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This calming, serene print is based on an original watercolor painting by Melissa Selmin. Part of the Serenity collection, the delicate forms, soft brush strokes and balanced composition in this print will help bring a moment of calm in our otherwise busy lives. Printed on matte, 189gsm fine art paper. Unframed. Size - 30 x 40cm (medium and small prints also available).
SKU No.: SC289402
Style No.: 714287
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If you're suffering from a sartorial block or need a hand hunting down something extra special, we're here to help. | https://www.harveynichols.com/brand/melissa-selmin/289402-overcast-art-print-30x40cm/p3262622/ |
tl;dr .. being able to record and play brush strokes , preferably to InkML is awesome! look at the attachments!
The looong one: [some of this may not seem important , but will help me with other bugs I want to report. I will link this bug instead of repeating the whole story]
I have a BoogieBoard https://myboogieboard.com/ . It allows to draw on the single pixel LCD, and stores the result in PDF files (sample attached). I assumed the PDF just had an image, so using some python and pdfrw, I tried extracting the image.
But to my amazement, there was an XML file. Upon proper inspection, I found out it was an InkML https://www.w3.org/TR/InkML/ . I really loved the specification , and with some initial struggle, was able to extract it . I wrote a quick script initially to read the strokes and draw it using GIMP. (Kudos to their team for using a relatively open format!!)
The scripts are available here: https://github.com/kamathln/boogiepdf WARNING: The script was written as a toy, is buggy, and hogs CPU and takes a long time to render if you don't skip importing pressure(which is unfortunately pointless) . It also makes itself as the default for PDF files (at least on my machine), which can create a crater under you if it thinks it is a good time to make thumbnails for the whole folder. (This is because there is no GIMP procedure with which I can play the whole stroke back with dynamics or opacity and pressure information - so for every step in the stroke, I have to set the opacity and size of the brush - and I have not even implemented the angles, as my device does not record them)
That is when I realized It would be awesome to record and play strokes. Imagine:
- being able to experiment with how a set of strokes is rendered.
- being able to repeat a set of strokes in the same image with slightly different settings, angle, perspective (say to draw fur, grass, lion mane, hair
- being able to share a set of strokes across projects .. Say I use my digitizer to create a good page corner decoration, and using GIMP, record those strokes to an InkML file. I could then use the same strokes in different projects using different brush settings, dynamics, colors, and what not, according to the theme of the project!
- being able to share the same stroke with other apps like InkScape, Krita, Blender! Or some animation software that animates your strokes exactly how you recorded it.
Attachment 371731, "The PDF generated by my BoogieBoard": | https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/issues/1411 |
[165 Pages Report] The artificial intelligence (AI) in aviation market was valued at USD 112.3 Million in 2017 and is likely to reach USD 2,222.5 Million by 2025, at a CAGR of 46.65% during the forecast period. The base year considered for the study is 2017, and the forecast period is between 2018 and 2025. The major factors driving the growth of the AI in aviation market include the use of big data in the aerospace industry, significant increase in capital investments by aviation companies, and rising adoption of cloud-based applications and services in the aviation industry.
The report aims at forecasting the market size and future growth potential of the AI in aviation market on the basis of offering, technology, application, and geographic region. It aims at identifying the major market trends and factors driving or restraining the growth of the AI in aviation market and its various submarkets. Furthermore, the report analyzes opportunities in the market for stakeholders by identifying the high-growth segments of the AI in aviation market, strategically profiles key market players, and comprehensively analyzes their market size and core competencies in each segment.
The research methodology used to estimate and forecast the AI in aviation market begins with obtaining data on key vendor revenues through secondary research. Some of the secondary sources referred to for this research include Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, European Association for Artificial Intelligence, Canadian Artificial Intelligence Association. The vendor offerings have also been taken into consideration to determine the market segmentation. The bottom-up procedure has been employed to arrive at the overall size of the AI in aviation market from the revenues of the key players. After arriving at the overall market size, the total market has been split into several segments, which have then been verified through primary research by conducting extensive interviews with key people such as CEOs, VPs, directors, and executives. The market breakdown and data triangulation procedure have been employed to complete the overall market engineering process and arrive at the exact statistics for all segments.
The breakdown of primary participants has been depicted in the following figure.
The AI in aviation market ecosystem comprises companies such as Intel (US), NVIDIA (US), IBM (US), Micron (US), Samsung (South Korea), Xilinx (US), Amazon (US), Microsoft (US), Airbus (France), Boeing (US), General Electric (US), Thales (France), Lockheed Martin (US), and Garmin (US).
The global artificial intelligence (AI) in aviation market is expected to be valued at USD 152.4 Million in 2018 and is likely to reach USD 2,222.5 Million by 2025, at a CAGR of 46.65% between 2018 and 2025. The major factors driving the growth of the AI in aviation market include the use of big data in the aerospace industry, significant increase in capital investments by aviation companies, and rising adoption of cloud-based applications and services in the aviation industry.
In this report, the AI in aviation market has been segmented on the basis of technology, offering, application, and geography. Among all offerings, software holds the largest share of the overall AI in aviation market. This is owing to the developments in AI software for applications such as surveillance, flight operations, and airport operations. AI systems comprise software including application program interfaces, such as language, speech, vision, and sensor data, along with machine learning algorithms, to realize various applications in the aviation industry.
Among all technologies, machine learning is likely to hold the largest share of the AI in aviation market during forecast period. Machine learning’s ability to collect and handle big data, along with its increased ability to perform previously impossible calculations, is fueling the growth of the market for machine learning.
Among all applications, virtual assistants are expected to hold the largest share of the AI in aviation market throughout the forecast period. AI-based virtual assistants help airline companies improve their productivity and increase the efficiency of pilots by reducing recurring works, such as changing radio channels, reading wind forecasts, and providing position information on requests. These recurring jobs are taken care by the AI-enabled virtual assistants. Garmin (US) offers AI-enabled audio panels that help pilots operate these panels without taking their hands off the controls. Furthermore, virtual assistants also help airline companies improve customer services. They can provide instant answers to simple questions pertaining to flight status and services/offerings (audio, video, Wi-Fi), while customer representatives can attend to more important issues, enhancing customer experience. Virtual assistants are used at several airports to serve air travelers. For example, a virtual assistant is placed in the security line at the Barcelona (Spain) airport to help passengers with the security instructions and steps required to check in. Considering the benefits offered by these systems, a large-scale adoption of virtual assistants by airline companies is expected in the near future.
The AI in aviation market in APAC is expected to grow at a high rate between 2018 and 2025. This growth can be attributed to the huge demand for AI technologies from countries such as China and Japan to increase efficiency of their aviation sector. For example, the Alibaba Group Holding Limited (China) has announced to provide AI-based solutions to avoid congestion at the Beijing Airport. These solutions would help pilots find parking slot for their aircraft easily. In addition, the increasing adoption of machine learning and NLP technologies for virtual assistance and training applications in the aviation sector is driving the growth of the market in APAC.
Limited number of experts in AI is restricting the growth of the AI in aviation market. Some of the key players operating in the AI in aviation market are Intel (US), NVIDIA (US), IBM (US), Micron (US), Samsung (South Korea), Xilinx (US), Amazon (US), Microsoft (US), Airbus (France), Boeing (US), General Electric (US), Thales (France), Lockheed Martin (US), and Garmin (US). | https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/artificial-intelligence-in-aviation-market-106037016.html |
Industry Interaction Initiatives
The aim of bridging the gap between industry and academic institutions is to prepare engineering students for jobs in multinational companies by exposing them to new technologies and engineering methodologies. This approach will have a significant impact on the engineering curriculum, giving students exposure to the industrial environment and increasing their chances of being placed in industries upon graduation. The Department of Information Science and Engineering has established Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with various IT companies such as Ethnotech Academy Solutions, Creative Infotech, Cluster Info Solutions, ViswaJothi Technologies and CodeChef. As part of these MOUs, the department also offers industry internships for students to gain practical experience in their field.
Department has undergone MOU with various IT companies, through which corporate training on various laboratories are conducted to meet industry expectations. As a part of MOU we are also offering industry internships for the students to provide an industry exposure. Various companies involved in MOU are as follows:
- Tech Fortune Technologies in the area of AI and Machine learning, Web Angular JS
- DHS Informatics Pvt. Ltd in the area of Networking and Security.
- iPEC Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Under Software development, design thinking and technology transfer.
- Turiya Avastha Pvt. Ltd. in 3D Visualization and Graphics.
- Aqmenz Automation Pvt Ltd., provide solutions for Automation, Emdeded systems, Robotics, AI and Machine learning problems.
- Programink Pvt. Ltd. guarantees placement with pre-placement training to emerge as a Full Stack Python developer. | https://sjbit.edu.in/industry-interaction-initiatives-ise/ |
The E.U. supports the Iranian nuclear deal as the Trump administration announces new sanctions. Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Saturday threatened to avenge the killing of its top general, saying it would go after everyone responsible for the January U.S. drone strike in Iraq. The guard's website quoted Gen. Hossein Salami as saying, "Mr. Our revenge for martyrdom of our great general is obvious, serious and real." FILE: Chief of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hossein Salami speaks at a pro-government rally, in Tehran, Iran.
LONDON: A data and artificial intelligence (AI) summit will be held in Saudi Arabia in October, it was announced on Friday. The Global AI Summit, under the patronage of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and organized by the Saudi Data & AI Authority (SDAIA), will take place on October 7-8 with the theme "AI for the Good of Humanity." SDAIA said the summit will be a virtual one due to the ongoing precautionary measures put in place by the Saudi government to tackle the spread of COVID-19. The summit will discuss how AI trends can assist the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, some inspirational insights about future requirements for regulators, investors, and companies in the field of AI as well as how AI will develop in the future. Among the participants will be many distinguished speakers and global experts from different countries, who will cover a range of topics divided into four sectors: 'Shaping the New Normal,' 'AI and Governments,' 'Governing AI' and'The Future of AI.' According to a SDAIA statement, the event will tackle global changes and their impact on the transformation of AI and review how AI technologies can be used to create a better future for all, in addition to highlighting the most prominent technical challenges facing the global AI community today and how to develop AI technologies safely and ethically in various applications that affect human life.
Guidelines for the responsible and effective procurement of artificial intelligence by governments to better meet the needs of citizens and enhance public servicesThe challenge Artificial intelligence (AI) holds the potential to vastly improve government operations and help meet the needs of citizens in new ways, ranging from traffic management to healthcare delivery to processing tax forms. But most public institutions have not yet adopted this powerful technology. While public sector officials are increasingly aware of the transformational impact of data and AI-powered solutions, the data needed for AI solutions to be developed and deployed is often neither accessible nor discoverable. Public sector officials may also lack the appropriate knowledge and expertise to make strategic buying decisions for AI-powered tools. Uncertainty about ethical considerations adds further layers of complexity. As a result, officials tend to delay buying decisions, or reduce perceived risk by concentrating their purchasing on a few known suppliers. The opportunity The World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution has brought together a multistakeholder community to co-design the AI Procurement in a Box toolkit guide for governments to rethink their public procurement processes: IntroductionGuidelines for AI procurement, presenting the general considerations to be taken when government is procuring AI-powered solutionsWorkbook for policy and procurement officials guiding them through the guidelines ChallengesPilot case studiesThis guidance aims to empower government officials to more confidently make responsible AI purchasing decisions. The tools also improve the experience for AI solutions providers by supporting the creation of transparent and innovative public procurement processes that meet their needs. Impact By co-designing these guidelines with governments, small and large businesses, civil society and academia, the intended impact is the responsible deployment of AI solutions for the public benefit of constituents. Leveraging the significant purchasing power of government in the market, the private-sector adoption of the guidelines can permeate the industry beyond the adoption by public sector organizations. Embedding the principles advocated for in the guidelines into administrative processes will also expand opportunities for new entrants and create a more competitive environment for the ethical development of AI. Further, as industry debates its own standards on these technologies, the government’s influence can help set a baseline for the harmonization of standards-setting. Project accomplishments March–September 2019: Policy development – the World Economic Forum worked with fellows from the public and private sectors, and a multistakeholder group that also included academia and civil society organizations, to create action-orientated guidelines for government procurement of AI. October–March 2020: Pilot and Iteration – the project team validated guidelines through feedback sessions and a pilot project with the United Kingdom government, the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and the Government of Bahrain. June 2020: Publication of the AI Procurement in a Box guide that will allow governments to effectively learn and adopt the best practices developed.Contact information For more information, contact Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head of AI and Machine Learning, World Economic Forum, at [email protected].
Iran has retrieved some data, including a portion of cockpit conversations, from the Ukrainian plane accidentally downed by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces in January, killing all 176 people on board. Analysis of the black boxes showed it was hit by two missiles, 25 seconds apart, and that passengers were still alive for some time after the first impact, an Iranian official said on Sunday. The announcement by the head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation marks the first official report on the contents of the cockpit voice and data recordings, which were sent to France for analysis in July. Tehran has said it accidentally shot down the Ukraine airliner at a time of extreme tensions with the United States. In remarks quoted by state media, Captain Touraj Dehghani Zangeneh said the black boxes have only 19 seconds of conversation following the first explosion.
Yet another country has gone to release the potential of artificial intelligence to fuel its economic growth plans. One of the largest oil manufacturing nations, Saudi Arabia, has now formulated and launched a nation-wide policy on AI. The project has been signed with approval from King Salman and aims to add the market value of up to 500 billion riyals (US$133 billion) in the country's GDP by 2030. The policy formulation had begun last year when the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA) was established through a royal decree in August 2019 to lead the charge of the nation's transformation into a data-driven economy. Besides, the body is working on implementing a cloud platform, intending to build one of the biggest cloud frameworks in the Middle East by connecting 83 data centres controlled by over 40 government bodies.
Iraq cancelled a ministerial visit and summoned Turkey's ambassador on Wednesday as it blamed Ankara for a drone attack that killed two high-ranking Iraqi military officers. Iraqi officials called the attack a "blatant Turkish drone attack" in the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, where Turkey's military has for weeks raided positions of fighters it considers "terrorists". Two border guard battalion commanders and the driver of their vehicle were killed on Tuesday, the army said in a statement, marking the first Iraqi troop deaths since Turkey launched the cross-border operation in mid-June against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels. Iraq's foreign ministry - which already summoned the Turkish envoy twice over the military action on its soil - said the ambassador would this time be given "a letter of protest with strong words" rejecting the offensive. The ministry also confirmed the Turkish defence minister would no longer be welcomed for a planned visit on Thursday.
The Iraqi army says two senior security officials have been killed in a "blatant Turkish drone attack" in the country's north, where Ankara has for weeks been raiding positions of fighters it considers "terrorists". The drone targeted a vehicle belonging to the Iraqi border guards in the Bradost area, north of Erbil, the military said in a statement on Tuesday. The strike caused the deaths of the two border guard battalion commanders and the vehicle's driver. There was no immediate statement by Turkey. The deaths announced by the military marked the first time members of the regular Iraqi forces have been killed since Turkey launched a cross-border ground and air operation in mid-June against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the mountainous terrain of northern Iraq.
President Trump joins Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel for an exclusive interview on'Tucker Carlson Tonight.' Joe Biden should take the same cognitive test that President Trump recently took, the president said Wednesday during an interview with Fox News medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel. "In a way he has an obligation to," Trump said of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, adding that the presidency requires "stamina" and "mental health." Trump said he took the test to prove to the media that he was fit to serve in the presidency after reports supposedly questioned his cognitive ability. Trump has used the argument that Biden -- at age 77, three years older than Trump -- is too old to run for president . The argument is a cornerstone strategy of Trump's reelection campaign against the former vice president.
Think of artificial intelligence, and the mind often goes to industrial robots and benign surveillance systems. Increasingly, though, these are steppingstones for Big Brother to enhance capabilities in domestic security and international military warfare. China has co-opted a controversial big data policing program into law enforcement, both for racial profiling of its Uighur minority population and for broader citizen surveillance through facial recognition. Wuhan has an entirely AI-staffed police station. But experts say China's artificial intelligence research is also being adapted for unconventional military warfare in the country's bid to dominate the field over the next decade.
Amid a global pandemic, economic recession and simmering racial tensions around the world, Israel's threat to formally annex parts of occupied Palestinian territory presents yet another international crisis in the making. This is because, with this outrageous move, the Israeli government threatens to unravel the rules-based system of international relations. Today's international law regime was established in the first half of the 20th century not only to regulate relations between states but also to assist the movements for self-determination across the world and oversee the end of colonialism. The looming Israeli annexation of Palestinian land and the global inaction on it evidence the failure of this regime to help end colonialism and put its very raison d'etre in question. Much of the narrative in international diplomatic circles around the issue of annexation has revolved around deterrence, with the rationale being the threat of tangible consequences to annexation will lead to a reconsideration of the move. Yet this narrative fails to acknowledge that we have reached a point, where Israel will annex yet another chunk of Palestinian territory precisely because deterrence has not worked. | https://aitopics.org/class/Industry/Government/Regional%20Government/Asia%20Government/Middle%20East%20Government |
Agriculture is significant to New Zealand’s economy and the Government aims to create more efficient land usage, better environmental outcomes, and to drive sustainability for food and supply chain across domestic and international markets.
In an effort to grow the agritech sector into an even stronger economic contributor, increase agritech exports and advance sustainable production in New Zealand and globally, the Government of New Zealand has committed to spend USD 7.6 million on the implementation of an Agritech Industry Transformation Plan as part of a strategy for the food and fibre industry. The plan is the culmination of views and insights representing a cross-section of more than 130 members of New Zealand’s agritech ecosystem – the Government, industry, and the Māori and wider community – providing their collective vision to focus attention on the sector for a competitive edge.
Roadmap to Accelerate New Zealand’s Agritech
To further boost the innovation in agritech and upscale the Sustainable Food & Fibre Futures (SFF Futures), an additional USD 56 million has been earmarked for smaller grassroots community projects to large-scale industry development. This will support the Government’s Fit for a better world Roadmap – a 10-year roadmap for the primary industry; and add value across the agriculture, horticulture, fisheries and marine, and forestry sectors.
The Roadmap includes objectives such as:
- Adding USD 29 billion in export earnings over the next decade (2020 to 2030) through a focus on creating value
- Reducing the biogenic methane emissions to below 10% by 2030 and restoring New Zealand’s freshwater environments
- Employing 10% more New Zealanders in the food and fibres sector by 2030, and 10,000 more by 2024
Ecosystm Principal Advisor, Jannat Maqbool says, “In addition to the current environment with COVID-19, a new generation of consumers across the globe is becoming considerate that they buy what is good for the world in the face of climate change, biodiversity loss and the degradation of waterways. The ability to manage and assure quality and safety from ‘farm to fork’ is now more important than ever, leveraging technology for traceability, risk management, and rapid response capability to meet consumer demands and relevant legislative requirements.”
Through this Industry Transformation Plan (ITP), the Government seeks to attract investments in New Zealand’s agritech intellectual property (IP), develop the necessary infrastructure, focus on export opportunities, address current concerns related to connectivity and data, and ensure a skilled workforce that is able to both develop and effectively leverage agritech.
Maqbool says, “The success of the plan will depend on how well relevant stakeholders engage and ongoing support from government to help create the conditions required for the sector to realise its potential.”
Key Milestones
The Government of New Zealand is working to retain competitiveness in global agriculture. Some key initiatives include:
Farm 2050 Country Partnership. New Zealand became the first country partner of Farm2050- a global agritech initiative that brings together farmers, researchers, the market and investors to collaborate effectively.
Western Growers partnership. Western Growers and New Zealand signed a partnership agreement to develop agritech. It also opened doors for New Zealand’s agritech researchers and companies working in the robotics and automation space to enter the US Market.
The Australia New Zealand Agritech Council. The Australia New Zealand Agritech Council was launched to help the countries work closely on agricultural practices and to cooperate on agritech.
New Zealand is fast becoming an example of how technology providers and food producers can collaborate on improving yields, optimising production methods and reducing waste, predicting demand, and safeguarding supply chains.
The COVID-19 pandemic is debilitating industries, and economies around the world are facing the prospect of a recession. Malaysia, like many other countries, is focussing on front-line medical efforts and security services to save lives and contain the deadly, rapidly spreading virus. Essential services such as food, water and energy supply, Telecommunications, Banking, eCommerce and logistics are working overtime in this new order to support basic functions. The measures put in place to mitigate the spread of the virus are obviously inhibiting other economic activities.
Until enough people develop an immunity to the virus – either through a vaccine or naturally – it is hard to envisage lifting these movement control measures and return to a pre COVID-19 state. Malaysia has a total of 4,987 positive cases, the highest in Southeast Asia and a death toll of 82 as of today. The number of the population tested remains low at 81,730 as reported by the Ministry of Health, mainly due to limited testing resources.
The biggest challenge is that this epidemic is unprecedented, and it is unclear when we can put this situation behind us. The Malaysian Industry of Economic Research (MIER) has predicted about 2.4 million job losses as well as the GDP to reduce by 2.9 percent in 2020. Public debt rise coupled by reduced income due to lower crude oil, natural gas and palm oil prices and demand, will hit the Government coffers hard. Interest rates are expected to be low through the current lockdown stage right up to the recovery stage to help support the economic recovery.
Government Initiatives for the Economy
Like many countries, Malaysia has announced economic stimulus packages to ensure help for the poor and needy, that workers do not lose their jobs and that companies avoid bankruptcy – albeit with an inevitably reduced output – to keep the economy functioning. The stimulus offered is short-term covering a few months, and more assistance will be required should the epidemic linger and for the recovery period.
The Government announced a stimulus package on the 27th February worth RM20 billion (US$4.5 billion) and another one on the 27th March worth RM230 billion (US$52.6 billion). The packages comprise of direct fiscal injection of RM25 billion (US$5.7 billion) as well as loan deferments, one-off cash assistance, credit facilities and rebates. The focus of the stimulus packages is to assist people in the lower-income (B40) and mid-income (M40) groups, aid for employees in the private sector and for traders during the movement control order (MCO) which is to run until 14th April 2020.
An additional COVID-19 stimulus package worth RM10 billion (US$2.2 billion) was announced on the 6th April to address the challenges of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that employ two-thirds of the workforce and contribute to 40 percent of the GDP. The wage subsidy is to benefit 4.8 million workers earning less than RM4,000 (US$915) per month. In addition, SMEs will have access to interest free loans of RM200 million (US$45.7 million) from the National Entrepreneur Group Economic Fund and a further RM500 million (US$114.4 million) via Bank Simpanan Nasional. The Government allowed 750,000 SMEs to postpone income tax payment for three months from 1st April – companies in the tourism sector are allowed to postpone income tax for six months.
Impact on Industries
Banking & Financial Services. Banking institutions will support the Government’s stimulus initiatives by providing a six months’ loan repayment moratorium, corporate loan restructuring and conversion of credit card balance to long term loans. Banking and financial institutions are focussing on business continuity planning to ensure minimal disruption to their business and customer support. Many key business processes are now being put to test in-home working with scaled-down office operations. Digital Transformation (DX) has been accelerated as a result.
Contactless payments have seen a boost and many financial institutions have increased payment limits for such payments. Early last month the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Bank of England had issued advisories against the use of banknotes, as it could increase the chances of the virus spread, instead recommending the use of contactless payment where possible. This might give a boost to the use of Cryptocurrency and cross-border payment services in Malaysia. In 2019, cryptocurrency start-ups received an estimated 12 percent of Fintech funding – but, only three cryptocurrency exchanges were given conditional approval by the Securities Commission. The current situation may well see that changing.
Insurance. The Prime Minister announced that the Insurance industry is to create a fund of RM8 million (US$1.8 million) to cover the cost of RM300 (US$68.6) per policyholder to undergo COVID-19 tests. In addition to this, insurance companies are to offer a 3-month suspension on premiums for policyholders whose income is affected by the pandemic.
Agriculture. Even prior to COVID-19, there has been a brewing narrative against globalisation, favouring a nationalistic emphasis as reflected globally by Brexit and the China-US trade wars tension. Food security is key, and COVID-19 has further highlighted its importance with priorities shifting to local requirements over exports. The Government intends to distribute a food security fund of RM1 billion (US$228.8 million) to increase the local production of farms, fisheries and livestock. According to the Department of Statistics, Malaysia’s food and beverage imports amounted to RM54 billion (US$12.3 billion) in 2018 while food exports stood at RM35 billion (US$8.0 billion) resulting in a trade deficit of RM18.8 billion (US$4.3 billion). As countries focus on internal supplies instead of exports in the current scenario, Malaysia needs to address this risk by producing more locally.
Impact on Industry Transformation
Amidst the gloomy outlook, there are plenty of opportunities, especially to the country’s Digital Economy. Malaysia has been committed to the Digital Economy vision with the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) estimating that the country’s Digital Economy is worth US$3 trillion. The COVID-19 crisis may well be the key driver in achieving that vision. DX efforts are being accelerated with businesses adopting more cloud and mobility solutions. More workloads have to be digitalised and there is greater adoption of Cloud for storage and services. AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud will be beneficiaries in this area.
I have already spoken about the Financial Services industry – other industries are also getting transformed out of a necessity to survive this crisis. The Education sector has seen an increase in access to educational content and traffic to education portals and blogs. Some schools have implemented online lessons and group chats between teachers, students and parents to ensure education continues through this pandemic. Many universities have used their e-learning platforms to move lectures online.
The Telecommunications industry is being appreciated more than ever and it is the backbone to normal life, in both a social and business sense. The Government’s stimulus package includes offers of free internet to all customers until the MCO is over at RM600 million (US$137.3 million) and an investment of about RM400 million (US$91.5 million) to improve coverage and quality of service. Leading operators Maxis, Digi, Celcom and U Mobile have offered 1GB free data during the MCO period. The Axiata Group recently announced a cash fund of RM150 million (US$34.3 million) to assist micro-SMEs within the ecosystem providing eCommerce, digital payments and related services.
Video conferencing traffic is on the rise as it is the next best thing to face-to-face meetings. Microsoft Teams and Zoom have been the biggest winners so far. The home working trend should continue in the recovery stage and beyond, due to improvements in the telecommunications infrastructure and the impending rollout of 5G.
The eCommerce sector should see a major improvement in Malaysia with physical channels to the market being suspended. Malaysians have not embraced eCommerce like mature economies have, and it has significant room for improvement. Development of the SME sector and eCommerce are twin focus areas for the Digital Economy vision. Statista reports that the average Malaysian eCommerce shopper spent just US$159 on online consumer goods purchases in 2018, considerably lower than the global average of US$634. There is huge opportunity to provide for necessities such as online grocery, food and delivery of goods. As a consequence, the Transport & Logistics sector will have to adapt their business operations in order to ride this wave successfully.
Video streaming and gaming has also seen an increase in consumption in these times as they provide for entertainment for millions stuck at home. Netflix, YouTube, Microsoft Xbox and PlayStation are among the winners in this sector. YouTube provides for a primary news source and commentary on the epidemic for many. There provides a tremendous opportunity for both telecom operators and content providers to increase their number of services in this area.
Malaysia, like all other countries, will have to ride out this wave. It has made a positive step in the direction with the stimulus packages, especially for the SME sector. How well the country rides this wave out will depend on how targeted the future stimulus packages are and how fast industries can transform to handle the new world order that will emerge after the COVID-19 crisis.
Deep Tech companies are aiming to transform the world through scientific, engineering and technological advances. As technology evolves, researchers are looking to apply engineering and technological advances in areas such as processing and computing architecture, semiconductors and electronics, materials science, vision and speech technologies, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and so on – for the greater good. For example, finding a cure to a disease, developing new medical devices, sensors and analytics to help farmers increase yield, or developing clean energy solutions to reduce the environmental impact are some of the areas that Deep Tech is finding real-world applications.
Deep Tech Impacting Industries Today
There are several industries that are benefitting from Deep Tech innovations today. Here are only a few examples of Deep Tech innovations in some industries:
Healthcare
The combination of computational and biotechnology is accelerating the development of new cures, augmenting R&D and improving health outcomes. Deep Tech in healthcare has multiple applications from the manufacturing of affordable medical devices to redefining healthcare. Vibrosonic, has designed what they call a “contact lens for the ear” which can be directly placed on the eardrum. Unlike other hearing aids speakers are not used to transport sound through the ear canal but the eardrums are stimulated through electric impulses. A Singapore-based biotech company X Zell has patented a “liquid biopsy”- detecting cancer from a 10ml blood sample by measuring the presence of tumour-derived Circulating Endothelial Cells (tCEC) – which reduces the need for invasive cancer detection processes.
Food and Agriculture
Food crisis is a reality today with factors such as overpopulation, urbanisation, decreasing land per capita, extreme climates and so on impacting the food and agriculture industry immensely. Deep Tech companies are working to bring us sustainable food options and building climate resilience. Cell-based meat options are being researched globally, and companies such as foodtech start-up Shiok Meats is producing meat by harvesting cells from animals with a view to be environmentally friendly and to reduce the impact on biodiversity. In agriculture, Deep Tech companies are working on technologies to develop better farming methods to improve yield and precision sensors for weather forecasting. Examples such as UbiQD, that has worked on a greenhouse quantum dot film that improves crop quality by optimising sunlight spectrum for plants to improve production, show how Deep Tech will continue to transform the industry.
Environment and Energy
Deep Tech continues to come up with solutions that will help us in climate change mitigation, development of sustainable energy and energy efficiency. Innovations include Carbon Upcycling Technologies’ solution to capture and neutralise carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide-enriched nanoparticles are used to make commercial construction materials and even consumer products such as jewellery. Celadyne Technologies has developed hydrogen fuel cells and electrolysers with nanocomposite membranes for a more efficient, cost-effective and eco-friendly energy source.
Advanced Computing
As technology evolves, there will be a need to support even greater compute and data-intensive tasks. Deep Tech has impacted and will continue to impact advanced computing. The semiconductor and microchip industry is getting disrupted by cutting-edge global research, many by the top universities. MIT, for example, has developed a process called “remote epitaxy” to manufacture flexible chips. Potential use cases include VR-enabled contact lenses, electronic fabrics that respond to the weather, and other flexible electronics. Atom Computing is working on scalable quantum computing that will be able to scale millions of qubits using individual atoms – without scaling up the physical resources – in a single architecture.
Communication and Security
Communication and connectivity have seen a sea change in the last decade. As we wait for 5G to take off, this industry has become a playground for inventions. Aircision, is working on making 5G more accessible using its laser-based communications technology. The technology is developed to enable high-bandwidth communication and beam data between buildings thus aiming to eliminate the need for optical fibre installations and microwave. Another area that will keep getting a lot of attention from Deep Tech firms is communication security. Speqtral is working on space-based quantum networks to deliver secure encryption keys.
Examples such as these are an indication that Deep Tech is a reality today and has the potential to disrupt several industries and impact the lives of millions.
Where is Deep Tech Headed?
Government Interest in Deep Tech
Since Deep Tech is aimed at leveraging technology and engineering for sustainability and greater good, several countries are promoting Deep Tech R&D and initiatives. From emerging to mature economies, governments are supporting their Deep Tech industry. The New Zealand Government has formed a Deep Tech Incubator program. The program is headed by the Government’s innovation agency to help Deep Tech companies and to create new tech jobs.
Singapore has created a strong Deep Tech ecosystem leveraging the funding ecosystem, the presence of global corporations, research and higher learning organisations and the Government that promotes innovation and entrepreneurship. Agencies such as SGInnovate and Enterprise Singapore are working with Deep Tech startups in advanced manufacturing, urban solutions and sustainability, and healthcare and biomedical sciences. Partnerships between universities, industry bodies and research organisations further fuel this ecosystem – the Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalised-Medicine (CAMP) is a partnership between Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) and A*STAR for cell therapy manufacturing. The Government also funds and incentivises Deep Tech startups. The 2020 budget announced additional funding to support Deep Tech companies under the Start-up SG Equity scheme.
As global governments get serious about the quality of their citizens’ lives and sustainability goals, they will invest in Deep Tech research.
Challenges of the Deep Tech Industry
While Deep Tech has enormous potential, mainstream adoption is still some way off. There are some unique challenges that the industry faces today. Future uptake will depend heavily on how fast the industry can circumvent these challenges. The key challenges are:
- Securing Finances. Despite initiatives by several global governments, Deep Tech projects often find it difficult to secure funding. Very often the research duration can stretch without any real guarantee of success. Funding is likelier to go to organisations developing consumer products as the ROI are seen earlier and are easier to quantify, especially in the early stages.
- Identifying Market Opportunities. Researchers who develop Deep Tech solutions and products might not be able to identify opportunities to present their development from a marketing as well as an economic perspective. Very often these companies rely on other channels or third-party services for a proper marketing and planning strategy. This is where working with incubators or government bodies becomes crucial – countries that give that opportunity through a well-defined ecosystem, will lead the Deep Tech revolution.
- Scalable Development. Many Deep Tech innovations get stuck at the proof-of-concept stage – not because they are not innovative enough, but because they are not scalable to mass production. That requires the right infrastructure as well as a deep understanding of how the products and services can be commercialised.
There are several global companies trying to disrupt entire industries with their inventive offerings. We are witnessing some novel innovations in autonomous vehicles, foodtech, computer vision, AI, weather predictions, Clean Energy solutions – the list continues – that we will benefit from in the future.
Let us know which Deep Tech companies have impressed you in the comments below.
Traditional industry practices tend to divide industries into two distinct buckets – firms that are primarily focused on product design and improvement, and those that define their strategy based on customer services. Over the years, the lines distinguishing these organisations have all but disappeared. To be able to succeed in today’s competitive world, you need to continually improve your product offering – even for organisations in industries such as Manufacturing and Wholesale – and the best way to do so is to keep a firm eye on your customers. Likewise, unless you have a robust product, you will not be able to retain customers. As an example, online reviews are often critical of budget airlines, but the successful ones manage to hold on to their loyal customers doing what they set out to do – by not offering the best airline food service but by continuing to provide affordable airfares to places where their customers want to go. The Ecosystm CX study finds that even the most product-focused industries today, have improving customer experience (CX) as a key business priority (Figure 1). The two groups of industries tend to have similar priorities – the only major difference being customer-focused industries invest in more initiatives to promote customer loyalty.
In 2016, Caterpillar showed the way forward to industries that have primarily been product-focused. They started investing in technology that is not just focused on solving, but actually predicting customer issues to improve service. Even industries such as Agriculture are increasingly becoming customer-focused, as more citizens become conscious of where and how their food has been produced. Freight Farms is a good example of customer-centricity in the industry – focusing on technology to grow food in environments not considered conducive to farming such as urban localities and places with extreme climates.
Investing in the Right Technologies
Looking at the Top 5 CX trends for 2020, we find that technologies such as Cloud and AI, and solutions such as robust knowledge management are true enablers of positive CX. So how do these two groups differ when it comes to investments in these technology areas? Customer-focused industries are slightly more enthusiastic about their Cloud investments, but only marginally (Figure 2). Obviously, they invest more in knowledge management solutions, both for CX as well as improved employee experience (EX). But surprisingly, product-focused industries also tend to invest in knowledge management, for several reasons ranging from product improvement to after-sales support.
Where product-focused industries really lead is in their investments in AI/Analytics – which ties in with our observation that automation is the stepping stone for AI investments across industries. The applications of AI/Analytics are very distinct for the two groups (Figure 3). Product-based industries focus on automation and optimisation and have a clear asset focus. However, it is heartening to see some customer-centric solutions such as market segmentation. On the other hand, the top AI/Analytics application for customer-focused industries is billing management, which might significantly improve CX but falls under the purview of Finance & Operations in most organisations.
Securing Data and Building Trust
No organisation can ignore the seriousness of data breaches – whether customer data or intellectual property. Public cloud is going to be the true enabler of Digital Transformation (DX), from both cost and agility angles. Security has always been a key concern around public cloud adoption, even though organisations would mostly benefit from the robust and evolving security features of public cloud providers rather than having a go at securing their systems and data in-house and on-premises. The perception on public cloud security has changed over the years (Figure 4), but customer-focused industries appear to be savvier about the shared responsibility SLAs most public cloud providers have in place.
Which brings us to another important question – how much sensitive data do these organisations store on public cloud (Figure 5). Probably because they hold more customer data and must follow industry and country compliance laws that mandate how customer data should be stored and accessed, nearly a third of customer-focused organisations store sensitive data on-premises only. While their cloud adoption may be slightly higher than product-based industries, they are also more wary of storing sensitive data on the public cloud.
The differences in strategies between customer-focused and product-focused industries might have blurred over the past decade – both groups focusing on customer-centric products. Their technology priorities are still clearly distinct, however. It is important to bear this difference in mind – both for tech buyers who are looking at use cases across all industries when it comes to emerging technology adoption; as well as for tech vendors who now have to engage with stakeholders beyond the IT department.
NB: For the purpose of this blog, industries have been classified as follows: Product-focused Industries – Energy & Utilities, Manufacturing-based industries, Resource & Primary industries, Transport & Logistics, Wholesale and Construction; Customer-focused Industries – Banking & Financial industries, Retail & eCommerce, Healthcare, Government, Professional Services, Media & Telecommunications
The largest agricultural event in the southern hemisphere has just come to a close in Waikato New Zealand, across 114 hectares, with over 1,050 exhibitors, more than 125,000 visitors, including delegates from over 40 countries, and total sales revenue of around half a billion over the four days. Fieldays, an idea from the late 1960s focused on connecting farmers with innovative products and services, was officially opened by the Rt. Hon. Jacinda Ardern who spoke of the strength of New Zealand’s primary industry and its importance to the people of New Zealand. Of specific interest to me as I joined the crowds on day two, was the emerging technology innovations in agriculture on show at the Innovation Centre.
A preview of the New Zealand Agritech Story, developed along with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), was kicked off on a foggy Waikato morning on day two of Fieldays, providing insights into the country’s competitive advantage in Agritech along with perceptions of key global players. This was then followed by the New Zealand government announcing a new $20 million Agritech investment venture fund.
NZ Tech reports that the tech sector in New Zealand is the third largest and fastest growing export sector, worth $6.3 billion in 2015, and according to the TIN100, the Waikato, has had the fastest growing tech sector in the country two years in a row. New Zealand Agritech exports stand at $1.4 billion in 2018 and is growing – and together with a strong tech sector overall, the investment will help position New Zealand at the forefront of Agritech innovation globally.
Day two also revealed Fieldays Innovation Award winners across a range of categories including Modusense who took out the Gait International Innovation Award for Product Design and Scalability. Modusense, developed here in the Waikato, is a secure, scalable and reliable Internet of Things (IoT) device platform that provides everything needed to deploy remote data collection. In the primary industries sector, Modusense enables complete apiary health monitoring.
Another IoT enabled solution, RiverWatch, was awarded the AWS Innovation Award in Data for their “Fitbit for water” – an inexpensive water quality monitoring device. RiverWatch is currently running trials in the upper Waikato River in partnership with Te Arawa River Iwi Trust to look at the impacts of industry and farming on water health.
Agritech will transform the industry, and innovations such as those mentioned will further advance New Zealand’s position in the agriculture industry. The true value of Agritech will be realised when AI-enabled IoT is leveraged for cost savings through process automation, and for greater visibility of the entire supply chain. And leading organisations in the industry are aware of it. In the global Ecosystm AI study, Resource & Primary industries (including Agriculture) emerged as a leader when it comes to current and future deployments of IoT Sensor Analytics.
Innovations in IoT
Shipping and logistics in the agricultural sector present unique challenges including a lack of transparency, something that Sparrows.io is working to solve with a hardware and software solution that provides actionable insights using custom sensor modules and live tracking to enable visibility over the supply chain.
The recently launched TRex – IoT, Telemetry, Data and Messaging I/O Transceiver, was also being showcased in the Innovation Centre. Designed to be used for long range monitoring and control, the solution enables two-way messaging and is customisable to meet the needs of applications across various industry sectors including agriculture and farming.
Another innovation that caught my attention at the Innovation Centre was a water monitoring and management device designed to be connected to the irrigation system to enable effective management of water through a mesh network. Hailing from the deep south Next Farm has developed two solutions, with their Remote Irrigation Mesh (RIM) product utilising integrated farm sensor technology together with cloud-based dashboards allowing farmers to maximise the efficiency of water usage while minimising runoff.
Innovations in AI
One of my favourites from last year, Halter, were in the Mystery Creek Pavillion this year and after raising $8 million in funding to refine and further trial their solar-powered collar, for herding cows and monitoring their health, in the Waikato they are close to hitting the open market. Head of Data Science at Halter, Harry She, previously employed by NASA, oversees the development of what the team calls “cowgorithms” which form the basis of the AI underpinning much of the product functions. The collars, which can receive signals up to 8 kms away, is available free and farmers then subscribe on a monthly basis, at a cost per cow, to enable the features they require.
Another product back for another year was the PAWS® Pest Identification Sensor Pad from Lincoln Agritech which is able to identify pests, differentiating these from native species, and transmit the result to the Department of Conservation staff. Utilising machine learning and AI, amongst other technologies, the device greatly reduces surveillance workload and enables staff to detect and respond to re-invasion more rapidly.
However, as exciting as the idea of a Fitbit for cows and innovation in the pursuit of a predator-free New Zealand is, I must admit the highlight of my Fieldays visit was a team of Agribusiness students from Hamilton’s St Paul’s Collegiate school who were awarded the Fieldays Innovations Young Innovator of the Year Award for their floating electro unit “Bobble Trough” designed to keep animal water troughs clean by preventing the growth of algae and microorganisms through the release of copper ions into the water.
I am now working to secure the team’s innovation as a display in a Smart Space being launched in July as part of the Hamilton City Council’s smart cities initiative, Smart Hamilton. A space designed to provide an opportunity for the wider community to engage with technology innovation and be involved in co-creating solutions that enhance the wellbeing of Hamiltonians.
For information on emerging technology innovation in the agriculture sector in New Zealand access my other reports on technology in agriculture in New Zealand. | https://blog.ecosystm360.com/tag/agriculture/ |
The benefits of the University of Hawaiʻi-West Oʻahu music program – through its faculty, students and numerous collaborative efforts within the community – are far reaching, touching thousands beyond the Kapolei campus.
“Music celebrates our community’s cultural heritages, and our UH West Oʻahu music program engages our students and community members in the creation and performance of music for the community to enjoy,” said Dr. Jon Magnussen, head of UH West Oʻahuʻs music program and an associate professor in music.
Music faculty plan the semester so their students, who come from a variety of majors but all share a passion for music, experience music-making as a community engagement activity. Magnussen will present on his engaged scholarship work at the UH West Oʻahu Spring 2020 Professional Development/Convocation Day on Jan. 7.
“Our most recent concert ʻgiftsʻ for the community took place in December and included our University Band performing at Windward Mall, our Kapolei Chorale | University Chorus performing at the Kapolei Library, and the University Strings performing at the Ka Punawai Ola nursing home,” Magnussen said.
Also, the programʻs Hawaiian Ensemble hosts a Hoʻokani Kulanui event every semester with a well-known Hawaiian music artist, who recently have included Kamuela Kimokeo and Kamakakehau Fernandez.
“These kanikapila sessions attract 30 to 40 members of the community and allow our students to learn the art of kanikapila in a truly gracious atmosphere of fun and sharing,” Magnussen said.
The program opens up such music-making opportunities to not only the campus community, but to outside community members, as well.
