
This gave attendees the opportunity to “reach and reconnect” with each other in different formats and from different geographic locations.
“It was just a marvelous experience,” Eastland said.
As part of the registration process for the conference, attendees could choose to make note of hobbies or interests and then become a part of a “pod” or group of individuals who share common interests, Eastland said.
“For example, there’s a Russian and Ukrainian speaking pod,” he said. “And gardening and horseback riding.”
Overall, more than 80 pods were created by those attending the conference.
“The fact is, there’s a great need to connect with other Latter-day Saints of common interest,” Eastland said. “They have a common testimony, but now come the common interests.”
Serving with each other to the benefit of others helped strengthen friendships of many who participated in the service activities, but another organizer of the conference pointed out there is another who is aware of each person’s specific needs.
Lydia Peckover, from Bellingham, Washington, said, “The Savior knows what we need.”
Peckover shared that she felt inspired to serve while attending the temple. After that experience, she said her prayers changed.
“What can I do to build the kingdom?” she asks. “Who do I need to help? What can I do?”
As she has served others, the opportunities have expanded and become more easy to recognize and respond to.
“You know what? I think you pray, and it comes,” she said of service opportunities.
In the case of the thousands who attended this weekend’s conference, many prayed, and many opportunities to serve came. Hopefully, according to Eastland, those opportunities will continue, as well. | https://www.thechurchnews.com/leaders-and-ministry/2021-08-08/single-adults-conference-washington-abundant-life-service-project-221695 |
In response to our initial post, C.R. asked for more details on how IT distorts management’s vision of reality. Given the work and resources that have gone into enterprise applications over the last two decades, he asks, why doesn’t IT feed back a true image of how we work? If the daily statistics and scorecards provided by today’s business applications don’t seem to “ring true”, what can an organization do to improve the quality of the data to better reflect individual customers, projects, and opportunities? To understand this challenge, and to explore potential scenarios to improve enterprise applications, we need to first consider how business applications today represent and aggregate data, then explore the fundamental weaknesses in this logic, and finally investigate other avenues of putting the pieces together.
Enterprise applications, including those dedicated to enterprise resource planning, supply chain management and even project management, and are largely based on the principles of business process improvement. A process can best be understood as a set of activities and tasks that managers group together to meet internal or external client demands. Processes thus have four defining characteristics: their origin can be detected in an organization’s recognition of a client need for a product, service or information, they consume resources, and they have a set cost and produce a benefice that ideally meets the clients’ needs.
Improving business processes requires tracking inefficiencies in how an organization captures market demand, supply or measurement. How are an organizational activities and tasks executed to capture client demands? How can an organization improve its capacity to deliver products and services? How does the organization capture and evaluate costs and benefits? Enterprise applications provide responses to these fundamental questions in allowing management to map the current state of existing processes, implement best practices around ideal designs of how these processes should work, and measure organizational progress to these goals.
The resulting ‘process-centric” view of the organization is often a weak approximation of the reality of business practice, and as such limits the usefulness of enterprise applications. One reason for this is that business process improvement was originally designed for organizations producing standardized physical goods, modeling processes around personalized services and/or information delivery has proven a much more difficult assignment. Implementing business processes assumes that management (or their business partners) understand where an industry or a market is headed, an assumption that is sorely tested today in industries ranging from information services to banking to telecommunications.
Moreover, the notion of “best practices” which assumes that there is “one best way” to build product or deliver services has been widely disputed in organizations that have traditionally put a premium on company culture, customization, and understanding individual customer needs. Finally, improving business processes assumes that the employees and managers involved in the targeted processes agree with organizational objectives, and are willing and able to follow organizational guidelines. In many situations, even this assumption is contested by those that prefer focusing on the realities of their organization and their market (i.e. getting the job done) than complying to unrealistic or unworkable company procedures. For all of these reasons, “process-centric” software most often offers management a highly distorted view of the realities of the workplace.
If we abandon the notion of processes, how can business applications be modeled to provide a more realistic view of work? A growing number of management specialists are underlining the importance of networks in understanding how employees and managers actually get work done. In business, networks are interconnected systems of people that share common interests, beliefs, and goals. Social and business networks are used by workers and managers alike to solve problems, to identify opportunities, to build trust and passion, and make sense of their jobs, organizations and careers. These networks cross organizational boundaries; they are composed of centers of influence (the “hubs”) and are held together by the intensity of personal relationships (the “links”).
If most managers understand the importance of their personal networks, improving networks requires understanding how these networks function and how they can be extended and strengthened. Social researchers have identified a number of defining characteristics of networks that potentially can help mangers improve their effectiveness: “power laws“, “degrees of separation”, “discontinuous change“, “fat tails“, etc. These networks are held together by common beliefs, passions, trust or know-how: in other words non-structured information that largely escapes “process-centric” view of enterprise. The power of networks has fueled the popularity of a new breed of the social media applications: LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook are among the better known examples. Will this new generation of software applications help management improve their business?
One value proposition of such network-centric applications is to shift the focus of attention away from an ideal set of activities and tasks (what we “should” be doing) to how employees and managers actually get things done (what they “are” doing). A second insight of a network based view of business is the understanding that networks are self-structuring; people seek to work with those their share their goals, passions and beliefs. A third point of interest is understanding the importance of “non-structured” data, just because we can’t get passions, trust and know-how into a spreadsheet doesn’t mean they don’t largely influence the way we work. Finally, this line of inquiry reminds us that business is essentially a human activity; technology’s role in business is limited to understanding, uncovering and eventually enhancing the human interaction that defines the nature of “work”. For management and their business partners, these propositions constitute powerful levers to improve the value of information technology.
None-the-less, there certainly is a considerable amount of work to be done before applications like LinkedIn or Facebook help managers improve their jobs, organizations and careers. The metaphors of “avatars”, “friends” and “connections” don’t easily translate into the realities of either commerce or industry. The personal information, photos, and videos available in social media today are certainly interesting, but often of little use in driving a business forward. These applications today are largely hard coded; it is difficult or often impossible for end-users to enrich either the information or the software. These applications capture data on how end-users wish to see themselves, rather than how they actually practice business (or anything else…). Most importantly, these virtual networks don’t elucidate today the passions, beliefs, and goals that define how individual professional networks operate. If network-centric applications provide a glance of how the future of enterprise applications can improve business practice, these images need to be brought into focus. | http://visionarymarketing.com/en/blog/author/lee-schlenker/page/2/ |
When it comes down to figuring out what exercises you should be doing, it's important to target all the major muscle groups, as well as have a proper meal management system in order to fuel them. Skimping on any area for too long can result in an uneven looking physique. To help put together a well-rounded routine, here's a list of exercises that you should be doing, both for muscle building and endurance training.
SIX PACK FITNESS
It's not just a lunchbox,
It's a lifestyle. | https://www.sixpackbags.com/blogs/news/exercises |
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Often used interchangeably to describe six-pack abs, the core is actually a complex series of muscles and includes everything besides the arms and legs. A strong core... | http://balanceblog.bistromd.com/category/fitness/ |
The Sports Performance Group Fitness Class takes place Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. and Fridays from 10 to 11 a.m. in the P.E. Complex.
The group fitness class is instructed by two studious individuals of exercise science, Fitness and Wellness Graduate Assistant, Talli Shepherd, and Aquatics Coordinator, Mac Varilla. As Shepherd and Varilla put it, “we work together to co-teach and use teamwork.”
After some observation, it is easily noticeable that Shepherd’s teaching style is vocalizing the desired movements of the participants and enunciating loudly and clearly. Shepherd admits to being the “puppet master” while instructing the class, and Varilla acknowledges that he does the demonstrations, sort of like a “crash test dummy.” Shepherd is a very vocal instructor, while Varilla is the demonstrator, and they make a really great team for a novel and refreshing experience.
Sports performance can take many forms of physical and kinesthetic activities. Before beginning any sporty or physical workout, it is imperative to understand one’s bodily limitations in terms of strength, speed and agility because it would feel unpleasant and uncomfortable to overwork any muscle group. With that said, sports performance is simply the practice of training the body to enhance pre-existing muscularity, swiftness and dexterity.
The class intends to be a gathering in which people train in unison with like minded individuals. Doing a routine workout individually in a weight room sometimes gets dull, repetitive, dreary and humdrum. It is venturous to stay nimble and get out of one’s comfort zone.
Photo credits by Ananth Prabhu
Photo Caption: Varilla is pictured on the right by demonstrating an activity. Hussaini is pictured in the center on a semi-spherical ball, or Bosu ball, practicing his posture and abdominal crunches activity.
According to the instructors a conventional sports performance fitness class gives more importance to quantity over quality with repetitions of the same activities, however, Shepherd and Varilla disclosed that they pay particular attention to quality over quantity by organizing plenty of activities to do in a single hour.
For example, the instructors said that “instead of just burning more calories,” which is a quantitative variable, they focus on the usefulness of qualitative variables “for sport, daily mobility [and] activities.”
Shepherd and Varilla have stated that “mostly students show up, but [the class] is very open to community members too.” The class times sometimes change to encourage more involvement from a greater variety of students and an increasing number of community members.
Nateen Hussaini, a graduate student in mathematics, participates in the group fitness class. “I like the combination of speed [and] explosiveness, mobility, strengths, calisthenics and weights.” Hussaini says, “I get to push myself even more” than in the weight room, and it is “good [to gain] experience and [great] for athletes too.”
The sports performance class includes a variety of stations where the participants rotate through. Some stations involve flexing weights in various bodily positions. Other stations rely on hovering the feet while bumping a medicine ball from side to side.
Some stations allow participants to run rapidly while meandering cones like in an obstacle course. There may be some forwards sprinting, backwards walking and sideways shuffling involved in side-by-side relay races. Activities vary greatly between each station to keep it fresh.
For example, you may find some posture exercises, such as planking while transitioning from elbows to palms and back again. You must also keep your spine straight while doing it. You may also find yourself using a semi-spherical ball, or Bosu ball, to lie upon and do abdominal crunches. The participants’ postural muscles, quadriceps and hamstrings end up getting flexed, extended and stabilized in the great variety of exercise stations in the class.
Photo credits by Ananth Prabhu
Photo Caption: Sports Performance Group Fitness Class participants are in their stations doing various physical activities, and they will be rotating through to adjacent stations.
Getting into a new routine and creating new habits is usually a challenge for most people, but it is possible. Hussaini has already taken part in the sports performance class six times since the semester began. You could say that Hussaini is already dedicated to the sports performance class, and he encourages other students and community members to join by saying that he enjoys the “team practice.”
Hussaini said that his “favorite [activity] is strength-training because [he already does] it in the weight room” as well, and it is what Hussaini is accustomed to doing.
When it comes to new activities, it is a normal condition for humans to seek novel experiences, and Hussaini is no different because he has insisted that physical movements, like combinations, are new for him.
He also said “I enjoy the uniqueness of speed and box jumping because it is unique to the class!” Box jumping is when there is a wooden box of varying size in front of a participant, and the participant must jump up with both feet in unison to the height of the box and stand on top of the box, and then jump backwards back to the floor with both feet in unison.
No exercise practice is complete without first establishing goals. Based on prior experience of each individual, it is imperative to create some type of incredibly ambitious or slightly ambitious physical activity goals before exercising. Hussaini has done just that because he says, “I want to be more well-rounded, I also do rock-climbing, [and] I am thinking about doing flag football and pickleball” at some point.
As participants have goals, so do the instructors. Shepherd and Varilla agreed that “our goals are to progress, stay consistent and [evaluate] our progress over time” while keeping a homogenous rhythm “by coming back every single week.”
Last but certainly not least, Hussaini admits that the “music [choice] is good.” When doing any physical activity, it is important to seek motivation whether from a fitness instructor or from the music playing in the background.
In anthropology and sociology, there is a concept known as participant observation. It is imperative to use this unique perspective in lifestyle activities that may be new to you. By doing such ritualistic behavior, such as participating in a fitness class, you would be able to meet new people, learn about other people, and indulge yourself into new life experiences. Participant observation is an excellent technique to change your routine and do something different while also learning new skills and applying them to your fitness goals. Thus, this particular Sports Performance Group Fitness Class at the P.E. Complex is an excellent way to achieve new experiential knowledge.
The class was much more diverse from my usual routine of working out with traditional free weights, targeted weight machines, using cardiovascular equipment and shooting baskets. I personally agree with Hussaini that taking part in a class of this caliber can definitely improve an individual’s fitness regimen and spice up one’s workout routine. I would definitely be willing to do it again in the future, and I encourage all of you to join me as well. So come out, be a participant observer and venture into some new experiences with me! | https://neiuindependent.org/18626/sports/sports-performance-is-not-just-for-athletes/ |
Child and Adolescent Services - Nursing Times Awards
Health and wellbeing in the early years of life influences health in adulthood so the delivery of high-quality care is crucial from birth to the teenage years. In addition to providing skilled clinical care, nurses working in these specialties act as advocates for their patients; they often become trusted carers for children with long-term conditions, seeing them grow up, learn to take control of their own health and move on to adult services. They also provide care in partnership with families and need to be able to develop trusting relationships with them.
This award is open to individual nurses or teams working in the NHS or independent sector with patients from neonates to adolescents in any care setting. Entrants should demonstrate innovation and evidence of improved outcomes of care that involves families and/or empowers adolescents. Examples might include initiatives to:
- Help the parents of neonates in intensive care to be involved in their baby’s care
- Reduce anxiety of children awaiting surgery
- Help adolescents with long-term conditions to take responsibility for managing their own health
Each entry will be judged against the following criteria:
- Innovation: originality of the idea
- Value: impact of the initiative on patient care and/or service effectiveness
- Patient focus: evidence that patient/service user need was central to the work
- Collaboration: evidence of the involvement of other professionals, services and/or patients in the project
- Clinical effectiveness: data demonstrating how this initiative drives clinical enhancements
- Leadership: evidence of entrants championing their innovation in their organisation or more widely
- Adaptability: ideas that could be adapted for use elsewhere in entrants’ organisations or other organisations
- Sustainability: initiatives that can be embedded within organisations to operate without the input of the people who developed them
Should you be successfully shortlisted for this award, please ensure you are available on Monday 9 September to present to the judges.
Take a look at what our 2018 winners had to say about winning the award: | https://awards.nursingtimes.net/content/child-and-adolescent-services-2?search_id=40 |
Eligibility Benefits Program Administrator
Job Description:
The City of Virginia Beach is seeking an experienced administrator to oversee the Department of Human Services Eligibility Benefits Program. Responsibilities include provide supervision, consultation and leadership for the program of 161 full-time equivalent and contract positions.
Oversee and administer eligibility benefits programs, most of which are funded by the federal and state government. Programs include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, Energy Assistance, Child Care, Virginia Initiative for Education and Work (VIEW) and local programs which include General Relief and the City’s Water Assistance Program. As it relates to these programs, this position oversees services and benefits to over 70,000 Virginia Beach residents and a total budget of over $15 million dollars. Ensure state and federal goals are met and program is in compliance with federal, state, and local policies; develop corrective action plans as needed and interpret agency policies and programs for other agencies and the public; analyze and monitor the effectiveness of service delivery within the department and ensure timely responses to clients’ needs, achieving state and federal mandates.
Directly supervise two Eligibility Coordinators, 2 Human Services Specialist I’s and one Administrative Assistant. Work closely with state and federal officials; elected officials, citizens and other community and state organizations and partners. Interpret agency policies and programs for other agencies and the public. Receive and respond to community inquires, concerns, and complaints and continuously monitor and analyze the effectiveness of service delivery within the department. Participate in the development of new initiatives, business process improvements and resources; receive and make appropriate referrals, and develop new resources to enhance the departments services to clients. Serve on the department’s Senior Leadership team as well as other task force groups and collaborate with other agencies to bridge the gaps in services and programs. Prepare regular reports for the Deputy Director on divisional activities and collaborate with the administrative team to ensure total agency effectiveness. | https://www.vml.org/job-listings/eligibility-benefits-program-administrator/ |
I knew I liked Cas Holloway from the very beginning, when he said to the Crain’s Business Breakfast Forum crowd on Monday 3/20 that he’s used to people asking him “so what exactly is it that you do?” As Cas pointed out, we operations folks encounter this view – or non-view – of operations management all the time. Said another way, people have no idea what it is we OM people do and how crucial our role is.
The Deputy Commissioner of Operations is, arguably, one of the most strategically important positions in the City. Cas oversees some of largest and most critical agencies – Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) (the agency with the biggest budget in the City), Department of Sanitation (DSNY), and Department of Citywide Administrative Service s (DCAS), and has joint responsibilities with the Mayor’s Office of Long-Term Sustainability.
1) Are we making long-term investments for the City’s future?
2) Is the City ensuring public safety? This includes the typical NYPD-variety of safety, but more importantly, protecting our water supply, infrastructure, air quality.
3) Is the City poised to become more sustainable and livable and thereby create the necessary conditions for economic growth in the long-term?
And what is Cas doing to ensure that the City is on track for a sustainable future? He is linking operational efficiencies and Total Quality Management (TQM) to sustainability. His office is focusing on getting talented people to lead projects, emphasizing quality in the agency’s work, issuing green energy RFPs, looking at the waste the city generates, and changing the specifications of capital projects to include green infrastructure. These initiatives will yield innovative solutions, bring cost savings, reduce resource use, increase quality, reduce waste, and attract talent.
There is strategic power in Cas’s understanding that sustainability is integrally linked operations management. It means that operational improvements will bring us to a sustainable future.
So the next time you meet Cas or one of us operations wonks, don’t ask “what exactly is it do you do?’ Ask us what we are working on that is going to make the future more sustainable – and that means livable.
Read about Casewell’s push for solar or watch a video on congestion pricing.
Haven’t met the man but I must say that I am really heartbroken about the City’s lost legacy of effective IT governance and project management discipline that has led to the wasted $ and colossal failure of not just Citytime but also the 911 merge project and to some extent NYCwin as well as NYCaps. Where has the leadership that existed during my own. Public service tenure gone to? Why has the culture of performance excellence been allowed to disintegrate to enable this mess? | https://gradbaruchian.com/2012/03/26/caswell-holloway-deputy-mayor-of-what-exactly-is-it-that-you-do/ |
MWG in Environmental Leader
John Platko and Tod Christenson of the Monetization Working Group have a guest column over at Environmental Leader today talking about making better sustainability business decisions. Here's a teaser:
"Today’s sustainability investment options are extensive and broad ranging, including relatively straightforward efforts (e.g., energy conservation projects) to multi-year/multi-stakeholder initiatives (like those that target social and environmental improvements deep within an organization’s supply-chain). While doing any or all of these could yield significant benefits, it is often unclear which will generate the greatest, most enduring value. Faced with this dilemma, leaders often struggle to understand which choices are best and how they should evaluate the many alternatives to ensure the most effective, efficient and sustainable decisions are made."
Read the full article at Environmental Leader. | https://www.moresustainabledecisions.com/single-post/2014/05/09/mwg-in-environmental-leader |
Acorn Early Years is a charitable social enterprise providing childcare and early education, operating day nurseries, forest schools, out-of-school clubs, and specialist early years catering and training services. We are an agile organisation that is growing rapidly, despite the challenges facing the sector, with just over 400 employees and an expected turnover of approximately £10m this year. We are now seeking an exceptional Chief Operating Officer or experienced Operations Manager to work directly with the CEO, board of trustees, and Senior Leadership Team to provide operational leadership.