UH West Oʻahuʻs music faculty members themselves are deeply involved in community service and collaborations. In October, the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra performed “The Symphony of the Hawaiian Birds,” for which UH West Oʻahu music faculty Drs. Daniel Houglum and Magnussen each contributed one of the six symphonic movements.
The project features six original compositions, five animations (UH West Oʻahu Creative Media Assistant Professor Laurie Sumiye contributed one of the animations), and one original hula about Hawaiian birds created by local composers and artists and led by UH Mānoa Associate Professors Takuma Itoh (Music Composition) and Melissa Price (Biology).
This partnership between UH, the orchestra, and the Bishop Museum has been experienced by over 10,000 school children since its 2018 debut, and aims to educate elementary and secondary students of Oʻahu through science, music, and art to teach about Hawaiʻi’s native bird species and the importance of conservation efforts.
Additionally, a major research area of focus of Magnussen is the expansion of music education resources for ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi communities. In October, his “Pākaʻa Lanakila!” for wind quintet and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi narrator was featured in a three-day residency at the Bishop Museum. The performances by Chamber Music Hawaii’s Spring Wind Quintet and Kalama Cabigon, ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi narrator, were experienced by nearly 600 school children and teachers. A free, downloadable Teacher Resource Guide (scroll to the bottom of the link for the resource guides) in Hawaiian and in English provided curriculum support for classroom teachers.
In November, the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra Masterworks Series featured Magnussen’s “Nā Kau ʻElua | The Two Seasons,” concerto for oboe and orchestra, commissioned by J. Scott Janusch and Live Music Awareness for the Hawaiian Oboe Legacy Project. The performances featured the special kauila oboe handcrafted from 300-year-old wood native to Kōkeʻe, Kauaʻi, by world renowned oboe maker Howarth of London.
While the UH West Oʻahu music program – which launched a new Certificate of Music in fall 2018 – offers an opportunity to create and perform beautiful, inspiring music, it also addresses the overall well-being of the community, Magnussen noted.
“Humans have always had a need to express ourselves in wordless and non-verbal ways,” he said. “By making music an important part of our campus’ offerings, we are opening all of our students and community members to the benefits of music-making, whether it be learning an instrument for the first time or continuing one’s life-long musical learning journey.”
The benefits of musical activity are well-known to enhance executive function, cognitive flexibility, working memory, and processing speed, Magnussen added.
“On a college campus, regular weekly rehearsals can also lend a much-needed stress release to a busy academic schedule and provide an opportunity to make new friends,” he said. | https://westoahu.hawaii.edu/ekamakanihou/?p=11428 |
15/ E. S. Craighill Handy and Mary K. Puku'i, The Polynesian Family System in Ka'u, Hawaii (Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1972), p. 199.
16/ See Note 10, above.
17/ According to Hawaiian tradition, all Hawaiian ali'i and maka'ainana descend through Haloa from Papa and Wakea who were superhuman/supernatural beings. Haloa was second-born after a miscarriage that developed into the taro plant, thus elevating the lineage of this staff of Hawaiian life above man himself, who derives his strength from the plant. Papa and Wakea also gave birth to the Hawaiian Islands before the birth of Haloa, thus making the Hawaiian people genetically-related to their land and subservient to it by Hawaiian concepts of ranking by birth. Significantly, the name of the first-born island, Hawai'i, is applied to all junior members of the family, giving ka pae'aina Hawai'i ("the Hawai'i cluster of lands" or Hawai'i in the sense of the archipelago) and ka po'e Hawai'i ("the Hawai'i people" or the Hawaiians).
Voyagers mentioned in precontact traditions include Pili, Pa'ao, 'Aukelenuia'lku and others who married into the original Hawai'i lineage. Of course, since Western and Eastern contact many other people have married into the Hawai'i lineage, but its unity has been maintained by recognition of the common lineage at the same time that pride in the other contributing lineages is expressed.
18/ The history of education in most parts of the United States starts considerably later than in Hawai'i. Many people in Hawai'i take pride in noting that Lahainaluna is the first American high school established west of the Rocky Mountains, although this is technically incorrect since Lahainaluna was not politically under the flag of the United States until 1899. It cannot even be counted geographically American because Hawai'i is not geographically part of North or South America. The early establishment of secondary education in Hawai'i speaks well for the academic interests and capabilities of Hawaiians.
19/ Albert C. Baugh, A History of the English Language, 2d ed. (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1957), p. 80. | https://grihwiki.kenconklin.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Template:Nhsc-v1-220 |
Abaya Yala brings together people interested in Indigenous Issues within the University and Flagstaff community, and provides academic support to NAU students.
To learn more about Abaya Yala, please visit their website.
American Indian Science & Engineer Society (AISES) Accordion Closed
The mission of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) is to substantially increase the representation of American Indian and Alaskan Natives in engineering, science, and other related technology disciplines.
To learn more about AISES, please visit their website.
Black Student Union (BSU) Accordion Closed
We the Black Student Union of Northern Arizona University being an established organization associated ourselves for the purpose of motivating students to stay actively involved on campus, coordinating activities to strengthen cultural awareness, and provide a professionally organized body of students on campus that deal with social, cultural, and educational issues. Understanding our establishment to be a response to the needs of black students apart of the Northern Arizona Community, do continue the beliefs and culture of our organization’s founders, as the Black Student Union. The Black Student Union shall exist to encourage the participation of all people in the promotion of black cultural, intellectual, social, and economic interest at Northern Arizona University and in the surrounding community, thus ensuring the success of the Black Student Union.
Learn more about Black Student Union.
Chinese Culture Club Accordion Closed
The purpose for the club is to promote Chinese culture and provide a resource for more people to have a better understanding of Chinese culture and to help students discover their own interests in foreign languages learning and offer a way for students to learn Mandarin. To disseminate information to students regarding on-campus entertainment. Stimulating cultural diversity in the community of Northern Arizona University.
Learn more about the Chinese Culture Club.
Chinese Students Scholars Association Accordion Closed
CSSA is a non-profit organization that helps Chinese students and scholars in the aspects of daily life and development in the U.S. Ourselves, members of CSSA-NAU, are a group of Chinese students and scholars who are full of passion and enthusiasm for exploring the way to building deep communication channels between Chinese and other cultures and groups at NAU. We want to build well-organized community where people with different nationalities have mutual understanding in cultural identity. Our purpose is to introduce and share Chinese culture and provide a platform for most Chinese students to meet each other and make friends. In addition, we are aimed at offering better service for members. We welcome everyone to join us.
Learn more about the Chinese Students Scholars Association.
Connecting Higher Education Indigenously (CHEI) Accordion Closed
Student organization of the Applied Indigenous Studies Department. To promote indigenous knowledge, provide student support, engage in our communities, and work on the retention and recruitment of indigenous students into higher education.
Daleth Phi Aleph Cultural Alliance Accordion Closed
Dedicated to the positive development of women of color as a method of providing academic support, cultural education, and successful transitioning on college campuses. Create a sense of culture, champion social justice within the community, seek philanthropic efforts within the community, provide academic support and promote scholarship of students.
Learn more about Daleth He Aleph Cultural Sorority.
Delta Chi Lambda (DChiL) Accordion Closed
Delta Chi Lambda is an Asian Interest Sorority that was established at The University of Arizona on October 12, 2000. It welcomes all women pursuing an education and feel they would like to contribute to DChiL. It takes pride in honesty, loyalty, and friendship while supporting each other. Delta Chi Lambda Gamma Colony was created in Spring of 2012. 11 girls successfully crossed on December 4, 2011. Delta Chi Lambda Gamma Colony is the first Asian-American Interest sorority that chartered at NAU. By bringing another multicultural sorority to the Greek community we hope to strengthen and expand the diversity on campus and continue to teach each other. We’d like to create awareness of the Asian American culture not only for Asian American students, but students of many backgrounds.
Learn more about Delta Chi Lambda.
Filipino American Student Association (FASA) Accordion Closed
The Filipino American Student Association is a club that brings awareness of the Filipino culture to students at Northern Arizona University.
Learn More about FASA
Gamma Alpha Omega (GAO) Accordion Closed
A Latina-founded, multicultural organization that exists to:
- Increase the number of women with a college education and advanced degrees.
- Provide mentors for youth, women and under-represented communities.
- Enhance the individual leader in each member.
- Provide a family of lifelong support for sisters who live their lives by the pillars of honesty, integrity, leadership, scholarship and unity.
Learn more about Gamma Alpha Omega.
Gamma Rho Lambda (GRL) Accordion Closed
Gamma Rho Lambda is an all-inclusive woman’s social sorority exemplifying the qualities of tolerance, diversity, unity, and trust, which provides a network of assistance in the areas of scholastic guidance, emotional support, and community service while ultimately developing the lifelong bonds of sisterhood.
Learn more about Gamma Rho Lambda.
Gold ‘N Brown Jacks Accordion Closed
To build camaraderie and strengthen a supportive peer and profession network among black males within the campus community.
For more information about Gold ‘N Brown Jacks, please contact: [email protected], [email protected] or [email protected].
HAPA Hawaiian Club (HAPA) Accordion Closed
The purpose of the NAU HAPA Hawaiian Club is to help the students of Hawaii, as well as non-Hawaii students’ transition into college and feel a sense of “ohana.” The NAU HAPA Hawaiian Club supports the club members both socially and academically. Club activities give students the opportunity to bond with one another, participate in service activities for the community, and get involved with events around school to build a sense of engagement and belonging on campus. By giving students these opportunities, our club members are able to spread the Aloha Spirit and the Hawaiian culture not only around Northern Arizona University, but as well as around the Flagstaff Community.
Learn more about HAPA Hawaiian Club.
Indian Association of Northern Arizona Accordion Closed
IANA is a non-profit, non-political, non-religious organization formed for the following purpose:
(a) To bring together individuals who share an interest in various aspects of Indian life and culture.
(b) To promote awareness of Indian culture among the local community.
(c) To promote better relations and understanding among the various communities in Flagstaff and surrounding areas.
(d) To galvanize all the scattered Indian faculty, staff and students among campus into one community. To help the incoming Indians regarding logistics, food options, etc.
Learn more about the Indian Association of Northern Arizona.
Kappa Delta Chi (KDChi) Accordion Closed
Through numerous service events, sisterhood retreats, and academic and cultural workshops, KDChis learn more about themselves, each other and their surrounding Universities and communities. They blossom into committed leaders, are able to network with our remarkable alumnae, and continue to serve as civic leaders well past their graduation. KDChi is a non-traditional sorority full of diverse members and eager women ready to make a difference in our communities. With sisters, anything is possible.
Learn more about Kappa Delta Chi.
Korean Language and Culture Club Accordion Closed
Korean Language and Cultural Club hold weekly meetings to provide language teaching session as well as Korean culture classes. For more information please contact [email protected] 🙂 There are two primary goals. One is learning Korean and the other is enjoying Korean culture.
Learn more about the Korean Language and Culture Club.
Ladies of Truth Accordion Closed
The Ladies of T.R.U.T.H. is a club for African American women on campus. It is a place of empowerment where we can understand ourselves and each other and drive each other to our fullest potential. We do community service together, hold workshops and host guest speakers.
You can reach Ladies of Truth at [email protected]. You can also find Ladies of Truth on Instagram: @ladies_of_truth.
Latinx Student Union (LSU) Accordion Closed
The Latinx Student Union of Northern Arizona University are united in bringing together all and every member of our communities to have a sense of culture and build a familia. This is a place where all individuals are encouraged to support one another by creating long-lasting connections on our campus. Our advocacy extends for the equity of dreamers, the protection of the undocumented, advancing queer and non-binary identities and fighting for equality in all its forms. We organize together with members of our community, allies and anyone looking to make positive change in our communities. We advocate for change through direct action, education on the multiple cultures of Latin America and by giving a voice to those marginalized in our society. We are inclusive, open and welcome all who want to build connections as we move social justice awareness forward.
Learn more about the Latinx Student Union.
Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Accordion Closed
The Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program is grant funded through the Nation Science Foundation to support under-represented minority students pursuing degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). We offer priority access to many academic supports such as early enrollment, free weekly tutoring, peer mentoring, outside-class STEM events, professional development, career guidance, graduate school preparation, and paid experiential learning opportunities (i.e. internships and undergraduate research). Join our supportive STEM community at any academic level!
Learn more about LSAMP.
Mixed Student Union Accordion Closed
A safe place to share, learn about, and elevate the perspective of students that are multiracial, multiethnic, transracial adoptee, multicultural, or anybody that identifies as mixed in one way or another. We aim to enhance social consciousness and acceptance of mixed people’s experience and foster community among mixed individuals. Being mixed is considered by some to be one of the loneliest experiences in America, and we are here to provide support and empathy to our mixed peers. Everyone, no matter how you identify, is welcome and encouraged to participate!
To learn more about Mixed Studnet Union, please visit their website.
NAU International Club Accordion Closed
The International Club at NAU is a social club with the goal of spreading cultural awareness throughout NAU and Flagstaff. International Club promotes the interaction of people from different countries, cultures, and backgrounds.
NAU Wushu Team Accordion Closed
Our mission is to teach and practice the art of Wushu, furthering our physical and mental capacities for Chinese martial arts including history, culture, and competition.
Learn more about the NAU Wushu Team.
Native Americans United (NAUnited) Accordion Closed
A group that strives to enhance the educational experience of Native American students and provide cultural awareness. To help plan and make possible Native American Events and continue traditions and extend culture to others
Learn more about Native Americans United.
Omega Delta Phi (ODPhi) Accordion Closed
Scholarship, Leadership, Service Opportunities, and Social Interaction
Learn more about Omega Delta Phi.
Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (oSTEM) Accordion Closed
A national society dedicated to educating and fostering leadership for LGBTQA communities in the STEM fields. As an organization dedicated to community, our work starts with our mission. It serves as a touchstone and reminds us of our common goals:
- To educate, empower and engage a diverse community,
- To identify, address advocate for the needs of LGBTQA students in the STEM fields,
- And we fulfill these needs through mentorship connections, networking opportunities, strategic collaborations, and professional/leadership development.
Learn more about oSTEM.
People Respecting Individuals & Sexual Minorities (PRISM) Accordion Closed
We are Northern Arizona University’s largest student-led LGBTQA organization. We support LGBTQA students to help form a sense of community and friendship. Our meeting topics range from queer history/herstory and current events to trans* controversies. We put on a drag show every semester featuring students from Northern Arizona University and Coconino Community College.
Learn more about PRISM.
Queer and Allied Professional Leadership Council (QAPLC) Accordion Closed
QAPLC was formed to provide a safe discussion and learning environment, with focus on issues of business ethics and marketing through the lens of LGBTQA+ and allies. Topics of discussion, inspection, and solution, include; marketing to LGBTQA+, harassment in the workplace, and hot topics that become relevant to the LGBTQA+ community as they come. QAPLC provides a safe and friendly environment as well as challenge members to build their strength of character through discussion and volunteer work. This will include the Northern Arizona University main and satellite campuses as well as the community at large. QAPLC is a club built on the idea of being service driven, leadership building, character development, and education.
Learn more about QAPLC.
Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Accordion Closed
SACNAS is dedicated to increasing the representation of true diversity of all backgrounds in all fields of STEM research, and organizes the National Diversity in STEM annual conference. The NAU SACNAS Chapter works to connect underrepresented students with research experiences, community, and all of the wonderful opportunities at the conference. Join us for social events, mentoring, and to build your network in research!
Learn more about SACNAS at NAU.
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Accordion Closed
SWE empowers women and men to succeed and advance in those aspirations and be recognized for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders. The purpose of the Society of Women Engineers is to be a support group for engineering students here at NAU. The Society of Women Engineers mission is to stimulate women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders, expand the image of the engineering profession as a positive force in improving the quality of life, and demonstrate the value of diversity.
Learn more about SWE.
Society of Hispanic Engineers Accordion Closed
Mission:
SHPE changes lives by empowering the Hispanic community to realize their fullest potential and impacts the world through STEM awareness, access, support, and development.
Vision:
SHPE’s vision is a world where Hispanics are highly valued and influential as the leading innovators, scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. As a new club to the Northern Arizona University campus, we have come together to re-kindle the excellence in education, the pursuit of professionalism and attainment of leadership, to the diverse community in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Learn more about SHPE. | https://in.nau.edu/inclusion/clubs/ |
The Chamber serves as a supportive resource for Oakland’s ten Business Improvement Districts (BID) and Community Benefit Districts (CBD), which deliver tailored urban services to Oakland’s diverse neighborhoods. This group typically meets on the third Thursday of the month at the Chamber’s offices.
Mission
Oakland BID Alliance communicates best practices, ideas, and resources, connects with key City and agency representatives, and advocates on behalf of its members to further the goals of BIDs in growing and maintaining Oakland’s vital commercial districts.
Contact
As of February 2017, the following BID/CBD Districts (map here) are active in Oakland:
The Downtown Oakland Association is a Community Benefit District (CBD), which is revitalizing a 19-block area in the heart of Oakland, California by providing special benefit services such as district maintenance, safety and security management, and community and cultural enrichment. The District was formed following a vote of property owners in 2009 to support a voluntary property tax to fund these additional services over the next 10 years. The Downtown Oakland Association fosters an environment where businesses thrive; art flourishes, and residents and visitors alike can enjoy all that downtown Oakland has to offer.
Fruitvale Business Improvement District
The Fruitvale (BID) is a comprehensive neighborhood commercial revitalization program focused on the International Boulevard & Fruitvale Avenue (Zone 1) and Foothill Boulevard (Zone 2) commercial corridors. The Unity Council works daily to beautify and improve the neighborhood, and these ongoing services result in increased economic activity, a lowered perception of crime, and a greater sense of pride in the community. At the start of the program in 2001, commercial property owners voted to adopt a BID to continue revitalization efforts started under the Main Street Program, which the Unity Council had implemented since 1996. In 2006, owners renewed their commitment to supporting revitalization activities for an additional five years. The BID currently supports upwards of 350 businesses throughout the Fruitvale. The district is home to the annual Dia de los Muertos festival, which drew some 100,000 attendees in 2018.
Jack London Improvement District
Codified as a BID in 2013, the Jack London Business Improvement District works to help in creating, managing and promoting a quality environment for people who live, work and visit the Jack London District. The Jack London Improvement District (JLID) has 'a vision of a safe, clean, thriving district open after the workday is through, businesses bustling with activity and events that invite all sectors to come together to build a strong sense of self and community whilst fostering the Jack London District’s unique identity and honoring its history along the Oakland Waterfront.'
The Koreatown Northgate district is a lively and diverse business district on Telegraph Avenue between 20th and 35th streets in Oakland, CA. The Koreatown Northgate district is situated in-between Oakland's growing Uptown Arts and Entertainment District and the thriving Temescal-Telegraph business district. It also sits adjacent to the Broadway Auto Row district and the MacArthur BART station, two areas that are planning for major new residential and mixed use projects. Koreatown Northgate includes an important Korean-American commercial center, a creative arts community that participates in the monthly First Friday Art Murmur event, Alta Bates-Summit Medical Center and other healthcare services, new residential projects including the Telegraph (old Sears) Lofts and a growing variety of multi-ethnic restaurants, shops and services that are working to revitalize the neighborhood.
The Laurel District Association (LDA) is a 501(c)(3) property-based Business Improvement District (PBID) established to revitalize the commercial corridor. The property owners on MacArthur Blvd from 35th Ave to High Street voted to pay an additional assessment tax based on the square footage, useage, and frontage of the lot size. The assessments are managed by the Board of Directors according to the District Management Plan passed by City Council December of 2005. The LDA is organized into committees that work to revitalize the Laurel District and increase the quality of public improvements and educational, cultural, artistic, charitable and social services within the Laurel District and the surrounding neighborhood.
Lakeshore Avenue Business Improvement District
The Lakeshore Avenue Business Improvement District was the first BID in the City of Oakland. In 1998 the property owners on Lakeshore and later Lake Park Avenues, joined together to form this non-profit by voting to assess themselves additional fees, based on a combination of frontage and square footage of their properties. The BID uses the assessments to fund: daily sidewalk and gutter cleaning, monthly steam cleaning, gardening in the tree wells and some larger plots, daily private security, promotions and events (4 times a year), and staffing/advocacy for the merchants and property owners in conjunction with neighborhood organizations.
The Montclair Village Association (MVA) is a Business Improvement District made up of approximately 210 retail and service businesses located in Montclair Village. The MVA was previously known as the Montclair Business Association (MBA) for over 50 years. In 2001 the businesses located in Montclair Village voted to become a Business Improvement District by agreeing to pay an additional assessment each year to the City of Oakland based on their gross revenue. In 2010, the Association created a new category of associate membership, to permit businesses located adjacent to the Village to join and enjoy the same benefits of Association membership. The assessments paid by MVA members and Associate members are used to pay for revitalization efforts in the neighborhood commercial district, covering maintenance, beautification, promotions and security issues not supplied by City resources.
Rockridge District Association
The Rockridge District is a commercial and residential neighborhood in North Oakland. Many of Oakland’s best restaurants, eateries, and wine bars are found along College Ave, the District’s main commercial thoroughfare running from 51st and Broadway north to Alcatraz. The Rockridge District Association is dedicated to enhancing Rockridge through public works as well as promotional and beautification initiatives to make a strong, vibrant, diverse business center.
In August 2004, commercial and residential property owners along Telegraph Avenue and adjoining areas voted to form a special benefits assessment district along Telegraph Avenue from 40th to 66th Street (Berkeley border), including small portions of Shattuck Avenue, 51st Street, Claremont Avenue, and also Children's Hospital. This is known as the Temescal/Telegraph Business Improvement District ('Temescal Telegraph BID'). The BID's mission is to make the Temescal Telegraph commercial corridor more pedestrian-friendly for its residents, build upon the sense of community, and attract new shoppers.
Lake Merritt/Uptown Association
The Lake Merritt/ Uptown Association is Community Benefit District (CBD) which serves to revitalize a 37-block area in the heart of Oakland, California. The CBD provides special benefit services such as district maintenance, safety and security management, as well as cultural and community enrichment. The District was formed in 2009 by property owners who supported a voluntary property tax by a margin of almost 8 to 1 supporting a 10-year property tax designed to fund the additional services to the community over the next 10 years. The Downtown Oakland Association and the Lake Merritt/Uptown District Association meet and function jointly to improve the quality of life in their respective communities and advocate on behalf of the area property owners, business owners, and residents. | http://www.oaklandchamber.com/pages/BusinessImprovementCommunityBenefitDistrictsBIDCBD |
The Member representing Abuja Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives, Hon. Adamu Jagaba, has said that the peoples’ cultures have the capability of fostering peace, security and unity among community members.
Hon. Jagaba stated this at Transfer RCM Primary School, Garkawa, during the annual festival of the Yuom people of Hilyuom or Garkawa (as they are widely known), of Mikang Local Government Area of Plateau State, as the Chairman of the occasion.
The Honourable Member urged the people of the 19 villages that constitute “Hilyuom,” meaning Yuom land, not to relent in their efforts to sustain the peaceful co-existence and the protection of the peoples’ heritage, especially at this period the country is faced with serious security challenges.
Also speaking as the Special Guest of Honour, the Executive Governor of Plateau State, Da Dr. Jonah David Jang, said there was no better way of preserving and fostering unity and love among people, enhancing security and sustainable development, than the celebration of the peoples’ heritage.
The Governor, who was represented by the Honourable Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Paul S. Wai, maintained that Yuom land is one of the places, where peaceful co-existence is of great pride to its community members on the Plateau, and thanked them for their untiring efforts.
The Chief Host, who is also the Member representing Shendam, Qua’an Pan, Mikang Federal Constituency, Hon. Innocent Z. Tirsel, said RHE-YUOM Festival of Arts and Culture is celebrated yearly, to remind the Yuom people of their cultural heritage.
Hon. Tirsel maintained that with the world becoming a global village and people coming in contact with various cultures, the future generations of HilYuom will always be reminded of their pride place and heritage during a celebration like this, including those in the Diaspora.
He said this year’s cultural festival served dual purposes in that apart from showcasing the peoples’ heritage, there was a N10million Appeal Fund Launch for the building of Yuom Development Association National Secretariat, adding that the Secretariat will foster unity among Garkawa people, both home and abroad.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Chairman of the Management Committee, Mikang Local Government Area of Plateau State, Hon. Isa Kunwai, expressed his profound gratitude to the State Government, for making this year’s festival a reality and pledged the peoples’ continuous support for the sustainable development of the state.
The Muo Yuom, HRH J.K. Dabup II, could not hold back his joy, seeing the magnitude and calibre of guests and said the only way to restore peace in the country is for everyone to trace back his/her ancestral roots through the peoples’ festivals, such as the RHE-YUOM festival, stressing that a festival of this sort will not only curb corruption, but also bring about desired development in the land.
The National President of Yuom Development Association (YDA), Mr. Ayuba Gautet, said the building of the N10m Secretariat, apart from other facilities like museum for displaying artefacts and storing farm produce, will also serve as a source of unity among the community members both home and abroad.
Present at the occasion were the Deputy Speaker, Plateau State Hon. John-Bull Shekarau, National President, Youm Youth Movement, Mr. Bako Hyacinth, and the Management Committee Chairman, Shendam Local Government Area, Dr. Nicholas Kemi Nshe.
The Plateau State performing troupe, Afizere cultural dancers, the Garkawa traditional dancers, and the different masquerades from the 19 village areas, thrilled the audience to the various performances, just as other side attractions included the different traditional dishes of Yuom people and their artefacts. | https://nico.gov.ng/2013/01/15/the-peoples-culture-capable-of-fostering-security-and-unity-honourable-member/ |
As the Six Nations Police Service we see our contribution to the overall well-being of our community as going well beyond the recognized roles & Responsibilities of a law enforcement organization.
While protecting property and ensuring public safety are fundamental responsibilities, we also recognize that protecting and preserving our cultural identity, our uniqueness, is imperative. The values that make up our Ogweho:weh understanding and respect for life, direct us to ensure that as a service, we:
- Demonstrate kindness to those suffering.
- Share with those in need.
- Encourage strength of character through fostering pride and confidence.
Humbly lead, using experience, wisdom and knowledge, to support our Community and encourage our youth to take their places as tomorrow’s leaders.
We remain committed to lead, support and encourage initiatives that help us towards our visioin of a safe, healthy and caring Community.
On behalf of all of us, thank you , to those partners that have supported, assisted and contributed to our efforts. What we do matters.
Our People, Our Community, Our Police. | https://snpolice.ca/chiefs-message/ |
We value everyone’s safety, health and well-being and as our island and the rest of the world deals with COVID-19 at this time, we will be joining efforts to help prevent the spread of the virus. Therefore, we will temporarily halt conducting our normal education, restoration and canoe tour activities until it is safe for everyone to be in our community once again. Thank you for your understanding and if you have any questions or concerns, please email us at [email protected] Stay safe and healthy!
‘Ao‘ao O Nā Loko I‘a O Maui is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to revitalizing Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond for educational, archaeological, cultural and recreational purposes. We offer unique Hawaiian cultural learning experiences and fishpond revitalization opportunities for the community to engage with this important cultural and historical landmark in North Kīhei, Maui.
We are proud to be active members in Hui Mālama Loko I‘a, a growing network of fishpond practitioners and organizations from across ka paeʻāina o Hawaiʻi (the Hawaiian archipelago). The Hui was formed as an opportunity for practitioners to empower each other and leverage their skills, knowledge and resources related to restoration and management of loko iʻa (traditional Hawaiian fishponds). The Hui has met opportunistically since 2004. In May 2014, Kuaāina Ulu ‘Auamo (KUA) facilitated the largest-ever gathering at Kō‘ie‘ie Fishpond and then in Hāna, Maui, a place where fishponds and other significant fishing practices originated. We hope you enjoy the video below, showing our wonderful experience together. | http://mauifishpond.com/ |
Creating Hackney as Home (CHAsH)
Our Approach to ‘asset mapping’:
Creating Hackney as Home (CHAsH) was designed to understand how rapid urban redevelopment in the east London borough of Hackney impacts on young people’s experience of this area, with a particular focus on exploring the emotional dimensions of home and belonging. Building on insights from the Principal Investigator’s earlier research that suggested young people feel ‘unheard’, marginalised or misrepresented (see Butcher & Thomas 2003; Butcher 2010), a participatory visual methodology was developed, embedded in wider shifts in understanding of the rights and responsibilities of young people in relation to adults. Working with five peer research assistants (PRA) who had lived in Hackney for most of their lives, the project produced a series of short films, images, and blogs. These artefacts mapped in different ways not only aspects of Hackney’s physical assets but also the capacity (as an asset) of young people to rework their city, and to reimagine their place within a shifting neighbourhood. Our approach is influenced by recent work in social sciences broadly and specifically cultural geography, including theorists and practitioners such as Gillian Rose, Rachel Pain and Sarah Pink.
The contextual conditions
Despite being substantial users of public space, youth voices in the contestation of urban life have been marginalised, in both research on cities and within policy decision making. And yet, young people, with their social lives focused on neighbourhoods, are highly knowledgeable about their local area. Other researchers have highlighted how young people are also susceptible to negative or positive change to their localities. For example, the London Borough of Hackney has become marked by high levels of urban redevelopment and gentrification as a result of the Olympic site re-development and its position close to London’s global financial centre. It’s marked by high levels of cultural diversity and social inequalities, exacerbated by wealthier residents moving into the borough as part of the process of gentrification in particular neighbourhoods.
Demands from competing stakeholders have led to juxtaposing expectations of space use and a concomitant potential for everyday conflict between residents, and between residents and local authorities. The experience of living in this space is being ethnographically documented but to date there has been little targeted focus on young people, one of the most substantial users of public space in Hackney, and a cohort embroiled in debates about social inclusion, crime and media representations of the borough. Young people have a particular role to play in perceptions of disorder inflected with inter-generational opposition and a discourse of shifting cultural values. They must also operate within a context that is marked by adult understandings of how space should be used, particularly public space and space dominated by commercial interests.
What types of assets have been captured this these approaches?
Five films were produced, each focusing on different themes chosen by the PRAs, including: gentrification; growing up and out of space; cultural diversity; fashion and identity; public and private space. Constructing the films in this way enabled the research to highlight that young people’s voices are heterogenous, moving beyond the idea of an homogenous ‘youth’ that requires specific assets. In fact, the films, along with the research around the process of filming and collecting data, revealed the diversity of assets that young people use in Hackney, including transport, parks, youth centres, schools (after hours), void spaces under and within estates, streets, café’s, gyms, etc.
In addition to the films, the PRAs used flip cameras to capture their own reflections on the themes of the project, the project itself and ideas about their films. They were able to use the flip cameras to capture footage as they worked through the city, illustrating their thoughts with images, although sometimes they chose to just use audio. However, this material is, by agreement, confidential and only seen by other members of the research team.
What are the strengths and limitations of this approach?
A key strength of the participatory framework is the mitigation of the distance between researcher and participant, although it is recognised that no relationship is without its power dynamics. The PRAs were regarded as members of the research team, and as ‘experts’ better able to capture their own experience of living in Hackney.
It has been suggested that visual methods are particularly useful in exploring how people use and move through space, and for capturing the city’s sensory richness. We would agree with this somewhat but the project will evaluate these claims more thoroughly in future publications. One observation to date is that the use of social media to broadcast the films was limited in its ability to create data, that is, to generate a wider discussion around the films online. After the launch (September 2013) there was an initial flurry of commentary from people watching the films but this was primarily adults (e.g. interested post-graduate students), or friends and family. Screening the films to local youth groups (aged 8-16) had some success in terms of generating discussion around their themes, however, the films themselves were considered ‘boring’ by some young people. Instead, it was adult audiences that found them particularly provocative and moving, highlighting that mapping assets in this way can enable young people’s perspectives and experiences to become more visible beyond the scope of their peer groups.
Given that the films, and other material created by the PRAs, is available online, and also screened publically, there were ethical questions concerning recognition that needed to be discussed within the team. While the PRAs were comfortable with a degree of recognition, this was contingent at times on where the films were screened and who it was imagined would be watching them. | http://www.comparativeassetmapping.org/index1feb.html?p=448&mo=34 |
The Communist era and its legacy became an important part of Czech (political) culture and identity after 1989. This phenomenon is especially powerful in relation to the meaning making of the communist era after 1989 and the way Czechs are getting over it. Labels such as communist, Bolshevik, normalization, nationalization of property and many others related to the communist era became powerful vehicles for stigmatization and creating a public enemy in almost any sphere, be it political, show business, or public. What makes it especially powerful is that the cultural and historical legacies (understood as deliberately propagated representations of selected fragments of the group’s past), when expressed explicitly, offer models of or for behaviour and thinking. In other words, public memory is often one of the constitutive factors of contentious and politically motivated mobilizations undertaken by different actors like political parties, social movements or individual agents when seeking public support or legitimacy, or just aiming to achieve their goals. In post-communist countries these actors often strive to mobilize participants, supporters or even opponents using legacies of the Communist past. In this text we seek to uncover how various situations, events or people are constructed as public enemies by using the communist legacy. In particular, we ask the following questions: How is anti-communist framing constructed and how does anti-communist framing resonate with popular images and understanding of Communism, the Communist era in the Czech Republic and related matters? We analyse anti-communist framing (i.e. directly or indirectly identify the situation, adversaries, institutions or activities with the Communist regime) and via constructing metaphors provide readers with deep understanding of how particular Communist legacies in specific contexts create public enemies who lose sympathy and support from the public.
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Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work three months after publication simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. This acknowledgement is not automatic, it should be asked from the editors and can usually be obtained one year after its first publication in the journal. | https://intersections.tk.mta.hu/index.php/intersections/article/view/347 |
Rehabilitation of fort means Renovation or Restoration of historical building or fort. Permanent forts were built of stone, limestone or other material. The term 'fort' is often applied to buildings or structures that are considered examples of important architectural and/or cultural heritage fort have been created for thousands of years and they are often the most durable and famous symbols of ancient civilizations. These are the icons of the nation having their own cultural and historic values therefore, it is very essential to conserve them. Forts which have no further utilization tend to decay rapidly, while which are still in use have a better chance of being maintained .Rehabilitation involves contribution of high end technology, advanced skills and calculations. This is a very responsible job of saving hazardous failure of structures due to deterioration. The success in rehabilitating the structure totally depends on gaining expertise in the field and day today advancements.tion, and even aiding/generating real-time performance.A lot of music data have become available recently either locally or over the Internet but in order for users to benefit from them, an efficient music information retrieval technology is necessary. Research in this area has been focused on tasks such as genre classification, artist identification, music mood estimation, cover song identification, music annotation, melody extraction, etc. which facilitate efficient music search and recommendation services, intelligent play-list generation and other attractive applications.
In this paper, we built two systems, one for music genre classification and another for music emotion recognition using both SVM and GP models, and finally compared their performances on two databases of similar size.
Full Text:PDF
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks. | https://www.imperialjournals.com/index_php/IJIR/article/view/1160/ |
Lagwagon – Hang
Track Listing:
1.) Burden Of Proof
2.) Reign
3.) Made Of Broken Parts
4.) The Cog In The Machine
5.) Poison In The Well
6.) Obsolete Absolute
7.) Western Settlement
8.) Burning Out In Style
9.) One More Song
10.) Drag
11.) You Know Me
12.) In Your Wake
The Pier Album Rating:
Release Date: Oct 27th, 2014
Record Label: Fat Wreck Chords
Official Website: Lagwagon Website
Artist Background:
Lagwagon is a self described Power Pop Metal Punk band from Santa Barbara, California. Punk has always had a very strong following in California, which is why Lagwagon is one of the biggest punk bands out there to this day. They are currently signed to the label, Fat Wreck Chords, which has seen the success of other famous punk bands like NOFX, Strung Out, and Rise Against. The band recently released their 8th album, Hang, late last month. It was their first album in almost a decade and it welcomes the abilities of the band’s newest bassist, Joe Raposo, who joined the band in 2010.
Album Review:
The album starts off with, “Burden Of Proof,” a mostly acoustic song that welcomes the voice of vocalist, Joey Cape, who, despite the lack of studio albums in the past ten years, hasn’t had his voice changed that much. One of the first noticeable things is that the songs are connected and lack silence in between the tracks. This keeps listeners on their toes since unless they are looking at the display of their portable disc-man, won’t know that the next song has already started, or that the end of the song they are currently listening to is actually the prequel to the next song. A perfect example of the latter would be the transition between the tracks, “You Know Me,” and “In Your Wake.” The reason for this format is that listeners can now skip the intro and go directly to the music of “In Your Wake.” Die-hard listeners who want to hear the intro would have to hear the song before as well, but that’s not necessarily an inconvenience.
One of the songs that earned recognition in my book was “The Cog In The Machine.” The main riff is extremely well executed and is simply killer. The lyrics resonate with the issues in today’s society where we are all cogs in the machines striving for wealth. It’s always a plus when bands can speak about the issues of today’s world through their music, and for a punk band, Lagwagon excels in this respect.
Possibly the best song on the album is, “Obsolete Absolute,” a song which sounds like it’s going to be an instrumental rager, but ends up being a good sequel. At first, the spoken words mention what is obsolete for society today: typewriters, payphones, phone books, etc. Then the speaker hits home with the idea that conversation, sympathy, empathy, love, and privacy, have also become obsolete. With everything on the news today, it’s sad to say that all of those things seem like they are becoming obsolete, which is unfortunate. The band then takes over for the rest of the song in a fury of speed that is common for punk bands. The production, the complexity of this songs structure and the intricate nature of the riffs the band members are playing, make this song stand out. Of the six minutes the song lasts, not one of them is dull.
The band doesn’t kid around when they self describe their music and provide a plethora of genres. “Drag,” comes across as a darker metal song as opposed to the punk nature the rest of the album has. The band knows how to nail the genre with this song. It’s not as fast paced, but has some guitar solos near the end of the song that resonate with the spirit of metal.
Having mentioned that Joe Raposo is on bass duties now, the guy sure knows how to lay down some great bass lines. The bass lines are well thought out, and more importantly, well played in mostly all the songs. It’s hard to have creative bass lines in punk, but Raposo found a way to make it happen.
In the end, fans will certainly enjoy listening to this album; it has a lot of good tracks on it, and very little filler. The songs are short and to the point, where appropriate. The only song that got to be a bit frustrating to hear was “In Your Wake,” due to the repetitive nature of the line, “Inside Your Head,” near the end of the song. Aside from that, the rest of the album is solid. | https://thepier.org/review-lagwagon-hang/ |
The “Italian comedy” is a very popular genre born in Italy in the fifties and sixties. The term refers not so much a genre in its own right, like westerns or thrillers, but a time of success in Italian cinema which mostly produced brilliant comedies which shared certain content, such as satire of the bourgeois lifestyle and environment.
The key representatives of the genre are, in addition to Germi, directors such as Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Steno and Dino Risi, and scriptwriters Age and Scarpelli, Rodolfo Sonego and Suso Cecchi D'Amico. One of the charming things about the genre is precisely the fact that it has no specific canons or definite scripts, but is open to improvisation by the starring actors.
Franco and Ciccio (Francesco Benenato known as Franco Franchi and Francesco Ingrassia known as Ciccio) were Italy's best-known pair of comedians of the sixties and seventies. Together they appeared in 114 films, in many of which they starred, while in others they appeared alongside Totò, Domenico Modugno, Vittorio Gassman and many more.
Though they have been criticized for the quality of their films, often labelled B-movies, made with a small budget and focusing on their ability to improvise, Franco and Ciccio were a great success with audiences and became the most successful pair in Italian cinema in terms of box office takings. Their films and their artistic scope are now a part of the country's cultural heritage of the sixties and seventies. | https://sibyllegeiger.it/en/cinema/italian-comedy.html |
Censorship in Soviet cinema has been amply discussed, in particular with reference to the cinema of Stalinism. The most prolific writer on the issue of censorship in post-war period, Valeriy Fomin has taken a view of non-specific oppression of the author by the soviet bureaucracy. For the purposes of this paper I define censorship as the larger process of approving a script and entering it into a thematic plan for production as well as discussion of edited footage, thus involving both the negative and the positive connotations of this collaborative process.
My doctoral thesis, now in its initial stage, sets out with a revisionist impetus of considering censorship as a cultural agency that, in some cases, volens nolens becomes a co-authoring agency. My aim is not to redeem censorship but to study cultural ideology of the period of stagnation. To do this, I suggest that censorship apparatus is a venue where the auteur, the state and the populace meet, thus creating a space of cultural negotiations, which are affected by factors that are at times systematic, at times random, but all of which display a cultural and historical specificity that has not yet been formulated within Soviet cinema studies.
Documents on soviet censorship in cinema (e.g. discussions held by editorial and artistic councils) reveal a paradigm of ideological concerns and allow making conclusions about how these concerns were to be translated into their visual corollaries. To achieve a rigorous analysis of these translations I apply classic principles of generative poetics to the study of ideology. For this purpose I selected a specific cinematic genre, that of biographical picture, a genre with strong typology and rigid schematics of plot development, e.g. birth, education, formative years, achievements, death. This database of possibilities inherent within the genre encounters a set of ideological expectations that can also be represented as a source database. Furthermore, the author/director brings in his/her own invariants, i.e. ways in which thematic units are rendered into the cinematic medium. Tracing the interaction of these source databases allows to discuss soviet ideology in dynamic terms, i.e. to show ideology at points of formation, as well as to discuss specific issues of agency.
For specific case studies I draw on my research at RGALI in the Goskino and Mosfilm archives. Documents discussing various versions of the same script as well as verbatim reports of artistic council meetings reveal a process, which deserves careful study. Not only did this process change depending on the institutional reforms within Soviet cinema, or the political climate in the country, but it also was affected by the success or failure of previous censorial tactics and strategies. My case studies include realized and unrealized scripts of the classical biopics, like the Lenin films, as well as the more “anomalous” cases, where the auteur’s database dominates over generic or ideological expectations, like Andrey Rublyov and Color of Pomegranate. | https://www.aatseel.org/100111/pdf/program/2005/abstracts/vassilieva.htm |
As soon as they stride through the doors of the main entrance, I see visitors get that instant urge to reach for their camera. It’s not surprising, though, being surrounded by the grand Greco-Roman revival architecture; I often take a moment to look around and feel lucky to work in such a beautiful place. But then these initial snapshots often evolve into an extended photoshoot of the #squad on the stairs, with the designated photographer bowed on one knee to capture the best angle. Then once they’ve climbed the staircase, this progresses to precariously leaning across the balcony (not recommended- unless you’re in a circus) for the best angle and shot.
Photography seems to have become a social norm, especially for people flocking to cultural destinations, taking hundreds of snapshots all in one go; like personalised souvenirs. I am aware that this sounds like an obvious inclination for anyone visiting a cultural place, however it’s something I’ve noticed over the past year and a half of working at the gallery. It’s interesting to observe the behaviour patterns of people “looking” at their surroundings and what motivates them to take photos of particular things.
When I see visitors taking lots of photos inside the exhibitions, I often wonder why that specific piece? Is it a photo to use on social media, to communicate and share experiences? Does it speak to them on a personal level? Does it provoke a strong emotional response for the visitor?
I imagine the most common reason is to look back on the photos as personal mementos, as a visitor recently told me; “You see something and then you want to be reminded of how good it was!”.
What is it that unites
these different approaches,
is it the public’s reaction to
a symbol like this? | https://www.magnetmanchester.org/noflash/ |
A GLOBAL ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY BASED NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:
Rural development issues are critical not only for the rural areas themselves but also for addressing pressing global concerns of food security (FS), climate change, biodiversity conservation, poverty reduction, provision of environmental goods and services, and good governance. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) has been a rural development strategy for over 30 years. This paper has a two-fold objective: to assess the CBNRM experience in order to improve the performance of CBNRM itself, and to evaluate the lessons learned from CBNRM for critical issues – especially food security and climate change. CBNRM involves defined groups of local people collaborating on utilization and regulating use of natural resources. CBNRM is an approach to empowering rural communities with the knowledge, skills, and authority to sustainably manage natural resources (e.g., wildlife, rangelands, forests, fish, water, etc.). Successful CBNRM initiatives require sustainable natural resource management; benefit streams (financial, social, and economic) that exceed costs; and good governance. Although it is difficult to identify predictable sequences and blueprints for success, many principles of “good” CBNRM have been identified. Each program has its own historical and cultural context and that influence success. Adaptive management and a systems approach, to accommodate the interplay between the realities of the field and the application of principles, are needed. The principles, when applied in a rigorous, integrated, and systematic fashion, greatly improve the chances of successful CBNRM. The paper enumerates a range of these principles and cases where they have been applied with good results. A typology, from transformational to extractive, is presented as an informal tool to assist in the analysis of cases. There are many constraints – technical, economic, cultural, and governance-related – that impede success. A number are presented here with suggestions for overcoming them. Not all constraints are equal, however. A major common constraint is the lack of an appropriate rights framework, often combined with institutional arrangements that are complex, time consuming and costly for rural people. Communities are often put at a disadvantage because they are assigned management “rights” over low value resources that have no other claimants. The ability of CBNRM programs to have significant impacts on the economic growth of rural communities depends to a large extent on the value of the resource base, the distribution of rights over those resources, and the functioning of markets. These are not always aligned in the favor of local communities. CBNRM programs need to systematically analyze these elements along with transaction costs and opportunity costs, in order to understand the incentives and viability of CBNRM programs. Unfortunately, because they involve vested interests and politics, governance and rights constraints may be easier to identify than to change. The assessment revealed interesting examples of “collateral success,” the sometimes hidden improvements in livelihoods and the environment that occur in parallel or tangentially to the main objective of the CBNRM initiative. Collateral success, sometimes as important to local people as success at achieving the initial objective, stems from communities and groups applying the tools, institutions, and methods of CBNRM (such as mechanisms for coordination, planning, rulemaking and sanctions, economies of scale, partnerships, capacity building, advocacy and marketing, etc.) to other resource activities – particularly ones where communities have secure rights, such as livestock and agriculture. The West Gate Conservancy in Kenya, for example, has used the tools and capacity built for wildlife and ecotourism to better manage livestock through group herding, rotational grazing, range improvement, and better marketing. Local communities can be ingenious in their use of the CBNRM tools made X A GLOBAL ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNITY BASED NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT available to them. Innovative and adaptive, monitoring and evaluation systems are needed to capture this creativity. Collateral success shows the importance of the CBNRM principles and best practices for the pressing challenges of food security and climate change. The critical threats of food shortages, insecurity, and climate change underline the urgency of improving agriculture and natural resources management. The principles, and the mechanisms, institutions, and tools of CBNRM can improve the performance of other rural sub-sectors and will be key to climate-smart agriculture, community-based adaptation, and rural resilience. | https://rmportal.net/groups/cbnrm/a-global-assessment-of-community-based-natural-resource-management/view |
Having always addressed several personal and heartfelt issues that affect the masses through her music, the new album from Amanda Shires titled To The Sunset is no different, and her ability to connect with fans and listeners everywhere is showcased well through opening number ‘Parking Lot Pirouette’, which lyrically focuses on the effort it can take to even try – and fail – to walk away from an individual who, for whatever reason, is no good for you.
For a number of years, Shires, it has been said – particularly by critics – has often been left in the shadow of her talented husband, a star and superb song-writer in his own right, Jason Isbell, but on this album, it’s he who plays second fiddle to the talents of his wife, with his noticeable role on this collection being as the guitar player. This time around in particular, there’s an eclectic, almost electric sort of sharpness to Shires’ voice that not only ensures she takes centre stage, together with her songs, but also allows her to harness the power and precision of a great country singer while all the while performing as an artist more styled to the southern rock genre that’s growing in popularity.
If there’s one thing that sets Shires apart from many of fellow artists, it’s her ability to create and share love-song lyrics that are immensely specific and also deeply evocative, two examples being “I envy your clothes, how they get to be so close”, as featured on ‘Leave It Alone’, and “The fear that I feel when I see my features reversed in my own daughter’s face”, as mentioned in ‘Charms’.
‘Eve’s Daughter’, sung from the perspective of a woman who can never seem to settle in one place as she searches for and chases what makes her happy, will resonate with anyone trying to find that one place – or person – they can call home, through lyrics such as: “He was 23, he was out on leave, and the rest gets a little blurry.” At times on the album, it can be hard to decipher whether or not Shires is addressing her own thoughts and feelings, or simply more general ones, but certainly when she sings “It’s OK to fall apart” during ‘Take On The Dark’, there’s no denying she sounds as if she 100% believes such a statement to be true. It’s only a few words, but they’re powerful ones, and at a time when mental health issues and conversations are gradually becoming increasingly more prevalent in the media and general society, they could make a huge difference to someone who hears them and is struggling.
The highlight of the album however comes via closing number ‘Wasn’t I Paying Attention?’ Written about a recovering addict, a man who drives into the town centre of Nome, Alaska before slitting his throat and setting his truck on fire, it’s by no means an easy or comfortable listen, but the way in which Shires tells the story – almost as if she’s put herself in his shoes – makes the song both immersive and emotive, and a track which is sure to linger with those who hear it long after it’s ended.
To The Sunset is out now on Thirty Tigers/Silver Knife. | https://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/2018/08/06/amanda-shires-to-the-sunset-thirty-tigers-silver-knife/ |
The late Welcome “Bhodloza” Nzimande must have listened with pride as maskandi dominated Durban-based Ukhozi FM’s annual Ingoma Ehlukanisa Unyaka competition for the past two years in a row. Ntencane’s 2019 hit, Wawuthembeni, might not have ushered the station’s listeners into 2020 because of legal challenges over the concept of the competition, in which listeners choose their favourite song of the year, but it was the undisputed winner. And last year, the talented Khuzani Mpungose’s Ijele received almost one million votes to be the first song the station’s listeners heard in 2021.
The 73-year-old Nzimande, who died on 15 January from Covid-19-related complications, was a champion of maskandi even before he became the station manager of Ukhozi FM, which has the largest listenership in South Africa with about 7.7 million people tuning in each week.
Over the course of his life, Nzimande discovered some of the country’s finest talent, formed a maskandi supergroup with an awareness of music’s power that preached unity during a turbulent political time, and worked to guard against the genre being marginalised.
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Maskandi, which grew its roots in urban hostels when rural people came to the cities as migrant labour on the mines, had been pushed to the margins by mainstream radio for years, despite enjoying popular support. But Bhodloza insisted that traditional music needed airplay like all other genres of music, and today maskandi enjoys wide support on radio.
Nzimande spent 32 years of his working life at Ukhozi FM. He joined the station as an announcer in 1978 when it was still called Radio Zulu, moving up through its ranks to become station manager in 1997, a position he held for 13 years. Under his management, the station became the most listened to on the continent. For 19 years he was also behind the mic, from where he championed different kinds of traditional music through various programmes, including Ezidlubhedu and Sigiya Ngengoma.
Maskandi’s breakthrough
The success of maskandi in the station’s popular competition first came through Mroza Fakude’s Elamanqamu Namhlanje in the transition from 2016 to 2017. One could argue that it should have come earlier, with maskandi artists like Ihashi Elimhlophe, Bhekumuzi Luthuli, Shwi Nomtekhala, Izingane Zoma and many others giving the nation hits year in and year out. But because of the genre’s marginalisation when it came to choosing the song of the year, it was never considered and kwaito, and later gqom, were the undisputed owners of the slot.
That’s why Bhodloza’s role in championing maskandi should never be underestimated. Towards the end of his career behind the mic, Bhodloza had already had a massive impact on the genre, so much so that the artists Phuzekhemisi and his late brother Khethani composed a song in his honour in 1994 for their album Emapalamende. In it, they sing:
“Thina Zulu’omnyama sizoyibonga ngani na Ingulube Encane,
sisho uBhodloza umfoka Nzimande, ingulube encane
Yakhulisa isizwe sakithi singelutho ingulube encane.”
The brothers ask how the Zulu nation is going to thank Bhodloza, the son of Nzimande who has done so much for a nation whose identity had been obliterated by colonialism and apartheid. The song is titled Ingulube Encane, one of Bhodloza’s nicknames.
In September 2018, the Durban University of Technology heard Phuzekhemisi and Khethani’s call. The faculty of arts and design conferred an honorary doctorate of philosophy in visual and performing arts on Bhodloza, acknowledging his contribution towards growing traditional music on radio and television through his show Ezodumo.
Accepting the honour, Bhodloza expressed how he “took a keen liking” to maskandi music. “It was a genre that was not popular to the listeners and often derided by colleagues. Nonetheless, I took on the challenge of popularising maskandi music through innovation. I introduced maskandi competitions, which brought public attention to the genre and thoroughly engaged listeners and artists.”
Discovering talent
In 1987, at one of his talent searches held at the then University of Natal, Bhodloza discovered the brilliant Mphatheni Khumalo, popularly known as Mfaz’Omnyama. The late cultural historian Ntongela Masilela once wrote that “the day Mfaz’Omnyama is fully understood in our country, it will most probably bring about the revival and renewal of interest in the poetry of SEK Mqhayi”. We wouldn’t have experienced the genius of Mfaz’Omnyama if it was not for Bhodloza.
The music legend Bheki Ngcobo, known as Ihhashi Elimhlophe, affirms the sentiment that Bhodloza did more than just play the music on radio and television. “What was amazing about Bhodloza was that he played maskandi music and promoted it at the same time,” says Ngcobo, who has recorded almost 30 solo studio albums and attributes both his success and that of maskandi to Bhodloza.
For him, Bhodloza looked beyond the lyrics and also appreciated the skill and arrangement of a song. “You would hear him say, ‘Do you hear the bass, do you hear the guitar?’ You see, he really pushed and supported the music and made sure that you got the message and understood the music,” adds Ngcobo.
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Alongside deeply understanding the music and its message, Bhodloza was also keenly aware that cultural forms play a political role in society. In the mid to late 1990s, KwaZulu-Natal and some parts of Gauteng were engulfed in a civil war in which many died and thousands were displaced. In Richmond, where Bhodloza was born, the violence was rife. In the midst of this rampant violence a maskandi supergroup was formed.
It is Nina Simone who said “an artist’s duty, as far as I am concerned, is to reflect the times. I think that is true of painters, sculptures, poets, musicians… How can you be an artist and not reflect the times? That to me is the definition of an artist.”
Bhodloza used to do satire through maskandi music and “had a song that went something along the lines of ‘ibhabhalazi labulala obaba [hangover that killed our fathers]’,”remembers Ngcobo with a chuckle.
During this time, Bhodloza approached Phuzekhemisi, Ihashi Elimhlophe and the late Mfaz’Omnyama to form a group. Ngcobo explains that Bhodloza initially wanted to do a bigger project of satire infused with maskandi, and he approached the three artists to do four songs each for him.
Peace and advocacy
When the recording was done, however, the initial idea of adding commentary to the recorded songs was canned because Bhodloza and the other producers thought the three could make a formidable group. In the violent context of the time, Bhodloza was convinced that the group could have a huge impact on peace-making and advocacy through music.
Ngcobo says it was Bhodloza who came with the group’s name, Izingqungqulu Zomhlaba. The first album’s title, Sxaxa Mbij’, also became the unofficial name of the group among maskandi fans and went on to be the title of all their albums, just numbered differently. Their music reflected the times. The impact of Izingqungqulu Zomhlaba was immediate.
Looking back at this period, Ngcobo says the “songs are different. There are songs of happiness and joy and there are songs that have positive messaging.” For example, he says, “there are songs that remind us of our identity – who we are as a people”.
He adds that the songs had a profound impact on people. “I remember one day there was a young man who approached me. He told me that he got possession of a gun and wanted to kill someone. In the middle of those thoughts, a song called Ubuntu Abande Ebantwini played. He felt that the song was speaking directly to him. He thought of the consequences of his action – the fact that he will be arrested and his children will grow up without a father. The children of the person he wanted to kill would be without a parent as well,” explains Ngcobo.
This was certainly the objective of Bhodloza when they conceived of the idea of Sxaxa Mbij’. A collaboration between three artists in their prime made people realise it was possible to do things as a unit and stop the fighting, says Ngcobo. Bhodloza’s peace initiative also extended to a bitter rivalry in the history of South African music between followers of the late artists Mgqumeni and Mtshengiseni.
On a personal level, Ngcobo appreciates Bhodloza for forming the group. “Before the formation of Is’xaxa we knew each other and respected each other as artists in the same industry. But with the formation of the group we became like blood brothers,” says Ngcobo.
For the maskandi icon, this memory also means that those in power must ensure there is an annual maskandi festival named after Bhodloza in Richmond and also a statue of him built in his hometown. The premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Sihle Zikalala, has committed to renaming the Endaleni college for further education and training in Richmond after the pioneer.
The legacy of Bhodloza will live on through the artists on whom he had an impact, the institutions he helped to create like the South African Traditional Music Association, and his powerful, lasting influence on maskandi. | https://www.newframe.com/how-welcome-bhodloza-nzimande-championed-maskandi/ |
Following her debut album release, This Time, singer-songwriter Donna Missal has hit the road to spread the empowering messages that shine through her music. She stopped at intimate venues along the Midwest and the East Coast for the first leg, including the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte on February 26.
This Time, released with Harvest Records, struck a chord with listeners because of Missal's ability to lift up other women with her raw vocals. She is known for destigmatizing issues that all non-men know to be true but are scared to discuss, like the toxicity of women tearing each other down. In particular, the lyric "When women hate on other women, everybody loses" from the opening track, Girl, is so important to listeners that it's featured on her merch.
Before performing "Girl" to listeners in Charlotte, Missal explained that the messages and themes embodied in This Time are meant to talk about what she's experienced as a young woman trying to make music. That there's this intrinsic idea in our culture that women always taught that there are only a few spots for us, and in order to get the spots you have to be in competition with the women next to you and put them down. Slowly but surely, we're learning this isn't true and we're learning how to better interact with one another - and we're thankful that music can teach us how to do this.
Throughout the entire performance, Missal made a point to make eye contact with every single person in the crowd. She grabbed listeners' hands every moment she could, so her empowering messages could resonate even stronger with each person she touched.
This is Missal's very first headline tour and album. In the past, she has opened for Bishop Briggs, King Princess, Sir Sly, and Joywave to name a few. That being said, she has been making music and singing for 10 years - since she was 18. She told listeners in Charlotte that she didn't think she'd be able to make it as a musician. She had this idea, placed on her by society, that all of her value was placed on how she looks, but she always wants to push boundaries. She reminded us that we as women feel like we're working against a ticking clock no matter what we were pursuing, but we can't forget that time is actually on our side more than we think. The older we get, the more we are valued, so we must respect our processes instead of comparing ourselves to people who may seem to have more success than we do at the moment.
It's nearly impossible for someone to leave a Donna Missal performance without feeling they could conquer the world, no matter their gender. Through music, Charlotte learned about Missal's success and learning about the prejudice she has faced, which she then turned into inspiring lyrics that have become special in the hearts of so many.
Missed Donna Missal's first leg of tour? Catch her on the second leg. Buy tickets here.
For a full gallery of photos from Donna Missal's Charlotte performance, click here.
Keep up with Donna Missal on: | https://www.theodysseyonline.com/donna-missal-2630553275 |
Welcome to the final interview in the ‘Cult Conversations’ series. Last, but certainly not least, the following interview comes courtesy of Craig Ian Mann, whose PhD and forthcoming book centers on the figure of the werewolf in horror cinema. I have had a sneak peak at Craig’s thesis, and found myself reading the full document voraciously. Craig has a great deal to offer the academic landscape, and I’m certain his book will become widely read and, in time, seminal. In the following exchange, Craig and I discuss the origins of his research interests, and get into a debate about so-called ‘reflectionist’ readings of cinematic texts. In the meantime, look out for Craig’s Phases of the Moon: A Cultural History of the Werewolf Film (Edinburgh University Press, 2019).
Your PhD and forthcoming monograph examines the figure of the werewolf in horror cinema. What sparked your interest in the topic? Did it begin with your own fandom? Or was it primarily an academic interest?
It definitely began with my own fandom. I have always been fascinated by monsters, but developed a particular soft spot for werewolves when I was young. The first werewolf film I ever saw was Wolf (1994), which I watched on VHS at a friend's house circa 1998 or 1999 – I can't remember exactly but something like that, anyway. I saw the first werewolf episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) at around the same time ("Phases", which I pay tribute to a little bit with the title of my forthcoming monograph, even if I ultimately couldn't find room for much discussion of werewolves on television). It was probably Wolf, "Phases" and R.L. Stine's The Werewolf of Fever Swamp (1993) that sparked my initial interest in werewolf narratives.
For better or worse I have an unshakable completist mentality (particularly in relation to cinema), so once I'd picked up that initial interest it was just a matter of consuming as much werewolf media as I could find. I think the next few werewolf movies I saw were probably The Howling (1981) and Silver Bullet (1985). I watched An American Werewolf in London (1981) for the first time on television a few years later and throughout my teens I either rented or bought everything from The Wolf Man (1941) to Dog Soldiers (2002) via Project: Metalbeast (or Metal Beast, 1995). I eventually caught up with the few classics I'd missed – most notably Werewolf of London (1935) – while I was an undergraduate. I'm still very much a fan now; WolfCop (2014), Howl (2015) and especially Late Phases (2014) are some favourites from recent years.
I first wrote about werewolf films while studying contemporary American horror at Sheffield Hallam University. The module leaned heavily towards cultural understandings of horror cinema as a site for working out real-world anxieties. I found it puzzling that so many monsters – vampires, zombies, Frankenstein's monster – had been the focus of entire books detailing their cultural histories, but there was very little work that approached werewolf media in this way. So I chose to write my undergraduate dissertation on the subject. I took a break and put werewolf films to one side for my master's degree, but came back to it for my doctoral studies and I'm now in the process of adapting the thesis into my first monograph. So it started with my fandom and developed into an academic pursuit.
How long have you been a fan of horror cinema? When did your journey begin and what kind of films precipitated your interest in genre films?
All my life, really – my taste has always leaned towards popular cinema. I vividly remember watching Westerns and science fiction at my grandparents' house when I was really young, so it was likely those early viewing experiences watching films like Winchester '73 (1950) and Forbidden Planet (1956) that shaped my interest in genre movies.
The first horror film I can remember seeing – when I was five or six years old – is Gremlins (1984). My pervading memory of the first time I saw it is Jerry Goldsmith's music. I watched it over and over again after that. It's probably the film I have seen the most times and remains one of my favourites – I still own the off-air VHS tape I first saw it on. In fact, I still watch it every Christmas Eve and have done without fail since I was a teenager (the film, not the VHS tape – I'm not actually sure if it would still play and I don't want to find out).
Putting werewolf movies to one side, other than Gremlins I can think of a few formative experiences in terms of shaping my interest in horror cinema. The first was not long after my parents first let me have a portable TV in my room. I'm not sure exactly when that was but I was definitely younger than eleven. I stayed up one Friday night and watched Candyman (1992). It scared me absolutely witless but somehow I stayed the distance. The sequel was playing on the same channel the next weekend and I tried to watch it, but ended up switching it off after five minutes.
After that, I have a very clear memory of renting Child's Play 2 (1990), and particularly the final scene in the toy factory. But I think the film that really got me hooked on horror was The Blair Witch Project (1999), which my sister bought not long after its video release. We watched it late one night when my parents were out, and it really got under my skin. I tend to return to it once a year or so and even as an adult it still unnerves me a little bit.
Can you talk more about the way in which the werewolf film expresses “cultural understandings of horror cinema as a site for working out real-world anxieties”? Do you see horror cinema as a ‘reflectionist’ vehicle for cultural and ideological phenomena? And if so, how would you respond to studies, such as Mark Bernard’s Selling the Splat Pack (2014), and Kevin Heffernan’s Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold (2004), both of which argue that a reflectionist, aesthetic perspective fails to account for the economies of horror cinema—especially the way in which the reflectionist argument masks commercial impulses that aim to construct horror cinema as legitimately political, and therefore not the ‘bad’ object the genre is often framed in historical terms?
I wouldn't call myself a reflectionist, no, in that I don't believe horror cinema (or any kind of cinema) "reflects" the real world as such. And, of course, in recent years that particular term has been generally used by detractors rather than practitioners of cultural approaches. I don't think of films as reflections of a certain time and place, because that would suggest that they are somehow separate or removed from the society that produced them. I subscribe to the idea of cinema as a product of a particular cultural moment, i.e. that it is inextricable from the ideological debates, social norms and cultural shifts particular to the context in which it was produced and released. For me, all movies are political. Whether a film's politics are explicitly intended or not is another matter, and not one that is enormously important to me; the context in which a film is received is more interesting, and a wider culture may not share a filmmaker's values. That said, I think investigating authorial intent alongside textual analysis and a thorough account of the historical context surrounding a film can produce interesting results.
Of course, it would be absurd to suggest that any film has a single fixed meaning; a movie can mean different things to different people in different places and times. It may arise from a certain cultural moment, but by definition that means that not all viewers will receive it in that context – and while I think viewing any film is enriched by an understanding of its place in history, not all viewers will be armed with that knowledge, either. So it's important to make clear that my work explores the cultural significance of genre cinema specifically at the time of its creation and consumption. And even in a film's immediate context I'm interested in the possibility of a multiplicity of readings according to the experiences, values and orientations of different viewers. It isn't always possible to explore all the angles (for reasons of brevity as much as anything), but there are many films I study in the book – I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), to name an example – that are particularly thematically ambiguous, so I think about how those films can be approached from both sides of the political spectrum. And where there is evidence for it, authorial intent can add another interesting layer.
So, to tie all of those points together I'll take The Wolf Man as a representative example, for no other reason than because I've been thinking about it recently after discussing it on Twitter. The Wolf Man was written by Curt Siodmak, a Jewish writer and German ex-patriate who fled Nazi Germany to escape persecution, first to Britain and then to the United States in 1937. He found a career as a screenwriter and had his first big hit with The Wolf Man, the story of a British-American, Larry Talbot, who is bitten by a werewolf travelling with a group of gypsies during a trip to his ancestral home in Wales.
From Siodmak's side, this was very much a film informed by his experiences in Germany, and particularly the ways in which the country changed under Nazism. He was quite open about how his traumatic experiences seeped into his screenplays, and once said that there were "terrors in my life that might have found an outlet in writing horror stories." He was particularly interested in how the werewolf represented the transformation of a peaceful man into a murderer (just as Germany transformed from a republic into a fascist state). In fact, Siodmak had left Britain for America to remove himself even further from Hitler; his wife had convinced him to move to Hollywood because she had been terrified of an invasion. So the fact that Talbot is cursed by European forces that have metaphorically "invaded" Britain is also interesting.
This is not a reading that was likely to resonate in the United States at the time of the film's release, though. While there were certainly many German ex-patriots in the country at this time, the average American was unlikely to be able to empathise with a man who fled his home nation in fear for his life. But that's not to say that The Wolf Man wasn't received in the context of war. In fact, the film was released only five days after the attack on Pearl Harbor and four days after the US declared war on the Empire of Japan, so it was very much tied to that cultural context. Before this point, the domestic experience of World War II had largely been the on-going debate between interventionists and non-interventionists. So in this sense, an American who is suddenly attacked by a foreign aggressor (in the form of the European gypsies who arrive in Britain and bring the werewolf's curse with them) is extremely relevant in that place and time.
David J. Skal argues that The Wolf Man and its three sequels – Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945) – parallel the American war effort, and there's certainly a case to be made that the sequels extend the original film's themes. After he is attacked on home soil, Talbot spends the next three films travelling to Visaria, Universal's fictional European country, and doing battle with all manner of irredeemably evil European monsters: Frankenstein's creature, Dracula, hunchbacks and various mad scientists with conspicuously Germanic names. So Talbot becomes analogous to an American soldier, forced to embrace violence and do awful things for the greater good – there's a real sense of personal sacrifice as a theme throughout all four of these films.
The wording of the final line changed slightly in the sequels, but the poem remained basically the same. It's clear that the central message here is that even essentially "good" people can turn to violence in extraordinary circumstances, and that applies both to the German people embracing Nazism and the servicemen sent to fight the Axis forces once America had been drawn into war. That's just one example of how we can see the werewolf film as a site for exploring real-world anxieties.
So I hope that that answers your initial question. To say a little bit about the idea that cultural readings (rather than "reflectionist" readings) fail to account for the economics of horror cinema, I can certainly see that argument. Culturalists are generally more interested in thematic meaning and sociohistorical context than the circumstances of a film's production, and I don't necessarily see anything problematic in that – just as I don't see anything problematic in the fact that industrial approaches tend to put the film itself to one side. To find a form of holistic analysis that can account for everything is an impossible ideal. Single methodologies can't possibly offer a complete and definitive account of any movie, and mixed methodologies are likely to have shortcomings in attempting to cover all the angles. I'm also not an academic who quickly suggests that any particular framework should be considered entirely invalid or without merit. Though there are, of course, perspectives I prefer to take in my own work – and I certainly have my own scepticisms, too – there is always scope for scholars to take different approaches to the same material.
As for the idea that thinking about horror films in terms of culture, society and politics overlooks the fact that genre cinema is made to turn a profit, I find it interesting that this argument is most often levelled at culturalists who study horror. It seems odd to me that cultural readings of, say, science fiction cinema or the Western (two other popular genres that have also been historically driven by commercial imperatives) are widely accepted alongside industrial accounts – i.e. we generally buy that science fiction's visions of the future and the Western's reworkings of the past both tell us something about the present, despite the fact that they are both popular genres – but attempts to discuss the politics of horror films in this way are now more frequently challenged or disregarded. This has always seemed like a strange reverse-snobbery to me; are we so precious about horror's low-brow status that we must pretend it means nothing? Similarly, the idea that a film can be actively sold as subversive or oppositional does nothing to change the fact that the film itself can still be seen to be subversive or oppositional. I see no reason why studies of production, distribution and exhibition can't exist alongside analytical or text-based scholarship, and in fact the two can often complement and enrich each other. In short, it is possible for a film to be both a commercial product and a cultural artefact.
If I may be challenging, it seems that, on the one hand, you argue you “subscribe to the idea of cinema as a product of a particular cultural moment, i.e. that it is inextricable from the ideological debates, social norms and cultural shifts particular to the context in which it was produced and released,” but also competing interpretations may be available—and thus assuredly “extricable”. It seems that the former is a reflectionist stance—although I appreciate that detractors have adopted the term ‘reflectionist’ as a pejorative so I accept that “cultural reading” is more sufficient and less charged. If a film—let’s remain with The Wolf Man for a moment—is inextricable from its war-time context and that Siodmak’s authorial intention as you recount is a reflectionist perspective, as well as the notion that a democracy of interpretation exists that may operate outside of cultural, social and ideological contexts, I want to ask if you mean that films are inextricable from historically contingent contexts from a scholarly perspective? For if audiences can and do interpret films in a wide variety of ways, then it seems that they are indeed “extricable” at the point of reception. How would you respond to this?
For me, understanding the cultural context surrounding a film is of vital importance, hence my comment that film and history are "inextricable" in my eyes. But that's my view – of course films can be and often are extricated from that context and, as I've said, it would be plainly ridiculous to suggest otherwise. Films are read in many different ways by many different people. However, it is the work of a culturalist to make those initial historical circumstances clear and to interrogate how popular culture relates to them, i.e. to reintroduce context where it might otherwise be absent. So I am absolutely a believer in democracy of interpretation, but I also think any reading of a film is enormously enriched by an understanding of its place in history.
That doesn't mean, however, that films are to be taken as "mirrors," nor should they be considered to have any single, fixed meaning even in their immediate context. This is why I reject "reflectionism" as a term. When we discuss a film as a product of a cultural moment, we don't have to assign a definitive meaning to it. We can consider, per my comments on The Wolf Man, how a creator's values or interpretations may align with or differ from the larger culture that receives a film. Similarly, we can consider how different societal groups might read their own values into the same movie.
So I mentioned I Was a Teenage Werewolf briefly above. This is a film that has been the subject of a reasonable amount of academic attention in comparison to many other werewolf films. Most scholars agree that it is a product of a particular moment in American history – one that witnessed the rise of youth culture and a widespread moral panic surrounding juvenile delinquency. After all, it is about an adolescent who transforms into an animal. Even if we want to ignore its thematic content, it was sold by American International Pictures as a movie aimed squarely at the emerging teenage market (the trailer begins by addressing "teenage guys 'n' dolls").
Beyond an acknowledgement of that initial context, though, readings have varied wildly. In Seeing Is Believing (1983), Peter Biskind argues that it is an exceptionally conservative film that delivers a grave warning to teenagers: society will not tolerate delinquents. On the other hand, Mark Jancovich's reading in Rational Fears (1996) recentralises teenagers at the film's target audience, and suggests it is more accurately read as a film that expresses adolescent frustrations with an overbearingly conservative society. These readings are ideologically opposed, but they both relate directly to the film's historical context. And they are both equally valid; the film's narrative and aesthetics provide ample evidence to support either interpretation. So yes, context is enormously important to me and it is always a priority in my work – but I am interested in exploring multiple perspectives. I also recognise that alternative approaches will extricate films from their cultural moment entirely and go a different way. That's all part of academic debate. | https://henryjenkins.org/blog/2019/1/4/cult-conversations-interview-with-craig-ian-mann-part-i |
Objective—The purposes of this assignment are:
- To understand the importance of individuals as change agents.
- To appreciate the role of dominant group members as allies.
- To consider alternatives to ruling, or hegemonic, ideologies.
- To understand the importance of social change in alleviating inequality.
Assignment—Before completing this assignment, you must first choose a minority group for whom you can be an ally (note the concept “ally” from the “Interrupting the Cycle of Oppression” article in the book). Examples of groups you can choose from include: a racial minority group (e.g., African-Americans, American Indians), an ethnic minority group (e.g., Bosnians, Sudanese, Mexicans), the poor/people in poverty, women, the GLBT community (i.e., gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered), immigrants, people with disabilities, religious minorities (e.g., Muslims), etc. You are to create a plan of action in support of the rights of the particular minority group you chose. Your plan must address the three levels of social change referred to in your text.
- Individual level
- Cultural level
- Institutional level
Diversity in USA, Ally group is: “Transgender”:
Identify a group that you have been, or could be, an ally to:
ANSWERS:
Individual Level:
- Identify five things you can do to promote individual change in regard to this group. Each item you list should be specific and unique. g., don’t just say “learn more about this group.” Tell me how you will learn more about the group? What can you do to enhance your learning?
Ally group is: “Transgender”:
Transgender people experience a mismatch between their gender identity or gender expression and their assigned sex. The transgender are often considered a social stigma by their families and subsequently societies. The rejection transgender people encounter is significantly harsher than the negative attitudes experienced by lesbian, gay and bisexual.
- Sensitization and education of self: At individual level, a rapid key informant research on the transgender issue faced both at socio-economic and psychological level will be carried out in order to first aware and sensitize myself regarding transgender rights issues. Based on self-sensitization together with confident knowledge, information, education and communication materials will be developed in localized context and dissemination through social media like face book, twitter etc.to aware people about transgender rights issues.
- Identification and recognition of nearby transgender: Before adopting this way as an individual change agent in terms of transgender rights advocacy, one must be ready to expect social ridicule by family and friends. At personal social circle level, transgender (of nay number) will be searched and made respectful friend. Transgender folk will be enough convinced through self-demonstrated behavior that he/she can be a good friend of normal sex folks. With patience and persistence this will work gradually for better self of a single ally member of the group.
- Introduce transgender to close friends: The made Trans friend should be introduced in a close friends company. The Trans folk should be introduced with equal human way as we do for others. In interval seating, friends will be brainstormed focusing on the issue being faced by transgender at individual and social level.
- Volunteering for the cause: Once the friends group is enough sensitized and ready to work about the transgender rights issues, make a small volunteer networks and chalk out family and neighborhood based plan entails social recognition and equal human rights modus operandi for Trans. This will help a few transgender in circle to feel better about themselves in terms of social recognition and acceptability.
- The council of key influentials: The key family and neighbor influential elders will be consulted and sensitized about the transgender rights issues. Once they prepared to work for the ally group with compassionate mode, the council of keys will be further used to influence other key local leaders like Mosque Imam, local market traders, school teachers’ etc.to advocate for transgender rights.
Institutional Level:
- What are two examples of institutional inequality that this group faces?
- State owned livelihood programs: Discrimination, stigmatization, and exclusionary laws can contribute to poverty, and, in some cases, may result in extreme poverty. These same factors also create hurdles for reducing poverty, thus negatively impacting the livelihoods of Transgender persons and their families around the world in multiple ways. However, there are serious gaps in available data on the income levels and economic status of Transgender persons in most developing countries. However, its known fact that Transgender youth are at increased risk for being abandoned by their families and rejected, barred, or deterred from accessing schools, all of which undermine their ability to learn and develop the skills that are necessary for a productive life as an adult. The livelihoods of Transgender are further impact by discriminatory employment practices, which render them vulnerable to poverty and predispose them to risky and illegal occupations. The vast majority of developing and many developed countries do not have employment protections for Transgender persons. As a result, Transgender persons are frequently not hired explicitly because they are transgender. This negatively impacts their earning potential and ability to contribute to the positive economic development of their home countries. Left without access to secure employment, some Transgender persons resort to sex work or other illegal activities to earn income.
- Impediment to Accessing Health Care: Discrimination against transgender at the personal, familial, and societal levels has been correlated with long-lasting physical and mental health problems, including high rates of psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, and suicide. 8-11from an early age, the potential transgender significantly needs for psychosocial support and health care. However, accessing health care services is among the most daunting challenges the transgender community confronts. In many developing countries the ‘’ally group’’ when seek health care services of any kind encounter rejection, humiliation, or, at best, sub-standard services. Even where health care providers, clinicians, and government health agencies are accepting of Transgender clients, the service providers often lack basic information or training about the distinct health concerns and appropriate medical and counseling practices for them.
- What would institutional change look like in ways that would positively impact this group? Be specific.
- Mainstreaming Transgender Issues into law and operational Policies and Procedures regarding their livelihood proection: The state should promulgate legislation regarding transgender livelihood protection. This should entails jobs quota system in industries, government job and even in private corporate. Just like state have quota jobs for disables, or other sort of miniorities, the same should be applied in transgender case. There should be proper skill learning centers for transgender for their right to work and earn with dignity approach.
- Friendly and equal access to health care: The state as well as private run health centre particularly psychiatric health unit should exclusively establish therapy centers for the transgender across the country. Especially the dedicated psychiatrics should be trained internally and externally in transgender related medical science and be launched in all hospital with specific duty time for transgender both physical and psychological treatment. With the support of civil society, NGOs, media and other advocacy groups, such reforms can be brought in mainstream health care for the benefit of ally group.
Cultural Change:
- What are two examples of cultural inequality that this group faces? Be sure to think about specific aspects of dominant culture (e.g., language, symbols, values, norms, ideologies, stereotypes). Be specific.
- Masculine nature of culture often strike hard on transgender. Masculinity is considered the ornaments of bravery, power and social pride. As a result such socially cognitive narcissist behavior results to look down upon fragile women and particularly transgender. Especially in conservative tribal culture, such insulting attitude towards transgender is often found in their idioms, poetry and mythical stories. Proverbs like ‘death is better than to live with transgender’; ‘some men are born in their bodies, others have to fight for it; ‘Hat is a choice, being Trans is not’. In some myths Trans are depicted as devil in chaos. This shows socially perceived attitude towards Tran’s folk in particular communities.
- The family attitude towards transgender is the beginning of tragedy: Often the Transgender when identified in a family, at sudden all of the kins feel shame and stigma for having such members inside family. They as a whole not only reject them, but also try to alienate them through different social pressures like mockery, proverbial satires etc. Hence majority of them elope from the hometown and use to live in a place where no one know him. This homeless status often lead to economic vulnerability in shape of beggars as well compelled sex work. Many of them often commit suicide due to gender identity crises. In a short time they become extreme vulnerable in terms of socio-economic and psychological patterns.
- What would cultural change look like in ways that would positively impact this group? You can draw from real life past examples of cultural shifts as well as hypothetical future shifts. Be specific.
From neighborhood to village level to council level, a group of volunteers including elders should be formalized particularly to transgender rights issues. The key influential persons like Mosque Imam, mayor of the city and villages, trade union representative should be taken on board to advocate transgender equal rights. In cultural idioms, poetry, songs and other type of arts, transgender should be projected as equal and full humans capable of doing anything. Literature regarding their humiliation should be slowly diminished and be replaced with healthy and feeling better messages.
In the schools/colleges, universities and media, the transgender rights issues should be projected in a dignified manner. Different theatre and TV dramas should be written and played entails transgender a hero of humanity. Tran march, Trans day should be celebrated with full zeal spirit for their rights awareness. Particularly among school children, the rights, values and recognition of transgender should be inculcated through routine education so that tomorrow the new generation will have a sense of equality towards Transgender. | https://www.coursebb.com/2016/12/18/diversity-in-usa-ally-group-is-transgender/ |
We’ve all been guilty of getting stuck in our ways. It’s often easier and more comfortable for us as human beings to stick to convention, whether it be in our diet, hobbies, work, daily routine or political views. Perhaps nowhere is this more obvious however than in our consumption of, and taste in, art and media.
We enjoy certain types of movies, read certain types of books, and listen to certain types of music – often at the exclusion of all others. We define ourselves by these choices; allow them to decorate the cultural framework of our personalities and identify us with a particular ‘tribe’.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with loving a particular band, artist or genre more than others. I myself have certainly been guilty of listening exclusively to projects associated with Eddie Vedder & Chris Cornell and nothing else (to the almost certain consternation of everyone within earshot). However, as musicians, do we need to be more careful about what we listen to; and, perhaps more importantly, concern ourselves with what we’re missing out on when we accept and conform to our existing musical tastes.
I believe broadening our musical horizons as listeners is one of the most powerful ways of expanding our range as musicians. Improving our overall musicality and playing in our favoured genre/s with exposure to ideas that may be more prevelant in other styles of music.
Think of some of the most seminal, and successful, artists of our times. Chances are at least some of their success stems from their open-minded musicality and ability to span and even defy genres. This is sometimes dismissed as cultural appropriation, however (as long as it’s done sensitivly and creatively, with the best of intentions) such blending of styles is the very reason we’ve arrived in such an interesting and varied musical landscape in the first place.
Think of David Bowie embracing disco with Let’s Dance, The Beatles inspiration at the hands of Eastern Mysticism, Paul Simon’s harnessing of African rhythms on Graceland, or Miles Davis’ rendition of Gershwin’s opera Porgy & Bess. In recent years we’ve seen similar examples in the pop sphere, with artists such as Ed Sheeran incorporating elements of R&B and Hip Hop, Justin Bieber adding Latin flavours, and 21 Pilots creating musical collages that touch on everything from Metal to Reggae to Dubstep & Electronica.
Dismissing other styles of music is like a painter only using certain colours in their work. Not only that but studies have actually shown that people those who are bimusical; who perhaps grew up with exposure to more than one type of music (for example both Indian and Western music) have more elaborate brain systems for listening than those who grow up listening to only one kind of music. The same brain enhancements are seen in those who grow up speaking more than one language. It has also been shown that this brain development is not limited when you start later in life. Yes our brain is always looking for patterns; however, that also means that if we only give it recognisable patterns it more often than not ‘switches off’. Introducing variety can make your brain more assertive and responsive and effectively more ‘open’. Next to musical training, this personality trait of openness has been shown to be the strongest predictor of musical sophistication.
So get out of your comfort zone. Start listening to, and even playing, a wider variety of musical styles. ‘Steal’ from everywhere, and everyone, and watch your musical adaptability and creativity flourish.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this latest post and are inspired to broaden your musical horizons, both as player and listener. If you have any recommendations, or would like to know some artists I think are great places to start, please get in touch. If you’ve enjoyed this article please take a look at our other blog posts, and let me know your thoughts in the comments below. | http://www.leedsguitarlessons.co.uk/listen-to-everything/ |
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2018 Distinguished Alumni: Meet Anna Sweet
Always a trailblazer, Anna Sweet ’04 (computer science) was a founder of RIT’s Electronic Gaming Society and one of the first students to enroll in video game development classes, but pioneering a gaming career has been a lifelong pursuit.
“I've wanted to work in the video game industry since I was a kid,” she said. “My parents will tell you that is the only thing I wanted to do.”
Sweet’s career has spanned esports, video games, social media platforms as well as virtual reality, where she had a hand in shaping the technology from a gaming novelty to a transformative medium.
“I got to work on a lot of this generation of VR and see it reach consumers, inspire game developers and change the way we view entertainment,” she said.
After having worked at companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Oculus and Valve, Sweet is now the senior vice president for Caffeine, a start-up that is building a unique live-streaming platform for the video game industry.
“We are reinventing live streaming for gamers, entertainers and the creative arts,” Sweet said. “And so we’re trying to build a social, friendly and engaging platform that lets you really connect with your favorite creators.”
Creating connections has been an overarching theme for Sweet both in and outside of the office. In 2015, Sweet and her husband, Nate Salpeter, started Sweet Farm, a 12.5-acre animal sanctuary and heirloom vegetable farm located in Half Moon Bay, Calif. Part of the farm’s mission is to educate people about the source of their food.
“People get to come out to the farm and they get to meet the animals. They get to understand these are animals with empathy and intelligence,” she said.
And while the labels “tech pioneer” and “farm owner” aren’t typically synonymous, for Sweet it’s still just about pursuing her passion.
“The thing that drives me is giving people new and interesting experiences and finding new ways to engage with the things they love.”
Sweet will be honored during the Presidents’ Alumni Ball on Oct. 19 as the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences Distinguished Alumna.
The Distinguished Alumni Award is presented to a certified alumnus/a who has performed with distinction at the highest levels of his or her chosen profession or who has contributed significantly to the advancement and leadership of noteworthy civic, philanthropic or service organizations over the course of many years. Those honored have brought distinction to their colleges and RIT through their professional, community and/or philanthropic achievements. | https://www.rit.edu/news/2018-distinguished-alumni-meet-anna-sweet |
Professor champions video gaming as valuable teaching tool for parents, teachers
(Phys.org)—The stereotype of young people isolating themselves by hunching in front of a video game screen is often far from the truth, says Elisabeth Hayes, recently appointed the Delbert & Jewell Lewis Chair in Reading & Literacy at ASU. Video gaming has become a social activity shared with other players that can lead to better communication skills and the development of sophisticated technical skills.
On the premise that parents can help their young gamers on the road to literacy, Hayes has begun doing research on the role of intergenerational video game play. She and Sinem Siyahhan, associate research professor in ASU's Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, are conducting focus groups at the ASU Preparatory campuses to learn how parents view video game play with their children.
"Parents often don't know what their children are doing in terms of games, and they are puzzled by why gaming is so attractive," Hayes says. "They are missing an opportunity to leverage the power of video games by not engaging with them.