As a key member of the senior leadership team, you will be responsible for implementing the operational strategy, overseeing day-to-day operational excellence, and further developing Acorn’s social impact and the achievement of our charitable objects. We are seeking someone with management experience of growth, and of developing systems and processes to ensure operational efficiency. In a rapidly changing sector, we need resourcefulness, adaptability, and excellent communication skills. We pride ourselves on having an ethic of care across the organisation, and strong ethical values, and are fortunate to have a strong team of dedicated, highly skilled and professional team members, both in our central support office and across the sites.
You will report directly to the CEO, and will oversee operations, including IT, and service development, ensuring that Acorn have the appropriate up to date tools and technologies. You will work closely with departmental leads, and will ensure charitable compliance, monitor performance metrics, and provide the board of trustees with management information. You will also lead the sustainability strategy and ensure that this is embedded across the organisation.
We are looking for a team player with excellent project management skills, experience of business development and systems knowledge, but also someone with a passion for social impact and ethical practices, including environmental sustainability. This is an exciting opportunity for someone to join Acorn at this period of our growth and development.
Expectations of the role
- To provide strong leadership and management whilst overseeing the day-to-day operations of Acorn’s central support team
- To develop strong, trusting relationships with the CEO, senior leadership team, and colleagues across the organisation, and support the CEO by providing excellent operational leadership
- To ensure operational processes remain efficient and effective, and are suitable to support future growth
- To ensure performance and impact is effectively monitored, and improvements are identified and sustained
- To ensure good governance is practiced, and all operations remain compliant with relevant legislation
Role and Responsibilities
- Collaborate with the CEO, ensuring the organisation’s strategy and budget are drafted and adhered to
- Coordinate the effective analysis of internal operations, and use evidence to inform improvements
- Project manage the opening of new provisions and services
- Develop and oversee the implementation of new or reviewed processes
- Review, update and implement policies and procedures, ensuring sufficient controls are in place
- Oversee the effective communication of all operational policies procedures and documentation
- Collaborate with the Facilities Manager to ensure the effective implementation of an IT strategy that will enable long-term sustainable growth and quality improvements
- Collaborate with the CEO, to oversee the preparation of high quality business plans, annual reports, grant applications, business development applications, or any other formal documentation
- Fulfil all statutory duties and responsibilities of the Data Protection Officer, including ensuring the organisation is compliant with data protection legislation, updating data protection processes as required, actioning data protection requests, making any statutory notifications, and responding to any data protection queries in a timely manner
- Maintain regular and effective communication with the CEO, and communicate with the board of trustees as required
Person Specification
Experience
Essential
- Management and operational experience
- Budgeting, forecasting and financial reporting experience
- Project management experience
- Change management experience
- Management of IT development and systems
- Business Development
- Effective and supportive line management
- Process improvement
Desirable
- Experience managing quality assurance or internal audit processes or systems
- Working in a charity/not for profit organisation
- Working in the early years sector
- Working as a Data Protection Officer
Skills and attributes
- Leadership and management
- Highly organised, with an attention to detail
- Ability to work effectively in a team environment
- Ability to think and act strategically
- Ability to communicate clearly and concisely, both verbally and in witing
- Excellent relationship building and interpersonal skills
- Flexible to changing priorities
The client requests no contact from agencies or media sales. | https://www.charityjob.co.uk/jobs/acorn-early-years-foundation/chief-operating-officer-or-senior-operations-manager/830340?tsId=2 |
About RI:
Relief International is a leading nonprofit organization working in 18 countries to relieve poverty, ensure well-being and advance dignity. We specialize in fragile settings, responding to natural disasters, humanitarian crises and chronic poverty. RI has been working in Sudan since 2005, delivering integrated Health, WASH, and Nutrition projects.
Relief International combines humanitarian and development approaches to provide immediate services while laying the groundwork for long-term impact. Our signature approach — which we call the RI Way—emphasizes local participation, an integration of services, strategic partnerships and a focus on civic skills. In this way, we empower communities to find, design and implement the solutions that work best for them.
Position Summary:
The Health Coordinator’s role is to lead and provide technical support for the planning and smooth operation of Health activities throughout RI’s country programs. This includes the active involvement in continuously developing and rolling out a country Health strategy based on the specific context, assessments/needs identified, and overall country program goals. In addition, the Health Coordinator will support with the overall capacity building of local staff and stakeholders in Health.
Position Responsibilities and Duties:
Program Management & Implementation
- Provide Health sectoral leadership and technical support to program teams; oversee and coordinate development of Health activity detailed implementation plans and budget forecasts, and technically manage Health field teams to ensure timely achievement of high-quality deliverables as planned.
- Coordinate with other sectoral leads to ensure multi-sectoral programs are integrated and cross-cutting (e.g. gender, protection, climate, and sustainability within all Health interventions).
- Coordinate with field teams to ensure the proper execution of the Health program against all set objectives and targets within the agreed budgets and timeframes.
- Implement and maintain reporting systems to monitor and evaluate the Health objectives, indicators and outcomes of the projects.
- Contribute to the creation of reports, ensuring the quality and accuracy of technical information provided as well as the confidentiality of internal information as required. Support field teams in regular budgetary follow up to ensure timely expenditure of health budgets.
- Liaise with all internal and external counterparts of the project; ensure external representation of RI in relevant sectors including participating in technical and sectoral meetings to ensure visibility amongst local authorities. Pass relevant information to the Country Senior Management Team.
- Work closely with program support functions (logistics and finance departments) for Health program supplies and activities planning.
- Assist with the recruitment of new health staff.
- Any other task as delegated by the Supervisor
Technical Oversight
- Ensure that technical quality and standards are upheld during project implementation; assess and analyze Health activity progress continuously through lessons learned, field assessments, and design and implement response plans; and identify opportunities for innovation, improvement and adaptive management.
- Planning/overseeing Emergency response activities in case of outbreaks, such as cholera, measles, COVID.
- Responsible for overseeing proper management of drug supplies at main warehouse and at health facilities and closely monitor consumption to avoid stock rupture and to ensure rational use of drugs.
- Coordinate and participate in regular monitoring and supervisory visits to supported health facilities to ensure provision of quality care to beneficiaries.
- Liaise with MOH and/or other INGOs to set up efficient referral mechanisms to facilities with higher level of care. This includes developing referral protocols, drafting MoUs and other agreements.
- Coordinate with MEAL department to develop data collection tools in line with donors reporting requirements.
- Ensure gender and protection is considered throughout the project cycle, with women being enabled to influence decision making around Health challenges.
- Coordinate with Operations team to prepare national and international medical orders, including pharmaceuticals, medical supplies and medical equipment.
Program Development
- Identify and stay updated on the latest Health sector best practice within the country through routine engagement and dialogue with the relevant Government of Sudan offices, the Cluster network, and the international community as applicable to the Sudan context. Evaluate the options and propose innovations and updates to RI Sudan’s Health sector services to ensure provision of the highest quality sustainable services possible, and to maintain RI’s competitive advantage in the field.
- Provide sectoral and technical leadership to the design of, and engage in rapid needs assessments and their analysis, and ensure their linkage to activity plans and budgets.
- Assess in-country resources and capacities (human, material and financial) for Health program roll out, and ensure provision of requisite capacity building.
- Formulate the overall aims and objectives of the Health response program through ongoing development and refinement of a clear Health Strategy.
- Select and design the most appropriate form of health systems, and health services and public health promotion programs taking full account of local conditions, resources, customs and cultural norms. Ensure sustainability and capacity building is fundamental components of these systems and programs.
- Ensure Government of Sudan, WHO, Sphere and any other relevant standards are considered through the program cycle and are well documented.
- Development concept papers, letters of intent, proposals and budgets related to the above.
Staff Management and Development
- Directly supervise health managers in Blue Nile, North Darfur and East Darfur.
- Ensure capacity development plans are in place and capacity is built for all direct reports and for the health team as a unit.
- Ensure a positive and safe working environment and good team dynamics (solve out potential conflicts) and promote team working conditions.
- Create an environment that fosters learning and development.
Qualifications & Requirements:
This position demands a dynamic individual with a demonstrated ability to achieve results in a demanding and fast paced environment.
- Master’s degree in Health: MD, MPH, or other relevant qualification.
- At least five years’ work experience in a development, emergency or post-conflict setting in integrated Health interventions.
- Excellent written and oral English skills required. Must be able to draft high quality, donor reports and proposals.
- Strong project management skills.
- Experience and understanding of key intuitional donors’ policies, guidelines and strategies e.g. USAID, OFDA, ECHO, DFID and UN.
- Must be able to function effectively in a fluid, loosely structured, but complex work environment and to set appropriate priorities and deal effectively with numerous simultaneous requirements.
- Must be able to work independently, with minimum supervision, within the context of a larger team.
- Strong coordination skills; flexibility, adaptability, and patience; facilitation and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to work under pressure to strict deadlines.
- Analytical and problem solving skills.
- Cross cultural awareness and sensitivity to cultural differences.
- Ability to understand and address gender- related challenges within the beneficiary groups.
Success Factors:
The ideal candidate will be passionate, enthusiastic and driven, and have experience of working with national and expatriate team members in nutrition programmes in complex and protracted emergency responses. A demonstrable commitment to national capacity strengthening is mandatory. S/he will have demonstrable experience of managing health programmes, have excellent written and verbal communications skills and will be fluent in English. Experience working in project management within an INGO in conflict-induced fragile settings is mandatory, with previous experience in Sudan desirable.
RI Values:
We uphold the Humanitarian Principles: humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and operational independence. We affirmatively engage the most vulnerable communities.
We value:
- Inclusiveness
- Transparency and Accountability
- Agility and Innovation
- Collaboration
- Sustainability
Living Conditions/Environmental Conditions
This position is based El Fasher, North Darfur with travels to Juba and filed locations in East Darfur and Blue Nile states. It offers an opportunity to join a diverse and open workplace, with a team committed to inclusion, innovation, and personal development. We also offer:
- Accommodation in a shared compound in El Fasher, own room.
- 6-week R&R cycle with a financial contribution towards the R&R costs.
- Very competitive compensation, Danger Pay and daily post differential among other benefits.
- Access to RI’s award-winning learning management system with a wide menu of training resources, and internal/external training courses.
How to Apply
Interested candidates are required to submit a detailed CV and cover letter by June 13th, 2020. Due to the critical nature of this assignment, applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and candidates will be interviewed prior to the closing date that may appear on any of the job boards where this vacancy is posted. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply. | https://www.devj.org/health-coordinator-2/ |
Ying Li, Juan-Xian Cheng, Hai-Hong Yang, Li-Ping Chen, Feng-Jiao Liu, Yan Wu, Ming Fan, Hai-Tao Wu,
Previous studies demonstrate an accumulation of transferrin and transferrin receptor 1 (TfR1) in regenerating peripheral nerves. However, the expression and function of transferrin and TfR1 in the denervated skeletal muscle remain poorly understood. In this study, a mouse model of denervation was produced by complete tear of the left brachial ... Read more >>
Neural Regen Res (Neural regeneration research)
[2021, 16(7):1308-1316]
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Yanjie Zhang, Laura Masters, Yuehong Wang, Lingyun Wu, Yanxi Pei, Baoqing Guo, Amadeo Parissenti, Simon J Lees, Rui Wang, Guangdong Yang,
Hydrogen sulfide (H<sub>2</sub> S) can be endogenously produced and belongs to the class of signaling molecules known as gasotransmitters. Cystathionine gamma-lyase (CSE)-derived H<sub>2</sub> S is implicated in the regulation of cell differentiation and the aging process, but the involvements of the CSE/H<sub>2</sub> S system in myogenesis upon aging and injury ... Read more >>
FASEB J (FASEB journal : official publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology)
[2021, 35(5):e21511]
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Mohammadreza Mohammadabadi, Farhad Bordbar, Just Jensen, Min Du, Wei Guo,
Farm-animal species play crucial roles in satisfying demands for meat on a global scale, and they are genetically being developed to enhance the efficiency of meat production. In particular, one of the important breeders' aims is to increase skeletal muscle growth in farm animals. The enhancement of muscle development and ... Read more >>
Animals (Basel) (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI)
[2021, 11(3):]
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Tieshan Xu, Zijie Xu, Lizhi Lu, Tao Zeng, Lihong Gu, Yongzhen Huang, Shunjin Zhang, Peng Yang, Yifan Wen, Dajie Lin, Manping Xing, Lili Huang, Guojun Liu, Zhe Chao, Weiping Sun,
<h4>Background</h4>The number of myofiber is determined during the embryonic stage and does not increase during the postnatal period for birds, including goose. Thus, muscle production of adult goose is pre-determined during embryogenesis. Previous studies show N<sup>6</sup>-methyladenosine (m6A) is an important regulator for skeletal muscle development of birds and miRNAs play ... Read more >>
BMC Genomics (BMC genomics)
[2021, 22(1):270]
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Zhenguo Yang, Tianle He, Qingyun Chen,
The muscle growth and development of livestock animals is a complex, multistage process, which is regulated by many factors, especially the genes related to muscle development. In recent years, it has been reported frequently that circular RNAs (circRNAs) are involved widely in cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and body development (including ... Read more >>
Front Cell Dev Biol (Frontiers in cell and developmental biology)
[2021, 9:619329]
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Da Ae Kim, So Jeong Park, Jin Young Lee, Jeoung Hee Kim, Seungjoo Lee, Eunju Lee, Il-Young Jang, Hee-Won Jung, Jin Hoon Park, Beom-Jun Kim,
<h4>Background</h4>The C-C motif chemokine ligand 11 (CCL11) has been receiving attention as a potential pro-aging factor. Accordingly, it may be involved in muscle metabolism and sarcopenia, a key component of aging phenotypes. To clarify this potential, we investigated the effects of CCL11 on in vitro muscle biology and its clinical ... Read more >>
Endocrinol Metab (Seoul) (Endocrinology and metabolism (Seoul, Korea))
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Josiane Joseph, Jason D Doles,
Many chronic disease patients experience a concurrent loss of lean muscle mass. Skeletal muscle is a dynamic tissue maintained by continuous protein turnover and progenitor cell activity. Muscle stem cells, or satellite cells, differentiate (by a process called myogenesis) and fuse to repair and regenerate muscle. During myogenesis, satellite cells ... Read more >>
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[2021, 18(1):33]
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Athanasios Moustogiannis, Anastassios Philippou, Orjona Taso, Evangelos Zevolis, Maria Pappa, Antonios Chatzigeorgiou, Michael Koutsilieris,
The process of myogenesis gradually deteriorates as the skeletal muscle ages, contributing to muscle mass loss. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of senescence/aging on skeletal myogenesis, in vitro. A model of multiple cell divisions of C2C12 myoblasts was used to replicate cell senescence. Control and ... Read more >>
Int J Mol Sci (International journal of molecular sciences)
[2021, 22(7):]
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Huijuan Li, Qi Li, Hong Yu, Shaojun Du,
Paramyosin is a key component of thick filaments in invertebrate muscles. In this study, we isolated the full length cDNA of paramyosin from Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas), and determined its pattern of expression during myogenesis. The full length paramyosin (CgPM) cDNA contains an open reading frame (ORF) of 2586 bp encoding ... Read more >>
Comp Biochem Physiol B Biochem Mol Biol (Comparative biochemistry and physiology. Part B, Biochemistry & molecular biology)
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Monica Zocchi, Daniel Béchet, André Mazur, Jeanette A Maier, Sara Castiglioni,
Magnesium (Mg) is essential to skeletal muscle where it plays a key role in myofiber relaxation. Although the importance of Mg in the mature skeletal muscle is well established, little is known about the role of Mg in myogenesis. We studied the effects of low and high extracellular Mg in ... Read more >>
Nutrients (Nutrients)
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Zhigang Hu, Junting Cao, Liyan Ge, Jianqin Zhang, Huilin Zhang, Xiaolin Liu,
Skeletal muscle, accounting for approximately 50% of body weight, is the largest and most important tissue. In this study, the gene expression profiles and pathways in skeletal muscle of Pekin duck were investigated and compared at embryonic day 17, 21, and 27 and postnatally at 6 months of age. An ... Read more >>
Animals (Basel) (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI)
[2021, 11(3):]
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Hongmei Luo, Wei Lv, Qian Tong, Jianjun Jin, Zaiyan Xu, Bo Zuo,
Skeletal muscle is a highly heterogeneous tissue that plays a crucial role in mammalian metabolism and motion maintenance. Myogenesis is a complex biological process that includes embryonic and postnatal development, which is regulated by specific signaling pathways and transcription factors. Various non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) account for the majority of total ... Read more >>
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Yalan Yang, Xinhao Fan, Junyu Yan, Muya Chen, Min Zhu, Yijie Tang, Siyuan Liu, Zhonglin Tang,
DNA methylation is important for the epigenetic regulation of gene expression and plays a critical role in mammalian development. However, the dynamic regulation of genome-wide DNA methylation in skeletal muscle development remains largely unknown. Here, we generated the first single-base resolution DNA methylome and transcriptome maps of porcine skeletal muscle ... Read more >>
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Huadong Yin, Shunshun Han, Can Cui, Yan Wang, Diyan Li, Qing Zhu,
Skeletal muscle is the most abundant tissue in the human and animal body, loss of its function can lead to muscle aging and various myogenic diseases. The skeletal muscle development is a complex and tightly regulated process, which is driven by a variety of many factors, signaling pathways and regulatory ... Read more >>
Gene (Gene)
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Wenjuan Zhao, Zijing Li, Quan Liu, Su Xie, Mengxun Li, Yuan Wang, Changchun Li,
Skeletal muscle growth plays a critical role during porcine muscle development stages. Genome-wide transcriptome analysis reveals that thousands of long intergenic non-coding RNAs (lincRNAs) have been identified in various species and implicated as crucial regulator involving in epigenetic regulation. However, comprehensive analysis of lincRNAs in embryonic muscle development stages remain ... Read more >>
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Rui Cai, Que Zhang, Yingqian Wang, Wenlong Yong, Rui Zhao, Weijun Pang,
Skeletal muscle is one of the most important organs of the animal body. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a crucial role in the regulation of skeletal muscle development via several mechanisms. We recently identified lnc-ORA in a search for lncRNAs that influence adipogenesis, finding it impacted adipocyte differentiation by regulating ... Read more >>
J Biol Chem (The Journal of biological chemistry)
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Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas), the most productive economical bivalve mollusc, is identified as an attractive model for developmental studies due to its classical mosaic developmental pattern. Myosin heavy chain is a structural and functional component of myosin, the key muscle protein of thick filament. Here, full length cDNA of striated ... Read more >>
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Mengjin Gao, Xue Li, Zuojun Yang, Shuo Zhao, Xingxing Ling, Jingjing Li, Kai Xing, Xiaolong Qi, Xiangguo Wang, Longfei Xiao, Hemin Ni, Yong Guo, Xihui Sheng,
Skeletal muscle development is a complex biological process involving multiple key genes, signaling pathways and noncoding RNAs, including microRNAs and circular RNAs (circRNAs). However, the regulatory relationship among them is so complicated that it has not yet been fully elucidated. In this study, we found that miR-7 inhibited C2C12 cell ... Read more >>
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[2021, :]
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P Nayak, A Colas, M Mercola, S Varghese, S Subramaniam,
Understanding the mechanisms of myogenesis in human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) is a prerequisite to achieving patient-specific therapy for diseases of skeletal muscle. hiPSCs of different origin show distinctive kinetics and ability to differentiate into myocytes. To address the unique cellular and temporal context of hiPSC differentiation, we perform ... Read more >>
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[2021, 7(12):]
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Ziying Huang, Qianqian Li, Mengxun Li, Changchun Li,
The difference between the skeletal muscle growth rates of Western and domestic breeds is remarkable, but the potential regulatory mechanism involved is still unclear. Numerous studies have pointed out that long intergenic noncoding RNA (lincRNA) plays a key role in skeletal muscle development. This study used published Yorkshire (LW) and ... Read more >>
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[2021, 11(1):2622]
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Tianle He, Qingyun Chen, Ke Tian, Yinzhao Xia, Guozhong Dong, Zhenguo Yang,
circRNAs are a class of endogenous noncoding RNA molecules with closed loop structures. They are mainly responsible for regulating gene expression in eukaryotic cells. With the emergence of high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq) and new types of bioinformatics tools, thousands of circRNAs have been discovered, making circRNA one of the research ... Read more >>
Biomed Res Int (BioMed research international)
[2021, 2021:5383210]
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Tae Seok Oh, Damian Hutchins, Rabina Mainali, Kevin Goslen, Matthew Quinn,
A Krebs cycle intermediate metabolite, itaconate, has gained attention as a potential antimicrobial and autoimmune disease treatment due to its anti-inflammatory effects. While itaconate and its derivatives pose an attractive therapeutic option for the treatment of inflammatory diseases, the effects outside the immune system still remain limited, particularly in the ... Read more >>
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Zhigang Hu, Junting Cao, Jianqin Zhang, Liyan Ge, Huilin Zhang, Xiaolin Liu,
As one of the most important poultry worldwide, ducks (<i>Anas platyrhynchos</i>) are raised mainly for meat and egg products, and muscle development in ducks is important for meat production. Therefore, an investigation of gene expression in duck skeletal muscle would significantly contribute to our understanding of muscle development. In this ... Read more >>
Biomolecules (Biomolecules)
[2021, 11(2):]
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Jie Liu, Fuwei Li, Xin Hu, Dingguo Cao, Wei Liu, Haixia Han, Yan Zhou, Qiuxia Lei,
<h4>Background</h4>miRNAs play critical roles in growth and development. Various studies of chicken muscle development have focused on identifying miRNAs that are important for embryo or adult muscle development. However, little is known about the role of miRNAs in the whole muscle development process from embryonic to post-hatching periods. Here, we ... Read more >>
BMC Genomics (BMC genomics)
[2021, 22(1):64]
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Liqi Wang, Ting He, Xin Zhang, Yubo Wang, Kai Qiu, Ning Jiao, Linjuan He, Jingdong Yin, | https://pdf.manuscriptpro.com/search/Myogenesis/1/0fa7ed3d |
Taurine is one of the most abundant free amino acids in the body. In the diet, taurine is found in meat and fish, but not in plant foods. Taurine is regarded as a conditionally essential amino acid, because it can be synthesized by the body from the other sulfur-containing amino acids cysteine and methionine. Taurine synthesis is vitamin B6-dependent. It is not incorporated into proteins, but taurine is very important in metabolism and is present in particularly high levels in the brain, skeletal muscle, heart, and retina of the eye. Taurine is essential for infants, as it plays important roles in the development of the nervous system, retina, and muscle tissue. Taurine is well known for its role in bile salt synthesis and has crucial functions in the liver’s detoxification pathways. Taurine also appears to have a stabilizing effect on cell membranes and is important in maintaining normal extra- and intracellular distribution of calcium. This, in turn, has implications on neuronal excitability and the regulation of osmotic pressure. In the retina, taurine helps maintain the structure and function of the visual cells.