"Games are not played in isolation. They're often a hub for social interactions, and young people go to fan sites and create artwork and tutorials for each other. They talk and write about the games, modify the games and learn to problem-solve.
"Game players often develop sophisticated technical and language skills that can lead to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers. It's a hidden opportunity for literacy that we could take advantage of as educators and parents."
Parents who don't feel comfortable playing video games can still ask their children questions about the games and promote their ability to think and talk about complex systems. She suggests they might help children identify appropriate fan communities, where gamers get together to discuss the games, create art, share fan fiction and play the games with each other.
"Parents are ambivalent about fan sites, especially with girls, fearing that they may be prey to predators," Hayes says. "We hope to make them more comfortable. Many fan sites around The Sims video games, for instance, won't tolerate inappropriate behavior or language and are acceptable for children under 18."
The Sims, one of the best selling computer games of all time, is an artificial life program in which gamers create their own households, building a home, choosing a career, keeping a budget, determining the family members' aspirations and challenges, directing their moods and desires. Hayes wrote a book on the game, "Women and Gaming: The Sims and 21st Century Learning," in 2010 with professor James Gee.
She is particularly interested in gender issues in gaming, since games designed for girls typically are less rich, without the ability to modify the codes. They generally lack active fan communities. Her 2000 book, "Women as Learners," won the international Houle Award for Outstanding Literature in Adult Education.
Hayes says that she also is interested in whether joint game play can promote positive relations between preteens and parents. Because children often are more adept at video games, the interaction between parents and children may be one of equals.
She hopes to organize some structured gaming nights for parents and children at the ASU Preparatory Academies next semester, to observe and to develop resources for helping parents facilitate their children's learning.
"Video gaming can actually lead to rich, valuable communication between parents and children, and between peers," she says. "It can have an effect on a child's choices of classes, the interests they pursue and their choice of careers."
Hayes' recent research also includes an investigation of the digital literacy practices of freshman education majors at ASU, to be published in the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education. She found that most respondents, the majority of whom were female, were not particularly interested in video gaming and may not understand its potential value as a teaching tool.
Female teachers in particular may not be able to connect with or respond to boys' interest in gaming, she said. Many boys are passionate about gaming and this interest might be something that teachers can use as writing and research topics.
Before coming to ASU in 2007, Hayes was a founding member of the Games, Learning and Society research group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also chaired the English education program. She was named a 2011 White House Champion of Change for her work on using games and digital media to engage girls in computing. | https://phys.org/news/2013-01-professor-champions-video-gaming-valuable.html |
Gallery spaces are often conceived of as separate(d) from communities, requiring community members to cross a threshold to enter, engage and be included. shift CTRL is a search for the liminal space, not simply inviting people in, but recognizing the ways in which the institution is always a part of community. Over three months, the XIT-RM is transformed into a multi-use space for shift CTRL with three distinct components that ask questions, celebrate community and challenge barriers.
responding to the city we are in: engagement hub on art, politics and belonging
September 6 – September 30
community collaborations: short-run exhibitions with local groups committed to social change
October 1 – October 31
shift CTRL B(l)ackspace: Kadeem Dunn’s playable showcase examines the past/present of Blacks in gaming
November 1 – December 21
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The Art Gallery of Mississauga is a guest upon the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit. This ancient land is part of the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit and the traditional homelands of the Anishinaabe, Wendat, and Haudenosaunee nations. | https://get-found.com/shift-ctrl/ |
My dissertation traced the shifting discourses and practices of Internet gaming in urban China, paying particular attention to the various ways that Internet gaming is imagined—both how young Chinese perceive the importance of games in their social lives and how gaming is portrayed in government and media discourse. I demonstrated that dominant discourse about Internet games is entangled in larger projects of Chinese modernity, national identity and soft power at the same time as it affects and is affected on the micro-level by the subjectivities of the urban Chinese youth for whom game play is an integral experience. Through extensive media analysis, participant observation, and ethnographic interviews conducted with a wide array of Internet gamers in Shanghai over the course of six years, I tracked contested and shifting categories of game play in order to uncover the politics inherent in their labeling.
What does it mean to be an “Internet gamer” in urban China?
How are “healthy” games separated from “unhealthy” games?
What does it mean to be a “professional” gamer and, by contrast, who is at risk of being an Internet “addict”?
In answering these questions, the dissertation explored the everyday practices of Internet gamers: how games are played, the contexts in which game play is situated, and the other social media, formations and events that support game play. Such an approach sought to show not only how discourse intersects with practice, but also how game practices offer insight into the unique experience of the “post-80s” and “post-90s” generations, whose own maturation occurred alongside that of the Internet, and for whom Internet gaming has become a central part of daily life.
View my presentation on “patriotic leisure” at the 10th annual China Internet Research Conference here. | https://feiyaowan.com/research/ |
In this simple yet complete guide, the authors walk through many of the critical social media policy issues with which organizations struggle: the reasons for a policy, applying organizational values to the policy, social media roles, what to say online, social media monitoring strategy, responding to criticism online, responding to other comments online, privacy and permissions, and thinking through copyright and attributions. Each section offers at least one highlighted example from an organization that has struggled with the same issue, and how the issue was resolved.
When I was an online community manager, I was left to navigate the online community without guidance. I found myself making judgment calls on the fly about how much about myself to reveal personally when interacting within other online communities, how to deal with negative criticism, staying on message when developing personal relationships with community members, and whether or not to use my personal social media accounts to promote organizational efforts. The Social Media Policy Workbook is a godsend for organizations grappling with just these issues.
It is non-judgmental and approachable. There are no set rules or strictures; policy positions are laid out along a continuum of choices that best fit an organization’s values, mission and culture.
It is hands on. It’s really a workbook, and every section of the workbook includes probing questions, guided exercises and space for answers.
Real-world stories and experiences from organizational staff support each section of the workbook.
The companion social media template is terrific. The online template is not a duplicate of the workbook; it’s a companion piece of sample language taken from existing social media policies of other organizations.
It is short, sweet and to the point. At 20 pages, it’s just the perfect length not to intimidate.
For every decision, there are guided questions, simple worksheets and space to add organization-specific data. For example, it includes a stellar worksheet intended to help leadership consider social media roles and responsibilities within the organization.
The workbook could benefit from a section about how personal you want your organization to act or appear online. I struggled with this same issue as an online manager: Do I sign the organization’s Twitter updates with my initials? Should I add my name to any/some/all of the Facebook posts? Should I put my name at the top of our Foursquare account? It would be helpful to include in the workbook a list of the social media channels, and ask which circumstances in which it is more or less appropriate to connect as a person rather than “a logo” online. Chapter two, “Your Organization’s Social Media Values,” could easily be modified to include this discussion.
I also wish that the workbook had included a discussion or decision-tree around posting within other professional spaces (LinkedIn groups, other Facebook Pages) as a staff person. How and when to identify the fact that you also work at a certain organization is an issue all staff encounter at times.
The Nonprofit Social Media Policy Workbook is an essential resource for initiating, discussing and drafting your organization’s social media policies. Download it here.
If you are looking for a starting point for your social media policy, look no further.Debra Askanase works with nonprofits and businesses to create engagement strategies that move people to action. She is a social media strategist and partner in Socialbrite. Visit her profile page, see her Community Organizer 2.0 blog, follow her on Twitter, contact Debra by email or leave a comment.
Check your social profile at http://www.Social-Fingerprint.com. Its free. | http://www.socialbrite.org/2012/04/30/sort-out-your-teams-social-media-roles/ |
In Wake of ArenaNet Debacle, IGDA Issues Suggests Social Media Guidelines For Game Devs
Last week's fallout from the firings of two ArenaNet writers will undoubtedly linger for some time, not only with ArenaNet but throughout the gaming industry. In response, the International Game Developers Association has produced a series of questions and guidelines that it suggests companies address in the immediate future related to interactions between employees and customers on social media.
The guidelines cover some of the most basic topics -- like questioning whether staff should be allowed to identify themselves as employees on social media and whether they should talk about work on those accounts at all -- to procedures regarding what steps to take if harassment occurs, like as a "911" contact in case of an emergency, such as a death threat. While many of the concerns might seem banal to most people, they're the sort of things that arguably should be covered in HR documentation, not only to protect employees but to protect employers in the case of legal action taken by employees who are disciplined or fired following an incident.
MassivelyOP has reported that they did contact ArenaNet to find out if any such guidelines are at place at the company, but received the reply that "the company has told us it cannot comment on its internal policies and guidance for employees."
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About the Author
Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites. | https://www.mmobomb.com/news/wake-arenanet-debacle-igda-issues-suggests-social-media-guidelines-game-devs |
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The City of Melissa wishes to promote effective communication and maintain a respectful dialogue with our followers on our various social media channels. In that spirit, we have provided the community guidelines for posting comments on any official City of Melissa or Melissa Department's social media pages including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter, and Nextdoor:
Should you have any questions about the guidelines or the City's communications efforts, please email Celso Martinez. | https://www.cityofmelissa.com/345/Community-Posting-Comment-Guidelines |
If a game critic yells in the woods, does anyone hear her? This is one of the many questions that I left Critical Proximity (the first annual game criticism convention) with, a yellow light that has certainly slowed me down as a critic. These questions orbit around the ontology (here, describing the nature of the relationships that exist among critics, their work, and several communities at large) of criticism in general, but gaming criticism in particular. All this post is meant to manifest is more curiosity and a map for some thoughts on game criticism. I won’t even attempt to start unfolding the larger complications at play here, which are beyond my command and enough to write a book on. I do, however, want to add my own wrinkles to the conversation about game criticism’s purpose and significance.
No one knows what game criticism is, or game criticism as it’s known to those familiar with Ian Bogost, Leigh Alexander, Cameron Kunzelman, Mattie Brice. To the gaming community at large those names mean a little more than my name does to them. And this is sad, frustrating, and another point of pessimism against my hopes for game criticism. Game criticism, as is popularly conceived, has been relegated to product reviews, content marketing (previews), and non-news reporting. When you ask the average game player about game criticism they reply with IGN, not Critical Distance.
The following is a screenshot from the comments section in the now “controversial” (cuz the reporter apparently didn’t “get it”) coverage on the Critical Proximity event. Here,voices that can be argued to essentially represent the mainstream gaming community’s ideas on what game criticism is appear. Although a small and unscientific sample, I’m sure you’ll find similar responses if you ask outside the game criticism nest.
As an amateur literary critic, I’ve experienced this my whole collegiate career. You tell people you write literary/film criticism and they think you write book and film reviews. This shakes you after spending so much time in the Ivory Tower, forgetting that no one back on the terra firma has ever heard of Fredric Jameson or André Bazin.
Yes, this is the legendary Bazin discussing mis-en-scene with a cat. No, you don’t have to know who he is to enjoy this.
Attempting to define game criticism will certainly produce some straw man that’s besides the questions at hand, but a general understanding and description does seem absent from the popular discourse. It seems most appropriate to first approach this field of study using a negative theology, describing what it is not. Game criticism is not 10/10 reviews. It’s not whether you should buy a product. It’s not an exclusive preview.
Game criticism is an attempt at understanding, interpretation, reflection, aesthetic and cultural evaluation, philosophy, social criticism, etc. Game criticism is a conversation, a more important one, about games.
And there’s a lot of miscommunication.
Many “gamers” who do happen to listen or more like happen to hear, charge the critic with “reading too much into it” in the comments and then go back to r/gaming. This typical response is partially due to inaccessibility, but also an inherent exclusionary force push that “serious” game criticism rarely acknowledges.
In many ways, the mainstream conversation surrounding games parallels the discursive parameters for sports journalism. So much so, that sometimes I wonder if Roger Ebert was right. No politics allowed, no bias (meaning having an opinion that goes against objectivity the default bias), no philosophy or “reading into things,” no mention of anything socially controversial or significant. The interchange among critics producing “serious” game criticism or new games journalism is anything but. Whether it’s Cameron Kunzelman casually slipping into Foucault or Leigh Alexander bringing up the fact that AAA gaming culture serves a predominantly young straight white male audience (the comments sections of which usually lead me further down cynicism road), gaming criticism is perceived as overly academic or taken as personal attacks.
These discussions need to be had, but no one seems to be listening to each other. These “conversations” start off as firefights, move into critical standstills, then fizzle away like so many particle effects in the virtual night. No one’s opinions are ever changed, just reaffirmed.
Of course, some do not care to speak to that audience that isn’t listening, opting for the insularly ecology that mimics academia’s exclusionary circle jerk. Of course, this can be a good and necessary thing, but experts only talking to experts seems a methodology more suited for the sciences than cultural inquiry. Mattie Brice said that “game criticism is a radical act.” And while Plato’s gadfly needs to live, annoying and arousing the cattle, I wonder if there’s another way to get through, another way to speak. Because yelling doesn’t seem to be working on any sides.
I don’t have the answer, only more questions. People a lot smarter than me are dealing with what boils down to making criticism in general relevant (a struggle signified by the game critics’ need for Patreon) to the masses and haven’t provided a remedy. Maybe this is an oxymoron. Attempts at making game criticism relevant or significant seem to take the form of social justice, political agenda. This is fine. This is good. The “objectivity” and “non-bias” and contempt to any mention of sexism or racism (oddly enough, often by those who have never experienced either) are all inlayed with politics as well. Remember the fish forgets that he’s in water. Opposition is necessary.
But this has left games criticism almost entirely concerned with representation, which is only 50% of a game. When this is the only way games are discussed, I wonder why game critics are game critics at all. If you’re only concerned with how something is presented, how it looks, maybe you should be writing about film or television, mediums that deal 90% in representation, and are still often problematic. Otherwise, game criticism becomes only a means to end, no longer valuable in itself or about the games themselves.
Games criticism as an agent of change? I at most times doubt this, then I think on how it’s affected my own thinking. After discovering Critical Distance and the writers that I have mentioned, here, less than year ago, I’m certainly much more sensitive (not perfect) to others, attuned to issues of representation, willing to try to consider another perspective, and even more open to being wrong. Equally as important, game criticism (really thinking about it) has taught me to listen more intently. My concern is that this is to be expected. I am a regular. I came to the community ideologically weighted in that direction. My concern is how do we get the gaming community at large in the conversation? Is this even possible? How can you speak to someone who isn’t listening and doesn’t want to?
As it stands, if a game critic yells in the woods, she simply arouses the echo of familiar voices throughout a forest preserve.
You can read and watch the wonderful and thought provoking talks from Critical Proximity here. I would also encourage anyone who happens to be reading and isn’t familiar with some of the writers I’ve mentioned to check out their work. In providing new ways to look at games, these critics also provide new ways to enjoy them. | https://dialogwheel.com/2014/04/02/if-a-game-critic-yells-in-the-woods/ |
It's half the size of other gaming laptops with GTX 1080s, but the compromised keyboard might be a deal breaker.
The Asus Zephyrus is an incredibly thin laptop with a GTX 1080 inside it, measuring only 18mm thick and weighing just under five pounds. It's a marvel of ...
GAMING TIPS to online multiplayer gaming - Episode 1
Posted May 28, 2017
Be A Winner - Beginner tips to online multiplayer gaming - Episode 1
This page targets the novice FPS gamer and casual gamers who want to take their game to the next level.
The objective is to provide tips that are useful and easy to implement in your gameplay. Do i...
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Gamer Zone is a wide Community Site for individual gamers across the world to get connected and avail news updates, entertainment and feeds of their interests. Here people are also connected with each other (as they do in any social media) and can share whatever they like to show to their friends.
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In 2004, the Blue Ring Nebula was first identified. It appeared as a faint gas blob with a star at its center and was unlike anything else in the Milky Way. Scientists could not understand what it was. It was observed over the years with a variety of instruments including telescopes on Earth and in space. Reporting in Nature, scientists have now revealed more about what it is.
Stars in the Milky Way are often found in pairs that orbit one another. When they are close, they may eventually collide in a merger as they get older and grow larger. When two stars collide material is rapidly ejected away. from the collision. Researchers wondered if that might be how the Blue Ring Nebula was formed.
"We were in the middle of observing one night, with a new spectrograph that we had recently built, when we received a message from our colleagues about a peculiar object composed of a nebulous gas expanding rapidly away from a central star," said Princeton University's Guðmundur Stefánsson, the Henry Norris Russell Postdoctoral Fellow in astrophysical sciences. "How did it form? What are the properties of the central star? We were immediately excited to help solve the mystery!"
For this work, the researchers decided to use different spectrographs on Earth-based telescopes: the HIRES optical spectrograph on the 10-meter Keck Telescope at Maunakea in Hawaii, and the near-infrared Habitable-zone Planet Finder on the 10-meter Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas.
"The spectroscopic observations were key in allowing us to understand the object further, from which we see that the central star is inflated, and we see signatures of accretion likely from a surrounding disk of debris," Stefánsson said.
"Indeed, the spectroscopic data coupled with theoretical modeling shows that the Blue Ring Nebula is consistent with the picture of a merging binary star system, suggesting that the inwards spiraling companion was likely a low-mass star," explained lead study author Keri Hoadley, a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech.
While the relics of star mergers have been seen before, they are typically obscured by clouds of dust, and the stellar remnant can't be observed. The Blue Ring Nebula is different, however, and provides a clear picture of the merger's leftovers. It can help researchers learn more about the merging process.
"The Blue Ring Nebula is rare," said Hoadley. "As such, it is really exciting that we were able to find it, and we are excited about the possibility of finding more such objects in the future. If so, that would allow us to gain further insights into the remnants of stellar mergers and the processes that govern them."
The authors noted that one telescope they used is located at the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii, which has very important cultural significance for the indigenous Hawaiian community. "We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain," they said. Learn more from Nature about why the construction of a new telescope at the site is being protested. | https://www.labroots.com/trending/space/19229/mystery-blue-ring-nebula-solved |
Powerful telescopes equipped with multi-fibre or integral field spectrographs combined with detailed models of stellar atmospheres and automated fitting techniques allow for the analysis of large number of stars. These datasets contain a wealth of information that require new analysis techniques to bridge the gap between observations and stellar evolution models. To that end, we develop Bonnsai (BONN Stellar Astrophysics Interface), a Bayesian statistical method, that is capable of comparing all available observables simultaneously to stellar models while taking observed uncertainties and prior knowledge such as initial mass functions and distributions of stellar rotational velocities into account. Bonnsai can be used to (1) determine probability distributions of fundamental stellar parameters such as initial masses and stellar ages from complex datasets; (2) predict stellar parameters that were not yet observationally determined; and (3) test stellar models to further advance our understanding of stellar evolution. An important aspect of Bonnsai is that it singles out stars that cannot be reproduced by stellar models through χ2 hypothesis tests and posterior predictive checks. Bonnsai can be used with any set of stellar models and currently supports massive main-sequence single star models of Milky Way and Large and Small Magellanic Cloud composition. We apply our new method to mock stars to demonstrate its functionality and capabilities. In a first application, we use Bonnsai to test the stellar models of Brott et al. (2011, A&A, 530, A115) by comparing the stellar ages inferred for the primary and secondary stars of eclipsing Milky Way binaries of which the components range in mass between 4.5 and 28 M⊙. Ages are determined from dynamical masses and radii that are known to better than 3%. We show that the stellar models must include rotation because stellar radii can be increased by several percent via centrifugal forces. We find that the average age difference between the primary and secondary stars of the binaries is 0.9 ± 2.3 Myr (95% CI), i.e. that the stellar models reproduce the Milky Way binaries well. The predicted effective temperatures are in agreement for observed effective temperatures for stars cooler than 25 000 K. In hotter stars, i.e. stars earlier than B1-2V and more massive than about 10 M⊙, we find that the observed effective temperatures are on average hotter by 1.1 ± 0.3 kK (95% CI) and the bolometric luminosities are consequently larger by 0.06 ± 0.02 dex (95% CI) than predicted by the stellar models.
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If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library, or send a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. | http://dare.uva.nl/search?metis.record.id=439851 |
The Kitt Peak Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph (KOSMOS) and the Cerro Tololo Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph (COSMOS) are nearly identical spectrographs being developed simultaneously for use in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, on the Mayall and Blanco telescopes, respectively.
M 57 is imaged in red, green and in the light of hydrogen alpha. The red and green SDSSg’ and SDSSr’ filters are broader in wavelength coverage than the hydrogen alpha filter, which causes the stars to appear blue/green. The red line on the image shows the slit position used to acquire the spectrum shown below.
The development of KOSMOS and COSMOS is through a partnership between NOAO and The Ohio State University (OSU) and is funded through the NSF’s Renewing Small Telescopes for Astronomical Research (ReSTAR) Program.
Commissioning of KOSMOS on the Mayall 4-meter began in October; throughput is a factor of 2 better than the existing RC Spectrograph. The most current information on the expected KOSMOS/COSMOS capabilities as well as relevant technical documentation can be found on the NOAO System Technology Center KOSMOS page. | https://www.noao.edu/news/2013/kosmos-main.php |
Hubble Space Telescope To Monitor Changes On Mars
18 May 1991The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has begun a long-term program to monitor seasonal and interannual changes that occur on the surface and in the atmosphere of the planet Mars. This program will allow for a better understanding of the Martian climate and processes involved in surface changes, and may eventually allow scientists to characterize global weather patterns on Mars, which will be an important prerequisite for a manned expedition to the red planet.
Preliminary observations, made with the HST's Planetary Camera, yield the sharpest images (.2 arc second) of Mars ever taken from Earth. They show clearly Martian atmospheric features, as well as surface and topographic details ranging from large impact basins down to surface markings as small as 50 kilometers (31 miles) across. The HST data also provide new information about the abundance of ozone in the Martian atmosphere.
The science team undertaking this long-term program is composed of planetary scientists Philip James, University of Toledo; Steve Lee and Todd Clancy, University of Colorado; Ralph Kahn and Richard Zurek, Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Leonard Martin, Lowell Observatory, and Robert Singer, University of Arizona.
Although Mars has been studied in detail by several space missions, including the Viking Landers which made observations from the Martian surface for several years, there is still much scientific mystery in the red planet. Mars is a dynamic world because, like Earth, it possesses an active atmosphere which changes the appearance of the planet's surface over both short and long time scales. Mars goes through seasonal changes because, like Earth, its rotational axis is inclined with respect to its orbit (23.5° for Earth, 25.2° for Mars).
To understand Mars' complex meteorology and climate the planet must be continually monitored over many of its annual cycles, much as the monitoring of Earth by terrestrial weather satellites has improved our ability to understand and forecast weather on our planet. HST observations allow monitoring of the Martian surface and atmosphere, revealing the global distributions of clouds (both water and dust) in the atmosphere versus latitude, longitude, time of day, season, and year. This is an impossible job for ground based telescopes because atmospheric motions blur the telescopic image of a planet. Even under optimum observing conditions the smallest details which ground based telescopes can see on Mars are about 150 kilometres across. What is more, this resolution is only possible during a short period of time approximately every 780 days when Mars is closest to the Earth. Most of the time ground based telescopes are unable to resolve features smaller than 600-1000 kilometres so that even major events occurring on the planet are unrecognizable.
Even when Mars is at its greatest distance from Earth, the resolution of the HST Planetary Camera is comparable to that obtainable from ground based observatories only when Mars is closest to Earth (opposition). This makes HST an ideal instrument for monitoring long-term changes on Mars throughout the red planet's 1.8 year orbital period.
Since HST is located in space it can observe Mars in ultraviolet light, which is normally absorbed by ozone in the Earth's atmosphere. By comparing these images at different wavelengths the researchers can measure absorption of ozone in the Martian atmosphere, especially over the dry polar regions. Martian atmospheric ozone was identified by ultraviolet observations made by the Mariner 9 spacecraft in 1971, but HST observations provide both global and temporal ozone monitoring. Apparently water vapor initiates chemical reactions which remove ozone from the Martian atmosphere, and the team scientists hope to use the ultraviolet data to monitor the amount of water, as well as ozone, in the Martian atmosphere.
The researchers will continue to monitor Mars until its angular separation from the Sun in the sky is less than HSTs safety limit. Comparison of images obtained at different times will reveal surface, weather, and climate changes on the red planet and will hasten the day when scientists can understand and characterize weather and surface conditions on the planet in preparation for future manned and unmanned exploration. | https://sci.esa.int/web/hubble/-/37688-hubble-space-telescope-to-monitor-changes-on-mars |
Using NASA's planet hunter, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), scientists discovered two sibling planets, HD 260655 b and HD 260655 c, which orbit a bright red dwarf star just 33 light-years away. TESS finds exoplanets by looking for "transits”. This tiny drop in starlight as a planet passes in front of its star provides information about the planet's diameter and orbit. The researchers also used data from ground-based spectrographs, such as CARMENES at the 3.5m-telescope in Calar Alto in Spain, to confirm the existence of the two new planets. The telescopes measure a star's "wobble," which is caused by the gravitational forces of the planets orbiting it, and from which the planets' masses can be calculated.
Hot worlds
Combining the measurements, the researchers were able to determine the density of the two planets, confirming that they are rocky worlds that are only slightly larger and more massive than the Earth. Planet b is about 1.2 times and planet c 1.5 times the size of Earth. However, the two worlds are unlikely to harbour life because they are both far too hot. The temperature on planet b, which is closest to the host star, is estimated to be 435° C. And even on planet c, the temperature scale reaches about 284° C. Current measurements indicate that the planets do not have extended hydrogen atmospheres but might have secondary atmospheres, containing water or carbon dioxide.
"The planets we newly discovered are excellent targets for further atmospheric studies because of the relatively high apparent brightness of the host star," explains Karan Molaverdikhani of the University Observatory of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. "At 33 light-years, the planets are relatively close to us. Their star is smaller than our sun, but one of the brightest in its class," Molaverdikhani continues. These and other factors increase the likelihood that the James Webb Space Telescope and perhaps even the Hubble Space Telescope will be able to capture the star's light shining through these planets' atmospheres. Spectroscopic studies will allow the science team to draw conclusions about the composition and structure of their atmospheres and gain knowledge on how climates on terrestrial planets work in general, including our own.
NASA Discovery Announcement.
Publication:
Luque et al “The HD 260655 system: Two rocky worlds transiting a bright M dwarf at 10 pc”, A&A
Contact: | https://www.origins-cluster.de/en/news-preview?tx_news_pi1%5Baction%5D=detail&tx_news_pi1%5Bcontroller%5D=News&tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=244&cHash=001fd27f5668091b0a66415476ebdace |
Year 6 will extend their knowledge of forces with a review of the work of Sir Isaac Newton. They will be learning about Newton's Laws of Motion and building on their experience through a series of experiments to demonstrate the fundamental concepts. Through this work, pupils will acquire a deeper understanding of gravity and will be able to explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object.
Understanding and Building Telescopes
Following the work of Sir Isaac Newton, we built refracting telescopes to help understand what led him to try and build something better. We observed how a refracting telescope works by using three different coloured light sources and discussing what happened to the light beams when they passed through bi-convex lens. This also helped us understand how one lens needs to be moved closer to or away from the other lens to focus the light.
After this, we built refracting telescopes from two lens with different magnifications and focal lengths. Using these telescopes, we were able to observe how the focussed image was upside down and surrounded by a rainbow halo.
This experience led Newton to invent the reflecting telescope; a design that is still in use today.
Electricity
This term we will be investigating electricity and electronic circuits. We will:
Further, we will investigate and apply our knowledge to the generation of electricity using renewable energy sources, understanding that movement and other forms of energy can be converted in to electricity.
Children learnt about the competing theories of Luigi Galvani (1780) and Alessandro Volta (1800). Had Galvani discovered 'animal electricity' or had Volta discovered that electricity is generated by different metals in a solution?
The children worked systematically to test combinations of metals and liquids (lemon juice, vinegar and salt water) and recorded their results in a way that other scientists could repeat their experiments.
To help our child understand more about electricity, we borrowed a Van de Graaff generator from The Wren school. A Van de Graaff generator produces static electricity that can then be used to visualise sparks and to understand the effect electricity has on other objects.
A Van de Graaff generator gave children the experience of a static electric shock, similar to the shock that you sometimes get when stepping out of a car. Further, children observed that objects with a like charge repel and so by touching the Van de Graaff generator, it was possible to make their hair stand on end. | https://www.churchendacademy.com/science-2/ |
Starting in 2017, U.S. community open-access time will be available on the LCO global telescope network through an NOAO time allocation process. Specific goals for the use of this open-access time are (a) to effectively follow up on current time domain surveys, especially those with public distribution of data and alerts, and (b) to help the community prepare for time domain research in the LSST era by developing relevant programs, methods, and technologies.
The LCO network comprises nine 1-m and two 2-m optical telescopes, optimized for time-domain studies, and operated as a single observatory.
There are 2-m telescopes in Australia and Hawaii, and 1-m telescopes in Texas, Chile, Australia, and South Africa. Additional 1-m telescopes are planned for China and the Canary Islands.
The 2-m telescopes are instrumented with 10 arcmin field-of-view imagers and R=500 spectrographs. The 1-m telescopes are instrumented with 26 arcmin field-of-view imagers. A set of fiber-coupled, R=50,000 spectrographs is nearing completion, and deployment to the 1-m sites will begin in 2017. Telescopes and instruments run robotically.
Observation requests are submitted at any time through a web form or a programmatic API. Requests may be single observations, sequences with a given cadence, or rapid-response (<15 minutes from now). A scheduler dynamically assigns observations to telescopes.
Data are pipeline processed to remove instrumental signature and may be downloaded from an archive, through a web form or a programmatic API in as little as 15 minutes after the shutter closes. After 12 months, proprietary data becomes public.
Additional, detailed information about sites, telescopes, and instrument capabilities and performance is available on the LCO website (lco.global). The website also has links to tools for planning or requesting observations.
Approximately 1200 hours of 1-m time and 220 hours of 2-m time will be available to the U.S. community per semester. Time is charged as it is used, including observation overhead, but not weather or technical downtime. The first “semester” will entail a special call for proposals, and will run April – November, as the schedule is adjusted to align better with the NOAO TAC process. Subsequent semesters will run December-May (for the September 30 deadline) and June-November (for the March 31 deadline).
In addition, U.S. community members will be invited to participate in the next round of key project proposals to LCO. These are large-scale projects provided with time from the LCO share and aimed at highlighting the unique characteristics and capabilities of the LCO network. A call for these proposals will be issued by LCO later in 2016.
Additional information about the open-access program can be found here. | https://lco.global/astronomers/opportunities/msip/ |
The Class of 1951 Observatory
The Class of 1951 Observatory houses two large reflecting telescopes in separate domes: a 20-inch, and a 32-inch (one of the two largest research telescopes in New York State). Smaller telescopes include a Coronado solar telescope and an historic 8-inch refractor. Both large telescopes are equipped with research-grade electronic cameras, and three spectrographs are also available. All data acquisition and telescope control is performed from a large warm room. The observatory supports Vassar coursework, public education, and professional research in astronomy. Ongoing research programs monitor the brightness and colors of active galactic nuclei, and measure the chemical abundances of unusual stars in the Milky Way.
Open Nights
On Wednesday nights from 9:00-11:00 pm during the school year, visitors from the community are welcome at the observatory for open nights, weather permitting.
To get the latest information about the Observatory schedule and weather related closings, please check out our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, or call the observatory at (845) 437-7679 after 8:45 PM.
Special Events
The observatory also hosts special events (class visits, alumnae/i tours, etc.) by appointment. Please contact the Department of Physics and Astronomy for details at (845) 437-7340. | https://physicsandastronomy.vassar.edu/facilities/observatory.html |
The history of astronomy and astrophysics goes along with the development of ever more powerful telescopes and instruments. Spectroscopy has proven itself to be one of the most important methods. In the course of time, researchers were able to filter increasingly more detailed physical information from the light of stars with spectroscopy.
The talk will begin with a historical overview of spectroscopic instruments and methods. Carsten Denker will especially introduce the historical facilities on the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam, the Great Refractor and the Einstein Tower, and typical instruments such as prism and grating spectrographs. Furthermore, he describes how these basic instrument concepts inspired a new generation of spectrographs in operation at the German solar telescopes on Tenerife or on space missions. Besides spectroscopic studies in the visible range, other wavelength ranges will be explored as well, covering the electromagnetic spectrum from extreme ultraviolet to infrared.
We look forward to your visit!
Free entry, no previous registration necessary. | https://old.aip.de/en/news/personnel-and-prizes/starry-night-on-may-18 |
Out of the five 2-meter class of telescopes built in Birkenhead (UK) by TTL (before it became part of LCO), FT North was the second to be installed and commissioned, enjoying first light in 2003.
At present Hawaiian and UK schools, along with LCO astronomers have exclusive access to this research class telescope.
Initial capital and operational funding for the Faulkes Telescope North was provided by The Dill Faulkes Educational Trust. Faulkes Telescope North is now owned and operated by Las Cumbres Observatory.
You can see the latest public images from Faulkes Telescope North or follow Faulkes Telescope North on Twitter.
Archive LCO image data archive including raw and reduced frames. Documentation Descriptions of the archive and data pipeline, "Getting Started" guides for new users, etc. Instruments About our science imagers, spectrographs and filter sets. Observatory Status Visualizing telescope and site status. Sales Buy network time, join our collaboration, or purchase equipment. Sites & Telescopes Information about the nodes and telescopes in the network. Tools Visibility calculator and other observation planning tools. | https://lco.global/observatory/2m/faulkes-telescope-north/ |
You can train groups of employees together at the location of your choice and customize the content to meet your objectives.
All Onsite Workshops also include a blended learning solution to extend the learning experience beyond the classroom. The AMA Blended Learning approach provides additional online resources including supporting documentation and reference material, pre- and post-assessments to measure the transfer of knowledge, and refresher “tune-up” courses.
Our experienced training consultants can also work individually with you to help spot performance gaps and identify appropriate training solutions. Ask to speak with a training consultant at any time. Also, be sure to check out AMA’s assessment tools. | https://www.amanet.org/corporate-solutions/onsite-training/ |
- Lavinia Group has created pre- and post-assessments that will be available for all Summer Boost NYC schools for rising 1st - 9th grade.
- The assessments are aligned with the New York State Next Generation Learning Standards and the New York State exams.
- Standards Maps for the assessments are available here:
- The assessments will include a combination of both multiple choice and open-response questions. (With the exception of Rising Grades 1-3 for ELA, which is open response writing.)
- Lavinia Group will provide scoring guides and aligned rubrics as well as virtual professional development trainings on how to administer and score the assessments.
- All assessments will be administered through Edulastic, a widely-used assessment platform. The data will be available for school leaders to analyze.
- We recommend assessments are administered digitally, but if needed can also be administered via pen and paper. | https://laviniagroup.org/summerboostnyc/assessments/ |
The development of a South African Early Learning Outcomes
Measure:
A South African instrument for measuring early learning programme outcomes
This is an article on the development and use of the Early Learning Outcomes Measure (ELOM), which is a rigorously standardised, culturally fair and simple to administer pre-school child assessment tool. The tool can indicate whether a preschool programme is effective in preparing children for Grade R, and identifies areas for programmatic improvement.
Click here to visit the ELOM website and learn more about it.
This article has been published in a peer review journal – Child: Care, Health & Development (2019).
Related Resources: | https://ilifalabantwana.co.za/project/the-development-of-a-south-african-early-learning-outcomes-measure-a-south-african-instrument-for-measuring-early-learning-program-outcomes-2/ |
January 22, 2021
Dear Interim State Superintendent of Education Shana Young,
I am pleased to submit a public comment on behalf of Education Reform Now DC (ERN DC) about the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) State Plan Addendum and Waiver. ERN DC is a non-profit organization that fights to ensure DC’s public education system justly and equitably serves all students. We are committed to advancing racial equity in public education and regularly evaluating education reforms to see if they are working as intended for student groups who are most marginalized — students who are Black, Brown, English Learners, and those who have different abilities.
Racial equity is defined as “when race can no longer be used to predict life outcomes and outcomes for all groups are improved.” In the District of Columbia, we are a long way from that reality. Currently, there are unacceptable opportunity gaps between student groups, as demonstrated by numerous indicators: graduation rates, attainment of advanced degrees, employment, health outcomes, and life expectancy. Advancing racial equity in DC is urgent, and deeply personal for us.
We cannot change what we do not measure, and measurement is a key component of racial equity. Comprehensive end-of-year state assessments allow states to gather information, target support, advance equity, and track progress — all for the purpose of improving learning and opportunities for each student. The District uses the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) exam for this. For the past four years, DC students have made steady improvement on the PARCC exam, but the percentage of students on track for college and career remains low. In school year 2018-2019:
- Only 37.1% of DC students scored a 4 or higher in English Language Arts (ELA) and 30.5% in Math.
- Hispanic/Latino students have made large gains, but still only 37.3% in ELA and 30.5% in Math earned a 4 or higher.
- 8% of Black students scored a four or higher on ELA and 21.8% in Math.
- 1% of “at-risk” students scored a four or higher on the ELA and 16.3% in Math.
- Only 7.9% of students with special needs scored a four or higher in ELA and only 7.2% in Math.
- 7% of English Learners scored a four or higher in ELA and 22.7 % in Math.
- And an overwhelming majority, 85%, of White students scored a 4 or higher on ELA and 78.8% on Math.
The differences in these scores are profound and underscore how much work is left to achieve racial equity in DC.
District residents have experienced enormous challenges due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic but Black, Brown, and immigrant communities have been disproportionately impacted. In December, EmpowerK12 released a report showing that DC students are in a COVID learning and mental wellness slide. Their report revealed an overall loss of four months of learning in math and one month of reading, and that “at-risk students have lost five months of learning in math and four months of learning in reading and are falling significantly behind.” Further, “77 % of students reported they are concerned that their family will be exposed to COVID-19 and 45% report that their family’s financial situation has become somewhat or significantly more stressful.” Without assessments, we would not be able to comprehensively measure learning loss and provide support to those who need it the most.
OSSE, like all other states, requested, and was granted in the spring of 2020, waivers of federal requirements relating to assessment, accountability, and some reporting components on state report cards for school year 2019-2020. We commend OSSE for making that decision, as we are advocates of strong, but just accountability. Recognizing that some of the same challenges are still present in school year 2020-2021, we understand why OSSE is once again requesting flexibility in implementing components of the School Transparency and Reporting (STAR) Framework and other accountability elements required in the District’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan. As such, we commend OSSE for holding firm on its commitment to administer the ELA and math assessments. While we are disappointed that OSSE is waiving the science exam again, we understand that it can only be administered in-person. With that said, we have been unable to track student progress with data for two school years now and are deeply concerned about our students’ future. We urge OSSE to clearly stipulate that these are temporary one-year waivers, and would strongly object to waiving PARCC scores for perpetuity.
Given the COVID-19 related challenges, it is essential for the District to use reliable data from assessments this spring to begin the long and critical process of recovery and to ensure our most marginalized students and schools receive the support and resources they need to succeed. Thank you for your service on behalf of all students. We stand ready and willing to be a partner in achieving racial equity in the District.
Sincerely,
Jessica Giles
Deputy Director
Education Reform Now DC
“Advancing Racial Equity and Transforming Government: A Resource Guide to Put Ideas into Action.” p. 9
OSSE. 2018-19 PARCC Results and Resources. Website: https://osse.dc.gov/page/2018-19-parcc-results-and-resources. | https://edreformnow.org/2021/01/22/ern-dc-submits-comments-on-annual-assessment-waivers/ |
Assessment Summary Fall 2007-Spring 2008
What are the student learning outcomes in your unit?
For CIS Majors, the curriculum is designed to accomplish two major goals for students who graduate and go on to work somewhere in the computer field:
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- Students should be prepared for entry-level positions.
- Students should be prepared for positions beyond the entry-level.
- To prepare students for these goals, the following sub goals are identified:
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- Students will think critically, analytically, and quantitatively.
- Students will gather, synthesize, process, disseminate, and create systems based on data gathered.
The CIS Department is in a period of rebuilding. The department has lost two senior faculty and will lose one more in May 2008. The department has hired an Assistant Professor to be a part of the Informatics curriculum. The Informatics curriculum is in the early stages of implementation and should begin to offer courses by the fall of 2008.
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Which outcome did you assess this academic year?
Assessment and Program Integrity
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- All CIS and all CIS / FA students must complete a Capstone Courses / Final or Sr. Projects (D446 / C390 and CIS / FA students complete C390 and S497).
- Informatics will have a different sequence for its capstone courses.
- CIS will now meet with its Advisory Board once a year (due to lack of funding provided by COAS and the campus.
- CIS curriculum strives to meet the needs of other units.
CIS uses oral/written tests, labs, independent projects, service learning/internships, alumni surveys, etc., as measures for student learning outcomes. The Chart below shows our timetable and responsible parties for assessment. The assessment outcomes are consistent with the campus’ General Education and overall Student Learning Outcomes.
How did you assess their skills before, during and / or at the end of the semester / academic year?
Computer Information Systems Assessment Yr. 2007-08
Assessment Activity
Method
Responsible Party
Timetable
Evaluation of Theoretical Concepts, per dept. student learning goals
Syllabus Goals / Objectives clearly stated
Internal tests, course and independent projects graded faculty for consistency in performance and expectations
End of term standard course evaluations
Full Time Faculty responsible for course.
Dept. Chair evaluation on yearly report
Assessment Data collected in the Spring.
Assessment Data Analysis & Written Report Submitted in the Fall
Independent Study and Capstone course.
Student proposal approval of faculty member
Full Time Faculty responsible for student project
Evaluation of Applied Concepts, per dept. student learning goals
Internships, Service Learning; Capstones; Sr. Projects, labs, etc.
Results of Alumni Surveys
Full time Faculty, Internship program employers evaluate students.
(Same Report and time tables as listed above)
Alumni Survey conducted periodically
New Improvement Target Areas suggested for next yr. -- Congruent with Gen Ed. & Campus Student Learning Outcomes
Dept. Faculty Meeting (Working Session dedicated to Assessment of Curriculum and Student Learning Outcomes)
Dept. Chair
New Improvement Areas Identified in the Spring
Please summarize the data you have collected this semester / academic year.
Teacher-course evaluations (demonstrating teaching excellence on the part of both tenure track and lecturer positions for both semesters) are the main source for our faculty assessment; research publications are only required for full-time tenure track faculty. Only Dr. Dorin is in this category at present; he is preparing a revision of a textbook for a major computer publisher. Input from advisory board limited, since there are very limited resources from COAS for hosting dinner meetings.
Please describe any programmatic changes you have made or are planning to make based on the data you have collected.
Informatics major will start in the Fall, 2008 semester. | https://www.iun.edu/campus-assessment/unit-reports-2008/computer-information-systems.htm |
The format of every UnConference that I’ve been to has been different. The design of the event that was a great balance between structured and unstructured discussions that the audience of 50 learning and development professionals engaged with quickly. Each of the streams had a corner of the large room where fast paced quality conversations happen. Maybe some of the discussions were a bit too fastpaced and more time would always be great to explore the ideas in more depth. Some stages of the day were spent as a whole group in more classic UnConference open space sessions. For me it was the small discussion groups that were productive and in complete contrast to most conferences.
As I wrote this blog post, I realised that I experienced the Learning Café UnConference through a certain conceptual lens. I spent most of the day in the technology stream as most of Sprout Labs’ current projects can be thought of as performance improvement projects. By performance improvement projects, I mean projects like designing and building a mobile checklist system focused on improving safety for electrical contractors, or helping a group of health trainers rethink their courses around workplace performance and client outcomes.
With performance improvement, the focus is on measuring and supporting performance instead of learning. At the moment there is a lot of discussion about performance improvement and the Learning Café unconference seems to be a reflection of this current thinking.
Tracking hours and activity To measuring competencyFor example, consider an employee’s development plan where instead of focusing on what activities the employee is going to do, the focus could be on how new skills will be measured and observed.Tracking competency also means we don’t need to attempt to measure informal learning. Instead, organisations measure the outcomes of learning no matter how that learning happened.
Content and then assessment Assessment first, with learning experiences only if they are needed This is something Sprout Labs does with our approach to course design, where we focus on what the learners do, not on want they need to know.
Learning Management Systems and courses Performance Support SystemsSometimes, I wonder how much of what organisations do are driven by their real needs or driven by what vendors and providers, who sell learning management systems, sell to them.Organisations and vendors need to shift to being performance focused. Perhaps, Learning Management Systems are not what is needed. Instead, course material could be located on a company’s intranet, with the assessment being in a separate trackable system.
eLearning is the future Paper based solutions can still work Learning is not about the technology it’s about the experience.
Some of this language reminds me of the language of vocational education and training but what is being talked about is different to the classic VET learner experience.
Stream Leads for Learning Cafe UnConference Announced- 16 Feb 12, Thurs. Limited places.
ELearning (as we know it) is now = mature and heading for a decline over time. | http://learningcafe.com.au/reflections-from-the-sydney-learning-cafe-unconference/ |
The position of Director will implement and administer a multi-faceted comprehensive educational school that will focus on providing service to the students of The Early College (TEC) at Lansing Community College. The director provides administrative leadership, direct supervision, and/or advocacy for The Early College faculty and staff, Ingham Intermediate School District (IISD) staff, and students.
Primary responsibilities include: establishing positive, collaborative and creative environments for teaching and learning in support of a diverse student, faculty and staff population; recruiting, hiring, supervising, mentoring, and evaluating staff and students; guiding the use of Department resources and budget to assure program and student outcomes are achieved; working cooperatively with faculty to identify and implement learning tools and technologies that enhance program content and delivery; steering initiatives relating to course, curriculum and program assessment in a broader context of continuous quality improvement; using problem solving and conflict resolution skills in addressing both faculty, staff, and student concerns; and, representing both the program and the Division on college-wide teams as well as in the greater community. The Director position is an administrative role that combines leadership, stewardship and management skills to ensure the Department operates efficiently and effectively.
To view a complete job description, click here.
Qualifications
Education and Experience
Required:
Master's Degree in educational administration or related educational field.
Possess current K-12 Michigan Administrator Certification or enroll in a program within the first six months of employment, leading to certification as a school administrator that must be completed within three years.
Significant high school or postsecondary teaching or administrative experience.
Knowledge of and experience in working with school to work concepts/community based instruction.
Demonstrated ability to work and communicate with diverse groups, excellent written and oral communication skills and ability to work with and utilize data for decision making.
Experience in budget development, oversight, and working with grants.
Preferred:
Significant experience in building/program administration - including knowledge and experience in instructional delivery and curriculum development, individualized instruction and technology.
Experience in grant procurement
Secondary Teaching Certification
Lansing Community College is an equal opportunity, educational institution/employer. | http://academicjobs.net/jobdetail-201853-FT%20Admin%20-%20Director%20of%20The%20Early%20College%20at%20Lansing%20Community%20College |
In the 1990s, I was invited to be part of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring (CEM), the team that developed the Performance Indicators in Primary Schools (PIPS) baseline assessment for Reception-age children.
Despite criticism that such assessments would be unreliable, invalid and possibly harmful, many of us who were headteachers and early years teachers were convinced by the strong arguments put forward by the late Carol Fitz-Gibbon and Professor Peter Tymms. They presented strong research evidence that assessments in early reading and mathematics could be effective predictors of future performance combining reliable objective measures with teacher assessments.
These assessments were important to us as teachers because they were designed to be diagnostic, enabling the identification of strengths and weaknesses which could be used for planning learning experiences and interventions.
Building upon this vast experience, CEM went on to develop BASE, their baseline assessment for the reception year.
However, the case against baseline assessment continues to rage thirty years later with the introduction from September 2021 of the compulsory Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) in state schools - although state schools are required to do the RBA, independent and international schools may continue to use the assessments of their choice in the EYFS and beyond.
Differences in independent and state schools
Since 1995 the state and independent sectors in the EYFS have worked closely together. Sadly, a gap between state and independent schools and settings has now appeared with the state schools going off in a different direction.
Independent schools can apply for exemption from the EYFS which means that they do not have to do the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile (EYFSP) and submit profile data to their local authorities. They also have the opportunity to supplement teacher assessment and indeed the EYFSP if they do it, with the CEM Baseline Assessment.
Realistically, maintained schools have no choice but to do the EYFSP and the Reception Baseline Assessment.
What does BASE do that RBA doesn’t?
There are several important differences between CEM’s BASE and the statutory RBA.
The RBA covers early mathematics, literacy, communication and language. These are definitely key areas of learning that appear in both baselines. However, right from the start CEM have acknowledged the importance of including personal, social and emotional development into the baseline. Although these assessments are less reliable than those for early reading and mathematics, they add to the picture of the child particularly when combined with teacher assessment and information that has been provided by parents.
CEM also takes note of current research and feedback from teachers. For example, the importance of physical development, including my own Movement for Learning Research (Preedy et al, 2019). Going forward CEM is considering the inclusion of physical development assessments similar to those in the ASPECTS assessment used in nurseries.
Most importantly, CEM has always emphasised that their assessments sit alongside teacher assessment. This openness to supplement the CEM assessments based upon research and feedback from teachers is a great strength of CEM.
Reliability
A key criticism of the RBA is the unreliability of using the baseline data to measure progress over seven years of primary schooling with no intention of providing data that can be used for diagnostic purposes.
We know from the analysis of baseline data over thirty years, that the reception year is a time when children frequently make the most progress. The absence of an assessment at the end of Reception/Start of Year One is a lost opportunity to show this progress as well as providing valuable information for Year One teachers.
Literacy and numeracy
Although both baselines include literacy and numeracy assessments, the CEM baseline is intended to sit alongside teacher assessment, the wider curriculum, and a pedagogy suitable for young children that is primarily based upon play. The RBA sits in isolation linking literacy and numeracy to the national curriculum which may exert further pressure to narrow the curriculum.
Teacher support
Although both baselines highlight the importance of using staff familiar to the children to administer the tests, feedback from the RBA pilot phase indicated that supply staff had been used to complete the RBA's due to time pressures. Fear about not meeting a deadline could mean that supply staff are used again to administer the RBA, potentially impacting the establishment of secure attachments with children’s key persons.
Training and quality assurance for the RBA is limited to administration of the test. Whereas CEM training is directed towards staff understanding quantitative and qualitative measures and how to interpret data to plan to meet the needs of all children. There is always a clear strong message that teachers know their children and that although these data are valid, reliable, and significant they are supplementary.
Considerable funding has been allocated to producing the RBA with the impossible goal of achieving a meaningful progress measure at the end of Key Stage Two. If independent and international schools continue with assessments focused on impacting outcomes for children, I am hopeful that by providing robust evidence the wheel will turn once more, so that state schools will be able to once again use a baseline that supports teacher assessment and young children’s learning and development.
About the author
Dr Pat Preedy has had a long and distinguished career in education including being a global Chief Academic Officer for early childhood education, Executive Principal of a school catering for pupils from 3 months to 18 years with boarding, Head Teacher of one of the first Beacon Schools in the UK.
She completed her Masters degree in Educational Management particularly investigating how schools can work in partnership with parents and a doctorate in Education.
Her school improvement work stretches across many countries including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, India, USA, UK and Europe.
Pat jointly led the Parents and Carers as Play Partners Project through Middlesex University (Dubai) supporting parents in providing their children with play experiences that enhance their development and learning. She has conducted extensive research into meeting the educational needs of multiple birth children and was also part of the team that developed the performance indicators in primary schools’ value-added baseline assessments (Cambridge CEM).
Having led the Movement for Learning project (Loughborough University) which highlighted how daily movements based on children’s developmental stages can address developmental delay particularly with regard to balance, fine and gross motor skills, Pat developed Motor Movers for babies, toddlers and children (www.neuroway.ae).
Pat is a co-editor of Redefining Early Childhood Education (2019) in which she puts forward a new framework for Early Childhood Education that provides coherent provision from birth to eight years of age.
Find out more about how BASE can support teaching and learning in your school
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This Policy Brief provides suggestions for Licensed Foreign Employment Agents (LFEAs), the SLFBFE and other stakeholders in the recruitment industry on improving business practices in the recruitment of workers for foreign employment and reducing and eventually shifting costs away from workers. This policy brief complements the full research report, ILO (2020) Improving recruitment agency business practices in Sri Lanka.
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Promoting fair recruitment and employment: A guidance tool for hotels in Qatar
17 September 2020
This Guidance Tool has been developed as a resource to promote fair recruitment and employment standards in the hospitality sector in Qatar. It aims to support hotel companies in Qatar to respond to labour rights challenges by implementing appropriate policies and exercising thorough and ongoing human and labour rights due diligence.
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Flyer - 2020 Global Media Competition on Labour Migration
14 September 2020
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Reporting on forced labour and fair recruitment: An ILO toolkit for journalists in Pakistan
31 August 2020
This toolkit was created to help journalists in Pakistan report on fair recruitment and forced labour.
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Global launch virtual event: Reporting on forced labour and fair recruitment: An ILO toolkit for journalists - Agenda
29 July 2020
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Reporting on forced labour and fair recruitment: An ILO toolkit for journalist
27 July 2020
This toolkit provides information and advice to media professionals on how to report accurately and effectively on forced labour and fair recruitment. The toolkit includes the Media-friendly glossary on migration.
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Women migrant workers’ labour market situation in West Africa
21 July 2020
This report provides an overview of the situation of women migrant workers in West Africa based on a review of laws, regulations, policies and exisiting data, with a special focus on Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, and Nigeria. It includes data on women migrant workers' working conditions and wages, sectors of employment, representation in the informal economy and other labour and social protection issues. The report was carried out with financial support from the "Support to Free Movement of Persons and Migration in West Africa" project (FMM) funded by the EU and ECOWAS.
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Malaysia: Review of admission and recruitment practices of Indonesian workers in the plantation and domestic work sectors and related recommendations
02 July 2020
Indonesian workers have provided the bulk of the workforce for the plantation and the domestic work sectors in Malaysia, thereby making a significant contribution to the Malaysian economy over the years. This study on the admission and recruitment procedures and practices for Indonesian workers in the two sectors notes that there have been positive legal and regulatory developments on labour migration in Malaysia and Indonesia. It also highlights continuing challenges for migration governance and worker protection. In response, the study makes several recommendations to governments of both Malaysia and Indonesia.
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Ensuring fair recruitment during the COVID-19 pandemic
23 June 2020
This brief highlights the key challenges in national and international recruitment of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, how the ILO is responding, and recommended policies and measures. The Annex outlines practices undertaken by ILO stakeholders to promote fair recruitment during COVID-19.
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Improving recruitment agency business practices in Sri Lanka
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This study aims to provide recommendations for improving business practices in recruitment for foreign employment with a view to reducing the costs borne by migrant workers. | http://ilo.org/global/topics/fair-recruitment/publications/lang--en/index.htm |
This article is part of the Forum Network series on International Co-operation and the New Societal Contract. The Forum Network is the place for you to debate policies that can shape the issues and challenges of our time with other experts and engaged citizens. Join for free using your email or social media accounts to share your stories, ideas and expertise in the comments!
We have just a decade left to stabilise the climate crisis and just one year for governments to raise their commitments to meet this test.
If we imagine the future where no one is left behind; where we act on the call of our children who have taken to the streets in fear and frustration; where people and their communities are well served by Just Transition measures to ensure inclusive economies: we can build it together.
Bold action on climate change could generate over 65 million new low-carbon jobs in 2030 and deliver USD 26 trillion in economic benefits between now and 2030.
Workers and their unions have shown this year that they are part of the solution – part of the growing movement to demand action from their governments.
#TradeUnion membership in OECD countries has dropped to 16% of workers on avg, from about 30% in 1985. #OECDForum
See the current share in your country ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/PvQi9oDRme
— OECD ➡️ Better policies for better lives (@OECD) May 21, 2019
Follow the OECD on Twitter and keep up to date on how we promote better policies for better lives
Deepening our dialogue with governments, industry sectors and cities, we have also included our workplace activities in the fight for the planet. Our Climate Proof our Work campaign saw unions and organisations in 23 countries challenge their employers to a conversation about plans to climate-proof the workplace, secure jobs and agree Just Transition measures.
In September’s Global Week of Climate Action, many thousands of workers joined our young people on the streets to demand climate action. This was an extraordinary act of solidarity across the generations.
Some countries have understood that climate justice and a Just Transition are necessary for ambitious climate action. Last year during COP24 in Katowice, Poland we successfully negotiated the Solidarity and Just Transition Silesia Declaration with more than 50 countries signing up. Now, we have brokered a Climate Action and Jobs Initiative supported by the United Nations and more than 40 countries, with Spain and Peru taking the lead. With the support of the International Labour Organization we are supporting implementation of Just Transition measures, based on a dialogue with workers and their unions, with research to measure the impact on workers; with social protection measures; with plans for skills development; and with investment in enabling infrastructure and jobs.
A Decisive Transition: International co-operation on climate action by Wonhyuk Lim, Director of the Global Economy Research Division, Korea Development Institute
Bold action on climate change could generate over 65 million new low-carbon jobs in 2030 and deliver USD 26 trillion in economic benefits between now and 2030 according to the New Climate Economy.
Energy multinationals are leading the way towards ensuring a Just Transition for workers by taking the B Team’s Pledge for a Just Transition in Decent Jobs. The pledge has been signed by companies such as Ørsted, Enel, Autodesk, Safaricom and Unilever. These employers are following guidelines to facilitate social dialogue with workers and unions and ensure fundamental rights, social protection and wage guarantees.
Get more facts and compare your country on the OECD Environment Data Portal
Beyond the level of governments our partnership with C40 Cities is helping to support national unions, and global unions such as the ITF and BWI, engage in the dialogue to build net-zero cities with emission-free transport and circular economy developments. Cities can drive economic prosperity but must effectively play their part in addressing the global climate emergency.
And heavy industry is moving. Steel, cement and aluminium employers expressed their support for reducing emissions at a specific UN forum on Industry Transition during the Climate Action Summit. LO Sweden is working with unions and industry in partnership with the Just Transition Centre and IndustriALL Europe to look at the industry policy measures required including innovation, skills and other Just Transition measures.
Read the full OECD report Accelerating Climate Action: Refocusing Policies through a Well-being Lens including a chapter on Moving to sustainable industrial production
Corporate greed and profit at any cost can no longer underpin transition to a net-zero future – and no company can escape our attention. At the OECD, the ITUC is working closely together with the TUAC in order to promote policies that protect the climate whilst taking into account the impact on workers and their families and communities.
Our message for all country leaders at COP25 is we have just 10 years. Talking is no longer enough.
As unions we are faced with a very important responsibility. Social progress has never come for free, without struggle from the people affected. This is also the case for climate protection. We need to fight for our place at the table and to see that our demands for climate justice are taken into account.
Listen to more OECD Podcasts and Follow us to never miss a track!
Our message for all country leaders at COP25 is we have just 10 years. Talking is no longer enough – ambition and Just Transition plans are urgently required to secure the trust of people in every country:
- Stop the delaying measures and increase ambition in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
- Start implementing the social dialogue vital for agreements that deliver Just Transition for all
- Legislate for climate action, including procurement rules
- Green New Deals must mean a new social contract in every country with labour rights, climate ambition and Just Transition at the core
The ITUC will fight to see no one is left behind.
Related Topics
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Climate
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New Jobs & Occupations
||Intergenerational Solidarity|
Your comments are what make the Forum Network the unique space it is, connecting citizens, experts and policy makers in open and respectful debate. Whether you agree, disagree or have another point of view, join for free using your email or social media accounts and comment below! | https://www.oecd-forum.org/users/74796-sharan-burrow/posts/56496-moving-beyond-a-future-of-fear-and-frustration-just-transition-will-enable-ambitious-climate-action |
Sharm el-Sheikh — Providing decent jobs, and protecting the rights and futures of workers are levers for climate ambition, says a global trade union confederation
We’ve heard calls for a just transition but what does it mean? A just transition, according to the Paris Agreement, rests on creating decent work and quality job opportunities, and implementing climate policy in a way that is as fair and inclusive and leaves no one behind, says the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). It wants to ensure that a move to a green economy benefits everyone and addresses poverty, inequality, and gender gaps, while providing quality jobs, protecting worker rights and managing natural resources sustainably.
Eric Manzi, the Deputy General of ITUC-Africa gave the sense of how countries are faring as they move towards low carbon economies. “As the African movement we share the same universal principals in terms of the decent work agenda. We’re convinced that the four pillars of the decent work agenda are the social dialogues, social protection, and rights at work … are indispensable building blocks for sustainable development in Africa. The policies must be strong and sustainable in terms of creating growth and development in Africa. When we refer to the greening of economies into present jobs, we consider in this context of sustainable development and poverty eradication”.
In the African context, … the majority of African countries are underdeveloped, there’s endemic unemployment, especially among young people .. the respect for workers’ rights is not usually defended in many countries. I think the just transition is important to review the way we do things.”
“But we also have some challenges. If you take for example the mining sector. In many countries, it’s artisanal where we have a large number of informal workers, like in DR Congo, Burkina Faso, etc. The mining sector is supposed to provide welfare for the population but this is not the actual case, as sometimes artisanal mining isn’t regulated. Sometimes they try to enforce international regulations in terms of trade. But when we arrived on the ground, the way they treat the people showed that that area is still terrible. There’s no transparency and there’s corruption which is endemic especially in the extraction of oil and gas, for example in Nigeria. Nigeria is a big country but a large part of the population is poor. So the Just Transition can be a way where we can see and create more additionally decent jobs through the investment into our environmentally, sustainable production as well as the management of natural resources.”`
Through a just transition, African countries can ensure a fairer redistribution of wealth and ensure that climate action is taken along with development. However, it is important to note that without policies and processes, worker strikes, civil unrest, social inequality as well as a decline in production can occur. ILO research suggests that, by 2030, more than two percent of total working hours worldwide may be lost every year as a result of climate change, either because it is too hot to work or because workers have to work at a slower pace.
In South Africa, a Just Energy Transition Blueprint for Workers was developed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and its affiliates to ensure workers can drive radical transformation while still adhering to policy and collective bargaining. With South Africa’s energy mix under revision, particularly given a greater emphasis on renewables, progress made towards a just transition can be attributed to cooperation between partners over a period of time.
Lebogang Mulaisi, Head of Policy at COSATU gave an overview of what has been happening in South Africa. “I think we’re in an exciting period, she says. “The last five years in South Africa have been quite rapid in terms of transitions into a low carbon economy. The work that the trade union movement has done in South Africa has been really because of the international cooperation and solidarity that we received, whether it is been from ITUC Africa or ITUC more broadly. It is because we shared our ideas because we have learned lessons from other countries that have been doing in other parts of the world. We’ve been then able to develop what our response has needed to be, I think with the ILO putting in the premise of social dialogue and transparency in the process relating to the just transition. I think that has guided our work. What’s wonderful about South Africa is that we just have a great culture of social dialogue. So when there was an opportunity to establish a national platform for us to continue the social dialogue through the establishment of the Presidential Climate Commission. We took on this responsibility and I think through the work of the Presidential Climate Commission, particularly the work of labour has really made an impact in how to articulate the concept of a just transition.”
The Presidential Climate Commission is focused on creating a social partnership around a just transition; defining a vision for a just transition, and means of achieving that vision, covering the necessary sectoral shifts, technological innovation, employment opportunities, and climate finance, as well as conducting independent analysis into climate change impacts on jobs, the economy, and policy. South Africa’s just transition journey has been a success through its collaboration between government and non-government partners.
Mulaisi adds, “we are one of the very few countries who insist that the just transition principle is embedded in our country’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). And we did that because at the heart of every conversation around the environment and decarbonisation if you’re not factoring in the concerns of workers, and communities, you can’t be set to talking about the just transition in earnest. A lot has happened in our advocacy, education, and training of the workforce. Now you see a workforce that is more involved in conversations around climate, a workforce that understands that our economy is in the process of a rapid transition …”.
This story was produced as part of the 2022 Climate Change Media Partnership, a journalism fellowship organised by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security.
Source: | https://afro.news/2022/11/10/africa-climate-action-must-focus-on-decent-work-and-a-just-transition-africaclimatehope/ |
The grumblings have grown louder after Virginia and New Jersey and as the legislative agenda remains in limbo.Officials say that President Joe Biden and his administration failed to effectively message or aggressively muscle its economic agenda through Congress and that, in the process, they allowed the party to grow more fractious.
The time is ripe for the U.S. to negotiate or join a digital trade agreement that advances U.S. internet standards of openness and democracy, as opposed to China's autocratic standards. Such an agreement also must be worker-centric, protecting the rights of workers and small businesses.
The Biden administration has pledged that new trade policies and agreements must be worker-centric. This term includes more robust labor protections but is part of a larger initiative to develop trade policies that allow the balance of benefits to accrue more to workers and less to large corporations. New digital trade policies can be crafted to fit into this framework, addressing the needs of workers and small businesses in the digital economy.
For a true comeback in Asia, Biden needs a proactive trade strategy
To prove that the Biden-Harris administration is serious about the Indo-Pacific, America must return to the negotiating table before it’s too late.The Biden-Harris administration has signaled its intent to restore American leadership in the Indo-Pacific. Several cabinet members have already visited the region in the administration's first year, and in September, President Biden hosted the first-ever Quad Summit at the White House. Just before the Quad Summit, the United States concluded AUKUS, which provides Australia with nuclear submarines in a bid to buttress maritime security in the region.
A worker-centric digital agenda starts at home. The digital economy poses three key labor challenges. First, we must address America's deep digital divide - one that hits workers from underserved communities especially hard. All citizens must have access to digital devices and broadband, and digital training must be inclusive and accessible to all.
Next, Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) should be modernized to meet the needs of digital workers who lose their jobs because of trade. TAA should be made permanent and cover the full range of service workers - from truck drivers to call center workers, to those service employees tied to a factory which moves overseas. It also should emphasize digital training to equip workers for the new economy.
McConaughey says 'aggressively centric' governments needed to fight partisan divides
Actor and Texas native Matthew McConaughey said Tuesday that levels of government need to be "aggressively centric" at this moment to overcome divisive politics and create unity.The "Lincoln Lawyer" actor, 52, made the comments at The New York Times's Dealbook conference held this week this week during a discussion about partisan divides. "I think our country, state, needs to be aggressively centric now," he said, according to Bloomberg News. "It's a daring place to go, it's a radical move right now.
Third, we must recognize that the digital economy has introduced a new category of gig workers who provide on-demand work, services or goods. Global gig-economy transactions are forecast to grow by 17 percent annually to around $455 billion by 2023. These workers typically lack health care and other traditional employee benefits. Policymakers must ensure that they have the same labor rights and benefits as traditional employees.
In addition to investing in workers, we must invest in small businesses. In 2020, 60.6 million U.S. employees worked for small businesses - almost half of the private sector workforce. The digital transformation has been especially rapid for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). Facilitating access to technology and training for small business owners is an important way to build a more inclusive economy.
Worker-centric digital trade policies must start with expanded stakeholder representation in setting policy, bringing in small businesses and labor representatives to refocus priorities and create worker-centric outcomes.
Demand grows for digital vaccine passports as borders reopen
In the week since international travelers were welcomed back to the United States, there's been an uptick in travelers using digital health passes.American Airlines has been seeing a nearly 10 percent increase in its VeriFLY app usage for travel since the Nov. 8 lifting of U.S. entry restrictions, said spokeswoman Rachel Warner. Tech research firm Apptopia noticed a 5 percent increase in downloads of these kinds of apps from the week before the travel ban was lifted, according to Thomas Grant, the company’s director of equity research.
Future digital agreements also must contain language committing parties to upholding the highest labor standards at home and abroad. The needs of workers abroad must be addressed, especially in lower-income countries and including funding for trade capacity-building to ensure that these workers can reap the benefits from trade.
A worker-centric trade agreement should remove barriers to digital participation for disadvantaged socioeconomic groups. Making digital agreements work for SMEs, by simplifying and digitizing trade formalities, is essential. The Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) between Singapore, New Zealand and Chile includes provisions on digital inclusion and SMEs.
China has been engaged in non-market practices in its Digital Silk Road Initiative to sell its technologies throughout the developing world. A digital agreement must create disciplines for subsidies and state-owned enterprises, practices used by China and copied by many other countries.
The heart of a worker-centric digital trade agreement are governance provisions that will foster the responsible use of technologies and protect workers and other online users. Online privacy has become an urgent worker concern because many employers use artificial intelligence, facial recognition and other technologies to monitor employees' activities and automate supervision. The U.S. needs federal privacy legislation, and a digital agreement must include language to protect workers' privacy and data. Agreements should encourage governments to develop balanced regulations so that the use of emerging technologies is transparent, fair and human-centric.
Two birds, one stone: Closing the digital divide and facing down Mark Zuckerberg
Lawmakers can extract socially beneficial services and tax revenues from Zuckerberg's Meta while they still have the leverage. Also, Zuckerberg needs more people to populate his Metaverse, if and when that comes about. More people with high-speed internet should be an attractive idea for purely self-serving purposes.
Cybersecurity never has been more important since COVID-19 has forced more business, health care and schooling online. Strengthening U.S. cyber protection means investing in talent and training workers for the future. Cooperation across borders is essential to mitigating digital security risk.
A worker-centric digital trade agenda must have a comprehensive approach to data flow to build trust. It should include provisions to protect the movement of data across borders, remove restrictions forcing local data storage, and subject data flow to robust security and privacy standards. The U.S. and its trading partners should guard against the export of personal data to third parties or countries that are likely to use this data to harm people.
Keeping the internet a safe and trusted medium is critical to our democracy and its values. New challenges in foreign markets have emerged, as governments misuse technology regulations to surveil political dissidents, suppress speech and undermine human rights. We need a smarter approach to promoting effective content-moderation practices and minimizing harmful content online, while continuing to promote free expression and political discourse. Language similar to the Christchurch Call and G-7 Internet Safety Principles should be in digital agreements, along with commitments to ensure that technology is never used to violate human rights.
Almost everything Pelosi is saying about Biden’s ‘Build Back Better’ agenda is wrong
The House voted Friday to advance President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar welfare and climate change spending legislation, the so-called “Build Back Better” agenda. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi led the charge and made an impassioned speech promoting the legislation. There’s just one problem: Almost every single major factual claim she made about the "Build Back Better" agenda is false.“Build Back Better is fully paid for. It reduces the deficit and grows the economy,” Pelosi said on the House floor.
To protect workers and citizens online, digital agreements must include provisions that address unsolicited messages, consumer fraud and other online harms. U.S. policymakers should strengthen the provisions in the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that address enforceability and the ability to redress damages.
Finally, including language on competition policy in a U.S.-led digital agreement could help dispel the notion that such an agreement benefits only Big Tech, and it could have the added benefit of strengthening regulatory cooperation among parties.
Technology and trade have delivered enormous benefits to global society, but they have not been shared equally. The Biden administration's focus on workers is an opportunity to develop a worker-centric digital trade framework. This could help create a more equitable future for U.S. workers, a safe environment for workers and businesses, and a global digital governance agenda that promotes shared values of equity and democracy.
Orit Frenkel, PhD, is co-founder and CEO of the American Leadership Initiative. She is a former senior executive at the General Electric Company and served as director for trade in high-technology products at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Follow her on Twitter @OritFrenkel.
Overdue progress on costs of trade to workers, firms, farmers and communities .
Developments show signs of vitally needed progress toward doing a better job alleviating harm to domestic labor as well as firms and communities hurt by U.S trade policy. Sherman Katz is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Study of the Presidency and Congress. He practiced international trade law as a partner of Coudert Brothers for 33 years and has then held senior positions at public policy research institutions. | https://pressfrom.info/us/news/politics/-886281-the-us-needs-a-worker-centric-digital-trade-agenda.html |
High-Level Event "The Role of Responsible Business Conduct in Building Resilience"
21 January 2021
2020
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The 33rd Symposium on International Labour Issues: Toward a better future of work after the COVID-19 crisis – Sectoral response and social dialogue
2 December 2020
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Towards a brighter future of work in the digital economy - Global Research Webinar
30 September 2020
Co-organized by the ILO and the Sophia University of Japan
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Mapping Social and Solidarity Economy in Asia
22 September 2020
This conference will discuss policies to strengthen social and solidarity economy in South Korea, China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines.
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ILO Webinar on COVID-19: Protecting Workers in the Workplace in Asia and Pacific
23 July 2020
This webinar will offer trade unionists in Asia-Pacific an opportunity to discuss “Pillar 3: Protecting workers in the workplace” while exploring possible actions and strategies to influence, shape and support successful policy outcomes linked to the ILO Policy Framework.
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ILO Webinar on COVID-19:Supporting Enterprises, Jobs and Income in Asia and Pacific
16 July 2020
This webinar, part of the ACTRAV Webinar Series 2.0, will explore how to cushion the devastating consequences for the loss of income many workers face during lockdown as well as the policies in place such as wage subsidies, job retention schemes and other efforts in terms of short-term support and extension of social protection. Trade union strategies that can influence, shape and support these actions will also be discussed.
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Book launch: "Still Work to be Done"
25 June 2020
In this book, Luc Cortebeeck examines the future of work: how can we eliminate child labour and exploitation?How do we make governments ans multinationals respect all workers in supply chains? How will we work in the post-coronavirus world? These are some questions that Luc Cortebeeck tried to respond in this book which is a plea for effective international social regulations and a strong ILO as cornerstone for social progress.
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ILO Webinar on COVID-19: Stimulating the Economy and Employment in Asia and Pacific
23 June 2020
The lockdown measures have sparked an unprecedented economic crisis in most countries around the world. “Jobs-led” and “human centred” economic policies have become increasingly important and necessary in the COVID-19 crisis and recovery response. The ILO Policy Framework on COVID-19 Crisis based on International Labour Standards identified out four (4) pillars to fight the crisis and one of which is the pillar on “Stimulating the Economy and Employment”. This webinar, part of the ACTRAV Webinar Series 2.0 will explore how economic and employment policies (in particular active labour market policies) can support workers and sectors in the Asia Pacific region to promote employment growth and more decent work on the road to recovery. | https://www.ilo.org/tokyo/events-and-meetings/lang--en/index.htm |
a seminar during ADB’s 51st Annual Meeting in Manila,
Phillippines, to discuss how new technologies can improve financial inclusion
in Asia.
The
lack of access to financial services is widely viewed as a key challenge for
Asia’s poor households and smaller firms. About 2 billion people in the world
still do not have access to finance and half of them live in Asia and the
Pacific.
The
seminar noted that while the region has made important progress in expanding
and deepening its financial systems, it must also make further progress to
improve financial inclusion using new financial technologies.
According to ADB President Mr Takehiko Nakao, governments in
the region can improve financial inclusion by broadening access to basic
digital infrastructure and providing an enabling environment for innovators and
entrepreneurs.
“Policymakers should also consider ways to improve regulations,
including protecting consumers against cybercrimes and fraud, while striking
the right balance between innovation and financial stability,” said Mr Nakao.
ADB has been supporting many fintech initiatives in developing Asia. To lead efforts to promote and further mainstream digital technology in ADB projects and programs, ADB established a new Digital Technology for Development Unit within the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department in March 2018.
The panel discussion took place at the seminar was titled “New
Technologies in Finance: Opportunities and Challenges for Asia”. Panellists included
IMF Deputy Managing Director Mr Mitsuhiro Furusawa, BSP Governor Mr Nestor
Espenilla, Chair Professor at Korea National Diplomatic Academy Mr Oh-Seok
Hyun, and Director of Social Impact and Public Regulatory Affairs for the IOTA
Foundation Ms Julie Maupin.
Panelists discussed how fintech, including new innovations
like distributed ledger technologies, virtual currencies, machine learning, and
big data, can improve financial inclusion.
“Fintech can help foster financial inclusion in Asia by its
ability to reach rural areas, making financial services more affordable, and
broadening access to small and medium-sized firms,” said IMF Deputy Managing
Director Mr Furusawa.
“Financial regulators will play a crucial role in creating
an environment that promotes financial inclusion while mitigating the risks,”
he said.
Seminar participants also agreed that new technologies hold
promise for bringing financial services to poorer communities and for
overcoming the challenge of obtaining the collateral needed to access formal
credit markets.
They also agreed that international financial institutions
such as the IMF and ADB can play a significant role in supporting countries as
new technologies are introduced.
“There will always be a trade-off or a healthy tension
between security and convenience as well as efficiency and financial integrity.
That is why the BSP has established a regulatory environment that allows
innovations to flourish, at the same time ensures that risks are effectively
managed,” said BSP Governor Mr Espenilla.
“BSP’s regulatory approach is shaped by three core
principles—ensure that regulation is risk-based, proportionate, and fair;
maintain active multi-stakeholder collaboration; and ensure consumer protection,”
he added. | https://www.opengovasia.com/adb-imf-and-bsp-examine-how-new-technologies-can-improve-financial-inclusion-in-asia/ |
Labor Policies to Enable Fairness for Workers and Communities in Transition
As fossil fuel workers grapple with the decline of community-sustaining industries, a new joint report by RFF and Environmental Defense Fund assesses how workforce development policies and labor standards can protect workers and lay the groundwork for future success.
Executive Summary
Workers and communities that are heavily dependent on fossil fuel economies—including the production of coal, oil, and natural gas—are likely to experience disruptions in the status quo as society addresses climate change through the advancement of clean energy alternatives. This report reviews a range of federal (and some state) workforce development policies and labor standards designed to ensure fairness for workers and communities during this transition to a low-carbon economy—what some refer to as “just transition.”
This report is one of a series that has examined various tools to support workers and communities in transition, including economic development policies, infrastructure and environmental remediation policies, and the array of policies that make up the broader social safety net in the United States. Here, we focus on programs and policies that explicitly seek to aid workers in securing stable, family-supporting jobs. We examine programs led by the Department of Labor, the Treasury Department, the Small Business Administration, the Department of Education, the Department of Agriculture, and other agencies. We identify the administrative structures, funding levels, and major mechanisms through which these programs are delivered, and we review evidence of their effectiveness where possible. (Please see Section 6 for a detailed description of individual policies and programs.)
For ease of analysis, we group programs into two main categories: workforce development and labor standards. Both policy types aim to support workers, but they differ in that the former tends to transfer federal funds (in the form of various services and supports) to help workers build new skills and secure jobs, while the latter tends to establish legally enforceable protections for workers.
The workforce development programs we study leverage four primary activities:
- Career services: programs that help workers find and retain employment, including job search assistance, interview and résumé preparation, job retention training, and job placement.
- Job training: capacity building for workers, such as classroom vocational training, on-the-job training, and apprenticeships; as well as “soft” skills development (language proficiency, time management, financial literacy), basic education, ad hoc technical assistance, and mentoring.
- Direct financial and ancillary supports: programs that help workers undertake training and job search by providing direct financial supports, in the form of cash payments to compensate for lost wages, and/or ancillary supports, such as child care, subsidized housing, or substance abuse therapy.
- Research and programmatic technical assistance: initiatives that leverage existing government research and logistical capacity to support various workforce development efforts.
The labor standards we review generally target four major areas:
- Fair compensation and benefits: minimum thresholds for workers’ pay and benefits.
- Unionization protections: standards that enhance workers’ ability to participate in, and have a meaningful impact on, unions, which have played an important role in empowering workers to negotiate better pay, benefits, and conditions from employers.
- Transition support: policies that specify the treatment of, or resources made available to, workers transitioning between jobs—to reduce long-term unemployment and the hardships associated with temporary unemployment.
- Occupational safety: standards that require certain working conditions and reduce workplace hazards for employees.
Based on our review of major federal and selected state labor policies, we draw the following 11 insights that can help inform future policymaking for communities affected by a long-term shift away from fossil energy.
To read the full report, click "Download" above.
Authors
Wesley Look
Senior Research Associate
Wesley Look is a senior research associate at RFF. His work focuses on fairness for workers and communities in transition.
Molly Robertson
Research Associate
Molly Robertson is a Research Associate at Resources for the Future where she contributes to the Fairness for Workers and Communities in Transition and VALUABLES projects.
Daniel Propp
RFF Research Intern
Related Content
Common Resources — Mar 16, 2021
Equitable Transition to a Low-Emissions Future: Federal Support for a Workforce in Transition
The latest joint report from Resources for the Future and Environmental Defense Fund examines federal labor policies that can support fossil fuel workers in the clean energy transition—part of the Fairness for Workers and Communities in Transition series.
Common Resources — Aug 11, 2020
Equitable Transition to a Low-Emissions Future: Economic Development
RFF Senior Research Associate Daniel Raimi discusses findings from the first in a series of reports that investigate policies to support workers and communities who may feel economic hardship in the transition away from fossil fuels. | https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/labor-policies-to-enable-fairness-for-workers-and-communities-in-transition/ |
Hurricanes batter Central America killing hundreds and causing billions of dollars in losses. Wildfires destroy one-third of the Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland, as drought sears Brazilian crops. Sea levels rise, coral reefs bleach and die, and glaciers retreat, leaving less fresh water for farming and human consumption.
The climate crisis is well underway. If the destruction caused by weather in recent years has devastated tourism, farming, and countless other productive activities, it is but a preamble of far worse impacts in the decades to come if nothing is done to curb climate change. A hotter planet will inflict lower agricultural yields, extensive damage to infrastructure, mass extinctions and increases in disease and death on Latin America and the Caribbean.
Still not enough is being done in the face of this existential crisis. While governments take urgent action to ease the pain of the COVID-19 pandemic with substantial fiscal and liquidity support packages, far less effort has been expended to make economies resilient to climate change and to decarbonize the energy, transport, and agricultural sectors.
Providing Pandemic Relief and Fighting Climate Change
The good news, as I discuss in the recently released 2021 Macroeconomic Report, is that there are synergies between pandemic relief and climate mitigation. A sustainable recovery in Latin America and the Caribbean can promote additional growth of more than 1% of GDP, generate 15 million net new jobs and alleviate the hardship on poor and vulnerable households, who tend to be the most exposed and vulnerable to the ravages of COVID-19 and a rapidly warming climate. The key for governments is to prioritize green activities within their COVID-relief spending programs, reform prices and regulations to leverage private finance, align fiscal strategies with the reality of the global energy transition, and ensure a just and inclusive transition.
A crucial step is ensuring that public spending to help firms and households through the pandemic also prioritizes investments in environmentally friendly activities. Public investment could focus on infrastructure that meets sustainability criteria, such as renewable energy, public transport, flood protection, and digitalization, which would include building capacity so that people can continue teleworking and remotely engage with the government. Governments should also help workers affected by the pandemic relocate to sectors that will be part of the transition to a net-zero emissions economy. Countries with the ability to do so should screen pandemic and other stimulus measures for their climate impact and condition support for carbon-intensive firms, such as airlines and energy companies, on their commitment to move towards a carbon-free future.
Crowding-in the Private Sector with Regulatory and Price Reform
To unleash the private sector and ensure that impacts are sustained, public spending should be paired with regulatory reforms. In Chile, the government helped private bus operators to move from diesel-powered vehicles to electrical and climate-friendly ones. The latter require a greater initial investment, which drivers cannot always afford. So the government allowed electricity utilities to own the vehicles and lease them to the bus operators. Reforms of regulations surrounding connections to high-voltage transmission lines and net-metering, among others, can similarly encourage households and utilities to move from a dependence on fossil-fuel energy to renewable energy.
Price reforms will also be needed. On average, countries in the region spend 1% of their GDP on energy subsidies, including for gasoline, diesel and natural gas, a sum that amounted to US$44 billion in 2017. Instead of subsidizing pollution, governments should spend more on direct cash transfers to households most in need, sustainable infrastructure, and public goods such as health and education.
Reforms related to agriculture and forests are key. Much of Costa Rica’s National Decarbonization Plan, which intends to get the country to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, involves updating agriculture and livestock practices and leveraging forests and other high-carbon ecosystems to capture carbon. These changes will not hurt the economy; rather they will help it. Increased agricultural yields under the plan, better livestock productivity, and the monetization of ecosystem services, including the sale of renewable forestry products and enhanced tourism, are together expected to bring US$21 billion in net benefits by 2050.
The Problem of Revenue in the Climate Transition
Governments also will have to adjust in the face of changes in their tax bases. Between 2013 and 2018, sales of fossil fuels represented more than 5% of public revenues in Bolivia, Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago, and Mexico. For other countries, like Uruguay and Costa Rica, gas and diesel taxes make up a significant share of the tax base. As the global energy transition advances, demand for fossil fuels will drop. If the global energy transition proceeds as planned, demand for oil from the region will be down 60% in 2035 compared to pre-COVID levels.
Governments need to identify the fiscal risks associated with a move to different energy sources and develop a strategy to reduce and manage it. This entails delaying or cancelling investments that further dependence on fossil fuels, like natural gas power plants, and replacing revenues from fossil fuel taxes. New or reformed taxes on vehicle ownership and electricity are examples. Value-added taxes are also an option.
Coming Together for a more Sustainable Future
Finally, the transition has to be just and inclusive. Workers have to be protected. While a joint study by the International Labour Organization and the IDB found that countries can create 15 million net new jobs by 2030 in the move to a zero-emissions economy, there will be winners and losers. Employment in coal, diesel, and natural gas-based electricity and generation will fall dramatically just as jobs in plant-based agriculture, renewable electricity, and forestry soar. Workers and communities harmed by the transition will need retraining or compensation, a guarantee of decent working conditions and input into the decisions affecting them.
The demands of the COVID-19 crisis are immediate and critical. But so is the longer-term and potentially more devastating crisis of climate change. Most countries in the region have either officially embraced the goal of carbon neutrality or are said to be working on it. Governments must accelerate their climate plans and design them with inputs from all affected stakeholders. Done right, the transition to a net-zero emissions economy can be win-win, creating jobs and improving economic growth both now and long after the pandemic has passed. | https://blogs.iadb.org/ideas-matter/en/managing-the-existential-crises-of-covid-19-and-climate-change-together/ |
Due to human economic activity, the planet is facing a climate emergency. Bold and convincing solutions are needed to avert the worst effects of this crisis. Yet, as societies face unprecedented levels of income and wealth inequality, often drawn on the basis of race and gender, workers’ rights have become controversial, as the role of unions during the transformation to electrify everything calls into question the existing power structures of fossil capitalism.
The unions have undergone significant changes since their inception. However, they remain the most legitimate means of a social organization to defend workers’ rights during the development of clean energy sectors.
Fair transition and the role of unions
What is a “fair transition”?
If we are to have a fair path to a sustainable future, this will require a fair transition involving different policies that ensure a viable economic future for all workers, especially those in sectors that may be affected by efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or introduce new technologies that do not. based on fossil fuels. It requires the involvement of trade unions so that reasonable working conditions are ubiquitous in the renewable energy sector and its supply chain.
Long-term solutions for fair transition policies require strong political coalitions with clear agendas. Such coalitions must involve workers across sectors and with different existential interests.