FORMULA (#202326)
Each vegetarian capsule contains:
Taurine........................................................500 mg
Other Ingredients: Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (capsule), microcrystalline cellulose, ascorbyl palmitate and silica. Gluten-free, Non-GMO
SUGGESTED USE Take 1 capsule, 1-3 times daily, between meals, or as directed by a physician.
SIDE EFFECTS No adverse side effects have been reported.
STORAGE Store in a cool, dry place, away from direct light. Keep out of reach of children.
Payment & Security
Your payment information is processed securely. We do not store credit card details nor have access to your credit card information. | https://wellnesscarecenters.com/products/douglas-laboratories-taurine-100-veg-capsules |
1. Department of Pediatric Dentistry, School and Hospital of Stomatology, China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
2. Liaoning Provincial Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases, Shenyang, China.
Bone is an active tissue, being constantly renewed in healthy individuals with participation of the immune system to a large extent. Any imbalance between the processes of bone formation and bone resorption is linked to various inflammatory bone diseases. The immune system plays an important role in tissue formation and bone resorption. Recently, many studies have demonstrated complex interactions between the immune and skeletal systems. Both of immune cells and cytokines contribute to the regulation of bone homeostasis, and bone cells, including osteoblasts, osteoclasts, osteocytes, also influence the cellular functions of immune cells. These crosstalk mechanisms between the bone and immune system finally emerged, forming a new field of research called osteoimmunology. Therefore, the immune microenvironment is crucial in determining the speed and outcome of bone healing, repair, and regeneration. In this review, we summarise the role of the immune microenvironment in bone regeneration from the aspects of immune cells and immune cytokines. The elucidation of immune mechanisms involved in the process of bone regeneration would provide new therapeutic targets for improving the curative effects of bone injury treatment. | https://medsci.org/v18p3697 |
Prelamin-A/C; Lamins are components of the nuclear lamina, a fibrous layer on the nucleoplasmic side of the inner nuclear membrane, which is thought to provide a framework for the nuclear envelope and may also interact with chromatin. Lamin A and C are present in equal amounts in the lamina of mammals. Plays an important role in nuclear assembly, chromatin organization, nuclear membrane and telomere dynamics. Required for normal development of peripheral nervous system and skeletal muscle and for muscle satellite cell proliferation. Required for osteoblastogenesis and bone formation. Also prevents fat infiltration of muscle and bone marrow, helping to maintain the volume and strength of skeletal muscle and bone. Required for cardiac homeostasis.
Synonyms: LMNA, B4DFR3, D6RB20, H0YAB0, P02545 ... | https://diseases.jensenlab.org/Entity?documents=10&type1=9606&id1=ENSP00000357283&type2=-26&id2=DOID:2733 |
With the rise of competition, it has become mandatory for your business to be smarter and more productive. Managing your company’s WorkFlow is one of the major attributes of any digital workflow management system. But before going further, let’s understand workflow and workflow management system by definition from Encyclopedia of Database Systems Workflow: The automation of a…Continue reading Streamline your work with Digital Workflow Management System
How AI Plays a Crucial Role in Web Development?
Right now, web application development is evolving at an exceptional rate. Everybody needs secure, versatile, advanced and better applications to boost their business. Web Development is growing rapidly with a focus on improving User Experience. Not only the good looking websites but the need for intelligent content is in demand. That means, the websites with improved…Continue reading How AI Plays a Crucial Role in Web Development? | https://www.cdnsol.com/blog/page/11/ |
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mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) is a serine-threonine kinase that plays a central role in several key cellular pathways that have been implicated in bone formation. mTOR mediates these roles by forming the multi-protein complexes mTORC1 and mTORC2, which are defined by the unique proteins raptor and rictor, respectively.
Studies from our laboratory have demonstrated that inhibition of mTORC1 increases the osteoblastic potential of MSCs while simultaneously inhibiting adipogenic differentiation, suggesting the potential for mTORC1 as a therapeutic target for the treatment of osteoporosis-related bone disease. To determine the effects of mTORC1 on the formation of the skeleton, we utilised the Cre-loxP system to generate mice with targeted deletion of raptor in pre-osteoblast cells. This was achieved by crossing mice expressing Cre recombinase under the control of the pre-osteoblast-specific osterix promoter with mice harbouring floxed raptor genes.
This study examined the in vivo effect of osteoblast-specific knockout of raptor on postnatal skeletal development. Histological and CT analyses were used to assess changes in skeletal development in male and female OBRaptor-/-, OBRaptor-/+ and wildtype (WT) littermate controls at 4, 8 and 12 weeks of age. OBRaptor-/- and OBRaptor-/+ animals display a stunted phenotype, when compared with WT controls, with a significant reduction in weight, body length and tibial length at 4 weeks which normalised during later development. Histological analyses indicate that this growth lag is coupled with a decrease in the width of the tibial growth plate. Analysis of the tibial micro architecture by CT indicates a disruption of trabecular bone formation during development of the OBRaptor-/- and OBRaptor-/+ animals. Furthermore, CT analysis demonstrated a decrease in calvarial bone volume in OBRaptor-/- and OBRaptor-/+ mice, when compared with WT controls, at all time points examined. These findings implicate a role for mTORC1 in OB maturation and function in postnatal skeletal development. | http://ahmrc-2012.p.asnevents.com.au/days/2012-11-28/abstract/3540 |
The aim of this course is to expand upon what was learned in your Biology class, while emphasizing the application of this material to human structures and functions. This course begins the study of human beings at the microscopic level and works its way up to an in-depth study of select organ systems. Special emphasis will be placed upon applying and demonstrating the information learned in this course through, not only tests and quizzes, but through special projects and collaboration as well.
Part B is designed to give the student an understanding of how structure and function are related in the human body. The student will study the human body from the cellular level to the organ system level. All of the major body systems will be studied in great detail. Additionally, biochemistry, cell biology, histology, biotechnology, bioethics, and pathology will also be studied. This course is highly recommended for students seeking a career in science or a health-related profession.
The body can be described, organized, and classified for understanding.
There is a comprehensive language that applies to the structure of animals that is based in Latin and Greek.
A tissue’s structure and location can affect its function.
The integumentary system plays a crucial role as the body’s first defense against infection and illness.
The skeletal system is the body’s main support structure.
The muscular system provides the body with movement, heat production, and protection.
The nervous system is the control center of the human body.
The digestive system changes food from an insoluble form to a soluble, absorbable form that the body can use.
Blood is a specialized fluid that is involved in immunity, clotting mechanisms, and delivers nutrients to the body’s cells and transports waste away from that same body cell. | https://accelerate.education/catalog9_12/science/anatomy-and-physiology/ |
Pure Encapsulations Vitamin E (Natural) 400 IU 90 gels. Naturally occurring tocopherols (d-alpha, beta and gamma) are the most biologically active forms of vitamin E. Vitamin E, a powerful chain-breaking antioxidant and free radical scavenger, is considered the first line of defense against lipid peroxidation. It protects the integrity of the body's cellular membranes, and has the ability to unite with oxygen and prevent it from being converted into toxic peroxides. Vitamin E plays a beneficial role in the cellular respiration of muscles, especially cardiac and skeletal muscles. It also supports healthy blood vessel function. In addition, vitamin E plays a role in nucleic acid and protein metabolism, mitochondrial function, and hormone production.
Vitamin E is crucial to proper cellular function; it protects and supports all physiological functions through its free radical scavenging activity, especially cardiovascular functioning.
1–2 capsules per day, with meals. | https://www.integrativepsychiatry.net/pure-encapsulations-vitamin-e-natural-fourh-iu-a.html |
Despite seeming like a relatively stable place, the Earth’s surface has changed dramatically over the past 4. Mountains have been built and eroded, continents and oceans have moved great distances, and the Earth has fluctuated from being extremely cold and almost completely covered with ice to being very warm and ice-free. These changes typically occur so slowly that they are barely detectable over the span of a human life, yet even at this instant, the Earth’s surface is moving and changing. As these changes have occurred, organisms have evolved, and remnants of some have been preserved as fossils. A fossil can be studied to determine what kind of organism it represents, how the organism lived, and how it was preserved.
Radiometric dating
Evolution Encyclopedia Vol. To change from a human being to a cloud may seem a big order, but it’s the kind of change you’d expect over billions of years. An event is not any more intrinsically intelligible or unintelligible because of the pace at which it moves. For a man who does not believe in a miracle, a slow miracle would be just as incredible as a swift one. Chesterton We are condemned to believe in evolution, but we will always search for a suggestion concerning the methods of transformations.[rs_table_products tableName=”Best Dating Websites”]
Perhaps we are now in a worse position than in because we have searched for one century and we have the impression that the various hypotheses [of how evolution could have occurred] are now exhausted. Presently, nature appears to be more steady, more firm and more refractory [resistant] to changes than we thoughtbefore we had made a clear distinction between hereditary variability [within species] and acquired characteristics [DNA characteristics fixing each species].
Salet, Hasard et Certitude: Le Transformisme devant la Biologie Actuelle , p. Several methods for dating ancient materials have been developed. This is an important topic, for evolutionists want the history of earth to span long ages in the hopes that this will make the origin and evolution of life more likely.
Therefore we shall devote an entire chapter to a discussion of every significant method used by scientists today to date ancient substances. Yes, an understanding of dating methods is important, but we should keep in mind that whether or not these dating methods are accurate, really has no direct relation to whether evolution has ever occurred or could occur. Long ages is not evolution! Evolution can only occur by a sequence of, first , production of matter from nothing, or origin of matter.
This was dealt with in the chapter by that name chapter 1. Second , generation of living organisms from non-living matter, or origin of life. Third , evolution of living organisms into more advanced life forms by natural selection or mutations. This is species evolution , and will be discussed in the chapters on Fossils chapter 17 , Ancient Man chapter 18 , Natural Selection chapter 13 , Mutations chapter 14 , and Species Evolution chapter The evolutionist tells us that, given enough time, all the insurmountable obstacles to spontaneous generation will somehow vanish and life can suddenly appear, grow, and flourish.
In the next three chapters, we will learn that even split-second, continuous, multiple chemical activity going on for ages, and using all time and all space in the universe to carry on that activity, could not accomplish what is needed. It could not produce life out of nothing. There is little difference between the evolutionist saying ‘time did it’ and the creationist saying ‘God did it. Much scientific effort has been expended in an attempt to show that eons of time are available for evolution.
Just what is time? It is not some magical substance. It is merely a lot of past moments just like the present moment. Imagine yourself staring at a dirt pile or at some seawater, at a time when there was nothing alive in the world but yourself. Continue carefully watching the pile or puddle for a thousand years and more. Would life appear in that dirt or seawater? It would not happen.
Millions of years beyond that would be the same. Nothing would be particularly different. Just piled sand or sloshing seawater, and that is all there would be to it. You and I know it would not happen in a full year of watching; then why think it might happen in an million years? Since a living creature would have to come into existence all at once suddenly, in all its parts–in order to survive, it matters not how many ages we pile onto the watching; nothing is going to happen! To say that life originated in that seawater in some yesteryear “because the sand and seawater was there long enough ” is just wishful thinking and nothing more.
It surely is not scientific to imagine that perhaps it came true when no one was looking. There is no evidence that self-originating life or evolving life is happening now, has ever happened, or could ever happen. For additional information see quotation supplement, “1 – The Magic Qualities of Time,” at the end of this a chapter. This is because probabilities have no memory! He explains that if the event is attempted often enough, the total probability of obtaining it would keep reducing!
If it is tried a thousand times and does not even occur once, and then is tried thousands of more times and never occurs, then the chances of it occurring keeps reducing. If it is tried a million times and still has not occurred, then the possibility of it occurring has reduced to less than one chance in a million! The point here is that time never works in favor of an event that cannot happen!
Can time change rocks into raccoons, seawater into turkeys, or sand into fish? Can time invent human hormones, the telescopic eye of an eagle, or cause the moon to orbit the earth? Can it increase complexity, and invent organisms? The truth is that the longer the time, the greater the decay, and the less possibility that evolution could occur. Bernal, quoted in N. Berrill, You and the Universe , p. The chance of life appearing spontaneously from non-life in the universe is effectively zero!
Wickramasinghe, Evolution from Space. One of these researchers is an agnostic and the other a Buddhist, yet both decided from their analyses that the origin of life demands the existence of God to have created it. They wrote: It is, therefore, almost inevitable that our own measure of intelligence must reflect higher intelligences.
The London Dally Express August 14, , put the conclusion of these two scientists into headlines: There must be a God. Man, we are informed, has been here over a million years. That is the theory, yet the facts speak far differently. When we look at those facts, as available from ancient studies of all types, we find that recorded history goes back only several thousand years. Before that time, we have absolutely no verification for any supposed dating method of science.
More evidence on this will be found in chapters 6 and 18, Age of the Earth, and Ancient Man. The earliest paintings of people only date back a few thousand years, and show them to be just like ourselves: If human beings have been on this planet for over a million years, as theorized by evolutionists, then we should have a large amount of structures and written records extending back at least , years.
Yet as we analyze those dating methods, we find each of them to be highly flawed and extremely unreliable. Aside from the known inherent weaknesses in assumption and methodology which we shall begin discussing shortly ,we cannot even verify those dates objectively. Not even uranium dating can be confirmed, for no one has sat around watching uranium decay for thousands or millions of years, and testing its decay loss rate from time to time. Apart from recorded history, which goes back no farther than about B.
In fact, not even the dating methods confirm the dating methods! They ALL give different dates! With but very rare exception, they always disagree with one another! There are a number of very definite problems in those dating methods. We are going to learn below that there are so many sources of possible error or misinterpretation in radiometric dating that most of the dates are discarded and never used at all. Only those are used which bear some similarity to one another.
Some people think that the various dating methods uranium, carbon 14, etc. But this is not true either. The geologic column and approximate ages of all the fossil-bearing strata were worked out long before anyone ever heard or thought about radioactive dating. There is no relation between the two theories, or between the dates they produce. More information on this will be given later in this same chapter under Rock Strata Dating. LONG AGES NEEDED For nearly two centuries, evolutionists have known that, since there was no proof that evolution had occurred in the past and there was no evidence of it occurring today, they would need to postulate long ages as the means by which it somehow happened!
That is a meaningful statement. Evolution could not occur in the past unless the earth had been here for long ages. But there is clear-cut evidence that our planet is not over , years old see chapter 6 , Age of the Earth. And when all the facts are studied, the age of the earth leans more toward the 6, mark than the 10, mark. Scientific dating evidence is needed to prove long ages. But no such evidence exists. All the non-historical dating methods are unreliable.
That is what we will learn in this present chapter, and chapter 17, Fossils and Strata. Darwinists claim that our planet is 5 billion years old. Long ages of time are desperately needed by evolutionary theorists, for, whenever confronted with the facts disproving the possibility of evolutionary processes, they can reply, “Well, given enough time, maybe it could occur.
The chapters, DNA and Probabilities, Mutations, and Laws of Nature will clearly show that life origins and species evolution could not occur in a billion trillion, trillion years! Evolutionary processes across basic types of life forms is impossible both in the short run and in the long run. Chief among them are: Uranium-thorium-lead dating, based on the disintegration of uranium and thorium into radium, helium, etc.
In this chapter, we shall discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each of these dating methods. There is a basic pattern that occurs in the decay of radioactive substances. In each of these disintegration systems, the ” parent ” or original radioactive substance, gradually decays into “daughter substances.
Using relative and radiometric dating methods, geologists are able to answer the fossil primates and that this evolutionary history took tens of millions of years. Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique used to date Together with stratigraphic principles, radiometric dating methods are used in geochronology to establish the geologic time scale. Among source of information about the ages of fossils and the deduced rates of evolutionary change.
Smith is known as the Father of English Geology.
Evolution Encyclopedia Vol. To change from a human being to a cloud may seem a big order, but it’s the kind of change you’d expect over billions of years.
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Radiometric dating , radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique used to date materials such as rocks or carbon , in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed. The method compares the abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope within the material to the abundance of its decay products, which form at a known constant rate of decay. Together with stratigraphic principles , radiometric dating methods are used in geochronology to establish the geologic time scale. By allowing the establishment of geological timescales, it provides a significant source of information about the ages of fossils and the deduced rates of evolutionary change. Radiometric dating is also used to date archaeological materials, including ancient artifacts.
Dating Rocks and Fossils Using Geologic Methods
Primer Public Event: I Came From Where? Imagining the Human Future video Public Event: Religious Audiences and the Topic of Evolution: Lessons from the Classroom Public Event: Slideshows Videos Audio. Here of some of the well-tested methods of dating used in the study of early humans: Potassium-argon dating , Argon-argon dating , Carbon or Radiocarbon , and Uranium series. All of these methods measure the amount of radioactive decay of chemical elements; the decay occurs in a consistent manner, like a clock, over long periods of time. Thermo-luminescence , Optically stimulated luminescence , and Electron spin resonance.
Она надолго прижалась губами к его губам. Он обвил ее руками, и они сами собой начали стягивать с нее ночную рубашку.
Это был агент Колиандер из Севильи. Он перегнулся через плечо Беккера и заговорил в микрофон: – Не знаю, важно ли это, но я не уверен, что мистер Танкадо знал, что он пал жертвой покушения. – Прошу прощения? – проговорил директор.
Сьюзан была понятна боль, которую испытывал шеф. Его так просто обвели вокруг пальца. Танкадо не собирался продавать свой алгоритм никакой компьютерной компании, потому что никакого алгоритма не. Цифровая крепость оказалась фарсом, наживкой для Агентства национальной безопасности. Когда Стратмор предпринимал какой-либо шаг, Танкадо стоял за сценой, дергая за веревочки.
– Я обошел программу Сквозь строй, – простонал коммандер. – Но вы же не знали. Стратмор стукнул кулаком по столу. – Я должен был знать. Да взять хотя бы его электронное имя. – Боже мой, Северная Дакота. Сокращенно NDAKOTA.
Обычно мы… – Знаю, – спокойно сказал. – Но ситуация чрезвычайная. Сьюзан встала. Чрезвычайная ситуация. Она не помнила, чтобы это слово срывалось когда-нибудь с губ коммандера Стратмора. Чрезвычайная. В шифровалке.
Ах ты, мерзавка! – крикнул он, скорчившись от боли. Сьюзан бросилась к двери, моля Бога, чтобы Стратмор в этот миг включил резервное энергоснабжение и дверь открылась. Увы, ее руки уперлись в холодное стекло. Хейл с перепачканным кровью лицом быстро приближался к. Его руки снова обхватили ее – одна сдавила левую грудь, другая – талию – и оторвали от двери.
Сьюзан кричала и молотила руками в тщетной попытке высвободиться, а он все тащил ее, и пряжка его брючного ремня больно вдавливалась ей в спину.
Не волнуйся, приятель, ей это не удалось. У тебя скверный вкус на ювелирные побрякушки. – Ты уверен, что его никто не купил. – Да вы все спятили. Это за четыреста-то баксов. Я сказал ей, что даю пятьдесят, но она хотела. Ей надо было выкупить билет на самолет – если найдется свободное место перед вылетом. Беккер почувствовал, как кровь отхлынула от его лица.
Меган сказала, что, если тереть глаза, будет только хуже. Он даже представить себе не может, насколько хуже. Не в силах сдержать нетерпение, Беккер попытался позвонить снова, но по-прежнему безрезультатно. Больше ждать он не мог: глаза горели огнем, нужно было промыть их водой. Стратмор подождет минуту-другую. Полуслепой, он направился в туалетную комнату. Смутные очертания тележки все еще виднелись у двери в мужской туалет, поэтому Беккер снова подошел к дамской комнате.
Сьюзан услышала стук беретты, выпавшей из руки Стратмора. На мгновение она словно приросла к месту, не зная, куда бежать и что делать. Интуиция подсказывала ей спасаться бегством, но у нее не было пароля от двери лифта. Сердце говорило ей, что она должна помочь Стратмору, но. Повернувшись в полном отчаянии, она ожидала услышать шум смертельной борьбы на полу, но все было тихо. Все вдруг сразу же смолкло: как если бы Хейл, сбив коммандера с ног, снова растворился в темноте. Сьюзан ждала, вглядываясь во тьму и надеясь, что Стратмор если и пострадал, то не сильно. | https://strawberrysmallworksstudio.com/evolution-dating-methods-for-singles/ |
or Punctuated Equilibria?
Another important question about evolution,
in addition to what mechanisms lead to the formation of new species, is how these
mechanisms operate over time.
Two ways of representing evolution by gradualism versus evolution by punctuated equilibria. In the case of gradualism (left), the diagonal lines indicate that morphological changes occur bit by bit over time. In the case of punctuated equilibria (right), the step-like patterns represent rapid morphological changes followed by long periods when the species evolves very little. | https://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/capsules/outil_bleu09.html |
FUNCTION:Advances research in the areas of marine geosciences, geotechnical, civil, and chemical engineering, physics, and ocean acoustics by using high-resolution, volumetric, X-ray imaging.
DESCRIPTION: The Computed Tomography (CT) Scanning Facility has the capability to produce high-quality fine-scale images of Navy relevant materials. This capability is equivalent to that of the synchrotron laboratories (~10 μm resolution for 1-cm-diameter earth materials). Additionally, this facility can accommodate small to large samples (5 mm to 9 cm diameter with the HD-500). This facilitates the evaluation of similar systems at many scales, in a relatively short period of time. Furthermore, this facility promotes experiments that require weeks to months, so that processes that occur in dynamic systems over extended time periods can be evaluated (e.g., growth and migration of gas bubbles in mud, drainage/imbibition of water from/into beach sand, and evolution of stratigraphy in response to bioturbation). In these cases, the samples are perturbed (physical conditions are altered), allowed to equilibrate, and then CT-scanned.
INSTRUMENTATION: The CT facility operates an HD-500 Micro-CT System equipped with a microfocus X-ray tube that operates from 10 to 225 kV and 0 to 3 mA. This state-of-the-art industrial CT enables the production of images with 10 μm resolution for appropriately sized materials. The housing for this system is open, so that large systems (e.g., acoustic impedance tubes, permeameters, compression testers) can be used in conjunction with the CT system. In addition to the high-resolution CT system, the facility is equipped with a Picker Medical CT scanner, which operates at energies to 150 kV, can accommodate large diameter samples (up to ~0.75 m in diameter), and is housed in a portable trailer, making the system useful for field experiments. In each case, the energy spectrum is polychromatic. | https://federallabs.org/labs/computed-tomography-scanning-facility |
Evolutionary theory is not the easiest of scientific theories to apply to "daily" phenomena, just because it (usually) takes place over long periods of time (but not always: lizards, viruses, bacteria). It is therefore always exciting when a new area of application is proposed.
A NASA scientist suggests that evolutionary theory will help find alien life.
Dr John Baross, a researcher at the Nasa Astrobiology Institute, said: "I really feel that Darwinian evolution is a defining feature of all life.
"And so the limits of Darwinian evolution will define the range of planets that can support life – at least Earth-like life."
While I don't think evolution need be a defining trait of life, I do agree that it makes sense to expect it to happen to all life - at least it's a fair way to go about looking for it.
He said: "I predict in the next five to ten years, we will make discoveries that will lead to theories and ideas at least as profound as Darwin's."
Within ten years we will have new theories that match common descent and natural selection in scientific importance?!!1! I can understand when people are very, very, excited about their research, but this is waaaay over the top.
I wonder if this is special to people in NASA, or if the difference (if there is one) is due to the field, i.e. astrobiology? Are the rest of us just as impressionable, but less prone to crazy hypothesizing? | http://pleiotropy.fieldofscience.com/2009/11/nasa-applies-evolutionary-theory.html |
Dear doctor, Am 31 years old and I have missed my periods for a whole year. Is this the reason I have been unable to conceive?
Going for a whole year without periods is certainly abnormal. In fact, in the absence of pregnancy or use of certain contraceptives, an explanation should always be sought if periods disappear for a period of 3 to 6 months. Prolonged absence of periods implies failure to release an egg every month (ovulation). Consequently, conception will not occur in the absence of regular ovulation.
Once a specific diagnosis is made, you will get a recommendation for the most appropriate treatment. As you are also trying to conceive, your treatment will be geared towards restoration of ovulation and enhancement of conception. If your diagnosis ends up being PCOS, optimization of weight especially for those who may be overweight, may trigger resumption of periods and ovulation. But most women with PCOS will require ovulation tablets for a period of time in order to ovulate regularly and conceive.
If a complex or rare diagnosis is made, then a referral to a specialist team may be the way out. Those with premature ovarian insufficiency will unfortunately require more complex interventions both to resume periods, and to conceive. Conception may only occur with advanced fertility treatment, and likely in combination with donated eggs. Beyond that, premature ovarian insufficiency mandates long term hormone replacement therapy for continued optimal health.
It’s prudent to always seek a timely explanation for missed periods. Pregnancy should always be excluded. Most women will only miss periods transiently, usually for simple reasons that have no long term implications. But the longer the duration without periods, in the absence of an obvious explanation, the more the urgency for a comprehensive evaluation. | http://mygyno.co.ke/lost-periods-and-inability-to-conceive-2/ |
Are there any alternatives to Agile software delivery?
Why of course!
Before the Agile framework came about, companies used more traditional methods to manage their projects. These days,although it is almost uncommon for software development companies or any IT related companies to not use the Agile methodology, there are still groups and organisations that use either the traditional method or some other project management techniques and tools to achieve the utmost productivity and eventually, success in their projects.
And although Agile has been one of the leading project management techniques over the last few decades, it might not always work for a team or an organisation for a variety of reasons. This leads to organisations to venture into other methods of project management that will suit their needs best.
In this article, we will discuss our two best Agile alternatives.
The Spiral Model is one of the most used methods lately. It is actually a combination of both the waterfall method and the iterative method. Each period in the spiral model starts with a design objective and ends with the client assessing the progress. The spiral model or method was first cited by Barry Boehm in his 1986 paper, a few years before the Agile framework took the world by storm in the early 90’s.
The Spiral model development team usually starts with a small set of requirements and goes through each development period for those set of requirements. The software engineering department or team then adds the functionality for the additional requirement in every developing spiral up until the application is perfectly ready for the production period.
The Spiral model is best used when the project is large, when it requires frequent releases, when it is applicable to create a prototype or when the risk and costs evaluation is of utmost importance.
It can also be used when the requirements are complex and unclear, when a project requires constant changes at any time,and when a long-term project is not feasible because of changes in terms of economic priorities.
The Waterfall Method is one of the most well-known project management methods next to Agile. The Waterfall method for project management is simply a chronological, direct process of project management. It consists of numerous distinct periods where no period begins until the previous period is completed. Additionally, each period’s completion is fatal—the waterfall method of project management does not really allow a team to return to a previous period. In fact, the only way to go back to a certain period is to start over again down at the very first period.
It may sound very strict, but that is because the entire system’s history demands it to be as such. The waterfall project management method is actually rooted from non-software industries such as manufacturing and construction as opposed to Agile. Due to this, the waterfall method rose out of inevitability.
In the mentioned fields, project periods must occur consecutively. One cannot simply put up a drywall if one has not previously framed a house, right? Similarly, it is almost impossible to revisit a certain period in the project.
In this case, as you can imagine, the waterfall method strictly requires proper and clear planning. Having said that,the project’s requirements must always be clear from the very beginning. Additionally, everyone who is involved in a project must also be well-aware of those requirements. Each member of the team should also be able to understand what their specific role will be in the project, and what exactly that role entails.
The waterfall method is only used when the requirements are very well-established, clear, and fixed. Additionally, the product description should also be stable, and the technology is well-understood. In the waterfall method, there should be no ambiguous or vague requirements, and there should always be ample resources along with required expertise.
You team or organisation can also make use of the waterfall method if it is only for a short project. Additionally, in the waterfall model, there will be less customer interaction involved during the product development. It is only when the product is ready that it can be shown and demonstrated to the end users.
There are plenty of credible and effective project management methodologies, and the one you use should suit the type of project you run. These include:
- Agile
- Scrum
- Kanban
- Lean
- Waterfall
- Six Sigma
- PMI/PMBOK
There is no single project management methodology that is 'the best'. Instead, you should focus on the needs of your project, and the methodology that suits that best. | https://comurce.com/alternatives-to-agile-project-management/ |
For scientists to predict how the evolution of an organism will proceed it is necessary to know which mutations in the genome are required to achieve the adaptation in question. For a long time, there appeared to be no hope of achieving this: both the organisms and their interactions with the environment seemed far too complex. For this reason, many researchers suspected that the course of adaptive evolution is impossible to predict. However, the same evolutionary adaptations can arise repeatedly, so evolution does seem to be subject to certain rules.
The scientists from Plön and Uppsala have been trying to identify these rules and whether they can be used to predict adaptations and the underlying gene mutations. They are able to study evolution in the laboratory in real time with the aid of the Pseudomonas fluorescens, as the bacteria always adapts to the absence of oxygen producing wrinkled bacterial colonies. The researchers know the three genetic networks for this adaptation in which the mutations occur most frequently, which means they can decode the way in which the bacterium is able to adapt.
Model predicts adaptive mutations
Paul Rainey and his colleagues have developed a way of modelling regulatory pathways that allows them to predict how often evolution makes use of one of the three networks and which genes mutate in the process. To test and verify the model, they compared the predicted mutations with those that actually occurred in the laboratory. The researchers discovered that the mutations do not occur evenly throughout the genome, but rather that they accumulate at certain points. The model can use these mutation “hotspots” to make more accurate predictions about which of the bacterium’s genes will mutate. The scientists have even discovered new mutations in this way, which are so rare that they have not yet been observed in the real bacteria in the laboratory.
Using this model, the scientists are able to predict the evolution of Pseudomonas fluorescens to a certain extent. However, their work also demonstrates the limits that attempts to predict evolution currently face: to make reliable predictions, the researchers not only have to know the mutational paths that lead to a given adaption and the hotspots where mutations accumulate, but also the effects of the mutations on the fitness of the organism. Yet predicting the “fitness effect” is not currently possible without empirical data. “The ability to predict evolution is still in its infancy”, Rainey explains: “but it is very likely that we will be able to transfer our model to other organisms in future”. It may then be possible to predict the underlying evolutionary processes that result in antibiotic resistance, infectious diseases or even cancer. | https://www.evolbio.mpg.de/3284359/news_publication_12617278?c=15503 |
This topic came to me through a seminar attendee, and it is a question being posed by more and more families, as the rates of international adoption rise. Children adopted from “abroad” arrive in their new homes speaking a different language, and have a great need to learn their new language quickly, in order to acclimate and partake in their new family and culture. In many cases, these children are considered as, and treated as, bilinguals. But are they in reality bilingual? And more to the point, should they be bilingual?
There are, of course, no easy answers. But there are some areas to consider and some things families can do to smooth the way for their new arrivals.
Firstly, most internationally adopted children are not truly bilingual. If anything, they are transitional bilinguals, who have a first language which very quickly gives way to the new language. This process of language attrition, or loss, is often called “subtractive bilingualism”, which is when one language replaces another. Most literature on bilingualism tends to consider subtractive bilingualism to be a “bad” thing, with the normal goal being “additive bilingualism”, which is adding a new language and maintaining the old language. However, in the case of internationally adopted children, there are very often no resources easily available to help support the child’s first language, and no real communicative necessity, unless the first language is a part of the every day life of the family. It is also known that internationally adopted children tend to “lose” their first language very quickly – even as soon as 3-6 months after arrival in their new home they often have very little expressive language left. It is not known for certain why this process of attrition happens so quickly, but best guesses tend towards the child’s great desire to fit in with their new environment, and possibly also to associated bad feelings about the country of origin or placement pre-adoption. In addition, the usual complete lack of necessity means that the children do not see the point of continuing with their first language.
There are families who attempt to support the first language of their new arrivals, either by finding a “community of practice” or by engaging babysitters or tutors who use the language with the children. This seems to meet with limited success in terms of absolute language maintenance in most cases. However, the message that any support sends to the children about the value of their first language and culture is not to be ignored. Children who arrive in a new country with no language or cultural skills undergo a massive world-shift in a very short time. Having no means to explore and explain and question the process would necessarily be a very isolating experience, especially for older children. Having the opportunity to use their language to communicate with another child, an adult, a teacher, gives them an emotional outlet that they will otherwise be denied. The time frame in which the child chooses to use their first language may be short, but the sense of security and outlet for expression it would provide them could be powerful. So at the least, I would encourage parents to try and find someone that their child can speak with in their first language to help with the transition period, and to ensure that the child knows that their first language and culture have value, even as they transition towards their new language and culture.
With no or little resources to support “bilingualism”, parents of new arrivals can still plan for the best possible transition support. These are some points to consider when making a plan:
1. What do we know about our child’s proficiency in their first language?
Ideally, you need to know how their language development is, in terms of both passive and active language skills, and literacy, if applicable. This will help with support at school – the difference between getting support for a child who has a language delay in their first language and will need intensive support to acquire the new language, and a child who had “limited English (or other) proficiency” who will need different types of learning support.
2. Keep in mind the different types of language proficiency.
BICS (basic interpersonal communicative skills) is the ability to engage in conversation about regular activities and context-dependent speech. Internationally adopted children tend to develop this proficiency very quickly, as they are highly motivated. CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency) is the ability to do deeper processing, of the type needed to succeed in school. Comparing, analysing, evaluating, and understanding of conceptual rather than concrete are all underpinned by CALP. This type of proficiency takes much longer than BICS, and in fact can take up to seven years or more to fully develop. During the gap period, when children have reached BICS but not CALP, they are much more likely to be identified as “learning delayed” or needing special educational help, as they will not necessarily perform as well as parents and educators expect, as they seem “fluent” in their new language.
3. What support can we give or arrange for our children while they are still “language learners”?
The answer to this question depends in large part, but not exclusively, on the school chosen. A solid understanding of language development (including BICS and CALP) and a willingness to educate teachers and administrators is a good first step. Knowledge of language development is not widespread across our schools yet, so we need to be the ones to carry the banner for our children. Very often internationally adopted children are grouped with “bilinguals” and offered the same support, but in fact their process is very different to children who maintain their first language at home. Parents can also support learning at home, in a variety of ways. There are some good resources available through the Post-Adoption Learning Center, including courses designed to help older children develop school skills (like the SmartStart Program: Helping an Internationally Adopted Child Develop a Foundation for Learning.
Toolbox II, Ages 5 to 8
Other resources may be available through local centres and organisations, especially where there are larger concentrations of children arriving from the same region.
Whatever resources you choose, and however you do or do not support the first language of your newly arrived child, it is fundamentally important to realise that this journey of learning and acclimation is a marathon and not a sprint. Even though many of these children “seem fine” very quickly and seem to need little support for language or learning, appearances can be deceiving and lack of attention and lack of a support plan in the early years can lead to long-term academic consequences which are much harder to rectify years down the line. | https://onraisingbilingualchildren.com/2014/05/26/adoption-and-language-issues-should-our-children-be-bilingual/ |
We are celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month with the release of our updated Spanish Glossary of Financial Terms . We have prepared this glossary in cooperation with other federal agencies. The glossary provides both financial educators and the industry with an extensive list of financial terms translated into Spanish. Use of the glossary is voluntary.