A fair transition must:
- be comprehensive, flexible and integrated to help workers, their families and communities
- be accompanied by a lasting industrial policy
- include strong social support programs
- develop creative work-oriented adaptation programs
- guarantee equal opportunities
- address structural inequalities between women and men so that women of all ages have access to the jobs and sectors from which they have traditionally been excluded, including science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
- offer workers a place at the clean energy negotiating table so that their voice can be heard
US unions are heading for the United Front in its mission to fight climate change
Trade unions that promote electrification do so more in terms of social and environmental commitments, space and agency. Taken together, these elements include a proactive rather than a reactive approach to climate mitigation. More specifically, the success of unions can be determined by the density of the combined workforce, the percentage of workers in the market and in accordance with the representation of the unions and the bargaining power of the workers according to their sector.
Trade unions, especially in some specific sectors, are able to influence workers, companies and, consequently, governments and are an important variable of diverse interests that need to be balanced in order for a successful transition to a clean energy economy. Sectors that are crucial to the economy and society, such as electricity or fuel, have more bargaining power than some other sectors. The country’s political and economic climate, local legislation in relation to trade unions and market competitiveness all play an important role in the ability of trade unions to exercise power.
As a social movement, unions are not static: they are constantly creating new forms of organization and action. Until about 2019, US unions presented different views on the climate crisis, from continued support for the fossil fuel industry through mixed commitment to the promotion of climate policies that move away from commitment to fossil fuels. Opinions on unions are more complex and contradictory than the opposition-support dichotomy that many scholars prefer, according to a report entitled “Adapting Canada’s workplaces and workplaces in response to climate change: Canada in an international perspective. “
The report describes the place of unions in the world political economy, called positioning, as “undervalued”, notes that industry dynamics, industrial relations and the place of unions in the wider political economy are important internal and external factors that create or limit environmental alliances.
What attitude have various US trade unions taken to address the climate crisis in the last few years?
- Very quiet: International Engineers Association (but very keen to protect US airlines and manufacturers); National Union of Postal Mail Processors; United Food and Commercial Workers Union; National Association of Letter Carriers (but support for greening the fleet); International Longshoremen’s Association; Fire brigade; Police unions.
- Significantly quiet in terms of environment / climate and fossil fuel infrastructure support: Elevator workers; Insulators (promoting energy efficiency); Plasterers; Roofers; operations engineers; Painters; Carpenters.
- Accept the need for climate policy and support for fossil fuels: Union Workers Union of America; Plumbers and pipe fitters; Ironmongers; Boilers; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Professional and technical engineers (nuclear energy support); LIUNA; Sheet metal workers; Teamsters.
- Climate policy with adaptation / support for certain fossil fuels: Steelmakers; Industrial Division of Communications Workers of America; Masons; Car workers; Transport Workers’ Union; Merged Transit Union.
- Climate policy to reduce fossil fuel emissions: National Nurses United; International Union of Staff Services; unions of U.S. postal workers; American Federation of Government Employees; American Federation of County and Municipal Employees; American Federation of Teachers; Communications Workers of America; National Electrical Contractors Association; IBEW 595; International Longshore and Warehouse Union; National Education Association; United Electrical Workers; New York State Sisters Association; Unified railway workers.
Final thoughts
The shift to acceptable widespread electrification has been rapid around the world, and the transition in many American unions has also been rapid.
For example, by 2020, BYD North America had delivered 4 K7M battery electric buses to Columbia, Missouri Transit Agency, Go COMO. The media stories included the fact that the buses were made in the USA in Lancaster, California by members of the Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation (SMART) Union, Local 105 at the BYD factory.
This month, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) joined the United Auto Workers (UAW) and called on school districts to electrify the school bus fleet. According to the AFT press release, these efforts are to begin a gradual development towards carbon-free emissions. Right now, about half a million yellow school buses in the United States produce more than 5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year. Pollutants from their exhausts contribute to asthma and other respiratory diseases among students and drivers – especially in communities that are already contaminated by environmental injustice. The AFT says that when electric bus manufacturers agree to a majority registration process with the UAW, it sends an important message to the public, as well as to car workers and other employees, that the transition to a green economy can create quality union jobs. .
It is also a clear reason why investing public money to support the transition to electricity makes sense for the people of the United States. Combating the climate crisis will address the impact of pollutants on colorful communities; protect students, drivers and community health; and create and develop quality manufacturing jobs that support families and communities.
Investing in electric school buses will help our students breathe better. Building a bus union will allow communities to prosper. We have to do both.
Together with @UAWwe call for a # clean transition it includes electric school buses manufactured by a union.
Watch live ⤵️ https://t.co/6xKheqErO2
– AFT (@AFTunion) May 31, 2022
Do you appreciate the originality of CleanTechnica? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica member, supporter, technician or ambassador – or patron of Patreon. | https://articlenotes.com/2022/06/06/the-role-of-trade-unions-in-the-electrification-of-everything/ |
Problem – Write an assembly language program in 8086 microprocessor to divide a 16 bit number by an 8 bit number.
Example –
Algorithm –
- Assign value 500 in SI and 600 in DI
- Move the contents of [SI] in BL and increment SI by 1
- Move the contents of [SI] and [SI + 1] in AX
- Use DIV instruction to divide AX by BL
- Move the contents of AX in [DI].
- Halt the program.
Assumption – Initial value of each segment register is 00000.
Calculation of physical memory address –
Memory Address = Segment Register * 10(H) + offset,
where Segment Register and Offset is decided on the basis of following table. | https://tutorialspoint.dev/computer-science/microprocessor/assembly-language-program-8086-microprocessor-divide-16-bit-number-8-bit-number |
Approximately 95± acre Cass County farm conveniently located approximately 3 miles south of Chandlerville, IL in Panther Creek Township. Consisting of approximately 83.16± acres productive farm ground with the balance in mature timber, thick brushy draws, creek, and grass field points. The majority of the timber lies on the north east end of the property which provides exceptional hunting and outdoor recreational opportunities. There is good hard road access off of Palmerton Rd. which runs the entire west border of the farm.
TIMED ONLINE AUCTION
REGISTER TO BID HERE.
BIDS OPEN: January 24, 2022 @ 1:00 PM CST BIDS CLOSE: January 28, 2022 @ 1:00 PM CST
The bids will open on Monday, January 24th at 1:00 PM CST. At this time, registered bidders will be able to put in bids on the property through the AcrePro mobile app or at https://acrepro.bidwrangler.com/. Bids can be placed in the selected increment, or with a custom number that is higher than the current "ask". Bidders can place a maximum bid that will immediately make them the highest bidder, one bid increment over the previous high bid. It will autobid up one bid increment past any bids that come in, until a bid surpasses your maximum bid amount. The auction is scheduled to close on January 28th at 1:00 PM CST. However, if a bid is placed in the final minute of bidding, the bids will automatically be extended by 4 minutes. Each time a new bid comes in during the extension time, the time will extend back to 4 minutes. Be sure to periodically refresh your screen! The bidder with the high bid once the extension period has expired will be the successful bidder. Bids will be on a per surveyed acre basis.
Directions
South on Highway 78 from Chandlerville, Turn left (East) on Palmerton Rd. Travel on Palmerton Rd. for approximately 1 mile. Property lies on East side of Palmerton Rd. | https://acrepro.com/95-acre-cass-county-il/ |
Consider first the simpler problem: To increment a number in register A by one. In general such a number has binary representation x01n, where x is an arbitrary string of ones and zeroes and notation dk means k consecutive digits d (so 1n is n ones). Clearly by incrementing this number by one, we get x10n.
First we negate the number to get y10n (where y is a bitwise negation of x).
and put that one into A.
And we are done. Almost. Our task was to increment value in A by 8, not 1. However since binary representation of 8 is 1000 the solution is similar. We just shift the number to the right by 3 positions, add 1 and shift it back (while preserving last 3 bits). Sure you can imagine how to do that.
Also note that the above construction of incrementing by one need not work if the result would overflow. However in order to use it to solve our origonal task this is not important since we shift the inpit number to the right (so result of incrementation will not overflow) and then we shift it left (so excess bits will get lost).
First let’s find out how does next permutation of bit sequence look like. Clearly a next permutation of a sequence x011m0n is x100n1m. That is, to get a next permutation we find the rightmost one preceded by a zero, move it one place to the left and push the block of ones right of it far to the right. If there is no one preceded by a zero, then the input is either 0 or its next permutation does not fit in 64-bit register.
and find the one that was originaly the rightmost one preceded by zero and move it one place to the left (it is the rightmost one of C).
Now E is 0 if B has no ones and E is 1 if there are some ones in B. This works because B has form 064-n1n. So we can shift B and D by E. | https://ipsc.ksp.sk/2009/real/solutions/i.html |
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linux nasm assembly prints out random characters
rileyh
Member
Posts:
2
October 2012
in
Assembler Developer
I am writing a program to get an integer from the user, and then print out all the numbers from 0 up to the number. My code gets the input fine, but when printing it out, it prints continuously in what seems to be an endless loop. Here is my code:
SECTION .data ; Constant variable declaration
len EQU 32 ; Constant length
msg db "Enter a number: ", 0 ; Input message
msglen EQU $-msg ; Input message length
SECTION .bss ; Uninitialised data declaration
other resd len ; Output counter that is incremented
data resd len ; Input data buffer
SECTION .text ; Main program initialiser
GLOBAL _start ; Linker entry point declaration
_start: ; Entry point
nop ; This keeps the debugger happy
Msg: ; This section prints out the message
mov eax, 4 ; }
mov ebx, 1 ; }
mov ecx, msg ; } System_write call
mov edx, msglen ; }
int 80h ; }
input: ; This section gets the integer from the user
mov eax, 3 ; }
mov ebx, 0 ; }
mov ecx, data ; } System_read call
mov edx, len ; }
int 80h ; }
ASCIIAdj:
mov ebp, 48 ; This line sets the counter to '0' ASCII
setup: ; This section adjusts the counter
mov [other], ebp ; Increment counter
loop: ; This section loops, printing out from zero to the number given
mov eax, 4 ; }
mov ebx, 1 ; }
mov ecx, other ; } System_write call
mov edx, len ; }
int 80h ; }
mov eax, 1 ; Move 1 to eax
add ebp, eax ; Add eax to ebp (essentially increment ebp)
mov eax, other ; move other to eax
mov ebx, data ; move data to ebx
cmp eax, ebx ; compare them
jne setup ; If they are not the same, go back to the setup to increment other
exit: ; Exits the program
mov eax, 1 ; }
mov ebx, 0 ; } System_exit call
int 80h ; }
Expected output
Enter a number: 6
0123456
General Semantics of the program:
Display "Enter a number: "
Read in an integer less than 32 bytes in size.
Set a counter variable to the ASCII value of zero
Loop:
Display the character, adding 1 to it, and checking to see if it is equal to the value inputted.
If it is equal, goto the exit section and exit
Else loop.
Why does it loop continuously? I have incremented the counter, and compared the input and the counter, so why doesn't it break?
Thanks in advance
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Rate This Article
Building a Page Counter (Image) Using JScript.Net
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Article Contents
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Introduction
How Should the Counter Work?
The JScript.Net Code, Part 1
The JScript.Net Code, Part 2
The JScript.Net Code, Part 3
Conclusion
How Should the Counter Work?
A counter should count the number of users visiting a web page. If a user opens a specific page, the counter should increase, create a new image, and save the number of visitors in a file. The number should only increase if the visitor is new. If you increment the number of visitors every time the counter is displayed, then obviously you do not get the correct numbers of unique visitors, and will then get the number of page views instead.
So, we only need to increment the counter if we’re dealing with a new visitor. We can do this with a cookie, using standard browser functions. With a cookie, we can send the browser a flag that the current user has already visited our web page. If the user comes back within 120 seconds then we will ignore this cookie and increment the counter.
Let's start with our JScript.Net code...
« (Page 1)
View Entire Article
(Page 3) »
User Comments
Title:
Firefox :s
Name:
Remi
Date:
2007-04-07 9:04:44 AM
Comment:
Thnx!
Works great in IE! Only Firefox has some problems displaying the image. It just shows a range of weird characters :s.
Title:
SPA
Name:
dheeraj Ahuja
Date:
2005-10-28 3:07:28 AM
Comment:
this is gud article and it helped me alot
now wht i want is to call a server side from client routine with refering any "src",
is there any way
Product Spotlight
Community Advice: | http://aspalliance.com/123_Building_a_Page_Counter_Image_Using_JScriptNet.2 |
What is a hazard?
A hazard is something that is likely to cause harm or injury. We recognize many hazards by their WHMIS (Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System) symbol.
Types of Hazards
A. Physical – the most common type of hazard; something you can see or be physically affected by (*Keep in mind that hair, jewelry, and loose clothing can be dangerous)
a. Being crushed by equipment
b. Tripping or falling
c. Spills d. Improper lifting techniques
B. Biological – comes from working with people, animals, or infectious plant material
a. Insect bites
b. Animal droppings
c. Blood or other bodily fluids
d. Being in contact with materials where viruses or bacteria are present
C. Chemical – comes from being exposed to any chemical in the workplace (remember even household chemicals like bleach can be very dangerous if mishandled)
a. Vapours and fumes from chemicals
b. Carbon monoxide
c. Radiation
d. Burns and absorption into the skin
D. Ergonomic – occurs when the type of work you do, your body position, and/or your working conditions put a strain on your body ( these are difficult to identify because you don’t immediately recognize the harm they do to your health, being aware of the potential damage you could sustain from your job is an important step in preventing ergonomic injuries)
a. Poor lighting
b. Improperly adjusted workstations or chairs
c. Frequent/improper lifting
d. Repetitive or awkward movements
e. Shift work/working hours
1.2 Identifying Hazards
Another way to look at health and safety in your workplace is to ask yourself the following questions. (these are examples only. You may find other items or situations that can be a hazard.)
What materials or situations do I come into contact with? (examples below)
- electricity
- chemicals (liquids, gases, solids, mists, vapours, etc.)
- temperature extremes of heat or cold (e.g., bakeries, foundries, meat processing)
- ionizing/non-ionizing radiation (e.g., x-rays, ultraviolet (sun) rays)
- oxygen deficiency
- Water
What materials or equipment could I be struck by? (examples below)
- moving objects (e.g., forklifts, overhead cranes, vehicles)
- flying objects (e.g., sparks or shards from grinding)
- falling material (e.g., equipment from above)
What objects or equipment could I strike or hit my body upon, or that part of my body might be caught in, on, or between? (examples below)
- stationary or moving objects
- protruding objects
- sharp or jagged edges
- pinch points on machines (places where parts are very close together)
- objects that stick out (protrude)
- moving objects (conveyors, chains, belts, ropes, etc.)
What could I fall from? (e.g., falls to lower levels) (examples below)
- objects, structures, tanks, silos, lofts
- ladders, overhead walkways
- roofs
- trees, cliffs
What could I slip or trip on? (e.g., falls on same level) (examples below)
- obstructions on floor, stairs
- surface issues (wet, oily, icy)
- footwear that is in poor condition
How could I overexert myself? (examples below)
- lifting
- pulling
- pushing
- carrying
- repetitive motions
What other situations could I come across?
- unknown/unauthorized people in area
- a potentially violent situation
- working alone
- confined space
- missing/damaged materials
- new equipment/procedure at work site
- fire/explosion
chemical spill or release
1.3 Three Rights
A. The Right to Know
You have the right to know; as a worker, you have the right to know about hazards in your workplace that could affect your safety or health. You have the right to know if a worker has refused to do the task that you are being asked to do because they felt it was unnecessarily unsafe.
Exercising the right to know:
- Ask about the hazards you may be exposed to
- Ask about the safety procedures surrounding the hazards in your workplace
- Ask for orientation and adequate training for equipment you will be using
- Ask who the worker representatives on your workplace OH&S committee are and ask them about hazards and safety in your workplace
B. The Right to Participate
You have the right to participate; as a worker, you have a say regarding parts of your job that affect your health and safety. You have the right to participate in identifying and reducing workplace hazards. You have the right to participate in any and all training that enables you to do your job safely, including training on equipment you may be asked to use.
Exercising the right to participate:
- Get involved with your OH&S Committee by attending meetings and suggesting ways to make your workplace safer
- Actively ask for training on any equipment you may be asked to use
- Take any and all safety training offered by your employer
Quick Facts: Your employer must provide you with any personal protective equipment you need to do your job safely and avoid injury (examples below)
- Hardhat
- Hearing protection
- Safety glasses
- Safety vest
- Gloves
- Steel toe boots
- Respirator
- Apron
C. The Right to Refuse
You have the right to refuse; Workers have the right to refuse unsafe work. If you have reasonable cause to believe that performing a job or task puts you or someone else at risk, you must not perform the job or task. Any task that you have not been trained to do properly and safely should be refused until you feel that you have the tools to complete the task safely. As a worker, you have the right to refuse to perform a specific job or task you believe is unsafe without being disciplined by your employer. Your employer or supervisor may temporarily assign a new task to you, at no loss in pay.
Exercising your right to refuse:
The right to refuse is the most challenging right to exercise, here are a few ways that you can refuse unsafe work if you’re unsure if your employer will comply with your refusal.
- Approaching refusal using I statements that express that you believe you will hurt yourself humanises the situation beyond the refusal to do the work.
“I feel like I’m going to burn myself if I empty the oil that way”
“ I don’t know how to use the equipment and I feel like I will hurt myself if I try to operate it”
- If you don’t feel that your employer will take your refusal seriously or listen to you ask a worker that is on the OH&S committee to help you with the refusal. The folks on the committee are actively involved in hazard identification and injury prevention, find one that you trust and have them refuse on your behalf. The employer may listen to them over a young worker or new worker.
1.4 Mental health in the workplace
A. What is mental health?
Mental health is a state of well-being in which a person understands his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community.
Both physical and mental health are the result of a complex interplay between many individual and environmental factors, including:
- family history of illness and disease/genetics
- lifestyle and health behaviours (e.g., smoking, exercise, substance use)
- levels of personal and workplace stress
- exposure to toxins
- exposure to trauma
- personal life circumstances and history
- access to supports (e.g., timely healthcare, social supports)
- coping skills
B. What is a psychologically safe workplace?
The concept of “psychological safety” involves preventing injury to the mental well-being of workers. A psychologically safe and healthy workplace is one that promotes workers' mental well-being and does not harm employee mental health through negligent, reckless or intentional ways. (example: a psychologically safe workplace would be free of excessive fear or chronic anxiety)
C. Risk factors that affect your mental health at work:
When the demands placed on someone exceed their resources and coping abilities, their mental health will be negatively affected. Exposure to workplace bullying is associated with psychological complaints, depression, burnout, anxiety, aggression, psychosomatic complaints and musculoskeletal health complaints. Bullying not only affects those directly involved, but also affects bystanders, as they too experience higher levels of stress.
Examples of risk factors:
- Shift work
- Conflict
- Unclear direction or role in the workplace
- Stressful environments (healthcare, serving, retail)
- Lack of workload management
- Lack of clear leadership or expectations
- Lack of recognition
- Lack of civility and respect
- Stigma and discrimination
Quick Fact: There is a greater risk of accidents, incidents and injuries in workplaces that have poor psychological health.
D. Recognizing Burnout
What is burnout?
Burnout is a reaction to prolonged or chronic job stress and is characterized by three main dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism (less identification with the job), and feelings of reduced professional ability.
While burnout isn’t a diagnosable psychological disorder, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be taken seriously.
Here are some of the most common signs of burnout:
Alienation from work-related activities: Individuals experiencing burnout view their jobs as increasingly stressful and frustrating. They may grow cynical about their working conditions and the people they work with. They may also emotionally distance themselves and begin to feel numb about their work.
Physical symptoms: Chronic stress may lead to physical symptoms, like headaches and stomachaches or intestinal issues.
Emotional exhaustion: Burnout causes people to feel drained, unable to cope, and tired. They often lack energy to get their work done.
Reduced performance: Burnout mainly affects everyday tasks at work—or in the home when someone's main job involves caring for family members. Individuals with burnout feel negative about tasks. They have difficulty concentrating and often lack creativity.
How to prevent and treat burnout:
An individual who is feeling burned out may need to make some changes to their work environment.
Approaching the human resource department about problems in the workplace or talking to a supervisor about the issues could be helpful if they are invested in creating a healthier work environment.
It can also be helpful to develop clear strategies that help you manage your stress. Self-care strategies, like eating a healthy diet, getting plenty of exercises, and engaging in healthy sleep habits may help reduce some of the effects of a high-stress job.
E. How to protect your mental health
In some cases your workplace may be unwilling or unable to change some of the factors that could lead to decreased mental health amongst workers. If that is the case there are some tools you can use to protect and maintain your mental health at work and at home. Mental health is tied to overall health, to improve and maintain mental health use these 4 categories and tips for each:
Physical: You need to take care of your body if you want it to run efficiently. Keep in mind that there's a strong connection between your body and your mind. When your caring for your body, you'll think and feel better too.
Physical self-care includes how you're fueling your body, how much sleep you're getting, how much physical activity you are doing, and how well you're caring for your physical needs. Attending appointments, taking medication as prescribed, and managing your health are all part of good physical self-care.
When it comes to physical self-care, ask yourself the following questions to assess whether there might be some areas you need to improve:
- Are you getting adequate sleep?
- Is your diet fueling your body properly?
- Are you taking charge of your health (making healthy decisions)?
- Are you getting enough exercise
Social: Socialization is key to self-care. But, often, it's hard to make time for friends and it's easy to neglect your relationships when life gets busy. Close connections are important to your well-being. The best way to cultivate and maintain close relationships is to put time and energy into building your relationships with others.
There isn't a certain number of hours you should devote to your friends or work on your relationships. Everyone has slightly different social needs. The key is to figure out what your social needs are and to build enough time in your schedule to create an optimal social life.
To assess your social self-care, consider:
- Are you getting enough face to face time with your friends?
- What are you doing to nurture your relationships?
- How much time are you spending on social media (less is more)?
Mental: The way you think and the things that you're filling your mind with greatly influence your psychological well-being. Mental self-care includes doing things that keep your mind sharp, like puzzles, or learning about a subject that fascinates you. You might find reading books or watching movies that inspire you fuels your mind.
Mental self-care also involves doing things that help you stay mentally healthy. Practicing self-compassion and acceptance, for example, helps you maintain a healthier inner dialogue.
Here are a few questions to consider when you think about your mental self-care:
- Are you making enough time for activities that stimulate your mind?
- Are you proactively thinking about your mental health?
- Are you recognizing your accomplishments?
Emotional: It's important to have healthy coping skills to deal with uncomfortable emotions, like anger, anxiety, and sadness. Emotional self-care may include activities that help you acknowledge and express your feelings on a regular basis.
Whether you talk to a partner or close friend about how you feel, or you set aside time for leisure activities that help you process your emotions, it's important to incorporate emotional self-care into your life.
When assessing your emotional self-care strategies, consider these questions:
- Do you have healthy ways to process your emotions?
- Do you incorporate activities that help you recharge?
Developing your self-care plan: Self-care isn't a one-size-fits-all strategy. Your self-care plan will need to be customized to your needs.
A self-care plan for a busy college student who feels mentally stimulated all the time and has a bustling social life might need to emphasize physical self-care. On the other hand, a retired person may need to incorporate more social self-care into their schedule to make sure that their social needs are being met.
Assess which areas of your life need some more attention and self-care. And reassess your life often. As your situation changes, your self-care needs are likely to shift too.
When you discover that you're neglecting a certain aspect of your life, create a plan for change. You don't have to tackle everything all at once. Identify one small step you can take to begin caring for yourself better. Then, schedule time to focus on your needs. Even when you feel like you don't have time to squeeze in one more thing, make self-care a priority. When you're caring for all aspects of yourself, you'll find that you are able to operate more effectively and efficiently.
1.5 Harassment in the workplace
A. What is harassment?
Harassment based on prohibited grounds:
Harassment based on prohibited grounds includes any inappropriate conduct, comment, display, action or gesture by a person that:
- is made on the basis of race, creed, religion, colour, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, disability, physical size or weight, age, nationality, ancestry or place of origin; and
- constitutes a threat to the health or safety of the worker
What is sexual harassment?
Sexual harassment is conduct, comments, gestures or contact of a sexual nature that is offensive, unsolicited or unwelcome. It can include:
- a direct or implied threat of reprisal for refusing to comply with a sexually-oriented request;
- unwelcome remarks, jokes, innuendos, propositions or taunting about a person’s body, attire, sex or sexual orientation;
- displaying pornographic or sexually explicit pictures or materials;
- unwelcome physical contact;
- unwelcome invitations or requests, direct or indirect, to engage in behaviour of a sexual nature; or
- refusing to work with or have contact with workers because of their sex, gender or sexual orientation.
Certain types of conduct not specifically directed at an individual, such as displaying a poster or making comments that are overheard by another worker, can be considered harassment based on prohibited grounds.
Personal Harassment: Personal harassment is sometimes referred to as bullying. It includes any inappropriate conduct, comment, display, action or gesture by a person that:
- adversely affects a worker’s psychological or physical well-being;
- the perpetrator knows, or should know, would cause the worker to be humiliated or intimidated; and
- constitutes a threat to the health and safety of a worker.
Typically, personal harassment involves repeat occurrences. A single incident may also constitute personal harassment if serious or severe and is shown to have a lasting harmful effect on a worker.
Personal harassment may include:
- verbal or written abuse or threats;
- insulting, derogatory or degrading comments, jokes or gestures;
- personal ridicule or malicious gossip;
- malicious or unjustifiable interference with another’s work;
- work sabotage;
- refusing to work or co-operate with others; or
- interference with, or vandalism of personal property.
B. What to do if you are being harassed
1. Responding to harassment:
It is crucial that anyone who believes they have experienced harassment communicate that to the person who harassed them. If you feel uncomfortable approaching the person who harassed you, you can have another person speak to them on your behalf.
It is incredibly important that you communicate to the individual or group that you felt that their actions were harassment and you want them to stop that behaviour. Failure to communicate to the perpetrator(s) limits your legal capacity in relation to the harassment and the perpetrator(s) may be unaware that you were uncomfortable and therefore they may continue the behaviour in the future.
When harassment is discrimination:
Any harassment that goes against your human rights is a kind of discrimination. This includes harassment because of:
- your race, colour, ancestry, ethnic origin, citizenship, or where you were born
- your religious beliefs
- a physical or mental disability, including an addiction
- your sex or gender, including pregnancy
- your sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression
- your family or marital status
For this kind of harassment, you can make a complaint to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission. If you are unsure whether the incident(s) you experienced qualifies as discrimination you can contact the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission.
Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission:
- E-mail: [email protected]
- Phone: (306) 933-5952
Quick Fact: You can file a complaint to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission up to a year after the incident took place.
2. Write down the incident(s):
Harassment is often an ongoing process by the perpetrator, writing incidents down allows the folks investigating to see that the harassment is ongoing and debilitating.
Try to focus on the facts of what happened more than how it made you feel.
Make notes about:
- the date and time of each event
- who was there
- what people said, including who said it
- what order things happened in
- any injuries you had
- any steps you took to try to fix the problem
- what you told your supervisor and when you told them
Quick Fact: It's against the law for your employer to punish you for asking about your health and safety rights. But making a complaint about harassment can be difficult.
Legal Advice: If you feel the need to access legal advice for your harassment complaint, but have limited income you can see if you qualify for legal aid in Saskatchewan. If you do not qualify for legal aid in Saskatchewan you can access up to an hour of free legal advice from Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan.
- Legal Aid Saskatchewan: 1-800-667-3764
- Pro Bono Law Saskatchewan: 1-(306) 569-3098
3. Talking to your employer about harassment:
If harassment continues after you have communicated to the perpetrator and asked them to stop the behaviour you should speak to your employer about the harassment. Employers in Saskatchewan have an obligation to keep their workers safe from harassment.
Workplaces in Saskatchewan can choose to have a harassment policy. This policy should be made to protect you from workplace harassment.
It should have information about:
- how to get help quickly if someone is in danger
- how to report harassment to your employer
- how your employer will deal with your complaint
Ask your employer to give you information and training so that you know what to do if you’re being harassed. You should follow the steps in the workplace harassment policy as much as possible. | https://workyourrights.ca/ar/health-and-safety |
The last few weeks, months and years have been filled with a multitude of challenges. There have been times when I have felt like I’m drowning under the weight of it all. In an attempt to be there for others, I started to take my own health and well-being for granted. I was meditating regularly which helped immensely but was neglecting some other parts of myself. I started eating foods which I know do not agree with me, and that triggered a series of health complaints – I was in pain and had headaches. Do I know better? Of course! We probably all know what we should be doing, but sometimes we choose to ignore our inner awareness.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided that I really did know better and engaged in my own “Self-Care Plan”. I implemented some exercise, became mindful about what I was eating, re-started my yoga practice and introduced more frequent mindful breaks in the day. Has that helped? Absolutely. But it took prioritizing myself to do that.
In our society, we think that prioritizing self-care is selfish. That we should constantly be giving – whether it’s to our jobs, friends, family or even Netflix! We need to constantly remind ourselves that without taking care of our own well-being, there will come a time when we can’t give to others. When we are so depleted that it takes a health emergency to wake us up. Don’t wait till then. As flight crew always tell you: Put your oxygen mask on first, because if you run out of oxygen, you can’t help anyone else.
When you run low, stress, fatigue, overwhelm, depressive thoughts, anxiety and other mental health issues all become exacerbated. Schedule time to recharge and regroup everyday.
Some suggestions include:
- Mindful pauses and meditation
- Exercise
- Go for a walk in nature
- Schedule time for a catch up with a friend
- Write in a journal
- Think of 3 things you are grateful for each day (more if you can!)
What other things do you do to take care of yourself? | https://www.theconsciouszone.org/self-care/ |
The Problem:
Although we know that self-care is important to our health and well-being, it’s easy for many of us to put it off or even forget about it. Not prioritizing self-care puts us at risk for relationship challenges, job burn-out, and negative physical and mental health outcomes. Taking deliberate care of our bodies and our minds is important. Self-care becomes a social justice issue when its inaccessibility negatively impacts already at-risk populations.
We have a new set of self-care issues now that the novel coronavirus lives among us: Taking care of ourselves to avoid illness for ourselves and others, taking care of our mental health while sheltering-in-place, and continuing to practice general self-care to maintain our healthy bodies and minds. We recorded a few podcasts to address these issues directly as they relate to our current life, living through the current pandemic. So far, we’ve talked about Facing Change, and about making Creative Adjustments.
Steps We Can Take:
People who have the luxury of taking care of themselves do so in many ways. While it’s an important act for every one of us, many don’t have the luxury of taking a physical or mental break from the stresses of life. If you are lucky enough to be able to so, don’t take it for granted. Also, work to help others by either offering ways for them to directly take care of themselves, or donate/volunteer in some capacity with a partial goal of making other’s lives just a little easier so that maybe they can experience self-care.
The Inner Strength Foundation (ISF) was founded by Amy Edelstein to foster ‘inner strength for outer stability’ in our youth. ISF brings mindfulness tools to over 5000 inner city classrooms in Philadelphia. Our youth face many stressors and this program offers them an opportunity to learn tools that can help them deal on a day to day basis. It has been shown to offer many benefits to those who take advantage of what they learn. Listen in to our conversation with Amy Edelstein: Be Still and Notice the Mind
Voices:
The Shrinks celebrated our one year anniversary doing the podcast together by offering up some self-care advice. Listen in to our One Year Anniversary Self-Care session. | https://shrinksonthird.com/self-care/ |
Rehan, Virender K.
Evolutionary Biology: Cell-Cell Communication, and Complex Disease
Even in this advanced age of genomics, the evolutionary process of unicellular and multicellular organisms is continually in debate. Evolutionary Biology, Cell–Cell Communication, and Complex Disease challenges current wisdom by using physiology to present an integrative view of the nature, origins, and evolution of fundamental biological systems.
Providing a deeper understanding of the way genes relate to the traits of living organisms, this book offers useful information applying evolutionary biology, functional genomics, and cell communication studies to complex disease. Examining the 4.5 billion-year evolution process from environment adaptations to cell-cell communication to communication of genetic information for reproduction, Evolutionary Biology hones in on the "why and how" of evolution by uniquely focusing on the cell as the smallest unit of biologic structure and function.
Based on empirically derived data rather than association studies, Evolutionary Biology covers:
-
A model for forming testable hypotheses in complex disease studies
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The integrating role played by the evolution of metabolism, especially lipid metabolism
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The evolutionary continuum from development to homeostasis
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Regeneration and aging mediated by signaling molecules
Ambitious and game-changing Evolutionary Biology suggests that biology began as a mechanism for reducing energy within the cell, defying the Second Law of Thermodynamics. An ideal text for those interested in forward thinking scientific study, the insights presented in Evolutionary Biology help practitioners effectively comprehend the evolutionary process.
Keywords: Biomedical, Pathophysiology, Physiology, Epidemiology, Evo-Devo, Applied Evolutionary Biology, Developmental Biology, Comparative Biology, Human Genetics, human Genomics, Drug Discovery, Physiology, Molecular Evolution, Physiology, Molecular Evolution
- Author(s)
- Rehan, Virender K.
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- Torday, John S.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons, Inc. | https://www.ellibs.com/book/9780470647202/evolutionary-biology-cell-cell-communication-and-complex-disease |
Genes and genetics: the language of scientific discovery
It is sometimes the case that a scientific field experiences such dramatic progress that the rate at which new discoveries are made outpaces the language needed to describe them. How would it be if there were no words to describe the results of your latest experiment or the structures you see using your new microscope? How would you convey your findings without the words to do so? You would need a whole new vocabulary. Such enormous advances occurred in cell biology and genetics in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and the effects of this period on the language of science are reflected in the number of new words coined at this time as scientists struggled to explain their ideas.
Describing the cell
By the 1860s the foundations for such advances were already in place: the importance of the cell as a structural and functional unit of living organisms was accepted, and the identity and structure of subcellular constituents was becoming clearer as microscopes and microscopical techniques advanced. Cell biologists were suddenly able to study living tissue at a level of detail which was previously impossible, and having named the structures identified they were able to describe what they were seeing, if not fully to understand its significance. This, aided by the work of breeders against the backdrop of Darwin’s recent theory of evolution by natural selection, set the stage for an incredibly fruitful and important period for genetics.
Modern genetics is often said to begin with Gregor Mendel, the Austrian monk who performed detailed hybridization experiments on peas. Through systematic, quantitative analysis of his results, Mendel drew up the basic laws of genetic inheritance we still use today. Although he published his work in 1866, unfortunately for Mendel, his ideas would not receive the recognition they deserved for almost 40 years, until developments in other areas of biology had caught up.
Meanwhile, in the same period, cell biologists were making progress of their own. Making use of special dyes, the German biologist Walther Flemming discovered chromatin, material contained in the cell nucleus—named from the Greek χρομα, or ‘colour’, simply for its appearance as coloured matter. Flemming later described and named mitosis, the process of cell division, from the Greek μįτος meaning thread, referring to the form of the cellular material during this process. Two years later came the identification of the chromosome, the name—coined in German by Wilhelm von Waldemeyer—simply meaning ‘coloured body’. More than ten years would pass before the rediscovery of Mendel’s work revealed the full significance of these important discoveries, but the mechanics of inheritance were beginning to make themselves apparent and the new language was providing a framework on which to explain his ideas.
Genes and genetics
During the 1890s several botanists in continental Europe independently began to think along the same lines as Mendel. In 1900 three papers were published within a few weeks of each other, marking the beginning of a new episode in the study of inheritance. The Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries, the German Carl Correns, and the Austrian Erich von Tschermak, each from his own work, confirmed the conclusions that Mendel had reached 35 years earlier. Although it is these three who are usually credited with the rediscovery of Mendel’s work, it was the British biologist William Bateson who was largely responsible for popularizing Mendel’s ideas and, more importantly from a lexicographical point of view, for inventing the vocabulary to go with them. Bateson’s research career was perhaps not as illustrious as that of some of his contemporaries but his legacy remains in the form of much of the basic terminology of modern genetics that we use today.
In the few years after the rediscovery of Mendel’s work, Bateson wrote of Mendel’s laws and Mendelian principles for the ideas laid down nearly 40 years earlier, and introduced to the English language the concepts of recessive and dominant traits that Mendel had written of in his original 1866 publication. He coined the term allelomorph (later shortened to allele), for one of several alternative forms of the same gene, adding to it the terms homozygote and heterozygote for individuals carrying the same or different alleles at a given locus, and referred for the first time to genetic characters being epistatic and hypostatic. More prominently, the modern sense of genetic is also attributed to Bateson, along with genetics itself as a word for the scientific study of inherited variation. The latter is first mentioned in a personal letter from him dated 18 April 1905, in which he writes rather modestly:
“No single word in common use quite gives this meaning, and if it were desirable to coin one, ‘Genetics’ might do.”
This does not seem a confident assertion of intent to name this fledgling field of study, but the rapid adoption and persistence of the word attest to both the need for a name and Bateson’s appropriate choice. The now-familiar term gene was itself coined (originally in German) several years later by the Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen, from the earlier term of de Vries, pangene, for the same concept (itself influenced by Darwin’s pangenesis). This replaced the various traits, factors, and units favoured by earlier authors and completed the set of basic terminology for this new science.
The coinages throughout this period represent a merging of the work and languages of the different scientists of the day. It could be said that a kind of linguistic natural selection took place as many new words were suggested to explain the emerging ideas, some of which died out and were never accepted into general use, and some—like Bateson’s genetics—which persisted and became commonplace. Without Bateson, perhaps we would speak of ‘de Vriesian genetics’, perhaps Mendel and the words he introduced would be forgotten, or perhaps someone else would have discovered and championed them. It seems clear, however, that no single thinker in this period was dominant; each participated and contributed to the wider understanding of the field. It is certain that without the language introduced by these remarkable men in this remarkable period, their ideas, which were to launch genetics on its way into the next century, could not have been explained.
Where next with the OED Online?
- As well as genetics, the OED Online includes more than 500 entries for which the first evidence dates from 1905. Of these, nearly 250 are associated with scientific topics, including decompression, radiotherapist, and smog.
- Browsing by the Timelines option, you can also trace the development of language relating to biological science over the last 1000 years, or refine a search to words relating to (among others) animal or plant science, ecology or cell biology.
How do I search for this? With subscriber access, use Advanced search to find words by subject (here, science) by single year or date range. Results may be displayed alphabetically, by date, or as a timeline. The development of the language of particular subject areas (for example, science/biology/ecology) may also be traced using the Timelines option.
About the OED
The opinions and other information contained in the OED blog posts and comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press. | https://public.oed.com/blog/genes-and-genetics-the-language-of-scientific-discovery/ |
Jean R. David (1931-2021)
Jean David, research director at CNRS, passed away on June 19, 2021 at the age of 90.
Jean was one of the last active members of this generation of French researchers who made Drosophila melanogaster a model of evolutionary genetics in the 1970s / 1980s. He has thus contributed to providing a unique opportunity to extend the knowledge accumulated on the genetics and development of this species to the study of the mechanisms of adaptation and speciation.
Jean was recruited as an assistant teacher of zoology at the University of Lyon in the early 1950s. He did his PhD under the supervision of Victor Nigon on the effects of the nutrition on phenotypic variability in D. melanogaster. After a short postdoc in Scotland, Jean became professor of biology in Lyon, where he founded the “Experimental Entomology and Genetics” group (which then joined UMR5558). In the early 1970s, he collaborated with several researchers from Gif-sur-Yvette and the National Museum of Natural History of Paris on the study of the Afrotropical fauna of the Drosophilidae.
Following the death of Charles Bocquet in 1977, then director of the “Biology and Evolutionary Genetics” laboratory at Gif-sur-Yvette (now UMR9191), Jean resigned from the University of Lyon and became the directorship of this lab from 1978 to 1992. It was during this period that the laboratory became an internationally renowned “center of excellence” in Drosophila evolutionary genetics. Jean retired in 1996 but continued working in Gif-sur-Yvette as an emeritus researcher until in October 2020, when illness prevented him from pursuing his often-pioneering experiments on his large Drosophila collection.
Throughout his scientific career which lasted almost 70 years, Jean has published more than 400 articles mostly on Drosophila, dealing with subjects as diverse as systematics, biogeography, ecophysiology, morphometry, phenotypic plasticity, genetics, behavior, reproductive isolation and more recently evo-devo and genomics.
Jean has traveled the world to study Drosophila. He celebrated his 80th birthday aboard the Marion Dufresnes during an exploration of the Eparses Islands and he carried out his last field mission, at the age of 87, on the island of Grande Comore.
Unparalleled naturalist and entomologist, exceptional experimenter, rigorous and uncompromising scientist, Jean was able to transmit his enthusiasm to his students and supervised numerous theses. Several of his students have pursued successful scientific careers in France and abroad. He was also internationally recognized, whether in the United States or Europe, but also in Africa, India and Brazil, where he still visited regularly. His former students and colleagues, proud to have worked with him, will not forget what they owe him and deeply regret this great scientist who was their friend. They join together to express their deep sadness and to show their sympathy to his family and loved ones. | http://www.egce.cnrs-gif.fr/?p=13551 |
Thomas Hunt Morgan was a great scientist, research was seen as the fundamental pillar for understanding genetics as we understand it today, along with Gregor Mendel.
This American was an evolutionary biologist, embryologist, geneticist and author of several books who had the honor of receiving a Nobel Prize for his active scientific career. Let’s take a closer look at his story through this one brief biography of Thomas Hunt Morgan.
Biography of Thomas Hunt Morgan
Below, we’ll take an in-depth look at the life of Thomas Hunt Morgan, his relationship with various American institutions, and his position on the great evolutionary ideas of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Early years and training
Thomas Hunt Morgan was born September 25, 1866 in Lexington, Kentucky. At the age of sixteen, he attended Kentucky State College, now this State University. In this center, he focused mainly on science, in particular natural history. During his vacation in the summer he devoted himself to working for the US Geological Survey.
One graduated in 1886 with the title of Bachelor of Science. Next summer attended school of marine biology in Annisquam, Massachusetts, where he became interested in zoology at Johns Hopkins University..
After two years of working and publishing several publications, Morgan was elected to an MSc at Kentucky State College in 1888. The same institution offered Morgan a professorship, although he ultimately chose to follow John. Hopkins.
This is when completed his thesis on the embryology of spider crabs (Pycnogonida), in order to determine their phylogenetic relationship with other arthropods. Based on their embryonic development, he established that they were more related to land spiders than to crustaceans. His publication received a doctorate in 1890. With the money he won as a prize for the publication of the thesis, Morgan took the opportunity to travel the Caribbean and Europe to continue his research in zoology.
Professional career and research
In 1890, Thomas H. Morgan he was hired as a teacher in charge of morphology lessons at Bryn Mawr school, An institution twinned with Johns Hopkins University.
His professional life at the institution was very intense. He lectured five days a week, twice a day, mainly focusing on biology in general terms. However, despite being a good teacher, he wanted to focus on research.
Stay in europe
In 1894, he went to Naples to carry out research in the laboratories of the Stazione Zoologica in the city. There he completed a study of the embryology of ctenophores, an almost microscopic way of life.
Being in Naples he had contact with German researchers, who taught him the ideas of the Entwicklungsmechanik school. or development mechanics. This school was reactionary to the ideas of Naturphilosophy, which until then had been the benchmark in the science of morphology in the 19th century.