Of the U.S. population with limited ability to speak, write, or read English—referred to as limited English proficient or LEP consumers—more than 60 percent are individuals who speak only Spanish at home, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2017 American Community Survey One-Year Estimates. People with limited English skills sometimes struggle to reach their financial goals because information they receive about financial products and services is difficult for them to understand.
Why did we create this Spanish glossary?
In an effort to help all consumers move toward financial well-being, the Bureau reported on challenges faced by LEP consumers and those in the financial community who serve them. One common issue highlighted by both groups was the lack of clear and consistent wording of financial information presented to consumers who speak or understand limited English.
Financial education materials created for Latinos are often translated from English to their literal equivalent in Spanish, but may not always be accurate or easy for the reader to understand. Technical terms in the U.S. financial system—such as subprime, overdraft protection, and balloon payment—might not have equivalent terms in some languages. Translating for meaning rather than word-for-word promotes effective communication.
A second report issued by the Bureau included studies by federal agencies and other stakeholders underlining the importance of sharing materials in a consumer’s native language to help increase their knowledge about financial products and services. Also, the report explains that consistent translation of common financial terms across the financial services industry and other organizations benefits limited English proficient consumers.
How can you use this glossary?
Using a glossary of terms is helpful to maintain consistency.
In 2015, the Bureau created a glossary of common financial terms to use when translating consumer education materials from English to Spanish. This year we expanded the glossary and included translated financial terms used by other entities as well, including: the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Justice, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Federal Trade Commission, Social Security Administration, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, General Services Administration, and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.
We publicly share the Spanish Glossary of Financial Terms as a resource to help anyone who provides financial information to consumers who have greater language proficiency in Spanish than in English. Financial educators, government agencies, financial service providers, and other organizations serving LEP consumers might find the glossary helpful when translating financial terms to communicate with the people they serve. It is not required or mandated for any stakeholder to use the glossary.
What other resources are available?
We offer a number of other resources for limited English proficient consumers and those who serve them, including: | https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/glossary-common-financial-terms-spanish/ |
What are the disadvantages of learning English? Are there any? Let’s find out and discuss them in this post.
Learning how to speak, read, and write in English can be more complex than any other language. Furthermore, the difficulty of learning English can depend on where you live. For example, if you’re a native English speaker, you will have more difficulty learning Japanese than someone from an Asian country. On the other hand, if your native language is Nihonggo, you’ll have an equally difficult time learning English.
But what are the disadvantages of learning English? Read more on this topic below.
What Are the Disadvantages of Learning English
Learning how to speak, read, and write in the English language is not easy.
English has been considered a universal language. It is recognized as a speaking language in most countries. You could even visit some of those countries without learning the native language, equipped only with your English skills to communicate with the locals. Furthermore, most schools around the world have integrated English learning as part of their curriculum. But still, while English offers different advantages to those who have successfully learned it, English also brings certain disadvantages.
If your native language uses the same kind of script as English, like most European nations, learning English would still be difficult. However, it still wouldn’t be as complicated as some countries that use logographs and alphabets (e.g., Kanji) in their language. The competency of different Asian populations with English is also different. The Philippines, Hong Kong, and India even have many native English speakers.
Learning English Demands a Considerable Amount of Your Time and Complete Dedication.
So what are the disadvantages of learning English? Nobody who truly wants to learn English takes up an English Learning Course and expects to master it within a short amount of time. Learning English is a lengthy process that requires potential learners to invest substantial time and effort. If you’re a complete beginner, it will take an average of one year to learn how to speak, read, write, and listen in English.
Depending on how much time and effort you can invest, it may take you a shorter or longer time to learn the language. Thus, you can expect someone who manages to study and practice English skills five hours a day would master it faster than someone who could only spare five hours a week studying.
English can Lead to Language Extinction.
What are the disadvantages of learning English? One of the most unfortunate things that can happen is people abandoning their native language. Non-native speakers who have consistently used English in their every day lives may find that there isn’t any opportunity or practical use to speak, write, read, or listen using their native language anymore.
This disadvantage is primarily experienced by people who end up working in another country or immigrating there altogether. Since they must communicate in English more often than their mother tongue, they experience a complete shift of their primary everyday language. Suppose that person has not met someone who speaks the same native language or hasn’t maintained regular contact with their families in their home country. In that case, they may find themselves slowly losing fluency in their native language.
Joe Kloc of motherjones.com pointed out that languages are dying out around the globe. As more people emphasize the advantages of English, they may inadvertently accelerate the loss of additional languages by abandoning their native tongues. For Kloc, the loss of language is equivalent to the loss of culture since language can provide a sense of authenticity to a people and is part of how people express themselves and their beliefs.
Once You Have Learned The Basics, It Can Be Difficult To Notice Your Proficiency Without Taking Tests.
Suppose we say you have finished learning the basics of speaking, listening, reading, and writing in English. You feel confident and ready to engage yourself in some conversations, read a book, listen to music or a podcast, or write in your diary in English for the first time. The thing is, no matter how proficient you think you are with English already, you won’t exactly know much you’ve improved or where you currently stand without taking an English proficiency test.
English can be such a complicated language that people who already have extensive experience in using it still may get subpar scores than they expect in an English proficiency test. In that case, even if you feel confident in your English skills, there’s no harm in adding to your wealth of English grammar and vocabulary. And every time you feel like you’ve made some progress, take an English proficiency test to know how much you have improved.
If You Are Not Consistent With Learning English, All Your Efforts May Go To Waste.
If you ask yourself, what are the disadvantages of learning English, you may find that investing time and effort alone wouldn’t lead to mastering the language. Consistency is one of, if not the most crucial skill you must have when learning English. While putting in effort goes a long way when studying how to read, write, speak, and listen in English, if that effort is not met with consistency, then your pursuit of learning English may already be in vain.
Suppose two people started studying English at the same time. Up until a certain point, they each devoted one hour a day to studying English. However, Student A decided to change his study plan. He would study 10 hours a day during Saturdays or Sundays instead of studying every day for one hour like Student B does. Who do you think would have more progress in learning English?
Surprisingly, even though Student A seems to have invested more time than Student B, he would have a more challenging time retaining what he has studied during that time since he would only be practicing once a week. On the other hand, even though Student B studied for a shorter time than Student A, his strategy will help retain and absorb what he had learned through repetition and everyday exposure.
Pronouncing some English words can be tricky.
What are the disadvantages of learning English? The English language is a complicated language. While some words are pronounced the same way they are spelled, other words aren’t so straightforward. Try pronouncing Colonel, Anemone, Scissor, or Worcestershire. Proficient speakers may be capable of pronouncing these words correctly. However, beginners would be left dumbfounded, wondering how to attempt pronouncing these.
The English language is filled with such words. For complete beginners, these words that are difficult to pronounce can prove to hinder their goal of attaining English proficiency.
Becoming fluent in the language is even more difficult.
As an English language student, you may want to pat yourself on the back when you manage to master the basics. Your hard work until now has paid off. You have managed to get a firm grasp on speaking, writing, reading, and listening in English. However, knowing the basics does not equate to fluency. After familiarizing yourselves with the basics, you will face more challenging aspects of the English language. As mentioned, you have to consider pronunciation, proper writing forms, subject-verb agreement, and so on if you want to achieve fluency. You should also consider applying your English skills more practically to test just how fluent you have become. And as mentioned above, taking an English proficiency test can be advantageous. This step serves as a concrete standard of measurement for your progress.
People with certain accents may find it challenging to communicate in English.
When people ask, “what are the disadvantages of learning English?” one of the things that may pose a challenge is communicating when you have a heavy or unique accent. Accents can hinder smooth communication if certain words aren’t pronounced correctly. If your accent is heavy enough, the person you are talking to may not clearly understand what you are trying to convey. It can lead to miscommunication, and consequently, misunderstandings in conversations.
However, with enough practice, even people with heavy accents can work around this challenge and communicate in English more effectively. All it takes is time, effort, and consistency to improve this skill.
Some people don’t become proficient in English even while working abroad.
English is a complex language. Even if people try to learn how to speak, read, write, and listen in English, the reality is that not everyone will achieve the same amount of proficiency. Even if you’re working abroad and using English as a means of communicating every single day, you may not be as proficient as everybody else. However, that’s not so much of a bad thing. When studying how to read, speak, write, and listen in English, you must also define your goals. Let’s say you want advanced mastery of the language because you plan to teach English yourself. It will undoubtedly be challenging to achieve it. However, if you’re not seeking a job in that field and only want to use English more practically, it wouldn’t make sense to set the bar too high for yourself.
If you set a nearly impossible goal, then you’re setting yourself up for failure. You may end up doubting yourself and your English ability. So another thing you can do to make learning English easier is to set up an end goal. Divide that goal into a series of smaller objectives. This way, you feel like you’re making more progress. As your confidence grows, you can say for sure that you can eventually reach that end goal.
If you don’t use English often, it will be hard to remember the words.
English, like any skill, needs to be used from time to time to improve or maintain your proficiency. If you do not use English regularly, there is a possible risk of it deteriorating over time. Suppose such a thing occurs, all your time, effort, and dedication would be in vain. If you want to prevent your English skills from deteriorating, you must try to integrate English into your daily life.
The first thing you should do is to set aside some time to do a quick English study. You’re not only polishing your English speaking, reading, writing, and listening skills. You may also find yourself improving upon them as well. At the end of each session, you can use an English Proficiency Test available online to measure if you’ve maintained your current level of proficiency or if you managed to improve your English skills.
The second thing you can do is to insert English into your daily routine. Something as simple as watching more English movies, tuning in to more English television series, or listening to more English music or podcasts can go a long way into maintaining or improving upon your current English proficiency. You can also consider writing diary entries or short stories in English, reading English novels, news articles, magazines, etc. The important thing is that you’re continuously exposed to English in your daily life.
Confusing Idioms Make English Difficult To Learn
Another disadvantage of learning English is that you must also learn English idioms to become more proficient. Idioms are another tricky topic to learn. They are part of every language. Idioms aren’t meant to be taken literally, but a beginner in studying English may not be able to identify an idiom at first glance.
For example, the phrase “she bit the dust” means “she died.” When it comes to idioms, all you have to know is what the entire phrase means.
‘She got a taste of her own medicine,’ or ‘He went on a wild goose chase,’ are two other examples. Remember, when it comes to idioms, the literal sense is not the exact wording. Also, Idioms include words like ‘all of a sudden,’ which a language learner does not understand.
In English, there are tens of thousands of these. Idioms exist in all languages. The length, variety, and unpredictability of English idioms characterize them. Idioms in English are tricky for non-native speakers to grasp.
People with Poor Vocabulary Will Find Learning English to be more difficult.
Multiple words in the English language are not initially English words, to begin with. In reality, English has adopted a lot of these words from other languages. German, Latin, French, and Greek are the most common roots of these borrowed English words. As a result, you may find many words that may fit the same concept. For example, a person may say “book” or “volume” to refer to a bound set of written pages. While one of those terms may seem familiar for a non-native speaker, he may be confused and unable to discern the term’s true meaning if a more unfamiliar word is used to describe it. It means that to be genuinely fluent in English, a person has to work on amassing an extensive vocabulary compared to some other languages. In addition, one may need to understand root words before fully comprehending an English term’s meaning.
To make matters even more confusing, people learning to speak, write, and read in English may encounter “British” English and “American” English. British English has different vernacular terms and spellings than American English. So, English learners must understand and differentiate between these two forms of English every time they write and choose vocabulary.
Flexibility and Rigidity Of The English Language Is Not Consistent
So, what are the disadvantages of learning English? Besides what has already been mentioned, prospective English learners also need to consider the more technical aspect of the English language. For example, when it comes to written English, it has very rigid syntax rules (e.g., subject before predicate). If you focus on learning how to write in English, you must strictly adhere to these rules and proper forms. Textbooks provide examples based on this “proper” form.
However, hardly any native English speaker talks the way that he writes. For example, speaking English is perfectly acceptable to say “I wonder what he’s up to,” ending with a dangling preposition. While this may be unacceptable in written form, hardly anyone would pay attention if they heard such a phrase in real life. This duality of rigidity and flexibility can be highly confusing for ESL students, especially given the extent of English vocabulary. For instance, an ESL student who trusts what he hears everyone say may write improper syntax. Additionally, English teachers may unintentionally miss these linguistic errors simply because they are used to vernacular syntax misplacement. | https://denwasensei.com/what-are-the-disadvantages-of-learning-english/ |
development. The ideal candidate is someone who has demonstrated high standards,
enjoys teaching in a faith-filled school community, is optimistic, flexible, and has a real
desire to contribute to the school community by sharing in coaching teams, directing clubs,
or supervising activities. The exceptional candidate can use a variety of instructional
techniques and technology to enhance student learning in grades 7-12 and adapt the
curriculum to meet the needs of students, design lessons and projects that foster an
the interactive learning environment knows how to provide specific and timely feedback,
and respectfully communicates with parents to share student growth.
All candidates must possess an undergraduate degree in Spanish or a related discipline
(master’s preferred) with at least three years of high school teaching experience, native or
near-native proficiency in spoken and written Spanish, strong background in Spanish
culture and literature, capacity and commitment to teaching beginning Spanish through post-
Advanced Placement, proficiency with technology, dedication to working cooperatively with
other world language teachers to maintain a strong language program, and robust
interpersonal skills. | https://careers.ncea.org/jobs/14926623/spanish-teacher |
Record:
Prev
Next
書名
Second-language skills for all? : analyzing a proposed language requirement for U.S. Air Force officers / Chaitra M. Hardison ... [et al.]
出版項
Santa Monica, CA : RAND, 2012
國際標準書號
9780833060341 (pbk. : alk. paper)
0833060341 (pbk. : alk. paper)
館藏地
索書號
處理狀態
OPAC 訊息
條碼
歐美所圖書館
358.4161 Se245 2012
在架上
-
30500101467929
說明
xxiii, 148 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm
系列
Report ; TR-1189-AF
Technical report (Rand Corporation) ; TR-1189-AF
附註
Includes bibliographical references (p. 141-148)
Increasing the language proficiency of incoming Air Force officers -- RAND's study -- Organization of the report -- Background on adult language learning -- Measuring language proficiency -- Categories of difficulty -- The supply of language expertise -- Individual differences among language learners -- Educational programs designed to achieve high levels of proficiency -- After language learning: attrition and maintenance -- Implications -- Survey of Air Force officers -- Survey sample -- Survey content -- Survey results -- Language skills among Air Force officers -- Language learning experiences -- Relationships between language skills and other desirable outcomes -- Mandatory proficiency policies -- Incentives and disincentives for learning a second language -- Open-ended responses -- Conclusions and recommendations -- Conclusions -- Recommendations -- Immediate next steps -- Closing comment -- A. Descriptions of the ILR proficiency levels -- B. List of language flagship programs -- Screenshots of the survey -- Language courses at ROTC detachments -- E. Additional details on "other" and open-ended responses
主題
United States. Air Force -- Officers -- Training of
Second language acquisition
Communicative competence -- United States
Alt Author
Hardison, Chaitra M
Record: | https://las.sinica.edu.tw/search~S0*cht?/tTechnical+report+%28Rand+Corporation%29+%3B+TR-1291-AF/ttechnical+report+rand+corporation+tr+1291+af/-53%2C1%2C1%2CB/frameset&FF=ttechnical+report+rand+corporation+tr+1189+af&1%2C1%2C |
Mango is a language learning software database that library cardholders can use to supplement coursework, maintain and improve language skills, or learn a new language in ways that can be playful and fun. This includes language learning (for the most common languages) through movies, poetry, and music.
You can engage with the computer and improve pronunciation through speech-recognition software.
After connecting to the database using the link, sign up for an account.
Then log in, choose your level of language proficiency and conversational topic, and enjoy your language-learning experience! | http://ci.larkspur.ca.us/753/Help-Guide-to-Mango-Languages |
The Irregular Climate podcast have just posted Episode 8. In this week, Dan Moutal looks at the real scandal of Climategate: Journalismgate. He touches on how Cuccinelli continues his witchhunt against Michael Mann and outlines all the gory details of Prawngate. Note: Dan is the one who started the Facebook page supporting John Abraham (which now numbers around 300 members). In this week's podcast, Dan also gets a little creative with some rock 'n roll which I must admit had me smiling.
For the skeptic debunk of the week, I take a new look at an old argument. I'm actually writing a new blog post on the subject which I should post over the next day or so - the podcast debunk is a lean and mean version. You can get more details at Did global warming stop in 1998 but here's my transcript from the podcast if anyone's interested.
Skeptic Debunk of the Week
Most climate skeptic arguments, maybe all of them, have one thing in common - they neglect the full body of evidence and cherry pick just the bits of data that give the answer they want. There's one argument that's so misleading, it requires 3 levels of cherry picking. This argument is "global warming stopped in 1998".
The first cherry pick is that it relies on a single temperature record from the Hadley Centre in the UK. This record shows unusually warm temperatures in 1998, caused by the strongest El Niño on record. However, the Hadley record doesn't cover the whole globe. Some of the missing regions happen to be where the fastest warming is occuring. Temperature records that cover the whole planet find that 2005 is the hottest calendar year on record. The hottest 12 months on record were June 2009 to May 2010.
The second cherry pick is that it assumes a climate trend by comparing single data points. If you want to work out what climate is doing, you've got to look at all the data. Effects like El Nino exchange lots of heat between the ocean and the atmosphere, so surface temperature jumps up and down from year to year. To work out the long-term trend, scientists use statistical techniques like moving averages or linear regression. These show that surface temperatures continue to rise since 1998.
The third cherry pick is that this only looks at air temperature. The atmosphere is just one part of our climate. Over 90% of global warming actually goes into the oceans. If you really want to know if global warming continued past 1998, you need to look at all the heat building up in our climate. When we add up the heat going into the oceans, warming the land and air, and melting the ice, we see that the planet continues to build up heat. Global warming clearly continues past 1998.
And by the way, thanks to John Russell who offered some useful audio tips for the podcast recording. Either that, or he's just winding me up by having me pad my office with blankets and pillows while I record. :-) Hopefully the audio quality is continuing to improve (now I have to figure out how to get rid of that low frequency hum in the background - perhaps a few more blankets over the computer). | https://skepticalscience.com/print.php?n=281 |
GHG emission mitigation solutions - a challenge for the Right?
Posted on 22 August 2011 by scaddenp
This article is an enlargement on a comment I made here on the "Are you are genuine skeptic or a climate denier" thread. It concerns the thorny issue of right-wing political values and climate change, but rather than discuss the politics, I am interested in possible solutions to GHG mitigation that don't offend the political Right.
In particuar, I've been thinking pretty hard about the question of mitigation policies for libertarians. Scratch a skeptic and you tend to find a right-wing/conservative. Furthermore, I struggled to find libertarians that are not somewhere on the not-happening/not-us/not-bad spectrum. The conundrum faced was discussed here by Grypo along with some solutions from libertarian thinkers which didn't find favour with commentators. While I guess that it's possible that right-wing genes somehow provide a better understanding of climate physics than climate scientists have, it seems more likely to me that a clash with political ideology inhibits a proper evaluation of scientific evidence. Some of this might be simply a conservative resentment of a changing world, but I am hypothesising that for many (most?), the first inkling of global warming comes from hearing about an unacceptable proposed solution. If it is better to mitigate GHG emissions rather than adapt to rapid climate change (which certainly appears to be the case), then we need effective proposals that don't offend these values.
I am taking right-libertarian political theory in a nutshell to be:
- The right to individual liberty of action providing it does not infringe on the rights of other rights-respecting citizens.
- Individual responsibility for the consequences of these actions.
- Government is as minimal as possible with roles of protection from external aggression, maintenence of legal system to enforce contracts, and such police as needed to protect citizens from rights violation by theft, fraud or force.
The solutions to climate change most acceptable to this group are ones that also promote the libertarian agenda. Suggestions I have heard so far include insurance companies regulating safety and privatization of roads with appropriate cost. Unfortunately, these mostly dont seem to be very effective solutions - they depend on somehow getting alternative energy costs below coal without raising coal price to be effective. But what if you can't? The problem is that the costs of producing power from coal don't include external and future costs, but there is no easy mechanism that I can think of for adding in uncertain future costs. What does right wing political theory do in these cases?
"Cap and trade" attempts to add these cost to carbon emissions, but it is an anathema to the Right for which it is designed to appease (even though cap and trade was originally an invention of free market conservatives). It is quite rightly pointed out that these schemes are complex and costly to administer with abundant opportunities for cheating, even with Big Government oversight. Pigovian taxes (much like Hansen's "fee and dividend" scheme) are another possibility but these also don't seem to find much favour.
Another popular proposal is to leave it to market to solve the problem with more energy-efficient products. This also fails the test of effectiveness. There is only so much that be gained from improving efficiency and market forces have already pushed many technologies (like planes) to close to their theoretical limits. In the USA, less than one quarter of energy use is residential anyway, and only about one third of that drives gadgets. Transportation, industry, and commerce are roughly equal consumers of the rest. Focusing on personal energy use will not effect major saving except in transport.
Killing subsidies on fossil fuels should be a no-brainer - in fact killing all industry subsidies and returning the savings as reduced taxes should be more than acceptable, since subsidies imply coercive support of government-favoured industries. Libertarian think-tanks like Heartland and Cato Institute should be waving this banner, but I suspect that subsidy removal would cut deeply into the pockets of important donors to these institutions. A bigger sticking point, however, is likely to be that subsidy removal is proposed by a Democrat president.
Government action is portrayed as theft of the rights of fossil fuel-rich property holders, but is their situation any different from asbestos-containing property holders? Our knowledge of the ill effects to the public has improved in both cases (and both cases, met with industry denial).
As far as I can see, libertarian theory struggles with issues where the free action of many individuals results in a violation of the rights of another. Examples would be passive smoking, pollution control, and yes, climate change. How can a citizen with say, a lung condition, sue those who choose to smoke in public, or not buy emissions-control for their vehicles? No one individual is at fault, and no mechanism exists for rights protection that I can see. It is interesting to see libertarians responding with denial of the adverse health effects caused by passive smoking, too.
Government action is permitted by the Right in the case of external aggression, so it seems self-preservation values override those of liberty. This I think explains the ghoulish preoccupation by AGW-activists with ice-melt and extreme weather. They are trying to trigger a self-preservation response. But suppose your country won't suffer too badly under the effects of climate change, and the really bad stuff happens elsewhere? Does rights-respecting only apply to citizens of your country? Your state even? If not, then how is this rights-conflict arbitrated? Do libertarians truly think that one group of people are free to create a problem while others should pay the cost of adaption?
In an ideal world, it should be possible for a person to choose to take no mitigating action in belief that science is wrong, provided that person is also willing to take their share of the responsibility for liabilities for adaption and compensation. However, I cant think of any mechanism by which this could work for a multi-generational problem like climate change. People object to paying for the "sins of their fathers" (though the same people appear to be quite happy to pass the costs to another generation).
This is a tough problem. We are born with a desire to do what we like and an instinct for self-preservation, whereas respecting others' rights and taking responsibility are learned behaviours. I would really like Right-wing supporters, and libertarians in particular, to face up to the problems above with some workable solutions instead of denying such problems exist. Solutions that would get whole-hearted support are needed, and for that I think values other than liberty/preservation need to be invoked.
So here is the challenge:
If you were convinced (this is a hypothetical question) that it was cheaper to mitigate GHG emissions than to adapt to rapid warming, what effective methods of doing this are compatible with your political values?
My definition of "effective" would be something equivalent to phasing out coal-fired generation over a period of 30-50 years but I am open to alternatives. Anything that would hold CO2 below 450ppm really.
If a skeptic cannot this (or the answer is "none, I'd rather pay the cost"), then it is hard to accept that their skepticism is truly based on a dispassionate appraisal of the scientific evidence. | https://skepticalscience.com/rightwing_solutions.html |
Weak Arguments Against AGW
Posted April 17, 2019on:
PART 1: ATMOSPHERIC CO2 CONCENTRATION TOO SMALL TO CAUSE WARMING
The argument is often seen in online discussions and social media that the claimed GHG effect of CO2 as a cause of global warming is not possible because CO2 is a “trace gas” with an extremely low concentration of around 400 parts per million equivalent to 0.04% such that only one out of 2,500 molecules is a carbon dioxide molecule. It should therefore be obvious that there can be no measurable impact of a substance at such a low concentration.
Yet there are many examples in nature that very small concentrations of substances can have a measurable impact. In the area of toxicity for example, many snake venoms are neurotoxins that can kill at a concentration of 1 ppm. Other strong toxins include Arsenic that can kill at 13 ppm and botulinum toxins that kill at a fraction of a part per billion. In terms of atmospheric composition, stratospheric ozone protects life on the surface of the earth from harmful high energy band ultraviolet radiation at less than 10 ppm.
Although there are valid arguments against the causation sequence proposed by climate science that CO2 in fossil fuel emissions accumulate in the atmosphere and cause warming, (related post [LINK] ) the low concentration argument in and of itself is not sufficient even though 400 ppm may seem like a small concentration.
PART 2: DIURNAL AND SEASONAL CYCLES IN TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS
In the climate change debate, critics of AGW often present a chart of absolute temperature measurements that appear to contain no visible evidence of a long term trend as shown in the chart below. The chart is used to imply that the warming trend claimed by AGW theorists is fake and misleading because it is not seen in the data.
This line of reasoning as a challenge to AGW theory contains a fatal statistical flaw.
Temperature data taken at weather stations contain a diurnal cycle, a seasonal cycle, and random natural variations. Along with these they may also contain a long term trend over a period of many years. Typically, the diurnal and seasonal cycles represent more than 80-90% of the total variance in the actual temperature measurements. The remaining 10-20% or so consists mostly of unexplained random variations.
In cases where a statistically significant trend is found with OLS linear regression, no more than a small portion of the variance, around 3%-5% or so, can be ascribed to a long term warming or cooling trend. It is for these reasons that in the study of long term temperature trends over many decades, regression coefficients for long term trends are relatively a very weak feature of the time series that must be teased out of the data net of the greater diurnal, seasonal, and random variations.
The study of long term temperature trends must therefore be carried out after the diurnal cycle and the seasonal cycle are removed from the data. The diurnal cycle may be removed by taking daily means or by studying either the daily maximum or daily minimum temperatures as shown in a related post [LINK] . The seasonal cycle can be removed by studying one calendar month at a time [LINK] or by computing a de-seasonalized annual mean either with dummy variables to represent calendar months; or by subtracting temperatures in a reference period to compute what is referred to as “temperature anomalies”. A related post presents a critical evaluation of the temperature anomaly procedure [LINK] .
It is only in the absence of the much larger diurnal and seasonal cycles that a trend, if any, can become visible to the naked eye as shown in the chart below. Although the trend represents a small portion of the total variance, its persistence over a long period of many years can have significant effects as seen in the Little Ice Age (LIA) described in a related post [LINK] . The LIA was a period of great hardship for Europeans. Canals and rivers were frozen, growth of sea ice around Iceland closed down harbors and shipping, hailstorms and snowstorms were heavy and frequent, and road and water transport was made difficult or impossible. Agricultural failure and consequent starvation and death devastated Europe. The Scandinavian colonies in Greenland starved to death and disappeared. And yet it was the creation of a long term cooling trend that explained about 3% of the total variance and that could not have been visible to the naked eye in a plot of temperature measurements that contained the diurnal and seasonal cycles.
PART 3: FAILURE TO SEPARATE EXTERNAL CARBON FROM CARBON CYCLE CARBON
In theory, the concern in “human cause” of global warming (Anthropogenic Global Warming or AGW) is that in the industrial economy, considered to have started in the late nineteenth century, humans were bringing up fossil fuels from under the ground, where they had been sequestered from the carbon cycle for millions of years, and injecting that carbon into the current account of the carbon cycle. It is proposed that this injection of external carbon into nature’s carbon cycle is an artificial and unnatural perturbation of the carbon cycle and therefore of the climate system. However, this narrow definition often becomes corrupted with consideration for carbon emissions that are not the creation of the industrial economy. In these discussions, the perturbation of the current account of the carbon cycle with external carbon no longer applied so that any carbon emission that can be ascribed to humans are counted as AGW perturbation of the carbon cycle. Here we argue that this extension of AGW theory about the impact of the “industrial economy” on climate to human activities that are natural and that predate the Industrial Revolution is arbitrary and capricious and that the perturbation of the current account of the carbon cycle by “external carbon” can only be assessed in terms of non-surface phenomena that are peculiar to the industrial economy.
BRIEFLY: The case against fossil fuels in AGW theory is that fossil fuel reservoirs deep under the ground contain a large inventory of carbon that has been sequestered for millions of years from the delicately balanced surface-atmosphere carbon cycle that sustains a stable climate system and life on earth as we know it. The theory of anthropogenic global warming and climate change addresses this issue in terms of the response of the surface-atmosphere system to a perturbation caused by fossil fuel emissions that inject extraneous carbon into it. Natural carbon cycle flows are not a relevant consideration in that context.
PART 4: ICE CORE DATA SHOW CO2 LAGS WARMING AND THEREFORE IT IS NOT POSSIBLE FOR CO2 TO CAUSE WARMING
The charts above show that in the ice core record going back to 400,000 years we find that CO2 lags temperature. That is, a rise in temperature precedes a rise in CO2 and conversely, a fall in temperature precedes a fall in CO2. If this relationship could be shown to be causal, it would be consistent with Henry’s Law that relates to the solubility of CO2 in the ocean.
These data are presented by AGW skeptics as evidence that the CO2 to warming causation proposed in AGW is backwards and therefore not possible because the data show that warming causes rising CO2 and not that rising CO2 causes warming. It is thus claimed that this discrepancy between ice core data and AGW theory serves as proof that the CO2 warming mechanism in AGW is not possible.
This argument is flawed in at least two ways. First, the observed lagged correlation with temperature leading CO2 does not prove causation. For that, one would first have to propose the time scale of that causation and then show a detrended correlation at that time scale.
And second, if warming does cause rising CO2, that causation, in and of itself, does not prevent CO2 from causing warming. Such bidirectional causation are not necessarily mutually exclusive if they occur at very different time scales. Two-way causation at different time scales can therefore coexist. At the same or similar time scales, such bidirectional causation creates the so called feedback mechanisms, a common phenomenon in climate.
Therefore, that CO2 lags warming in the ice core data may suggest but does not prove that the heat trapping effect of atmospheric CO2 is false or that rising atmospheric CO2 cannot cause warming because the bidirectional causation dynamics can occur at different time scales. | https://tambonthongchai.com/2019/04/17/abs-temp/ |
James Hansen’s climate alarm back in 1988 attracted mainstream scientific caution and dissent, believe it or not. Full politicization and polarization would come later. So in 1989, there was still sincere interest in the non-alarmist ‘skeptic’ climate scientists in the mainstream Left press, including the New York Times.
Consider this late 1989 piece by New York Times climate science writer William K. Stevens. The front-page article was titled SPLIT FORECAST: DISSENT ON GLOBAL WARMING – A SPECIAL REPORT; Skeptics Are Challenging Dire ‘Greenhouse’ Views.
With this article’s 25th anniversary last week, what is the state of knowledge today in relation to then. And some questions. Might this have been one of Stevens’ best articles, in retrospect? And would the Times today publish a sympathetic update of the non-alarmist case for CO2 enrichment and a fossil-fuel sustainability?
The article follows in its entirety for your then-versus-now evaluation.
As governments try to come to grips with what is widely depicted as a potentially catastrophic warming of the Earth’s surface, dissenting scientists are challenging what they see as unnecessarily gloomy predictions.
The skeptics contend that forecasts of global warming are flawed and overstated and that the future might even hold no significant warming at all. Some say that if the warming is modest, as they believe likely, it could bring benefits like longer growing seasons in temperate zones, more rain in dry areas and an enrichment of crops and plant life.
In any case, they argue, it would be a mistake to take drastic and costly steps to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that trap the sun’s heat in the earth’s atmosphere until more is known about the problem. These ”greenhouse” gases are building up as a result of human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels.
Exactly how many scientists are involved in serious climatic research is unclear, but experts in the field say it includes fewer than 300 climatologists, meteorologists, geophysicists and people in related fields. Many of them, perhaps the majority, have not taken a firm position in the debate; they say that while the greenhouse theory is valid in general, there are too many uncertainties about its future effects.
Both of the other factions – those who believe global warming to be a clear and definite threat and those who say there is likely to be no significant warming – appear to be in a minority. Authorities on weather and climate can be found in all three groups.
Much of the dissenters’ criticism is aimed at computerized mathematical models of the world’s climate on which forecasts of global warming are largely based. The critics also cite data on past climatic trends, and they say the theory of greenhouse warming has not yet been fully explored.
Most of the dissenters’ assertions are being challenged in turn by scientists who adhere to the better-known view of global warming. This view holds that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases are likely to cause the average temperature of the air at the Earth’s surface to increase by three to eight degrees Fahrenheit some time in the next century, from the current global average level of 57 degrees. That amount of increase is generally accepted by a number of national and international scientific groups that have sought a consensus on the issue, including various panels of the National Academy of Sciences.
The forecast is based largely on what the forecasters see as the inherent scientific logic of the greenhouse theory and on the computerized simulations of the future atmosphere. The forecasters expect the warming to raise sea levels, through the expansion of warming water and the melting of ice around the world; to change the climate of the globe, and to disrupt weather, human society and balances among plants and animals.
Both the dissenters and those who call for action have been pressing their arguments in Washington as the Bush Administration grapples with pressures to reduce the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil, which are the main source of human-produced atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Current forecasts of global warming ”are so inaccurate and fraught with uncertainty as to be useless to policy-makers,” Richard S. Lindzen of the Massachusetts of Institute of Technology and Jerome Namias of the Scripps Institution Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., wrote in a letter to President Bush in late September. The two authorities on meteorology are both members of the National Academy of Sciences.
Their warning was one of several cautionary pleas now coming forth in the aftermath of months of speeches, writings and testimony to Congress by scientists and environmentalists who urge prompt countermeasures. Some important officials in the Administration, including John H. Sununu, the White House chief of staff, have also urged caution until further research is performed.
Some of the dissenters, including Dr. Lindzen, say the scientific uncertainty could be reduced through a decade or less of intensive research, perhaps in three to five years. They counsel against drastic action to cut fossil-fuel emissions until then.
”The expense is patently obvious,” said one of the most outspoken skeptics, Patrick Michaels, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a former president of the American Meteorological Society. ”If the policy is going to be that expensive, the science should be much less murky than it is now,” he said.
Other scientists have long acknowledged the uncertainties of global warming predictions, but argue that they will not be eliminated in time for effective action to be taken. | https://www.masterresource.org/new-york-times/12-13-89-nyt-climate-article/ |
Pence changes opinion on climate change
MUNCIE — Mike Pence, a global warming/climate change denier and skeptic throughout his political career in Congress and the governor's office, did an about-face last week.
"Well look, there's no question that ... the activities that take place in this country and in countries around the world have some impact on the environment and some impact on climate," the Republican vice presidential nominee told CNN last week.
When he ran for Congress in 2000, Pence called global warming a myth created by environmentalists in their latest "Chicken Little attempt to raise taxes and grow centralized government power."
Over a 15-year-period when he was governor and a U.S. representative, The Star Press asked Pence the same question that was put to him by CNN last week. His responses:
July 2002:
"Put me down as a profound skeptic in this debate. I've been on the record on that and haven't changed. The theory of global warming is just that — a theory. I look no further than the broad majority of climatologists and climate experts in the world who recognize it as a theory. It is a minority that recognizes it — as much as the national media does — as fact.
"Certainly we ought to study it. We only have one planet, and we ought to be investing the dollars to finding out what's going on with our planet. (But) the evidence is simply not there to establish global warming as a scientific fact. It's a political fact, but until it becomes a scientific fact, I think we need to proceed very slowly and cautiously about the development of policy to confront it."
April 2006 (after evangelical Christian leaders signed a full-page advertisement in The New York Times below the headline, "Our commitment to Jesus Christ compels us to solve the global warming crisis …"):
"A lot of these men and women are wonderful leaders in the evangelical community, and I respect their right to be heard on issues unrelated to their expertise. Every American has that right. (But) any fair reading of the science today, while global warming has taken place, it is not yet clear that it is being driven by human activity. But I'm trying to read as much as I can. And my mom used to say 'better safe than sorry,' so I am glad the energy bill authorized construction of a number of nuclear power plants in this country, which represents electric-generating facilities that don't produce so-called greenhouse gases. … It seems to me that this issue has such a significant ability to have an enormous drain on our economy and on our national economic vitality that we should simply let the science drive it."
Protesters blow whistle on global warming
April 2008 (Earth Day):
The Star Press asked Pence whether he agreed with this statement: "The time for doubt has passed. Scientific experts have clearly affirmed that our climate system is warming, as is evident from increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level."
He agreed.
The Star Press asked Pence whether he agreed with this statement: "This warming is directly linked to human activity. Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in greenhouse gas concentrations."
Pence: "I would not agree that there is broad consensus on man-made or human activity being the proximate cause of global warming. I think there is more diversity of opinion among many scientists in this area of discipline than most people realize. I don't think global warming as caused by human activity is a settled question in the scientific community."
The Star Press asked Pence whether he agreed with this statement: "Global warming will lead to impacts on weather, agriculture, species, ecosystems, fisheries, coastlines, low-lying areas, vegetation, and drinking water that are abrupt or irreversible."
Pence: "Claims of catastrophic consequences in global warming are not reflective of the majority of the opinions even among IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) scientists … "
The Star Press asked Pence whether he agreed with this statement: "Local, state and federal governments should take action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions."
Pence: "I think it is appropriate for particularly the federal government to encourage investment in new, clean, alternative technologies. But I think it should be done in a way that puts the broad interests of the American people first. If we were to embrace the more draconian proposals being advocated by some in Congress and the environmental movement we could see as much as a 20 percent increase in utility bills for Hoosiers."
April 2009:
"I think, rightly understood, the cap and trade legislation represents an economic declaration of war on the Midwest by liberals in Washington, D.C. I really believe Democratic climate change legislation will cap growth and trade jobs. If ever there was a time that Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois were unable to take the impact of what amounts to a national energy tax, it's a time like this."
April 2015:
Jeff Dukes, director of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center, told The Star Press: "It's a shame that some politicians seem to need to find an excuse not to believe our best experts on the planet on this topic. Basically, climate scientists around the world are in agreement that warming is occurring, and nearly all agree that the warming is largely driven by society's greenhouse gas emissions."
Shortly after Dukes commented, Kara Brooks, press secretary for Gov. Pence, responded to the Star Press: "The governor continues to keep an open mind about the science behind the cause of climate change but does not believe that it has been fully resolved yet."
Last week, Brooks, who remains the governor's press secretary, referred questions about what changed Pence's mind on the cause of climate change to Marc Lotter, press secretary to Pence for the GOP vice presidential campaign. Lotter did not respond.