At that time, there was a lot of debate about the formation of embryos. One of the most popular explanations was the mosaic theory, Which argued that the hereditary material was divided between embryonic cells, which were predestined to become specific parts of the body when mature.
Others, being the case with Morgan at the time, believed that development was due to epigenetic factors, where interactions between the protoplasm and the nucleus of embryonic cells affected their development.
When Morgan returned to Bryn Mawr in 1895, he was hired as a full-time teacher. There he addressed in his research aspects such as larval development and regeneration. It was also around this time that he wrote his first book, The Development of the Frog’s Egg (1897).
From the 20th century, Morgan started researching sex determination, A time when Nettie Stevens, another great researcher, discovered the impact of the Y chromosome in determining male sex in humans.
Columbia university
In 1904, Morgan was invited by EB Wilson to join Columbia University, Where he could do his research full time. A year earlier he had written Evolution and Adaptation, in which he explained that, like other biologists of the time, he had found evidence for the biological evolution of species, but not in favor of the mechanism of natural selection. . Nevertheless, years later, after the rediscoveries of the discoveries made by Gregor Mendel, Morgan will change position.
Although at first he was skeptical of Mendelian laws, given that it was given considerable importance as a theory to explain Charles Darwin’s postulates, Morgan understood that they had a great deal of meaning and evidence. behind them.
Studies with the fruit fly
In 1908 Morgan started working with the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). Mutation, through the use of chemicals, physics and radiation, to specimens of this common fly.
He started crossing specimens to find hereditary mutations, but at first he didn’t get any significant results. In addition, he was having trouble detecting which mutations were actually hereditary. later, when he detected the mutations, he saw that they followed the laws proposed by Mendel.
Morgan found a white-eyed male fly that stood out among its red-eyed fellows. When white-eyed flies joined with red flies, their offspring had red eyes. However, when the second generation was crossed, that is, the girl flies, among them white-eyed flies appeared.
Based on his research on flies, he published an article in 1911 in which he explained that certain traits were inherited in a sex-related way and that the particular trait was likely to be stored on one of the chromosomes. sexual.
Based on this research, Morgan published in 1915, with other prestigious scientists of the time, the book The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity, Which is considered the fundamental book for understanding genetics. After studying with the insect, Morgan returned to the field of embryology, in addition to addressing the heritability of genes in other species.
In 1915, he criticized a new movement stemming from science, eugenics, especially when it advocated racist ideas.
last years
Several years later, in 1928, Thomas Hunt Morgan moved to California to take over the biology section of the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH). the research in embryology, biophysics, biochemistry, genetics, evolution and physiology. He worked at CALTECH until 1942, when he retired and became professor emeritus. However, even in retirement, he would devote himself to further research on sexual differentiation, regeneration and embryology.
Finally, Thomas Hunt Morgan died on December 4, 1945 at the age of 79 from a heart attack.
Evolutionary posture
Morgan was interested in evolution throughout his life. As a young man, he wrote his famous thesis on the phylogeny of spider crabs, as well as up to four books in which he explained his position on Darwinian and Lamarckian evolutionary ideas.
In his book Evolution and Adaptation (1903), he criticizes the postulates of Charles Darwin. According to Morgan, selection could never produce a completely new species just by acting on the differences between simply perceptible individuals.. He also rejected the idea of acquired characters postulated by neo-Lamarckism.
Needless to say, Morgan was not a contrarian scientist. In fact, the years between 1875 and 1925 are known as the “ eclipse of Darwinism ”, as the scientific advances of the time, together with changes in postures in the natural sciences, they made the headlines of Darwin’s original ideas.
However, after his studies with Drosophila melanogaster, Morgan changed his position. Mutations matter for evolution, Since it is these inherited traits that significantly affect the anatomical and behavioral changes of the species. These characters are inherited according to, on several occasions, the laws proposed by Mendel.
honors
Among the distinctions obtained by Thomas Hunt Morgan, we find the following:
- Thomas Hunt Morgan received several accolades during his lifetime, the most notable being:
- Doctorate from the University of Kentucky.
- Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (1909).
- Elected member of the Royal British Society (1919).
- He received the Darwin Medal (1924).
- He received the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology (1933).
In addition, several institutions were founded under his name, such as the Thomas Hunt Morgan School of Biological Sciences at the University of Kentucky. In addition, the American Society of Genetics annually awards the Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal to members of the institution who have contributed to this field.
Bibliographical references:
- Allen, GE (1978). Thomas Hunt Morgan: man and his science. Princeton University Press.
- Allen, GE (2000). “Morgan, Thomas Hunt. American national biography. Oxford University Press.
- Kohler, RE (1994). Lords of the Fly: Drosophila Genetics and Experimental Life. University of Chicago Press. | https://psychologysays.net/biography/thomas-hunt-morgan-biography-of-this-researcher/ |
Mary-Dell Chilton, PhD, who did pioneering work on plant genetics during the 1970s and early 1980s while on the biology faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, is one of three recipients of the 2013 World Food Prize, an honor often described as the “Nobel Prize of Biotechnology.”
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry presided over a ceremony June 19 where Chilton and the two other laureates, Robert T. Fraley, PhD, chief technology officer at St. Louis-based Monsanto, and Marc Van Montagu, PhD, of Belgium, were named the 2013 laureates of the prestigious World Food Prize.
The prize is the foremost international award recognizing individuals who have enhanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.
The three researchers were recognized for “revolutionary biotechnology discoveries that unlocked the key to plant cell transformation.”
While on Washington University’s faculty, Chilton led a collaborative research study that produced the first transgenic plants. This pioneering work led directly to the field of genetic engineering of foods and plants.
Chilton’s groundbreaking molecular research showed how a plant bacterium could be adapted as a tool to insert genes from another organism into plant cells, which could produce crop varieties with new innovative traits.
Chilton currently is a distinguished science fellow and principal scientist II at Syngenta Biotechnology Inc., located in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Syngenta supplies crop protection and seed products and develops all of its genetically modified (GM) crop seeds. Her contributions to the biotech company are such that her portrait hangs prominently within the administrative and conference center that bears her name.
In 1996, as a direct consequence of her research, Ciba-Geigy — now Syngenta — became the first company to commercialize a GM trait in corn. By 2012, transgenic crops were being grown on more than 170 million hectares by more than 17 million farmers.
Chilton has served in a number of key roles at Syngenta since leaving WUSTL in 1983 as associate professor of biology in Arts & Sciences.
Before joining the WUSTL faculty in 1979, Chilton worked as a postdoctoral researcher and research faculty member at the University of Washington. She earned undergraduate (with highest distinction) and graduate degrees in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
While at the University of Washington, Chilton led a team from three departments in a study of how a bacterium can cause tumors (gall) to grow on plants. They found that the bacterium carried tumor-inducing genes that it specifically transferred into the plant cell, making them grow rapidly. Chilton recalls the irony of giving cancer to tobacco plants, which were the white rats of the plant kingdom.
At Washington University, her group studied how this worked and found a way to “disarm” the tumor-inducing genes and get the bacteria to insert genes for crop improvement. In a collaboration with Andrew Binns, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania, Chilton’s team produced the first transgenic plant and showed that it passed the new trait to its progeny.
In 2002, Chilton joined the list of such scientific luminaries as Thomas Edison and Marie Curie as the recipient of The Franklin Institute’s Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Sciences. Other major honors include being inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 1985 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993.
In 2009, Washington University named biology Professor Barbara A. Schaal as the inaugural recipient of an endowed faculty professorship, the Mary-Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor in biology in Arts & Sciences. Today, Schaal is also dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences.
Speaking at the March 9, 2009, installation ceremony, Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton noted that the professorship honors two of Washington University’s pioneering women biologists.
“This is a proud moment in Washington University’s history,” Wrighton said. “While conducting research in the biology department in the late 1970s, Mary-Dell Chilton, PhD, made an astonishing discovery that led to the emergence of the new scientific field of plant genetic engineering. This discovery revolutionized plant science and gave plant geneticists who followed, such as Barbara Schaal, the ability to translate that knowledge into improving the world’s food crops.”
Schaal’s research, which has been published in more than 150 scholarly journals, involves studying the evolutionary genetics of plants, with the goal of applying that research to enrich plants such as the cassava, which serves as a major food source for sub-Saharan African populations.
Schaal’s team studies the use of DNA sequences to understand evolutionary processes such as gene flow, geographical differentiation and the domestication of crop species. | https://source.wustl.edu/2013/06/marydell-chilton-earns-world-food-prize-for-pioneering-plant-genetics-research-at-wustl/ |
The more-than-century-long challenge has involved a secret of the Heliconius butterfly, the orange, black, yellow, and red insect that hasn't easily communicated how all its radiant colors came to be.
For evolutionary biologists, and especially geneticists like Counterman, the butterflies--commonly called passion vine butterflies--make perfect research subjects for better understanding the important scientific question: How do organisms change to survive?
Over the past decade, the researcher in the university's biological sciences department has been part of an international team using field experiments, genetic mapping, population genetics, and phylogenetics to study the butterflies' biology and history.
A Duke University doctoral graduate in biology and evolutionary genetics, Counterman studied genetics of adaptation as part of his post-doctoral research at North Carolina State University. He joined the MSU faculty in 2009.
Passion vine butterflies are found throughout South and Central America. Through the years, scientists observed that Heliconius butterflies with certain red patterns survived in certain areas, while others didn't.
"There are very few cases that we know what traits determine if an organism will survive in nature," Counterman said, adding that he and a team of researchers recently uncovered the gene responsible for the different red wing patterns.
Their finds were featured in the July issue of Science magazine.
Counterman said the butterflies use red as a warning signal to birds and other predators that they are poisonous and should not be consumed.
"This is one of the first examples where we've found the genetic change that allowed (an organism) to live or die in nature," he observed, adding that finding the red gene was just the first step in understanding how they have survived.
Counterman and his team further analyzed the red gene to reconstruct when the different red patterns evolved, providing important clues into how rapidly new adaptations can arise and spread in populations that nearly encompass entire continents.
This research was showcased on the cover in a December issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.
For scientists like Counterman, finding answers to these questions may give insight about how and why the diversity in the world evolved. And, there is still more to come.
Counterman now is part of a team sequencing the entire Heliconius genome--one of the first butterfly genomes--that should open the door to a new level of questioning into the biological causes for one of the most charismatic groups of organisms on earth.
While these studies involve one of nature's most delicate and enchanting creatures, they are part of a larger, serious inquiry that most humans consider at some point in their lives:
"How did the world get to where it is?" Counterman said recently, discussing his fascination with genetics and biology.
Robbie Ward | Newswise Science News
Further information:
http://www.msstate.edu
Further reports about: > Age-Old > Geneticist > Heliconius > Question > evolutionary biologist
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# Vaterite
Vaterite is a mineral, a polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It was named after the German mineralogist Heinrich Vater. It is also known as mu-calcium carbonate (μ-CaCO3). Vaterite belongs to the hexagonal crystal system, whereas calcite is trigonal and aragonite is orthorhombic.
Vaterite, like aragonite, is a metastable phase of calcium carbonate at ambient conditions at the surface of the earth. As it is less stable than either calcite or aragonite, vaterite has a higher solubility than either of these phases. Therefore, once vaterite is exposed to water, it converts to calcite (at low temperature) or aragonite (at high temperature: ~60 °C). At 37 °C for example a solution-mediated transition from vaterite to calcite occurs, where the vaterite dissolves and subsequently precipitates as calcite assisted by an Ostwald ripening process.
However, vaterite does occur naturally in mineral springs, organic tissue, gallstones, urinary calculi and plants. In those circumstances, some impurities (metal ions or organic matter) may stabilize the vaterite and prevent its transformation into calcite or aragonite. Vaterite is usually colorless.
Vaterite can be produced as the first mineral deposits repairing natural or experimentally-induced shell damage in some aragonite-shelled mollusks (e.g. gastropods). Subsequent shell deposition occurs as aragonite. In 2018, vaterite was identified as a constituent of a deposit formed on the leaves of Saxifraga at Cambridge University Botanic Garden.
Vaterite has a JCPDS number of 13-192. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaterite |
BLACKSBURG, Va., Dec. 11, 2007 – Laura Hamm of Raleigh, N.C., a Ph.D. student in the Department of Geosciences in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRP), one of only four such fellowships awarded in geochemistry across the United States this year.
Her research is focused on a better understanding of biomineralization — the processes by which organisms direct the formation of minerals into skeletal structures with exquisite form and function.
Hamm said she has always been fascinated by how organisms form complex minerals. Seashells are an example of biomineralization that demonstrate the myriad forms that can be achieved from the same material, calcium carbonate. She is studying the mechanisms by which such structures are formed.
“In nature, we see that proteins make up a large part of the organic matrix responsible for directing mineralization. We are using the atomic force microscope (AFM) to look at how these biomolecules are influencing mineral nucleation and growth,” said Hamm, who is part of Geoscience Professor Patricia Dove’s group.
“The AFM allows us to zoom in on a calcium carbonate surface at one specific growth site. We watch how the site grows and measure the energies and speed of mineral formation,” Hamm said.
Using this approach, Hamm is able to vary the solution and protein chemistry that the crystal sees during growth and observe the effects. As calcium and carbonate ions flow over the surface, some ions are pulled onto the surface to develop the structure. “The focus of my study is discovering how peptides affect the process of removing ions from the solution to form the mineral and modify the shape that develops,” Hamm said.
By gaining this understanding, she will then direct her attention to studying how organisms make skeletons of different calcium carbonate polymorphs, which are mineral phases differing in their structures and stabilities. The question of how biomolecules influence the growth environment within the tissues of an organism to determine polymorph selection is a new area of research.
Hamm’s interests in understanding fundamental processes of mineralization is another example of how research in geosciences is a naturally interdisciplinary endeavor that requires expertise in chemistry, biology, and physics across the College of Science. Her findings will have potential applications in many fields, such as working at the nanoscale to create new materials, and deciphering the global climate record from skeletal deposits left by marine life over millions of years.
The NSF GRP is designed to provide opportunities for advanced education that prepares students for a broad range of disciplinary and cross-disciplinary careers. “The fellowship is providing the resources for me to start my research career,” said Hamm. She is also engaged in outreach, visiting elementary schools as part of Dove’s group and providing instruction in the use of the AFM and on how nanoscience applies to geosciences for middle school and high school students visiting Virginia Tech under the auspices of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth.
Hamm received her undergraduate degree in environmental chemistry from Appalachian State University. In addition to her enthusiasm for science, she is an avid runner and mountain biker.
PHOTO CAPTION: Virginia Tech geosciences Ph.D. student Laura Hamm looks at images from the atomic force microscope (AFM) that show the topography of the calcite surface being scanned. | https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/59200/2007-727.html?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |
dolomite Formation Structure Properties Uses and Facts ...
Along with calcite and aragonite dolomite makes up approximately 2 percent of ... the carbonate fraction of which is dominated by the mineral dolomite calcium ...
DOLOMITE Calcium Magnesium Carbonate - The Mineral ...
Dolomite which is named for the French mineralogist Deodat de Dolomieu is a common sedimentary rock-forming mineral that can be found in massive beds ...
DOLOMITIC LIMESTONE
Material Safety Data Sheet. Material Name: DOLOMITIC LIMESTONE ... Product Use: Mineral Additive. Synonyms: DF 1000 DF ... Percent wt/wt . 16389-88-1.
Respiratory disorders associated with heavy inhalation ...
30 Sep 2012 ... 1 Dolomite calcium magnesium carbonate with the chemical ... rock or dolostone is mainly composed of the mineral dolomite 1 - 4 . ... The largest volumes as percentage predicted lung function were selected for analysis ...
Dolomite – A Useful Mineral – IspatGuru
28 Jun 2017 ... However in nature dolomite is not available in the above exact proportion. The generally accepted custom today is to say that a true dolomite ...
Thermodynamic Modelling of Dolomite Behavior in Aqueous ...
Minerals with greater defect densities dissolve faster since their effective ... The rate of surface-controlled dolomite dissolution is significantly less than one of ...
DOLOMITE: Overview Uses Side Effects Precautions ...
Dolomite is a type of limestone. It is rich in magnesium and calcium carbonate. It also has smaller amounts of several other minerals. People take dolomite as a ...
Dolomite: Mineral information data and localities. - Mindat.org
Chemical AnalysisHide · Oxide wt%:. 1. MgO 46.97 %. CaO 50.95 %. SiO 0.64 %. FeO 1.12 %. Total: · Sample references: ID Locality Reference Notes. 1 ...
Dolomite - Sandatlas
It is similar to the most common carbonate mineral calcite. These two share ... Carbonate rock is dolostone if at least 50 percent of it is dolomite. This rock type is ...
Dolomite - an overview ScienceDirect Topics
The reforming reaction of tar on dolomite surface occurs at a higher rate with ... natural dolomite and limestone are not pure phases but rather minerals from the ...
Dolomite and dolomitization model- a short review ...
18 Sep 2018 ... Dolomite is not a simple mineral; it can have a variety of origin can ... Mg/Ca proportion of pore water to enhance the formation of dolomite.
Dolomite - Indian Bureau of Mines
grouped under flux and construction minerals and ... dolomite have been placed at 8415 million tonnes ... High purity dolomite with less than one percent.
High-Purity Calcite and Dolomite Resources of Ontario
appli ions such as mineral fillers. Although calcite and dolomite bearing carbonate rocks are common in the province deposits that contain a high percentage ...
Dolomite Value Price and Jewelry Information - International ...
Dolostone. The dolomite crystals and rare faceted gems of interest to most collectors belong to the mineral series discussed above. However the name is also ...
Handbook on limestone and dolomite for Illinois quarry ...
carbonate which occurs as the mineral calcite or of calcium and magnesium ... limestone would be 100 percent calcium carbonate and pure dolomite 100.
Dolomite Minerals Edu ion Coalition
Dolomite is a calcium magnesium carbonate mineral which has many ... which most building stone and a significant percentage of crushed stone are produced.
Acceleration of dolomitization by zinc in saline waters Nature ...
23 Apr 2019 ... The % dol refers to the percentage of proto dolomite as calculated ... as well as the relative mineral abundance for the reaction products in the ...
HIGH-CALCIUM LIMESTONE AND DOLOMITE IN INDIANA ...
noncarbonate minerals. In some industries such as the lime indus try limestone is a general term that refers to rocks which contain at least. 80 percent calcium ...
Ideal Method for Determining Purity in Dolomite - METTLER ...
Dolomite is a carbonate mineral consisting of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg CO3 2 . The terms dolomite rock and dolostone are used interchangeably ...
QUANTITATIVE MANOMETRIC DETERMINATION OF ...
or magnesium minerals. Differential staining of these minerals in thin section often is unsatisfactory 8 . The difference in rate of solution of calcite and dolomite ...
Dolomite – Virtual Museum of Molecules and Minerals
Dolomite is a calcium/magnesium carbonate mineral. ... Most dolomite samples contain only a few percent of substitution of calcium for magnesium and vice ...
Dolomite rock - Wikipedia
Dolomite is a sedimentary carbonate rock that contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite CaMg CO3 2. In old USGS publi ions it was referred to as ...
Missouri Limestone - Missouri Department of Natural Resources
Mineral and Chemical Composition: The minerals calcite and dolomite are the ... of limestone is a sedimentary rock consisting of 80 percent calcite and dolomite ...
The Origin of Dolomite
OCCURRENCE. Dolomite frequently occurs as a gangue mineral in ore de- ... needed however before'the percentage of magnesium-carbonate in the residual.
GRAS notice 806 for Dolomite - FDA
3 Aug 2018 ... The purified water passes through the filter at room temperature and solubilizes some mineral salts the flow rate is controlled to reach the desired ...
Determination of calcite dolomite quartz and clay content of ...
The need for quantitative analysis of the major mineral constituents in carbonate ... percent of the carbonate fraction that is calcite and dolomite by measuring the ...
Dolomite - Digitalfire
Although calcium carbonate and dolomite are plentiful minerals and grinding ... a mix of materials having the maximum possible Ravenscrag Slip percentage.
Dissolution profile of dolomite in chloric acid solution - AIP ...
Abstract. Dolomite is one of carbonate minerals that contain magnesium. ... MgCO3. The weight percent of CaCO3 and MgCO3 are 37.2 and 54 % respectively.
High-purity dolomite deposits of south-central New Mexico
Most of the high-purity dolomites are 98 percent or more soluble in hydrochloric acid. The mineral dolomite although a member of the calcite isomorphous group ...
Dolomites and dolomitization SpringerLink
The mineral dolomite is widely distributed in the Earth's crust especially in ... Protodolomite has about 55 percent to 60 percent Ca and is partly to completely ...
Dolomite Mineral Data
Weinrich Minerals A Dealer in Fine Mineral Specimens - Since 1989. We buy collections. General Dolomite Information. Help on Chemical Formula: Chemical ...
Dolomite - New World Encyclopedia
Dolomite is the name for a mineral composed of calcium magnesium ... Dolomite accounts for about ten percent of all sedimentary rock including much that ...
Energy Storage in Earth-Abundant Dolomite Minerals
24 Sep 2020 ... Abstract: Dolomite a calcium magnesium mineral CaMg CO3 2 ... contains dolomite CaMg CO3 2 phase in a high percentage. Particle size ...
Dolomite Perspectives on a Perplexing Mineral - Schlumberger
The limestones tend to be more porous at shallower depths. Below 5600 ft. 1700 m however the rate of porosity decline actually slows for dolomites blue as ...
Dolostone Limestone - Arkansas Geological Survey
Pure dolomite contains 54.28 percent calcium carbonate and 45.72 percent magnesium carbonate. Dolostone is commonly referred to by its mineral name ...
Carbon Dioxide Sequestration in Dolomite Rock IPTC ...
15 Nov 2011 ... CO2 will react with formation rock when injected in dolomite formations ... calcite mineral CaCO3 and anhydrite from the remaining percent ...
Dolomite Mineral - an overview ScienceDirect Topics
Mineral dolomite is a two salt of Ca-carbonate and Mg-carbonate with a ... The proportion of dolomite relative to limestone increases markedly backward in ...
Limestone Shell Dolomite Florida Department of ...
8 Jun 2020 ... Reclamation standards for limestone shell and dolomite mining are ... by a greater proportion of magnesium in the mineral composition.
Dolomite mineral - Wikipedia
Small amounts of iron in the structure give the crystals a yellow to brown tint. Manganese substitutes in the structure also up to about three percent MnO. A high ...
Dolomite - Indian Bureau of Mines
construction minerals and is important for iron and steel and ... In India dolomite mines are generally worked ... percent insolubles is preferred for making refractory ...
Calcite-Dolomite Mapping to Assess Dolomitization Patterns ...
contents with five different weight percentage of calcite contents. The diagnostic ... Spectral Features of Carbonate Minerals in the SWIR and. TIR Band. 11.
Dolomite - CaMg CO3 2 Latest Price Manufacturers and Suppliers
Find here Dolomite CaMg CO3 2 manufacturers suppliers and exporters in India. Get contact ... Dolomite Mineral Packaging Type: PacketAsk Price. State: Solid.
Rocks and Minerals Guide.pdf
However over 98 percent of ... percentage of all rocks and minerals. ROCKS MINERALS ... DOLOMITE The mineral dolomite has many similarities to calcite but.
Uses of limestone and dolomite - CORE
rocks composed principally of the mineral dolomite calcium magnesium ... limestone containing 95 percent or more calcium carbonate is recommended 48 .
Rock Composition Dolomite Stoichiometry and ... - JSTOR
Values of percentage of dolomite also exhibit a pronounced albeit less well-defined bimodal distribution with modes ... acteristic of the mineral dolomite e.g..
Dolomite - BASE-LINE Earth
Dolomite CaMg CO3 2 is one of the most abundant carbonate minerals in the ... knowledge of the conditions under which the mineral forms and the rate of ...
Classifi ion of limestones and dolomites by calcite-dolomite ...
Download scientific diagram Classifi ion of limestones and dolomites by calcite-dolomite mineral percentage MgO% and stainability/colour density ...
Dedolomitization and reservoir quality - Wiley Online Library
to determine the role of calcium-bearing minerals in dedo- lomitization. Results are presented as contour plots of dolomite or calcite and porosity percentages at ...
Dolomites as SO2 Sorbents in Fluid Combustion ... - MDPI
13 Oct 2020 ... the mineral as an industrial dolomite are documented as dolomite or ... Explanations: xCa xCp xSp xCb xSb —percentages of calcium in ...
Limestone and Dolomite : Geologists and Percentage ...
and 3 percentage of net income. Exhibit 31 of the Parker Report provided the historical basis for depletion in the metal-mining industries by showing that the.
Dolomite Mineral Uses and Properties - Geology.com
What is Dolomite? Dolomite is a common rock-forming mineral. It is a calcium magnesium carbonate with a chemical composition of CaMg CO3 ... | https://www.katarzyna-na-walizkach.pl/cjq1/3280-mineral-dolomite-percentage.html |
What metal compound comes from the metal ore calcite? Asked by Wiki User. See Answer. Top Answer. Wiki User Answered 2015-08-25 16:28:02. Calcite is calcium carbonate - CaCO3. 0 0 1.Get Price
What metal compound comes from the metal ore calcite? Asked by Wiki User. See Answer. Top Answer. Wiki User Answered 2015-08-25 16:28:02. Calcite is calcium carbonate - CaCO3. 0 0 1.
Sep 10, 2010 What metal compound comes from the metal ore calcite? Calcite is calcium carbonate - CaCO3. Is Calcite a non silicate material? Calcite is non-silicate, containing no silicon elements.
Sep 26, 2016 Occurs with calcite, galena. The dark red silver ore is a sulphide of silver and antimony ; the light red contains arsenic in the place of antimony. The ores of silver occur in veins traversing granitic and gneissic rocks, clay slate, mica schist, limestone, and are usually associated with the ores of iron, copper, load (galena being always ...
Oct 04, 2016 Vein Mineral Deposits includes a considerable variety of ore deposits formed under various conditions by the concentration of the ore from the molten rock in process of cooling, and its subsequent deposition in fissures and joints, crevices, and pores; or the accompanying solvents make room for the ore by dissolving the rock and carrying it away.
Jul 12, 2017 A rich sulfide ore deposit containing economic concentrations of nickel and other metals has been discovered near the Huron Mountains in northern Michigan. How it got there : Nickel deposits are typically associated with copper- and iron-sulfide minerals that form in large masses of magnesium- and iron-rich molten rocks that rise through the ...
Related Topics . Material Properties - Material properties for gases, fluids and solids - densities, specific heats, viscosities and more ; Related Documents . Concrete Mixtures - Cement, sand and gravel mixtures; Density of Selected Solids - Density of selected solids; Density, Specific Weight and Specific Gravity - An introduction to density, specific gravity and specific weight - formulas ...
The vanadium, titanium, and aluminum ore (bauxite) deposits are all related to the presence of the previously mentioned igneous rock bodies, whereas the other metals, with the exception of manganese, are tied to hydrothermal solutions and the deposition of quartz. The manganese deposits are more related to weathering than any of the other metals.
Chalcopyrite has a golden yellow color, which often resembles Gold.However, its physical properties such as streak and tenacity are very different from Gold and can easily distinguish it. Chalcopyrite is a beautiful mineral, with good crystals being fairly common.
Silver is one of the most famous precious metals, and has been used for ornamental purposes since the earliest of times. Most silver is extracted from silver ores, but considerable amounts are mined from Native Silver. Silver can be found pure, but is usually mixed with small amounts of gold, arsenic, and antimony.A natural alloy of gold and silver is known as Electrum, and is usually ...
Play this game to review Metals. What is an ore? Preview this quiz on Quizizz. What is an ore? Extraction of metals DRAFT. 8th - 10th grade. 243 times. Chemistry. 60% average accuracy. 8 months ago. angelatoh. 0. Save. ... Calcium Carbonate. Tags: Question 20 . SURVEY . 60 seconds . Q. haematite is the name for. answer choices . Zinc Oxide ...
Prediction of ore fluid metal concentrations from solid solution concentrations in ore-stage calcite: Application to the Illinois-Kentucky and Central Tennessee Mississippi Valley-type districts
Calcite over Dolomite: from P.J. Keating Company Essex Bituminous Quarry, Dracut, Middlesex County, Massachusetts Calcite over Pyrite from Road cut, Shelburne Falls, Franklin County, Massachusetts Chalcopyrite, Quartz, Malachite, Cuprite from Ondrick Quarry, …
A great many valuable ore minerals, such as native gold or silver or metal sulphides, are deposited along with gangue minerals, mainly quartz and/or calcite, in a vein structure. A vein system is a group of discrete veins with similar characteristics and usually related to the same structure.
Mining Machine | Calcium carbonate powder process line. Mining Machine. Talc silicate minerals crusher machines for sale .Heavy calcium carbonate (known as fly powder) it is to use mechanical method (using raymond grinding mill or other high-pressure grinding machine) direct crushing natural calcite, limestone, such as chalk, shells can be made.
Sep 10, 2010 What metal compound comes from the metal ore calcite? Calcite is calcium carbonate - CaCO3. Is Calcite a non silicate material? Calcite is non-silicate, containing no silicon elements.
Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3).The Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scratch hardness comparison, defines value 3 as calcite .. Other polymorphs of calcium carbonate are the minerals aragonite and vaterite.Aragonite will change to calcite over timescales of days or less at temperatures exceeding 300 C, and vaterite is even ...
May 25, 2019 Calcite—The most common carbonate mineral, ... Galena—A heavy, glittering mineral, principal ore of lead metal. Garnet Almandine—The true garnet-red garnet mineral. ... This collection of minerals includes metals, ores, and gems. Some of these -- gold, diamond, and beryl for example -- are among the most valuable and coveted minerals in ...
Apr 26, 2018 Ores are naturally occurring rocks that contain metal or metal compounds in sufficient amounts to make it worthwhile extracting them. For example, iron ore is used to make iron and steel. Here, we providing a List of some Important metals and their ores. it is mainly useful for your upcoming competitive exams like SSC, UPSC etc.
Jun 03, 2015 Calcite. Calcite is a mineral polymorph of calcium carbonate. It can be colorless, white, gray, yellow, or green. Calcite crystals have significance in some religious traditions. ... It is the main industrial ore of the metal vanadium and has a color ranging from colorless to bright red, orange-red, red-brown, brown, yellow, or gray.
Unlike ores these minerals are not limited only to metals. Many clay minerals like kaolinite or bentonite are used in construction industry, calcite is used in cement production, feldspar and quartz are major part of ceramics, zeolites are used in construction materials and chemical industry etc. Economically viable accumulations of these ...
- The double terminated scalenohedral calcite crystal is covered with a secondary layer of aligned low-angle rhombohedral calcite. This specimen was found in a road cut when a highway was widened. Fluorite, Smoky Quartz, Orthoclase & Chlorite – Sheehan Quarry, Graniteville, Iron County, Missouri - …
Some rocks made of only one mineral like Limestone made of calcite . ... Ore- A mineral occurring in sufficient quantity and containing enough metal to permit its recovery and extraction at a profit. Or, a mineral or an aggregate of minerals from which a valuable constituent, especially a metal, can be profitably mined or extracted is an ore.
Aug 13, 2007 Ore Crusher at Ruffner Mountain Nature CenterAlabama is home to a diverse and widespread variety of minerals, with more than 190 mineral species occurring in the state. These minerals have played a key role in the development of the state, beginning with the prehistoric period, when flint, mica, clay, and other rocks and minerals were used by Native Americans. The state's rich stores of …
Galena is the main ore of lead, used since ancient times.Because of its somewhat low melting point, it was easy to liberate by smelting.It typically forms in low-temperature sedimentary deposits. In some deposits the galena contains about 1–2% silver, a byproduct that far outweighs the main lead ore in revenue.In these deposits significant amounts of silver occur as included silver sulfide ... | https://dewdropsystems.in/July-22/1998/f6st.html |
Concrete degradation may have various causes. Concrete can be damaged by fire, aggregate expansion, sea water effects, bacterial corrosion, calcium leaching, physical damage and chemical damage (from carbonation, chlorides, sulfates and distilled water). This process adversely affects concrete exposed to these damaging stimuli.
Aggregate expansion
|Aggregate Expansion|
Typical crack pattern associated to the alkali-silica reaction affecting a concrete step barrier on an US motorway (photograph, courtesy of the Federal Highway Administration (US Department of Transportation).
Various types of aggregate undergo chemical reactions in concrete, leading to damaging expansive phenomena. The most common are those containing reactive silica, that can react (in the presence of water) with the alkalis in concrete (K2O and Na2O, coming principally from cement). Among the more reactive mineral components of some aggregates are opal, chalcedony, flint and strained quartz. Following the alkali-silica reaction (ASR), an expansive gel forms, that creates extensive cracks and damage on structural members. On the surface of concrete pavements the ASR can cause pop-outs, i.e. the expulsion of small cones (up to 3 cm about in diameter) in correspondence of aggregate particles. When some aggregates containing dolomite are used, a dedolomitization reaction occurs where the magnesium carbonate compound reacts with hydroxyl ions and yields magnesium hydroxide and a carbonate ion. The resulting expansion may cause destruction of the material. Far less common are pop-outs caused by the presence of pyrite, an iron sulfide that generates expansion by forming iron oxide and ettringite. Other reactions and recrystallizations, e.g. hydration of clay minerals in some aggregates, may lead to destructive expansion as well.
Corrosion of reinforcement bars
The expansion of the corrosion products (iron oxides) of carbon steel reinforcement structures may induce mechanical stress that can cause the formation of cracks and disrupt the concrete structure. If the rebars have been poorly installed and are located too close to the concrete surface in contact with the air, spalling can easily occur: flat fragments of concrete are detached from the concrete mass by the rebars corrosion and may fall down.
Chemical damage
Carbonation
|Carbonation|
Carbonation-initiated deterioration of concrete at Hippodrome Wellington, Belgium.Carbon dioxide from air can react with the calcium hydroxide in concrete to form calcium carbonate. This process is called carbonation, which is essentially the reversal of the chemical process of calcination of lime taking place in a cement kiln. Carbonation of concrete is a slow and continuous process progressing from the outer surface inward, but slows down with increasing diffusion depth. Carbonation has two effects: it increases mechanical strength of concrete, but it also decreases alkalinity, which is essential for corrosion prevention of the reinforcement steel. Below a pH of 10, the steel's thin layer of surface passivation dissolves and corrosion is promoted. For the latter reason, carbonation is an unwanted process in concrete chemistry. Carbonation can be tested by applying Phenolphthalein solution, a pH indicator, over a fresh fracture surface, which indicates non-carbonated and thus alkaline areas with a violet color.
Chlorides
|Chloride Attack on Concrete|
Chlorides, particularly calcium chloride, have been used to shorten the setting time of concrete. However, calcium chloride and (to a lesser extent) sodium chloride have been shown to leach calcium hydroxide and cause chemical changes in Portland cement, leading to loss of strength,as well as attacking the steel reinforcement present in most concrete.
Sulfates
Sulfates in solution in contact with concrete can cause chemical changes to the cement, which can cause significant microstructural effects leading to the weakening of the cement binder.
Leaching
When water flows through cracks present in concrete, water may dissolve various minerals present in the hardened cement paste or in the aggregates, if the solution is unsaturated with respect to them. Dissolved ions, such as calcium (Ca2+), are leached out and transported in solution on a some distance. If the physico-chemical conditions prevailing in the seeping water evolve with distance along the water path and water becomes supersaturated with respect to certain minerals, they can further precipitate, making deposits or efflorescences inside the cracks, or at the concrete outer surface. This process can cause the self-healing of fractures in particular conditions.
Decalcification
Distilled water can wash out calcium content in concrete, leaving the concrete in brittle condition. A common source of distilled water can be condensed steam. Distilled water leaches out the calcium better because undistilled water contains some calcium ions already, and does not dissolve them.
Sea water
|Sea Water Attack on Concrete|
Concrete exposed to seawater is susceptible to its corrosive effects. The effects are more pronounced above the tidal zone than where the concrete is permanently submerged. In the submerged zone, magnesium and hydrogen carbonate ions precipitate a layer of brucite, about 30 micrometers thick, on which a slower deposition of calcium carbonate as aragonite occurs. These layers somewhat protect the concrete from other processes, which include attack by magnesium, chloride and sulfate ions and carbonation. Above the water surface, mechanical damage may occur by erosion by waves themselves or sand and gravel they carry, and by crystallization of salts from water soaking into the concrete pores and then drying up. Pozzolanic cements and cements using more than 60% of slag as aggregate are more resistant to sea water than pure Portland cement. Sea water corrosion contains elements of both chloride and sulfate corrosion.
Bacterial corrosion
Bacteria themselves do not have noticeable effect on concrete. However, anaerobic bacteria (Thiobacillus) in untreated sewage tend to produce hydrogen sulfide, which is then oxidized by aerobic bacteria present in biofilm on the concrete surface above the water level to sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid dissolves the carbonates in the cured cement and causes strength loss, as well as producing sulfates which are harmful to concrete. Concrete floors lying on ground that contains pyrite (iron(II) sulfide) are also at risk. Using limestone as the aggregate makes the concrete more resistant to acids, and the sewage may be pretreated by ways increasing pH or oxidizing or precipitating the sulfides in order to inhibit the activity of sulfide utilizing bacteria.
Physical damage
|Physical Damage to Concrete|
Damage can occur during the casting and de-shuttering processes. For instance, the corners of beams can be damaged during the removal of shuttering because they are less effectively compacted by means of vibration (improved by using form-vibrators). Other physical damage can be caused by the use of steel shuttering without base plates. The steel shuttering pinches the top surface of a concrete slab due to the weight of the next slab being constructed.
Thermal damage
Due to its low thermal conductivity, a layer of concrete is frequently used for fireproofing of steel structures. However, concrete itself may be damaged by fire.
|Thermal Damage to Concrete|
Up to about 300 °C, the concrete undergoes normal thermal expansion. Above that temperature, shrinkage occurs due to water loss; however, the aggregate continues expanding, which causes internal stresses. Up to about 500 °C, the major structural changes are carbonation and coarsening of pores. At 573 °C, quartz undergoes rapid expansion due to Phase transition, and at 900 °C calcite starts shrinking due to decomposition. At 450-550 °C the cement hydrate decomposes, yielding calcium oxide. Calcium carbonate decomposes at about 600 °C. Rehydration of the calcium oxide on cooling of the structure causes expansion, which can cause damage to material which withstood fire without falling apart. Concrete in buildings that experienced a fire and were left standing for several years shows extensive degree of carbonation from carbon dioxide which is reabsorbed.
Concrete exposed to up to 100 °C is normally considered as healthy. The parts of a concrete structure that is exposed to temperatures above approximately 300 °C (dependent of water/cement ratio) will most likely get a pink color. Over approximately 600 °C the concrete will turn light grey, and over approximately 1000 °C it turns yellow-brown.One rule of thumb is to consider all pink colored concrete as damaged that should be removed.
Radiation damages
Exposure of concrete structures to neutrons and gamma radiations in nuclear power plants and high-flux material testing reactor can induce radiation damages in their concrete structures. Paramagnetic defects and optical centers are easily formed, but very high fluxes are necessary to displace a sufficiently high number of atoms in the crystal lattice of minerals present in concrete before significant mechanical damages are observed. | https://www.engineersdaily.com/2011/01/concrete-degradation.html |
jan 04, 2016 0. 150 m l of 0.1 n h c l is required to react with 1 g of a sample of limestone. calculate percentage purity of calcium carbonate. reaction c a c o x 3 2 h c l c a c l x 2 h x 2 o c o x 2. number of milli equivalence of h c l used initially is 15. number of milli moles of h c l.calcium carbonate limestone no 18,calcium carbonate, the chief component of limestone, is a widely used amendment to neutralize soil acidity and to supply calcium ca for plant nutrition. the term lime can refer to several products, but for agricultural use it generally refers to ground limestone. production limestone is a common sedimentary rock found in widespread ...
three step process stone preparation, calcination, and hydration. calcination is the process by which limestone, which is mostly calcium carbonate caco 3 is heated in a kiln to produce quick lime cao. carbon dioxide is a byproduct of this reaction and is usually emitted to the atmosphere..limestone amp caco3 al rabie group cairo egypt,the limestone used in this process must be pure and contain as little iron oxides as possible. paint industry. calcium carbonate powder enters the process of manufacturing paint as a filler to improve some of the natural properties of the coating such as thermal resistance, thermal conductivity and density, controlling viscosity, preventing ....chapter 5 characterisation of limestone and lime,5. characterisation of limestone and lime 5.1 limestone 5.1.1 composition the main component of limestone is calcium carbonate caco3, also known as calcite, which is formed by the compaction of the remains of coral animals and plants on the bottoms of oceans. it varies from a soft white substance chalk to a very hard substance marble.
limestone is rarely 100 pure due to impurities. salem limestone is considered chemically pureit is about 97 percent calcium carbonate. crystal healers consider limestone as a healing stone benefitting overall health and wellbeing. it gives relief for muscle spasms and activates the root chakra in the body..limestone rock uses formation composition pictures,limestone is a sedimentary rock composed primarily of calcite, a calcium carbonate mineral with a chemical composition of caco 3. it usually forms in clear, calm, warm, shallow marine waters. limestone is usually a biological sedimentary rock, forming from the accumulation of shell, coral, algal, fecal, and other organic debris.
limestone is an alkaline agent with the ability to neutralize, or partially neutralize strong acids. the neutralization process occurs when strong acids, in intimate contact with limestone chips, react with calcium carbonate caco 3, the primary constituent of limestone to form water, carbon dioxide, and calcium salts. the following depicts ....hubercal granulated calcium carbonate two,the hubercal granulated calcium carbonate product line-up is manufactured from natural limestone sources. at huber health amp nutrition, as a calcium carbonate supplier, quality is an important ingredient in all of our products. hubers pure calcium carbonate manufacturing facilities in modesto, california and quincy, illinois are certified to ....right to know hazardous substance fact sheet,common name calcium carbonate synonyms calcium salt of carbonic acid, chalk chemical name limestone date july 2015 cas number 1317-65-3 rtk substance number 4001 dot number na description and use emergency responders see last page calcium carbonate is a white to tan odorless powder or odorless crystals.
limestone readily reacts with hydrochloric acid and produces carbon dioxide co2 as a gas. by contrast, dolostone is less reactive and normally must be in powdered form to react visibly. pure dolomite contains 54.28 percent calcium carbonate and 45.72 percent magnesium carbonate. dolostone is commonly referred to by its mineral name, dolomite..what is lime mississippi lime,calcium oxide cao or quicklime can be classified as either high calcium or dolomitic. high calcium quicklime has typically 97 cao with magnesium oxide mgo levels less than 3. at mississippi lime, our high calcium oxide cao content is a result of our 98.5 pure calcium carbonate limestone.
calcium carbonate pharma ultra pure epu information this calcium carbonate powder comes in multiple sizes, with ultra high purity, and low traces or metals. consistent quality control of calcium carbonate is guaranteed using an automated process control from milling to final packaging..calcium carbonate imerys,precipitated calcium carbonate pcc is produced through a chemical reaction process that utilizes calcium oxide quicklime, water and carbon dioxide to produce very pure calcium carbonate crystals. through the reaction process, the crystals can be tailored to a variety of shapes and sizes to best fit a customers required performance..how do you make calcium carbonate from limestone,may 23, 2019 in the kiln, the calcium carbonate present in the limestone decomposes into calcium oxide cao is lime water a calcium carbonate limewater is the common name for a dilute aqueous solution of calcium hydroxide. calcium hydroxide, caoh2, is sparsely soluble at room temperature in water 1.5 gl at 25 c.
limestone means any rock formed mostly of calcium carbonate caco 3, but to geologists, limestone is only one of several types of carbonate rocks. these rocks are composed of more than 50 carbonate minerals, generally the minerals calcite pure caco 3 or dolomite calcium-magnesium carbonate, camgco 3 2 or both..to limestone to pure calcium carbonate process,calcium carbonate is the principal constituent of limestone a sedimentary rock and its pure state is obtained in three steps by the calcination of limestone and subsequent reaction with water and carbon dioxide. ca this is important when water is used for industrial process or cleaning purposes. get price.
lime burning process introduction the practice of burning limestone to produce quicklime is, almost literally, as old as the hills. in terms of basic chemistry and materials, the process involves the conversion of calcium carbonate, caco 3, to the more useful calcium oxide, cao. calcium oxide is a very reactive substance..limestone the master of marbles natural stone block,limestone is a sedimentary rock formed mostly of calcium carbonate. the stone can be formed by a hydrological process, dissolving calcium carbonate in carbon dioxide, or by a biological process, accumulating calcium carbonate through fossil sediments. most limestone is composed of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral and molluscs..experimental chemistry how to obtain calcium carbonate,purification depends on the source how impure it is to start with. it is generally difficult to separate magnesium carbonate from calcium carbonate, and given that limestone and aragonite as well as dolomite cecamgco32 are taken out of the ground i.e. are dirt cheap theres usually no need.
happens when limestone weathers, when limestone is dissolved to form caves, or when marble is dissolved by ore-bearing solutions in the waus of a fissure. the reverse of eq. 3-4 represents the precipitation of calcium carbonate in the sea, as a cementing material in sedimentary rocks, or where droplets evaporate at the tip of a stalactite..limestone and lime ispatguru,jul 07, 2017 limestone is the name given to any rock formed which consists mostly of calcium carbonate caco3, but to geologists, limestone is only one of several types of carbonate rocks. these rocks are composed of more than 50 carbonate minerals, generally containing the mineral calcite pure
jul 17, 2020 lime, or calcium oxide cao, is derived from high quality natural deposits of limestone, or calcium carbonate caco3. limestone is a sedimentary rock that formed millions of years ago as the result of the accumulation of shell, coral, algal, and other ocean debris. lime is produced when limestone is subjected to extreme heat, changing calcium ....calcium carbonate caco3 uses preparation properties,calcium carbonate formula. it is a chemical compound with the chemical formula caco 3. it is a white insoluble powder-like substance which occurs naturally in minerals, chalk, marble, limestone, calcite, shells, pearl, etc. medicinally, it is used as an antacid or as a calcium supplement..in layer diets limestone is not just calcium carbonate,sep 08, 2015 sep 08, 2015 as it stands, calcium carbonate in pure form or as limestone is used as a carrier for most premixed products drugs, vitamins, trace minerals, nutritional additives and even some concentrates. it is even added at the rate of 0.5 percent in soybean meal as a flow enhancer a fact largely unknown.