Contact Seth Slabaugh at (765) 213-5834. | https://www.thestarpress.com/story/news/local/2016/10/03/pence-changes-opinion-climate-change/91459114/ |
The concluding paragraph is a crucial part of your essay. You need to make it as reliable and effective as possible to leave your readers with a good impression of your paper. The conclusion should in some way recap all the main points of your work using different wording. This piece describes the essential things that you need to do when writing your conclusion.
Role of Conclusion in Your Essay
A conclusion restates the main points of a paper. It prompts the readers of the validity of the central ideas and recaps the critical evidence supporting these ideas.
What Must Be Mentioned in Conclusion?
A reasonable conclusion should emphasize the significance of the thesis statement. It should mention the thesis statement, the primary arguments and the evidence verifying these arguments. It should also provide a feel of completeness in addition to giving the readers the concluding impression.
How to Conclude Your Essay Properly
Show Your Reader Why Your Work Is Important
Your conclusion should explain to your readers why you think the paper is essential. Find a way to show them that the work is momentous and useful.
Avoid Using “in Sum,” “in Conclusion” and the Like
Starting the conclusion with “in sum” and other similar phrases appears clumsy, and ingenious. Instead, the concluding paragraphs should lead naturally from the last body paragraph. Keep in mind that even journal articles do not use such phrases.
Do not Introduce New Ideas
There is a difference between advancing your analysis and adding further information. You should not bring in new points or criticism. The conclusion should include your words on top of the things that you have discussed, but not new ideas.
In short, you should advance your analysis. While the concluding paragraph should restate what you have discussed, it should also deepen this to bring on some more profound deductions. Remember to consider all the factors that have influenced every aspect of the main points of your essay in addition to the limitations of the main argument.
Avoid Repetition
Providing a repetition of the points discussed in earlier paragraphs makes the concluding paragraph boring. Remember that your readers have already read the paper. You, therefore, need to synthesize the information instead of providing a summary. Restate your arguments and support them in a manner that helps the reader to recall them.
The conclusion should also link the whole paper to the thesis statement. Link all the main ideas and highlight any information that directly relates to the main argument, and show your reader that the evidence you have used for the discussions is valid and reliable. In so doing, you will appear stronger than you were in the introductory paragraph. You will reaffirm the argument to add weight instead of just writing to fill space.
Use Specific Information
You should not end the conclusion with information that is too general. Instead, use a strong statement as the final sentence of the concluding paragraph. For instance, you can end it with an emphasis on drafting a statement that sums up the spirit of the things that you have discussed.
Redirect the Reader
Provide the reader with something to keep him thinking. For instance, you can make them know how the work can be useful in the real world. Remember that the introduction goes typically general while the conclusion has specific information; hence it is vital to reason globally.
Also, creating a new meaning is important, but this does not mean that you will introduce new ideas. You need to illustrate how your points relate to establishing a new picture.
How to Conclude Your Essay Poorly
Here are some aspects of a poorly ended essay.
A Repeat of the Introduction
Some students copy the information in the introduction and paste it to the conclusion. Others paraphrase the points in the starting paragraph and make it the conclusion paragraph. Doing this would mean that there is no need for the concluding paragraph in the first place.
Repeating the same information over and over again does not add any value to your paper. It shows that you do not understand the role that a conclusion plays in an essay.
Mere Summary of the Main Points
Another mistake that students make is to think that the conclusion paragraph is just a recap. Some of them conclude the paper by writing a summary of the arguments in the body paragraphs. This type of review can be useful in longer essays that have several complex cases. However, as with repeating the introductory paragraph, writing to fill the word count is redundant and does not meet the role of the conclusion paragraph.
Introducing New Content
Some students forget that conclusion is not a place to add new arguments. The concluding paragraph should be a reflection of the points that are in the body paragraphs and not a place to make new ones.
Examples
Example of Perfect Conclusion about the Causes of Global Warming
The majority of scientists say that global warming is the result of increasing levels of greenhouse gases. Whereas some may claim that factories are the primary reason for global warming, and others may argue that it is the modern methods of transportation, the primary cause is apparent: human activities.
Example of Good Conclusion About the Main Aspects of a Concluding Paragraph of an Essay
Writing a conclusion for an essay is pretty easy if you know the structure. It has three key aspects: a transition from one paragraph to the next, a recap of the thesis statement and the primary arguments of the paper, and a concluding sentence that wraps up the essay. If you know this simple framework, you will find essay writing very interesting.
Example of a Terrible Conclusion about the causes of Global Warming
In sum, there are many causes of global warming. Some of them include greenhouse gases, emission from factories, emissions from transportation, and so on. Scientists are also in agreement that greenhouse gases, factory emissions, and modern transportation methods cause global warming. They also say that it is clear that humanity causes global warming. | https://essaywritingsolutions.co.uk/how-to-conclude-your-essay |
(BillMoyers.com) – Most people who deny that human activity is warming the planet just dismiss a massive body of scientific evidence as a big hoax.
But there’s a more sophisticated set of climate “skeptics” who make arguments that, at least to the lay ear, sound like they’re grounded in scientific evidence. And because most of us lack the background to evaluate their claims, they can muddy the waters around an issue that’s been settled in the scientific community.
So, as a public service, we gathered eight of the most common of these pseudoscientific arguments and asked some serious climate scientists — all working climatologists who have been widely published — to help us understand what makes these claims so misleading.
1. No, the Earth Hasn’t Stopped Warming Since 1998 (or 1996 or 1997)
This claim was popularized by “Lord” Christopher Monckton, a prominent British climate “skeptic” with a fake hereditary title (and no scientific background). His so-called “research” relies on people’s confusion about the difference between weather, which fluctuates all the time, and climate, which speaks to long-term trends. With some careful cherrypicking of data, you get the argument that there’s been “no global warming for 17 years, 3 months.”
What’s going on? “1998 was the warmest year in the last century,” explains Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished senior scientist in the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “There was a big El Niño event in 1997 and 1998, and we have a lot of evidence that there was a lot of heat coming out of the ocean at that time. So that’s the real anomaly — the fact that we had what was perhaps the biggest El Niño event on record.”
“That’s one of the cherrypicking points for deniers — they take the highest value and then compare it” with lower points in the natural temperature fluctuation we know as “weather.” “If you choose the highest value,” says Trenberth, “then the odds are that all the other values are going to be lower — even in the presence of an overall warming climate.” […]
But the idea that the climate stopped warming at some point goes back even further. In the 1990s, two climatologists, Roy Spencer and Richard Lindzen, published a series of papers hypothesizing that global warming had stopped. Spencer and Lindzen are among the few climate contrarians with real scientific credentials, and have been widely cited by climate skeptics; Spencer has testified at a number of Republican congressional hearings on climate science. | http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2014/05/eight-pseudoscientific-climate-claims.html |
(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide)
Objection: Taking into account the logarithmic effect of CO2 on temperature, the 35 percent increase we have already seen in CO2 concentrations represents about three-quarters of the total forcing to be expected from a CO2 doubling. Since we have warmed about 0.7 degrees Celsius so far, we should only expect about 0.3 degrees more for a doubling from pre-industrial levels, so about 1 degree total, not 3 degrees as the scientists predict. Clearly the climate model sensitivity to CO2 is much too high.
Answer: Even without addressing the numbers in this argument, there is a fundamental flaw in its reasoning.
We don’t yet know exactly how much the climate will warm from the CO2 already in the air. There is a delay of several decades between forcing and final response. Until an equilibrium temperature is reached, present day observations will not tell us the exact value of the climate’s sensitivity to CO2.
The reason for this is primarily the large heat capacity of the oceans. The enhanced greenhouse effect from higher CO2 levels is indeed trapping energy in the climate system according to expectations, but the enormous quantity of water on earth is absorbing most of the resulting heat. Due to water’s high heat capacity, this absorbed energy shows up as only a modest ocean warming, which in turn dampens the temperature change on land and lowers the global average trend.
This is commonly referred to as the climate system’s thermal inertia. According to model experiments and consistent with data from past climate changes, this inertia results in a lag of several decades between the imposition of a radiative forcing and a final equilibrium temperature.
Now let’s look at a couple of further details. CO2 is not the only factor affecting global temperature. There is a phenomenon called “global dimming” counteracting greenhouse gas warming. Global dimming refers to the blocking of incoming sunlight by particulate pollution in the troposphere and airplane contrails in the stratosphere. It is not a well quantified effect, but it may well be masking a great deal more warming; it is definitely masking some.
This is just one example of why we cannot attribute global temperature trends entirely to CO2 — the same mistaken premise that fuels arguments about the mid-century cooling trend.
I believe it was Richard Lindzen who first made this argument [PDF] about climate sensitivity. The numbers he uses don’t add up. A 35 percent increase in CO2 should correspond to 43 percent of the forcing from two times CO2 (ln(1.35)/ln(2)= 43%), which is not three-fourths.
The original article for this Skeptic Guide entry had an extremely interesting discussion under it, for anyone interested. | https://grist.org/climate-energy/observations-show-climate-sensitivity-is-not-very-high/ |
Yep….
Unfortunately, humans have been asking this too. I think that the following idea gets near to the heart of the intellectual problem.
Some things in this world are quite definite and others are very vague. It’s easier for the skeptic to deny the vague things. The most vague thing is reality itself. The skeptic might say, “Since you can’t prove that there’s a reality without assuming its existence in the premise of your argument, there’s no reason to believe in reality.” Similarly, he can deny the beauty in the Grand Canyon: “You can’t prove that it’s beautiful so there’s no reason to believe it’s beautiful.”
On the more definite side of the spectrum, it’s easy to prove that fire can ignite paper. All the components of that sentence are very definable. The skeptic would have to take his skepticism to the extreme to deny this fact.
As far as why anyone should believe that humans are different from computers, the first thing that pops into my head is that humans are creative whereas computers aren’t. By “creative” I mean ‘able to make novel and beautiful things or come up with novel, elegant solutions.’ The problem is that this argument relies on vague ideas like beauty and elegance. Another argument is that unlike computers, humans are conscious; but the idea of consciousness is also quite vague. The skeptic can too easily dismiss these arguments.
It’s not the biggest joke, it’s how you stop DDoS attacks. Don’t post this crap, this isn’t your Facebook page. | https://vigilantlinks.com/2022/10/yep-2/ |
A scientist known for his skepticism over climate change released a new study this month with surprising results. UC Berkeley astrophysicist Richard Muller and a team of other scientists recently set out to test whether measurements of Earth's temperature are too flawed to show that the Earth is warming. The analysis of more than 1.6 billion temperature measurements led him to write in a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, "You should not be a skeptic, at least not any longer. Global warming is real." Muller is a complicated character, writes Andrew Revkin in the Dot Earth blog for the New York Times.
Climate Change Skeptic's Talking Points Melt Away
Credits
Guest: | https://www.kcrw.com/news/shows/which-way-la/will-obamas-foreign-policy-successes-help-him/climate-change-skeptics-talking-points-melt-away |
Sometimes I blog about the infintely-hot Big Bang or the universe’s predicted demise, ‘The Big Freeze.’ Sometimes I wonder of the regional warming of our planet, which affects global average temperatures, is just balancing out some other forces. Actually, it is – and we are the additional input in this equation.
Our roots have been forged in fire since the dawn of humankind. We burn things for energy – it is in our nature. Until we transcend this behavior with smarter energy sources, we will continue burning the planet’s resources. And this does affect the planet: In 2007, the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) released their landmark findings that warming occurred regionally on the planet, in areas characterized with more industrial activity. It makes sense. More activity means more vehicles and machinery generating emissions. With the knowledge that certain gases in the emissions contribute to the greenhouse effect, more stringent emission control measures were implemented.
The media ran with ‘greenhouse gases,’ but this idea is flawed: Carbon dioxide, on a scale of 0 to 100, has a global contributing factor of just 1. In large amounts, it can contribute to the greenhouse effect. And we have isotopic fingerprints of atmospheric carbon that correlate to increased carbon dioxide, starting near the beginning of the industrial age in the 1850s. Its signature matched coal and oil. In short, we have enough evidence to conclude that human activity has contributed to average global rising temperatures (about 0.6 degrees).
Nevertheless, skeptics argue against ‘global warming.’ There are natural forces at play that contribute to cycles of global cooling and warming. These forces change the global temperatures by changing the Earth’s position to the Sun, and are attributed to the history of Earth’s ice ages and warming periods. We are currently in a natural warming period, as human civilization rose after the ice receded from the last ice age.
But skeptics can turn around. A true skeptic should analyze the data and make a conclusion rather than disregard data based on one’s bias from belief/disbelief systems. This is exactly why skeptic scientists at University of California Berkley did. In 2011, they did a comprehensive study, scrutinizing every data point to resolve problems from earlier studies. They also added more data points and showed that the correlation between global mean temperatures and rising carbon dioxide were statistically significant. This is the nail in the coffin for arguments against humanity’s contribution. They also warned not to misinterpret the data, because association does not prove a cause.
Skeptics still continue to this day, even though we can prove that carbon dioxide contributes to the greenhouse effect, increases from human activity, and correlates to the rising temperatures. In a report today (realnews24.com/who-are-the-deniers-now-record-ice-growth-in-2013/), a skeptical author feeling lambasted by the scientific community and media hits back. And asks why the media is so one-sided about it’s coverage. As it turns out, some ice sheets in 2013 are not melting at all – they’re gaining! A graph shows a year-to-year comparison of ice sheets melting and gaining (image credit: climatedepot.com/). The 2013 measurement set a record for gains.
In conclusion, it is ok to be skeptical in order to find new information. For example, we can not say that carbon dioxide causes global climate change. Yet, that’s exactly what everyone does. And it’s leading us down the wrong path. There’s a very basic chemistry equation that’s been ignored. In combustion, carbon dioxide, heat, and water are always produced, no matter what is burned. The part that we are ignoring is the heat of reaction. If the heat affects the regional warming that has been proven, we may have a cause. And that means curbing carbon emissions isn’t the answer – we would have to produce less heat (i.e. burn less fuel). Not an easy task. This is why it’s more convenient (and perhaps profitable) to use carbon as the scapegoat while we just keep prolonging the problem. Nevertheless, the Earth has it’s own regulating mechanisms which are poorly understood. The planet goes through its own cycles, and regionally may undergo further cycles as represented by the ice sheet fluctuations. Human activity has affected global patterns by regional warming, but don’t count out the skeptics. Look for them to help provide more useful information that might lead to a better understanding of the planet’s cycles. Please don’t let the media do the thinking for you!
– Change your perception, change your universe. | http://oenlight.com/what-they-dont-want-you-to-know-about-global-warming/ |
Radiology is the science that deals with radiant energy in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Known as the "eyes of medicine," advanced imaging techniques, available only through radiology science, help physicians see inside their patients' bodies to diagnose many diseases.
Physicians who are specialty trained in radiology are called radiologists. Radiologists have the same training as medical doctors or doctors of osteopathy. This education is followed by a a one-year internship and a four-year residency specializing in diagnostic radiology or radiation oncology. A radiologists training includes specific and intense training to interpret images produced by various advanced imaging techniques. After completing the residency program, fellowship training is also available, which means another one or two years of specialized training in areas such as pediatric radiology, neuroradiology, nuclear medicine, body imaging, or angiography and interventional radiology.
Historically, the radiologist has served as more of a consultant, taking the lead in interpreting and performing diagnostic testing. However, as the technology associated with radiology has grown, so has the significance of the radiologist's role in health care. The radiologist has taken on many important new roles, including becoming the physician who actually treats the patient with radiation oncology and interventional radiology. | http://rctradiology.com/definition.html |
The Department of Radiology at the Aga Khan University Hospital offers a wide range of diagnostic services at the Main Hospital Campus (Stadium Road, Karachi) such as x-rays, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography (PET), vascular and interventional radiology (VIR) and ultrasound. Our facilities are modern and furnished with the latest technology and equipment. Some Radiology Services are also offered at Clifton Medical Services (CMS, Karachi) and at our hospitals in Garden (Karachi), Karimabad (Karachi), Karadar (Karachi), and Hyderabad.
The Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority (PNRA) has certified our Radiology Services. The PNRA operates under the regulatory requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and conducts regular audits and inspections for quality assurance and radiation safety. The Aga University Hospital is also accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI) which further ensures we deliver high-quality health care, including diagnostic services, that meet international standards.
Our highly trained and experienced team of consultant radiologists (medical doctors with specialized training in diagnosing and treating diseases and injuries using medical imaging techniques), clinical imaging technicians, and nurses ensure that the images are properly taken and interpreted to give you fast and accurate results. Some of our services are offered around the clock not just for our admitted patients but also for patients visiting our consulting clinics as well as those patients who are self-referred or referred by physicians from other hospitals, who rely on our high-quality imaging to diagnose their patients.
Request an Appointment:
Call to book an appointment: (021)111911911
Download our Family Hifazat APP to get ready access to all your radiology reports. | https://hospitals.aku.edu/pakistan/Health-Services/department-of-radiology/Pages/default.aspx |
Noel Jodoin began to suffer an unusual headache. The headache was severe and after it continued for 3 days, she went to the hospital for an evaluation. When talking to the ER doctors, Johnson said she saw occasional flashes of light and over-the-counter medication was not helping. The doctors suspected a migraine and provided IV fluids and pain medication.
A few hours later, Jodoin began to experience slurred speech, restlessness, low blood pressure, and paralysis to her right arm. A doctor ordered a CT scan and a neurological consult. After a CT scan, the radiologist noticed mildly prominent veins in the braid but doubted clinical significance. A few hours later, Jodoin suffered a seizure and hemorrhage. As a result of the stroke, she suffered partial paralysis, epilepsy, and seizures.
The victim filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the radiologist for misreading the CT scan. According to the plaintiff, if the radiologist had properly identified the coming stroke, a blood thinner could have been administered to prevent the damage. A jury agreed with the injury victim, finding in favor of the victim for $5 million in damages.
CT Scan to Evaluate Stroke Risk
A CT scan is an invaluable tool in evaluating a possible stroke. The CT scan uses X-rays to look at the brain, which can be used to show abnormalities, including blood clots, tumors, and other defects in the brain and skull. A CT scan does not always show evidence of a clot, stroke, or transient ischemic attack, but it can be one of the best tools for doctors to evaluate stroke concerns in the brain.
Some of the signs and symptoms of a stroke include:
- Slurred speech
- Face drooping
- Sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body
- Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or trouble understanding speech
- Dizziness, loss of balance, or difficulty walking
- Sudden severe headache
- Difficulty seeing in one or both eyes
What Does a Radiologist Do?
A radiologist is a doctor trained to read and interpret the results of certain types of medical imaging devices, such as x-rays or MRI’s. Radiologists often work with other physicians in order to help diagnose and treat a patient by reading and interpreting the results of these scans. When a radiologist fails to diagnose issues that are apparent to a reasonable doctor, this can constitute negligence.
As part of the larger health care team, doctors rely on radiologists to properly review and interpret medical imaging scans for patients. When radiologists fail to properly evaluate the images, it can lead to delayed treatment, improper diagnosis, and sending a patient home without receiving proper care for a serious situation, like a stroke.
After a Failed Radiologist Evaluation
One of the most important functions of a radiologist is to correctly diagnose medical conditions in patients based on their diagnostic imaging test results. Failure to diagnose a disease, illness, or health condition is one of the most common causes of malpractice claims against radiologists.
At Gilman & Bedigian, we are committed to helping patients and families who have been injured by medical malpractice to understand their legal rights and help obtain compensation. To speak with a member of our personal injury team, fill out an online case evaluation form or call (800) 529-6162 today. | https://www.gilmanbedigian.com/malpractice-claims-against-radiologists/ |
Dr. Eric L Alboucrek, DO, is a Diagnostic Radiology specialist in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He attended and graduated from Southeastern College Of Osteo Medicine in 1992, having over 27 years of diverse experience, especially in Diagnostic Radiology. He is affiliated with many hospitals including Broward Health Coral Springs, Broward Health Imperial Point, Broward Health Medical Center, Broward Health North. Dr. Eric L Alboucrek also cooperates with other doctors and physicians in medical groups including North Broward Radiologists, P.A. Dr. Eric L Alboucrek accepts Medicare-approved amount as payment in full.
Insurance
No insurances listed.
Specializations
Radiology
Radiologists specialize in diagnosing and treating injuries and diseases using medical imaging procedures such as X-rays, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imagining (MRI), nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography (PET) and ultrasound.
Diagnostic radiology
A medical specialization that involves undertaking a range of imaging procedures to obtain images of the inside of the body. The diagnostic radiologist then carefully interprets these images to diagnose illness and injury. | https://www.healthlynked.com/doctor/eric-l-alboucrek/ |
What is Neuroradiology
Neuroradiology is a sub-specialty of radiology which helps to diagnose and treat brain, spine, head and neck conditions. It is used to diagnose neurological diseases and injuries to the nervous system.
What do Neuroradiology
Neuroradiologist are the physicians trained in the areas of radiology and neurology. A Neuroradiologist assists with patient care in a variety of disorders affecting the spine, brain, head and neck. A Neuroradiologist may also perform minimally invasive procedures on patients. They provide care for patients with neurological disorders through the use of medical imaging techniques like CT scans.
Scope
Neuroradiology is a highly specialized field. Neuroradiologists are highly trained physicians who play a very important role as a member of diagnostic team in assisting patients with a variety of disorders which are affecting the function of brain, spine, head and neck. Neuroradiologists also perform angiographic studies of the brain, spine and interpret the findings.
Listings of the Best Neuroradiology
Sehalife puts together a brief listing of best Neuroradiologists in UAE. This listing contains their profiles, clinic address, contact numbers and client reviews. | https://sehalife.com/doctors/neuroradiology/ras-al-khaimah |
Dr. Bharath Kumar Chinta, MD, is a Diagnostic Radiology specialist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended and graduated from University Of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School in 1994, having over 25 years of diverse experience, especially in Diagnostic Radiology. He is affiliated with many hospitals including Upmc Altoona, Upmc Hamot. Dr. Bharath Kumar Chinta also cooperates with other doctors and physicians in medical groups including University Of Pittsburgh Physicians. Dr. Bharath Kumar Chinta accepts Medicare-approved amount as payment in full.
Insurance
No insurances listed.
Specializations
Radiology
Radiologists specialize in diagnosing and treating injuries and diseases using medical imaging procedures such as X-rays, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imagining (MRI), nuclear medicine, positron emission tomography (PET) and ultrasound.
Diagnostic radiology
A medical specialization that involves undertaking a range of imaging procedures to obtain images of the inside of the body. The diagnostic radiologist then carefully interprets these images to diagnose illness and injury. | https://www.healthlynked.com/doctor/bharathkumar-chinta/ |
Caring for patients is a subtle art. Therefore, physician jobs are satisfying to anyone who appreciates both the science and art behind this noble profession. Being a physician can be fulfilling, but also quite challenging. Nevertheless, according to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, the demand for this profession is on the rise.
Although this type of job has demanding educational requirements, physicians have the chance to work with a variety of people and treat different — often unique — illnesses and injuries. It is a challenging but rewarding career.
About Physician Jobs
Nowadays, people live much longer than they used to. With the increase in lifespan, there’s a greater need for doctors in general, which, in turn, increases the need for medical assistants and caregivers. Curing people’s illnesses and injuries, helping them feel better, and working on preventing or minimizing any existing health issues is a selfless job, which is why it’s an excellent career choice.
What Does a Physician Do?
In general, physicians diagnose and treat their patients’ injuries and illnesses. They often give patients advice on healthcare, diet, hygiene, and similar health-related topics.
Usually, physicians examine their patients, record their medical history, and prescribe appropriate medications and treatments. Furthermore, physicians also order, perform, and interpret various diagnostic tests to make accurate diagnoses.
Physicians work very closely with other medical staff, like physician assistants, registered nurses, and health information technicians.
Duties of a Doctor
Every doctor has one primary concern, and that is the well-being of their patients. A doctor can take care of a patient’s health with medicine, surgery, a check-up, or just a talk.
Depending on their specialization, doctors can have various duties. However, every doctor has the following responsibilities as a part of their everyday routine:
- Taking a patient’s medical history
- Updating patient’s charts and information on any ongoing treatments and findings
- Ordering tests for nurses and healthcare staff in general (one of the lesser-known responsibilities of a doctor)
- Analyzing test results to find abnormalities
- Designing and recommending treatment plans for the patient
- Addressing any concerns or questions that the patient has regarding their condition or overall well-being
- Discussing various health-related topics with the patient and helping them take care of their health
Types of Physician Jobs
There are two types of physicians, and they require a similar degree. One is M.D. or Medical Doctor, and the other one is D.O. or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. Both types of doctors use the same treatment methods, such as medication and surgery. Still, D.O.s also deal with the body’s musculoskeletal system, provide holistic patient care, and practice preventive medicine. D.O.s can be found in all specialties, but they are most often primary care physicians.
Anesthesiologist Jobs
Anesthesiologists take care of surgical patients and focus on pain relief. They provide patients with anesthetics, which reduce or altogether eliminate the feeling of pain during various surgical procedures, such as operations.
However, this job is not as simple as it may seem. Anesthesiologists are also responsible for determining the amount of anesthetic during surgeries. Furthermore, this physician position also includes the monitoring of a patient’s heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, and breathing.
Anesthesiologists work outside of the operating room as well. They work with other physicians and help them with various decisions on treatments and procedures before, during, and after surgery. Another duty anesthesiologists have outside of the operating room is in the intensive care unit (ICU). They help women in labor and patients suffering from chronic pain, which is just one of the many ICU physician jobs.
Surgeon Jobs
Surgeons specialize in treating injuries, illnesses, and deformities through surgery. They repair bones and tissues after injuries, perform preventive and elective operations, and correct various deformities with the help of different surgical instruments.
A significant number of surgeons are in the general surgery field. However, many of them decide to specialize in plastic or reconstructive surgery, cardiovascular surgery, orthopedic surgery (the musculoskeletal system), or neurological surgery (treatment of the brain and nervous system).
Family Physician Jobs
Both family and general physicians deal with standard conditions. They assess and treat everything from bone injuries to coughs, sneezes, and respiratory infections — anything that people suffer from daily. They usually have long-term patients.
Psychiatry Jobs
Psychiatrists are mental health physicians who diagnose and treat mental health issues through psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, hospitalization, and medication. Psychiatrists help their patients change their behavioral patterns and explore their past experiences in individual, group, or family sessions.
Obstetrician Jobs
Obstetricians and gynecologists specialize in helping pregnant women. They provide help with pregnancy-related issues, childbirth, and the female reproductive system in general.
Obstetricians spend the majority of their time in prenatal care, monitoring a pregnancy. In the months leading up to the delivery, obstetricians have regular appointments with their patients. During these appointments, they explain what is happening with the baby at that moment, perform tests, and help their patients with any questions and issues they might have.
Many obstetricians also perform gynecologist jobs — a more general field that deals with women’s reproductive health in general. Gynecologists take care of both the reproductive issues and diseases and are known as OB/GYNs. Some of them work primarily in hospitals, but a significant number of OB/GYNs also work in various private practices and with other doctors. Not so commonly, self-employed obstetricians work with their own patients.
General Pediatrician Jobs
General pediatricians take care of infants, children, teenagers, and young adults. They specialize in diagnosing and treating health issues and problems that are typical for these age groups. The majority of pediatricians treat common illnesses and minor injuries. Additionally, general pediatricians also treat infectious diseases and administer vaccinations. Some of them even specialize in pediatric surgery or severe health issues that affect younger patients, like different autoimmune disorders or chronic ailments.
General Internist Jobs
General internists most often treat adults. They use several diagnostic techniques to help their patients through medication or hospitalization. General internists specialize in diagnosing problems that affect internal organ systems such as the stomach, kidneys, liver, and digestive tract. They provide non-surgical treatment.
Physicians can work in many different fields, depending on their medical and surgical specialties and subspecialties. According to the BLS, the most common medical specializations are:
- Allergists — diagnose and treat all kinds of allergies
- Cardiologists — diagnose and treat heart conditions
- Dermatologists — diagnose and treat skin conditions
- Gastroenterologists — diagnose and treat digestive system issues
- Ophthalmologists — eye specialists
- Pathologists -— study body tissue to find abnormalities
- Radiologists — review and interpret X-rays and other images and administer radiation treatments for illnesses like cancer
Work Environment
In 2018, there were approximately 756,800 medical doctor jobs. Most common workplaces for physicians include physicians’ offices, hospitals, and academic and government institutions. They are also working in group practices and various healthcare organizations, where they share a significant number of patients with other physicians. Teamwork allows them to have more time off for organizing care for their patients, but it also means less independence than solo practitioners might have.
Work Schedules
The majority of physicians work full time. The physician job description very often includes working long and irregular hours and working overnight. Physicians also may be required to travel between their offices and hospitals to take care of their patients. Additionally, a physician may be needed to help their patient over the phone or make an emergency visit to a hospital or a nursing home.
Injuries and Illnesses
None of the physician jobs on the list necessarily involve any injuries, but they also don’t come without health issues. Physicians spend most of their working hours on their feet, surrounded by different diseases and illnesses. The biggest threats are the diseases that physicians deal with daily. Some people may not be able to take this, which is why being a physician is far from the easiest doctor job out there.
How to Become a Physician
Physicians have very demanding education and training. Besides a bachelor’s degree, they also need a degree from medical school, which takes four years to complete. Moreover, physicians need to spend three to seven years in internship and residency programs, depending on their chosen specialty.
Important Qualities
All of these doctor jobs require some special abilities. However, every good and successful physician should have the following qualities:
- Communication skills — These are essential for competent physicians, as they have to communicate effectively, not only with their patients but with other healthcare staff they work with, too.
- Compassion — Patients are often in great pain or distress due to their injuries and illnesses. This is why a competent physician must have compassion and understanding for their patients and the patients’ families.
- Attention to detail — A detail-oriented physician makes for an excellent doctor. All MD jobs require this quality since a doctor must monitor and record precise information about their patient and prescribe appropriate medications and therapy.
- Dexterity — Physicians are often required to work with very sharp tools, and mistakes may lead to severe consequences.
- Leadership skills — They are of great essence for physicians who have their practice and have to manage a team of other healthcare professionals.
- Organizational skills — These skills are particularly helpful for keeping medical records.
- Patience — When it comes to doctor jobs, patience is critical in keeping a good relationship with both patients and co-workers. Patients who need special attention and those who are afraid of getting medical help may require more patience from their doctor.
- Physical stamina — This is crucial for long hours, handling disabled patients, and performing other physical jobs.
- Problem-solving skills — They are a requirement for general physician jobs because they are used to evaluate symptoms, prescribe appropriate treatment, and make quick decisions.
Education
Most medical school applicants have at least a Bachelor’s degree, but many of them have advanced degrees. There is no specific major in applying to medical school, but applicants usually complete undergraduate studies in biology, chemistry, physics, math, and English.
Humanities and social sciences are also in the students’ courses. Some of the students even volunteer at local hospitals and clinics to gain experience in a healthcare environment and see a doctor work in person.
Besides being very hard to complete, medical schools are also incredibly competitive. All of the applicants have to submit transcripts, scores from the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), and letters of recommendation.
They also need to attend an interview with members of the admissions committee. Schools consider the candidate’s personality, leadership qualities, and their participation in extracurricular activities. You cannot apply for any of the physician jobs before acquiring the necessary education.
A small number of medical schools offer a combination of undergraduate and medical school programs lasting between six and eight years.
Medical school students usually spend the first two years of their education in laboratories and classrooms, where they study courses like anatomy, biochemistry, pharmacology, psychology, medical ethics, and the laws governing medicine. They also learn practical skills like taking medical histories, examining patients, and diagnosing illnesses.
During the last two years of studying for clinical and non-clinical physician jobs, students work with patients under the supervision of their mentors, that is, experienced physicians in various hospitals and clinics. They usually do rotations in internal medicine, family practice, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery. Additionally, medical school students also gain experience in diagnosing and treating illnesses in a variety of areas.
Most of the students enter a residency program after graduating from medical school. The residency and training for a physician job last from three to seven years, depending on the chosen specialty and most commonly take place in a hospital.
Licenses, Certifications, and Registrations
Requirements may vary from state to state, but all states require physicians to be licensed. Candidates have to graduate from an accredited medical school and fulfill residency training in their specialty of choice. Additionally, they have to pass a standardized national licensure exam to have the chance to be considered for some of the best doctor jobs out there. M.D.s take the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), and D.O.s take the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination (COMLEX-USA).
Physicians do not have to be certified, but certification dramatically increases their chances of getting an excellent job in their field of interest. M.D.s and D.O.s who want to get their certification may spend up to seven years in residency training, depending on their chosen specialty.
Candidates also have to pass a specialty certification exam from a certifying board to become certified and increase their doctor job outlook. The committees include the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), the American Osteopathic Association (AOA), or the American Board of Physician Specialties (ABPS).
Advancement
In general, physicians advance by expanding their practices. Physicians usually improve their skills either in general medicine or in specific fields. Some advance by teaching or doing research, while others study business administration to become hospital administrators.
Pay
Physicians are one of the highest-paid occupations. The highest-paying doctor jobs bring the median annual wage to more than $208,000. According to the BLS statistics from May 2018, surgeons have a yearly salary of approximately $255,110, and obstetricians and gynecologists are in third place with an annual wage of roughly $238,320. Psychiatrists earn roughly $220,380 per year, while family and general practitioners earn $211,780 annually. Additionally, general internists earn, on average, $196,490 per year.
Physician Job Outlook
It’s estimated that between 2018 and 2028, the employment of physicians will have risen by 7%. The longer lifespan and growing elderly population create a unique demand for physicians. It’s expected that this demand will grow steadily, despite the innovations and the latest technologies, diagnostic tests, and therapies. New technologies may decrease the need for physicians, but the need for their services will inevitably increase.
Job Prospects
Almost every medical school graduate is matched with their residence, that is, their first doc jobs right after graduating. Job prospects are especially suitable for physicians who want to work in rural and low-income areas since these areas have difficulties with attracting physicians. Job prospects are also useful for physicians who specialize in fields that deal with health issues that mainly affect the aging Baby Boomers, such as cardiology and radiology.
FAQ
What is the highest-paying job for a doctor?
Even though physicians’ jobs are generally among the highest-paying ones, anesthesiologists are paid the most, with an annual wage of $267,020, according to the 2018 statistics from the BLS. Conversely, general pediatricians have the lowest yearly salary of around $183,240.
What is the average salary for a physician?
As the BLS statistics from May 2018 reveal, the average annual salary for both M.D.s and O.D.s is approximately $208,000, but it’s presumed that it goes above this number.
How do I get a job as a doctor?
Getting a job as a doctor is not very easy. A person would have first to obtain a bachelor’s degree or an undergraduate degree and then go through three to eight years of medical school. On top of that, there are also residency and training.
What jobs are similar to a doctor? | https://healthcareers.co/physician-jobs/ |
What does a Family and General Practitioner do?
Physicians who diagnose, treat, and help prevent diseases and injuries that commonly occur in the general population. May refer patients to specialists when needed for further diagnosis or treatment.
Jobs Roles
- Prescribe or administer treatment, therapy, medication, vaccination, and other specialized medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease, or injury.
- Order, perform, and interpret tests and analyze records, reports, and examination information to diagnose patients' condition.
- Monitor patients' conditions and progress and reevaluate treatments as necessary.
- Collect, record, and maintain patient information, such as medical history, reports, and examination results.
- Explain procedures and discuss test results or prescribed treatments with patients.
- Advise patients and community members concerning diet, activity, hygiene, and disease prevention.
- Refer patients to medical specialists or other practitioners when necessary.
- Direct and coordinate activities of nurses, students, assistants, specialists, therapists, and other medical staff.
- Coordinate work with nurses, social workers, rehabilitation therapists, pharmacists, psychologists, and other health care providers.
- Deliver babies.
- Operate on patients to remove, repair, or improve functioning of diseased or injured body parts and systems.
- Plan, implement, or administer health programs or standards in hospitals, businesses, or communities for prevention or treatment of injury or illness.
- Conduct research to study anatomy and develop or test medications, treatments, or procedures to prevent or control disease or injury.
- Train residents, medical students, and other health care professionals.
- Prepare government or organizational reports which include birth, death, and disease statistics, workforce evaluations, or medical status of individuals. | https://okjobs.co.za/occupation/what-does-a-family-and-general-practitioner-do |
Radiology is a field of medical science. It includes the processes of diagnosis and treatment of various issues with the help of images obtained by the passage of non-invasive radiations. Final reports of these processes will be images of the internal organs and bones. Any abnormality in such organs will be indicative of the underlying issue. One can divide the processes by the level of intensity of the radiations used. Some processes will not even include radiations. As the specialized concept of radiology is new to many patients, many myths are revolving around it. Experts like Dr Johan Blickman often insist people avoid such myths and know the truths about radiology. Let us debunk some of the common myths about radiology.
Radiations are harmful to the human body
Radiologists are experienced medical professionals with all the knowledge of human organs and anatomy. They will not destroy the human body with harmful radiation just to find the underlying issues. So, you need not worry about being exposed to radiation. However, there are some rare cases when radiation could be harmful. On such an occasion, the specialist will not undergo the process or will take necessary precautions before doing it. Hence, you can visit a radiologist without fearing the radiation.
Radiologic examinations are not for pregnant ladies
Pregnant ladies may also face a situation that requires radio imaging. Some people think that radiologic activities are extremely harmful to pregnant people. It is not true completely. For instance, a radio examination done on the chest with a lead apron covering the abdomen part will not have any adverse effect. As the experts will look for alternative diagnosis methods for pregnant ladies, it does not mean that it is not advisable at all. Precautionary methods will help in diagnosing such ladies also.
All diagnosis methods require radiation
Although the process is named radiological, some activities work without any radiation also. For instance, you will not be exposed to any radiation during an MRI scan or ultrasonic scan. However, these scans will also provide images helpful to diagnose the disease. So, you need not take a back step thinking that all techniques in radiology will pass radiations through your body.
Radiologists are interpreters
Some patients think that radiologists can also help them by explaining the diseases or issues after the examination. However, only doctors or nurses can do that with the help of the results of the examinations. A radiologist’s job ends when the results are out and delivered to the doctors. So, it is advisable not to listen even if the radiologist is interpreting the condition. However, these people will interpret the stuff to the doctors.
MRI is helpful at all times
Although MRI is free of radiation, the process will take around thirty minutes. So, it will not be that much helpful in cases of emergencies. Hence, it is better to consider Ultrasonic imaging in those cases instead of MRI.
X-ray scans are no longer efficient
X-ray imaging is still being efficient and widely used for medical imaging. | https://drjohanblickman.com/radiology/common-myths-about-radiology-debunked/ |
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