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Uranium occurs in two valence states, U4+ and U6+. Weathering of rocks converts uranium into the +6 state, in which state it forms the uranyl ion (UO2)2+. Uranyl compounds tend to be soluble in groundwater, whereas U4+ compounds are not. So long as the groundwater remains oxidizing, uranyl ions are stable and uranium can be transported by groundwater; however, when uranyl ions encounter a reducing agent such as organic matter, U4+ uranium is precipitated as uraninite and coffinite.
Because groundwater flowing through an aquifer and meeting a reducing zone will deposit a zone, or front, of uraninite, and because the front tends to move slowly forward through the aquifer, dissolving as the oxidizing groundwater moves in and precipitating at the front of the zone, deposits formed in this fashion are known as roll-front uranium deposits. Such deposits have been extensively mined in the western United States, notably in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Texas.
A second class of uranium-bearing groundwater deposits forms in dry land areas where evaporation of groundwater during summer months is an important process. Evaporation causes precipitation of dissolved solids, and the most abundant dissolved solid in dry land groundwater is calcium carbonate. When deposited, this mineral forms a hard, calcareous cement known as caliche. If uranium is present in the groundwater, uranium minerals such as carnotite will also be precipitated and thus form a uraniferous caliche deposit. Extensive deposits of this kind have been identified in the Namib Desert in southwestern Africa and in desert areas of Western Australia.
When either sea or lake waters evaporate, salts are precipitated. These salts include sodium chloride, potassium and magnesium chlorides, borax, and sodium carbonate. Such salts are important economically, but they are not used for the recovery of metals and thus do not warrant discussion here. One very important class of metallic mineral deposit, though, is also formed by precipitation from lake or seawater. This class of deposit comprises compounds of iron or manganese and is known as a chemical sediment, because the mineral constituents are transported in solution and then precipitated to form a sediment as a result of chemical reaction. | https://www.britannica.com/science/mineral-deposit/Roll-front-deposits |
Our high purity Calcium Carbonate combined with a range of particles to enhance the packing and rheology behavior of innovative cement based products Offering a new and sustainable mineral addition to support the growth of infrastructure development resulting in an enormous demand for cement and supplementary cementitious materials...
11 This specification applies to ground calcium carbonate GCC is a type of ground limestone and other finely divided aggregate mineral filler AMF materials for use in concrete mixtur The specification defines the types of GCC and AMF materials for use in concrete...
Feb 23 2019 0183 32 Once injected into the wet concrete mix the CO2 reacts with calcium ions from cement to form a nano-sized calcium carbonate mineral that becomes permanently embedded in the concrete...
The feasibility of calcium carbonate cements involving the recrystallisation of metastable calcium carbonate varieties has been demonstrated Calcium carbonate cement compositions presented in this paper can be prepared straightforwardly by simply mixing water liquid phase with two calcium carbonate phases solid phase which can be easily obtained by precipitation...
Jan 25 2019 0183 32 Calcium carbonate CaCO3 forms important minerals on Earth and is a model system for understanding crystal nucleation Three different structures of CaCO3 are known along with two structures that are hydrated Zou et al found a third hydrated CaCO3 structure formed from amorphous CaCO3 in the presence of magnesium ions The discovery illustrates the importance of amorphous...
In the construction industry Calcium Carbonate is used as a filler in concrete increasing its durability and appearance and to purify metals for use in construction applications Other application of Calcium Carbonate is in fertilizers to provide calcium to plants and pH stabilization of the soil...
The cement is usually calcium carbonate however cements of magnesium carbonate gypsum silica iron oxide and a combination of these materials are known Caliche is a common feature of arid or semiarid areas throughout the world In the United States caliche is a familiar deposit in many parts of the Southwest especially in Arizona...
Limestone as used by the minerals industry is any rock composed mostly of calcium carbonate CaCO 3 Although limestone is common in many parts of the United States it is critically absent from some Limestone is used to produce Portland cement as aggregate in concrete...
Dec 28 2005 0183 32 The concrete was placed colored and stamped shortly before winter The extended period of water movement through the concrete to the surface brought chemicals to the surface where they combined with carbon dioxide from the air to produce calcium carbonate the white chemical you see in this photo...
Aug 07 2008 0183 32 Cement which is mostly commonly composed of calcium silicates requires heating limestone and other ingredients to 2 640 degrees F 1 450...
When concrete is exposed to carbonic acid a reaction producing carbonates take place which is accompanied by shrinkage Limited carbonation of surface layer of concrete is known to seal the pores by forming calcium carbonate which reduces the permeability and increases the strength of the carbonated layer...
Since calcium carbonate shows higher solubility than apatite turning from calcium phosphate-based to calcium carbonate-based cements is an auspicious approach to manufacture cements with improved and tuneable biodegradation rat 10 11 Cements composed of a blend of calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate have already been tested 12 13 but...
Behavior of Nano Calcium Carbonate Modified Smart Cement Contaminated with Oil Based Drilling Mud C Vipulanandan C Vipulanandan Center for Innovative Grouting Materials and Technology CIGMAT - University of Houston Search for other works by this author on This Site...
Calcium carbonate Uses Side Effects amp Warnings - Drugs...
Light Calcium Carbonate also named precipitated calcium carbonate is a kind of active calcium carbonate The manufactured process of light calcium carbonate is achieved by chemical synthesis Because its settlement volume 24-28mL/g is larger than that of the heavy calcium carbonate produced by mechanical method 11-19mL/g it is called...
Calcium chloride CaCl2 has the ability to accelerate cement hydration and reduce set time by as much as two thirds Research has shown that a 2 addition rate has an equivalent cure strength at 50 176 F as plain concrete at 70 176 F Set times below 50 176 F will be longer but the accelerated cure rate will still be greater than that of plain concrete...
Oct 05 2020 0183 32 Request PDF The Role of Calcium Carbonate in Cement Hydration Limestone mainly consisting of calcite is a permitted additive to Portland cements...
Concrete HuberCrete® Calcium Carbonate Products HuberCrete® Extra Fine HuberCrete® Preferred HuberCrete® Prime Huber s new high brightness HuberCrete® calcium carbonate products are designed to give your concrete better workability an improved appearance and reduce the amount of cement required...
concrete pavements is based on either a maximum absorption of 175 for Class B aggregate or a maximum carbonate content of 30 by weight for Class C aggregate There is a concern that these specified l imitations may reject potentially acceptable aggregat This study is designed to evaluate the...
Apr 01 2007 0183 32 It is also noteworthy that adding carbonate in the form of calcium carbonate to cement slightly reduces its buffering capacity towards subsequent carbonation for example in atmospheric carbonation If protection of embedded steel is important it is desirable that improvements in cement performance for example reduced permeability arising...
Calcium chlorides is used as accelerator in hydration process of cement leading to quick set of concrete and to get high initial strength concrete Maximum permissible limit of addition of calcium chloride is 2 in flake form Contents Methods of Adding Calcium ChlorideEffect of Calcium Chloride on Properties of Concrete1 Effect on Physical Properties1 Setting Time2...
Mar 28 2019 0183 32 A calcium addition of 2 by volume is a standard calcium amount to increase concrete setting tim A five gallon bucket full of concrete would require only a small handful of calcium to accelerate the setting dramatically A medium Tim Hortons coffee cup of calcium would increase the set time of almost 400 pounds of mixed concrete...
Building Materials and Construction Calcium carbonate is critical to the construction industry both as a building material in its own right eg marble and as an ingredient of cement It contributes to the making of mortar used in bonding bricks concrete blocks stones roofing shingles rubber compounds and...
Concrete characterized by containing aqueous slurry of ground calcium carbonate which has a mean particle diameter of 05-3 micrometers produced by wet pulverization of the limestone By adding fine powder of ground calcium carbonate fluidity of the concrete...
Oct 05 2020 0183 32 Request PDF The Role of Calcium Carbonate in Cement Hydration Limestone mainly consisting of calcite is a permitted additive to Portland cements often up...
Calcium carbonate cements have been synthesized by mixing amorphous calcium carbonate and vaterite powders with water to form a cement paste and study how mechanical strength is...
Calcium carbonate is the most preferred mineral in the paper industry used for filling and coating paper It is used as a filler in sealants and adhesiv Calcium carbonate is also used in the production of mortar which is utilized for making concrete blocks bonding bricks rubber compounds tiles etc...
Jun 17 2013 0183 32 This is the summary of calcium carbonate used in iron ore In the manufacture of cement Non-hydraulic cement such as slaked limes calcium hydroxide mixed with water harden due to the reaction of carbonation in presence of the carbon dioxide naturally present in the air...
Let s do a slightly more complicated one The formula for calcium carbonate is CaCO 3 and from the Table above the relative atomic mass of calcium is 40 of carbon is 12 and of oxygen is 16 In calcium carbonate we have one atom of calcium one of carbon and three of oxygen So the formula weight of calcium carbonate is 40 12 48=100...
May 09 2012 0183 32 The direct emissions of cement occur through a chemical process called calcination Calcination occurs when limestone which is made of calcium carbonate is heated breaking down into calcium oxide and CO 2 This process accounts for 50 percent of all emissions from cement...
You can also get contact with us through online consulting, demand table submission, e-mails and telephones. Our staff shall wholeheartedly provide product information, application knowledge and good service for you. | https://www.blogkompasartstudio.pl/line/6203/f1siitio3be9.html |
differentiate pure calcium deposits from IDs (Brass et al., 2006, Fig. 3). T1W images appear to be insensitive to calcium and thus help differentiate iron mineral deposits with and without calcium (Brass et al., 2006). Thus, when IDs are not associated with the IDs.
Removing mineral deposits from a teakettle is easy. All you''ll need are a few items to enjoy that next cup of tea sediment free. Vinegar Step 1: Coine one part water and one part distilled vinegar. Place the solution in your teakettle. Step 2: Boil the
Calcium metal is used as a reducing agent in preparing other metals such as thorium and uranium. It is also used as an alloying agent for aluminium, beryllium, copper, lead and magnesium alloys. Calcium compounds are widely used. There are vast deposits of
Back to Rocks and Minerals Articles Peter Russell and Tharsika Tharmanathan Zinc (Zn) is a bluish-white shiny metal that is fragile at room temperature, but becomes malleable at 100 degrees Celsius. Zinc is one of the most common elements in the Earth’s crust. It is found in soil, air, and water and is present in food. Zinc was used in Rome and China more than 2000 years ago
Much of the calcium occurs in the common igneous rock-forming mineral called "plagioclase feldspar." The feldspar mineral family is VERY important to the earth (probably because it forms about 60% of the crust). Not all feldspars contain calcium, but many of
Buildup of calcium in pipes and pluing fittings can cause them to clog partially or completely, making them partially or totally dysfunctional. Some metals that pipes are made up of facilitate the buildup of calcium deposits. When such a case occurs, chunks of
How do you remove calcium deposits from pool tiles? If your pool has calcium carbonate deposits , you can remove them with a pumice stone, stain eraser or scale remover. A pumice stone should only be used on hard surfaces, such as tile and concrete.
25/5/2013· This tutorial video will show you how to remove calcium buildup from the shell of your spa if calcium has developed in your hot tub. Calcium has a gritty, sandpaperish feel that is very unpleasant
Calcium is an alkali metal essential for life on the planet Earth, typically found dissolved in lakes, seas and oceans or in lime deposits on land. The fifth most abundant element in the crust of the planet, calcium is required to build shells, teeth and bones, and is the most plentiful metal found in …
For a second year in a row, we have worked with Roy Sebag of Natural Resource Holdings to produce an in-depth report of all gold deposits hold be public, private, and government backed companies. — View the full 40 page PDF report. — Results Discussion We
27/12/2017· Calcium deposits in the brain are small spots of mineral and they can occur in many places within the brain. Their medical significance can sometimes be absolutely benign, but also very severe in some cases, with regard to the processes that naturally go on in the brain.
"I am 24.I have pain in front bones of legs below knee and in ankle bone.It increases on walking faster. I had x-ray, calcium, vit d, but got no benefit." Answered by Dr. Seymour Beiser: Try new shoes: Do not wear flat walking shoesStay with a shoe havi
The Product of the Month for August is Vitalyse Multi Stain Remover. It’s a fast acting cleaner that safely removes stains from your pool. Trusted Brands At Poolwerx, we only stock trusted brands for your peace of mind and satisfaction. You can be confident the
Why do you think are metallic deposits abundant in places Jun 02, 2020· Metallic deposits like gold, cobalt, iron, chromite, copper etc. are found an areas with trenches and volcanoes. This metallic deposits resulted from influence of temperature under the crust. So
Why Calcium? Your teeth love calcium because they''re partially made from calcium compounds. As you age, however, the mineral calledcalcium phosphate that makes up your tooth enamel can weaken and erode. Consuming calcium-rich foods helps fortify
Calcium metal work upon mechanical possessing. Bulk calcium i s soft , crystalline metal. It may be readily extruded o n heating to 420 – 460 0 C. X-ray diffraction pattern of
As a good operator of Boiler we should know the causes for Boiler Scale formation .In this article we can see the scale formation in boilers it gives you a clear idea how to avoid it . The scale formation is one of the major problem in Boiler which effect the heat transfer
Pure calcium metal is used as a reducing agent in the preparation of other types of metals, such as thorium and uranium and zirconium. It can also be used as an alloying agent for aluminum
The calcium and magnesium ions in the water can also react with compounds found in soaps to produce the soap scum that plagues bathrooms. This is due to the reaction of these ions with compounds such as stearates, producing insoluble stearate salts. | https://kcmaleksandrow.pl/2012-Nov-11/6163.html |
Using data analytics to improve supply chain efficiencies and demand planning is becoming increasingly important in a global market place. By streamlining the supply chain and enabling real-time decisions, companies can significantly reduce costs as well as improve inventory management. Supply chain analytics can also help predict and forecast demand allowing for a first mover advantage right from the sourcing of products to in-store delivery.
Latentview helps companies forecast demand, increase margins, manage inventory more efficiently and manage logistics efficiently thereby reducing cost. | https://www.latentview.com/supply-chain-analytics-thank-you/ |
As a response to the Coronavirus situation, many employees will now be working from home for the first time. From assigning a dedicated working area to remaining connected to your colleagues and keeping track of your time, Netbox Recruitment's top ten tips will help ensure that your time spent working at home remains productive whilst prioritising your wellbeing.
|TOP TIP #1: ASSIGN A DEDICATED WORK AREA|
With so many people working on laptops, tablets and even phones it can be all too easy to work from anywhere in the home. However, to keep your productivity in tact we recommend taking the time to set up a proper designated working area. Pick your chosen work space carefully as you'll need to be able to work from a proper desk or table to replicate your normal working environment. Ideally you'll want to work from a room in the house that avoids other family members of housemates and is free from distractions and other devices. Look after your wellbeing by choosing a room with as much natural light as possible and use a chair that encourages the best possible posture for your back and neck.
|TOP TIP #2: KEEP YOUR MORNING ROUTINE|
This is another essential way of maintaining a sense of routine which will help boost your productivity and focus. While it isn't necessary to wear full, formal work attire it's important to still stick to your morning routine by getting dressed and feeling ready and prepared for the day ahead... Sitting at your desk in pyjamas is unlikely to inspire a sense of motivation! Try to get up at your normal time, or at least with plenty of time to feel fully prepared to begin a day's work.
|TOP TIP #3: SET RULES WITH THOSE YOU LIVE WITH|
It's a good idea to be as clear as possible with everyone you live with as to what the rules and expectations should be when working from home. If you need quiet or to be left alone then communicate this with everyone you live with. Similarly, make people aware that you may be receiving video calls or conference phone calls. Also, encourage those you live with who are also working from home to discuss their requirements and preferences.
|TOP TIP #4: TAKE FREQUENT BREAKS|
Taking frequent, short breaks can be vital in protecting against fatigue and ensuring a positive sense of wellbeing. Making a cup of tea or coffee, having a quick chat with someone you live with or even taking the time to focus on something in the distance is important to break up too much time spent staring at a computer screen. Feeling refreshed after a quick break can also boost your overall productivity.
|TOP TIP #5: STAY CONNECTED TO YOUR COLLEAGUES|
With the huge range of technology available, it's never been easier to stay connected with our colleagues while working from home. Keeping a strong emphasis on this communication offers a range of benefits. Employees can proactivity update their managers and teams on their completed projects and managers can easily check-in with their team. Frequent communication can also be beneficial for your team's wellbeing, promoting a sense of collaboration and inclusion in an environment that at times can feel lonely. Communication channels can also help replicate a sense of normality by facilitating familiar conversations and group dynamics.
|TOP TIP #6: COMMUNICATE CLEARLY|
When working in an office, we rely massively on quick face-to-face communication as well as body language and tone-of-voice when talking to those around us. When working from home, all of these communication methods are removed. Therefore, it's best to be proactive in providing frequent and clear communication with your team. Make sure your manager or team know what projects you are working on, what your priority tasks are and roughly how long you are spending on each project. It is also a good idea to take extra care in your emails, text messages and online chat platforms to try to convey the tone and context of your message. People may interpret neutral or straightforward messages as negative or even rude. Friendly language and even a few emojis can help ensure your messages are perceived as positive.
|TOP TIP #7: KEEP SOCIAL MEDIA BROWSING TO A MINIMUM|
Many jobs require working frequently with social media, but even for those that need to log-in to their social media accounts it can be tempting to slip into endless instagram scrolling, facebook browsing or youtube binge watching at the expense of productivity. If you find yourself easily falling into this habit then take steps to safeguard against this. Try logging out of each account so you won't automatically be logged in each time you access the site. It's also a good idea to turn off social media notification settings on your phone and other devices.
|TOP TIP #8: CREATE THE OPTIMUM LEVEL OF NOISE|
Some people work best with prominent background music while others focus best in complete silence. Try to create an environment that works best for you. If you prefer loud background music then it can be a good idea to use headphones to avoid distracting others who may also be working. Similarly, if you work best in a quieter environment then try to set up your work area in a quieter area of the home away from televisions, music and other sources of noise.
|TOP TIP #9: KEEP TRACK OF YOUR TIME|
There are a huge number of tools available to help you track your time and organise your work. Time tracking apps can provide two main benefits; providing complete transparency over how how long each project or piece of takes to complete as well as helping you stay focussed on the task itself and boosting productivity.
|TOP TIP #10: LEAVE YOUR WORK ALONE WHEN YOU'RE FINISHED FOR THE DAY|
Just as it's important to begin your day as you normally would, it's also important to finish work at the normal time. Stick to a clearly defined set of hours. This will ensure you don't overwork and suffer burnout as well as helping to boost your productivity for the hours you are working. When you've finished, turn your computer off and try to remove yourself from work related email accounts and other messages that can easily have a habit of continuing long into the evening. | https://www.netboxrecruitment.com/top_tips_for_working_from_home_during_lockdown.htm |
Today’s customers have more options than ever before, and these options bring new expectations. Most consumers expect organizations not only to promptly solve their problems, but also to do it in a manner — and at a time — of the customer’s choosing.
This means that organizations must be prepared to meet customers where they are, across a number of integrated channels. Whether customers reach out via phone, email, social media, chat or some other channel, organizations need to respond quickly and effectively, and be able to seamlessly transition cases from one channel to another. And, while customers want access to self-service and digital tools, they also want the option to instantly connect with a live representative who can give them personalized service.
Technology can help. By putting in place appropriate solutions, such as data analytics and customer satisfaction monitoring tools, businesses can position themselves as leaders in customer engagement. But organizations often face challenges when integrating new tools. Many organizations rely on a trusted partner to help integrate solutions and ensure the success of their revamped customer engagement centers.
To learn more download our white paper "The Evolution of the Customer Engagement Center." | https://biztechmagazine.com/resources/white-paper/evolution-customer-engagement-center |
UiPath is a leading enterprise automation software provider. It was founded in 2005 by Daniel Dines and Marius Tirca with the aim to streamline tasks and make it more efficient for businesses and humans alike to do administrative work.
Individuals who are interested in knowing where the company’s headquarters are location and how to get in touch with it should check out these details.
Where is UiPath headquarters located?
The UiPath headquarters is located in New York. The company’s headquarters is at 452 5th Avenue, 22nd Floor, New York, N.Y. 10018. This is otherwise known as the HSBC Tower.
Each of the floor areas of the said structure ranges from 42,000 square feet to 50,000 square feet or approximately 3,900 square meters to 4,600 square meters. You can contact the company’s headquarters at (844) 432-0455.
You can reach contact the UiPath headquarters, as well as its other corporate offices on weekdays, Mondays through Fridays, from 12:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. GMT for those living on the East Coast.
Meanwhile, those on the West Coast in the U.S. may reach out to the firm from 4:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. GMT. Other customers outside of these may call any time between 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Although UiPath is based in the prestigious HSBC Tower, the company recently penned a 15-year lease for larger office space at around 26,000 square feet. Located at the One Vanderbilt building in Midtown East, right next to Grand Central, UiPath has leased the entire 60th floor for itself.
Apart from its UiPath head office in New York, the company also has other offices in different parts of the globe. In particular, it has a strong global presence not just in the United States, but also in other regions such as the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and many others.
In total, there are 46 UiPath offices in the world, in cities and countries such as Madrid, Spain; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Paris, France; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Vienna, Austria to name a few.
Where is UiPath’s corporate office in Canada?
UiPath’s corporate office in Canada can be found in Toronto. Its office address is located at 1 University Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2P1.
Where is UiPath’s corporate office in the UK?
London remains the chosen city for UiPath’s corporate office. Its address in the United Kingdom can be found at 10 York Road, 6th Floor, SE1 7ND.
How do I contact UiPath?
There are a number of ways to reach out to UiPath. Apart from its headquarters, you can also contact UiPath’s other channels. Check these out below.
The mailing address where you can send over any correspondence is the same as that of the UiPath headquarters. This is the 22nd floor of 452 5th Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018.
- Phone
For those who want to call the UiPath hotline for additional support or any queries they may have, you can reach out to their contact number at (844) 432-0455.
To communicate with UiPath via email, individuals first need to answer specific query forms on the company’s website, particularly the area of their concern. By leaving their name, email address, and specific issue, representatives or agents of UiPath can reach out to target individuals by email.
- Online Chat
As of writing, UiPath still does not have a dedicated online chat for its customers. It does, however, offer access to on-call agents who can provide guidance and support when needed.
Access to responsive and reliable customer service, however, is highly dependent on the support package obtained by the customer or the company in question. Please reach out to UiPath’s Sales department if you do wish to purchase support programs.
- Social Media
UiPath has a number of social media channels you can contact or speak with in times of need. These include the following social networking sites:
- LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/uipath
- Facebook – facebook.com/UiPath
- Twitter – twitter.com/uipath
- YouTube – youtube.com/user/uipath
- Instagram – instagram.com/uipathglobal/
- Community – community.uipath.com/
Who is the UiPath President?
UiPath’s current President is Daniel Dines. He leads the company alongside Rob Enslin. Both Enslin and Dines are considered co-chief executive officers of the company, with Enslin being appointed just May 16, 2022.
Apart from serving as the co-CEO of UiPath, Dines is also the co-founder of the company. Prior to founding and starting UiPath, Dines started to work on DeskOver in 2005 before rebranding and naming it to UiPath. He has a degree from the University of Bucharest.
On the other hand, Enslin brings a wealth of experience under his belt. Before joining the company, Enslin previously worked at Google Cloud as its President of Cloud Sales. He also had numerous leadership roles at SAP, serving as the President of the Cloud Business Group and as an executive board member.
UiPath CEO and key executive team
|Name||Designation|
|Daniel Dines||Co-Founder & Co-Chief Executive Officer|
|Rob Enslin||Co-Chief Executive Officer|
|Marius Tirca||Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer|
|Andreea Baciu||Chief Culture Officer|
|Ashim Gupta||Chief Financial Officer|
FAQ’s
Who are UiPath’s customers?
UiPath’s customers are large enterprises and corporations. It counts some of the biggest names across different industries, from food and beverage to health and wellness, technology, and more.
Some of the company’s most popular and renowned customers include the likes of CVS Health, Chipotle, Adobe, Chevron Crowdstrike, and EY, to name a few. It also counts the Bank of America Corporation, as well as Sumitomo Mitsui Financial, Applied Materials, Inc., and Eletricite de France, as some of its big-name clients.
How many companies use UiPath?
There are hundreds, if not thousands of companies using UiPath. In particular, there are around 8,174 companies around the world, with the majority of businesses leveraging the advances that UiPath has to give coming from the United States.
Some of these companies include financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase, Santander Holdings, Amgen, Clari, and ICF. | https://headquartersoffice.com/uipath/ |
A manufacturing method that uses a computer as the master controller and ties all the processes together is known as computer integrated manufacturing (CIM). This process helps reduce human error by automating routine tasks and reducing manual labor. This type of manufacturing is very useful in many industries, including automotive, aerospace, and shipbuilding. It is an effective method for identifying production loopholes and helping management collect relevant data. It includes a wide range of automation systems, sensors, and communication mechanisms that help employees communicate and collaborate.
A computer integrated manufacturing system automates and synchronizes all processes within a company, ensuring greater efficiency and increased productivity. It also offers real-time data, leading to more strategic business decisions. It can also add flexibility to your facility, as it can link various departments such as purchasing, design, and inventory control. Ultimately, CIM provides you with comprehensive control over your manufacturing process. To benefit from the advantages of CIM, it is important to understand the risks and challenges of the implementation process.
IJCIM’s goal is to report new research in the theory and applications of computer integrated manufacturing. The journal spans mechanical, software, and automation and control engineering, and has an emphasis on data-driven manufacturing. It has contributed to the development of industry 4.0 and has become a key voice in the development of intelligent manufacturing and cyber-physical manufacturing systems. The journal is now published monthly, and it continues to grow. Its editors aim to attract a diverse community of researchers and practitioners working in computer-aided manufacturing and data-driven manufacturing.
The Computer Integrated Manufacturing program at Lakeland Community College is designed to prepare students for employment in the manufacturing industry. Students can pursue an entry-level position in an engineering department, or choose a concentration in general manufacturing. They will learn about advanced manufacturing machines and how to design and implement manufacturing process systems. Graduates will have the skills needed to repair and maintain equipment. The course builds skills in mathematics, science, and technology, and enables students to become a part-time engineer.
CIM implementation in manufacturing depends on factors such as volume of production, experience, and the degree of integration into production processes. It is most useful for companies that have high ICT levels, use CAD/CAM systems, and have a process planning system. To implement CIM, companies need trained CIM staff that understands the technology and communication requirements. The goal of CIM is to reduce costs by reducing errors. However, the process of manufacturing requires a higher degree of ICT.
The use of computers in computer-integrated manufacturing processes is widely used across various industries. Today, it is used in virtually every department of a company to improve efficiency, reduce errors, improve quality, and ensure timely deliveries. It has been adapted and refined by companies and is a vital tool in their arsenal. So, if you are a manufacturing company and are looking for an edge, this technology may be right for you. And the benefits of this technology are clear. | https://realtechexperts.com/the-advantages-and-challenges-of-implementing-computer-integrated-manufacturing/ |
Industry: AI is widely used in industry to increase efficiency and productivity in manufacturing processes, reducing costs and production time. For example, AI-based robotics are used on assembly lines and in quality inspection.
Health: AI is used in medicine to help diagnose and treat diseases.
For example, the analysis of medical images through AI can help in the early detection of diseases, such as cancer, and in the identification of personalized treatments.
Finance: AI is used in finance to identify fraud, perform risk analysis and make investment decisions.
See more at: | https://bluetechx.site/web-stories/how-artificial-intelligence-influences-the-world/ |
(I-SoftwareNews.Com, April 12, 2019 ) ERP (Enterprise Resource planning) software is a planning and management and planning software that helps core business processes such as sales, human resource, and supply chain among others. ERP software helps in automating back office tasks, and reduce operational costs and improve efficiency. The global ERP software market is experiencing high demand due to the increasing focus towards reducing operational costs. Various companies such as Microsoft, IBM are rigorously investing in the development of more efficient ERP software with the aim of gaining a strong market position. Growing focus towards reducing operational cost and increasing efficiency, increasing popularity of automation are the major factors that may drive the growth of this whereas high prices of these solutions and low adoption rate by SMEs are the major factors slowing the growth of this market.
- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the ERP Software Market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies. | http://www.i-softwarenews.com/?prID=1084635 |
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Last news about IDEKO.
IK4-IDEKO has presented the results of research work on the influence that compaction has on composite material manufacturing processes at the MATCOMP Congress.
The objective pursued by the research centre through this project is to reduce production costs and seek more efficient alternatives.
The event, held in Vigo between 3 and 5 July, is considered the most important forum in the country on composite and high-performance materials.
With the aim of contributing to improving composite manufacturing processes, the Basque research centre that specialises in Advanced Manufacture, IK4-IDEKO, took part in the 13th National Composite Material Congress for Industry 4, MATCOMP, which was held between 3 and 5 July in Vigo.
At the event, the entity presented the results of a research work on the influence of compaction on the properties of polymeric composites reinforced with carbon fibre.
The research centre's Manufacturing Processes researcher, Natalia Gutiérrez, who gave a presentation on the project in the forum, says that "currently most composite manufacturing for aeronautics is based on pre-impregnated materials cured in an autoclave". According to the researcher, "reducing production costs and finding alternative solutions is of huge interest, as composite manufacture continues to be, to a great extent, a manual process, therefore, developing automation strategies has great potential".
An alternative to current autoclave systems is the manufacture of composites from dry fibre; specifically, from non-crimp fabrics (NCF).
The right resin infusion, the key to the process
Resin infusion is a commonly used process for consolidating non-crimped fabric (NCFs) preforms. These preforms are placed in a composite mould with one rigid part and the other flexible, normally a polymeric film sealed at the edge and subjected to a vacuum. When a container with resin is connected to the inside of the mould, the resin impregnates the preform due to the pressure difference.
"The properties of the composites manufactured from NCFs depend on the relationship between the fibre and the resin and on the final product porosity. Thus, for maximum process efficiency, the degree of compaction of the preform must be controlled just before the infiltration of the resin", said the expert, who has worked with the researchers Iratxe Aizpurua and Javier Vallejo in carrying out the project.
In this regard, Gutierrez says that obtaining the correct combination of properties in the composites manufactured from NCFs is key to optimising manufacturing processes in terms of time and cost.
Thus, as a result of the research carried out, the research centre has obtained results that optimise the compaction and infusion. "This study has provided significant production advantages for the lamination with the DANOBAT ADMP® technology", emphasised the researcher.
The ADMP technology, developed by the machine tool manufacturer DANOBAT, is capable of working with different widths and providing preforms with better quality, better productivity and performance together with a reduction of labour.
Nevertheless, although this research represents a significant advance in the improvement of production processes, the centre is currently tackling various challenges in the field of composites, so the manufacturing processes team will continue the work started in this research with additional studies.
The MATCOMP Congress, promoted by the Spanish Composite Material Association (AEMAC), is the most important event in the scientific, academic and business community as regards composite and high-performance materials in Spain. This year it has focused on reinforcing the impact of composite materials on Industry 4.0 and on the Circular Economy for the most strategic economic sectors, such as automotive, shipbuilding, aeronautics, renewable energies and construction, among others. | https://www.ideko.es/en/news/how-can-composite-manufacturing-processes-be-improved |
Issues and solutions in the manufacturing industry from the Kanazawa Murata factory perspective (Part 2)
In the previous part of the online interview with Masashi Okamizu and Tsuyoshi Koyama of the Kanazawa Murata factory, who have been creating products using advanced technologies, we had spoken about how AI and IoT use was crucial in improving the efficiency of processes and back-office tasks as well as for the optimization of operational performances and equipment. IT tools that make use of these technologies have rapidly evolved, and industry 4.0, which was announced in Germany in 2011, has become more of a real possibility, making transitions of factories into smart factories a global standard.
This new wave of transitions has also started to emerge in Japan’s manufacturing industry, but how far has it penetrated, and is it actually in progress? We spoke about the current state and prospect, and not about its effect in the far future.
What are the obstacles that can be felt on-site concerning transitions into smart factories?
Smart factories are factories that aim to improve production output and production efficiency as well as improve the work process through utilization of digital data extracted from AI and IoT. Although the scale would be too massive if the transition were for the entire factory, “visualizing” various processing data and eliminating waste to achieve efficiency is the first step.
Internationally, the United States, Germany, and China are deemed developed countries in terms of smart factories, and the state of IoT introduction to products and processes in the United States is said to be about twice the amount of Japan (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications “Research Investigation Related to Verification of Multifaceted Contribution to Economic Growth Through Structural Analysis and ICT of ICT Industries in the IoT Age”). Japan’s introduction rate is relatively low, as can be seen in the following data.
The item “Perform visualization and process improvement, etc.” for equipment in each individual process and all production processes as well as operational performances of staff is included in the items on the left. Companies with “Implemented” are in blue while the rest with “Planned for implementation” and “Looking into implementing if possible” are companies that have not yet implemented the transition. This indicates that more than 80% of companies have not implemented the transition. It is quite obvious why transitions to smart factories are lagging in Japan’s manufacturing industry. “Looking into implementing if possible” which is in yellow, is an item that constitutes a majority of all items. However, Okamizu and Koyama, who are stationed at the factory, state that they feel they know why the transition has not been implemented.
Koyama: “Can the desired effects be achieved by introducing the latest expensive IT tools? I believe it is crucial to evaluate cost-effectiveness. Additionally, since the processes I supervise are mostly for prototypes and are basically steps where quality is prioritized, there are discussions on whether or not transitions are actually necessary.”
Okamizu: “Additionally, it is crucial to evaluate whether the IT tools really match or actually enhance the effects of our processes. Now, there is a large number of IT tools and we would like to select one that suits our processes.”
What are the elements that should be emphasized when transitioning factories to smart factories?
Currently, Murata has introduced a unique quality management database “PRASS.” However, Okamizu states, “We are capable of visualizing which lot went through which process, but it has not been introduced to all processes, and it is not complete.” Also, introduction of “PRASS” is difficult in terms of compatibility because processes that Koyama handles run on a different system.
Optimization and standardization of work are issues that must be solved, but there are various obstacles for IT tool introduction. Under such circumstances, the Kanazawa Murata factory has evaluated whether to introduce the smart manufacturing support tool “JIGlet.*”
*As of November 2020, sales and use of “JIGlet” is limited to Japan.
Okamizu: “In addition to its compatibility to our processes, is it easily comprehensible for our staff, and is the operation cost optimal? To identify these issues, we evaluated whether to introduce it.
We introduced illuminance devices in the process that lines up circuit boards, but we discovered that graphs could be created by automatically aggregating the operational performances by identifying the flickering of the rotary beacon light. This is the ‘variation in the operation rate.’ There are days when the operation rate is at 50%, while some days reach 80%. I was surprised at the difference. From now on, we plan to optimize equipment and staff by standardizing operation rates, analyzing the non-operation factor that leads to varying operation rates.”
In addition to illuminance devices, we also ran inspections of dice devices that aggregate and graph six events (example: non-operation factor). This system aggregates data by registering events such as “non-operation due to equipment trouble” and “non-operation due to human error” on the six faces of the dice device in advance, and when the staff changes the face of the dice during non-operation. We are then capable of easily visualizing which equipment stopped due to what factor as well as the time until resumption of operation.
Okamizu: “Installation of ”JIGlet” such as illuminance devices and dice devices is simple, and is optimal since anyone can operate it. We were able to see that intuitiveness is an important factor, even enabling staff with low IT literacy to operate it. On the other hand, the dice device is operated by the staff, and training on-site is also an important element.”
Discovery that visualization is a factor that increases motivation
On the other hand, Okamizu reflects that IT tool use brought about unexpected effects.
Okamizu: “Visualization of the operation rate was an element we gained from, but the effects it had on staff was a discovery. Staff that only performed processes they were assigned to now think for themselves since the operation rate had been visualized, and are now willing to discover solutions for improvement themselves. Of course, visualization of numbers may lead to severe evaluation, but I was surprised this led to an increase in motivation.”
The Kanazawa Murata factory is taking steps to transform its factories into smart factories by considering the introduction of AI, RPA (robotic process automation), and BI (business intelligence). Although we can expect production output improvement, process efficiency, and standardization of work, we seek to train our staff assigned for operation.
Okamizu: “Until now, our staff were assigned only to on-site work, but now, we have implemented debriefing meetings where they can share their efforts. By having our staff join these meetings, I believe they will be able to nurture their sense of participation, sense of responsibility, and motivation. I’ve been told they’ve become more confident in speaking in front of others.”
Koyama: “In addition to in-house training, we have created an environment where staff are capable of sharing their opinions using QC circle (improvement activity for small teams that allows voluntary management and improvement of the workplace). I would like our staff to acquire abilities to achieve solutions for improvement by analyzing issues at work by themselves.”
IT tools may provide solutions based on various data, but these decisions are made by people. To begin with, deciding which IT tool to introduce to which process to achieve efficiency is decided by people. This is why the Kanazawa Murata factory nurtures its staff. We may discover a solution for issues of the Kanazawa Murata factory as well as of the manufacturing industry when both transitions into smart factories and employee training interlock.
"JIGlet" introduced in the article is a smart manufacturing support tool jointly planned by Murata Manufacturing and ACCESS Co., Ltd.
The two companies will continue to develop solutions that meet market needs and contribute to the advancement of DX not only in the manufacturing industry but also in other industries. JIGlet will be made available to manufacturing sites outside Japan, and efforts will be made to drive continuous development by enhancing the device sensors to meet a variety of needs. | https://article.murata.com/en-global/article/problems-and-solutions-at-factory-2 |
Problems Rise in manufacturing environment
According to industry experts, the most critical problem that can face any manufacturing environment through the production process is the cost of poor quality (COPQ) because of its direct effect on reducing the manufacturing process efficiency and that most of COPQ causes are hidden and not directly noticeable.
Digital Twin
Digital twin refers to a digital replica of physical assets, processes and systems that can be used for various purposes. The digital representation provides both the elements and the dynamics of how an IoT device, equipment, or machine operates and lives throughout its life cycle.
What is Smart Factory?
A Smart Factory is a fully digital factory floor that collects and shares data on a continuous basis through connected machines, gadgets, and production systems. Self-optimizing devices or the entire organization can then use the data to proactively fix faults, optimize production processes, and respond to new requests. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data Analytics, Cloud Computing, and Industrial IoT (Internet of Things) are some of the technologies used in smart factories. Because all data can be delivered to a tablet or even a mobile phone and he can make adjustments remotely, a smart factory operator can watch the entire production process from the manufacturing tools and the supply chain from anywhere, including at home. | https://niotek.net/blog-category/2/industry-40 |
Beyond Limits Inc. is a California Institute of Technology (Caltech)/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) spin-out company leveraging 20 years of deep space expertise in Cognitive AI. The company’s technology has been proven in the most extreme operating conditions, from NASA Mars Landings to remote subsurface environments in the energy sector.
In 2020, Beyond Limits announced its first wave of initiatives and partnerships to establish and expand their presence within the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. It’s regional headquarters in Singapore helps them drive strategic investments for joint ventures and partnerships in Asia. Beyond Limits also have operations in Hong Kong, which focuses on expanding AI solutions into verticals; Taipei centres on advanced manufacturing, while Shenzhen, Tokyo, and Singapore addresses energy and healthcare sectors.
In an interview with International Metalworking News for Asia (IMNA), Leonard Lee, President of APAC, highlights the key aspects of its technology, and the manufacturing trends they are seeing in APAC.
IMNA: How has the nature of manufacturing in APAC changed, what trends do you see?
Lee: The manufacturing industry is constantly undergoing change, and with rapid digitalisation, the sector is proving themselves as frontrunners when it comes to streamlining processes and optimising entire operations. Adopting next-generation AI software and data analytics have allowed manufacturers to eliminate potential bottlenecks and improve quality management in their manufacturing cycle. In Asia Pacific, manufacturers are facing an increased production output, despite having a declining workforce.
The shortage of talent has been a longstanding issue for the sector. However, it is raising alarms due to the rise of consumerism in the region and the demand for increased output. Simply put, younger talents rarely view manufacturing as their default choice of career, and the majority within the sector are an aging workforce. As a result, the talent pool has dwindled to only a few select individuals. With output demand soaring, manufacturers need these individuals to be quickly onboarded with the right skills and knowledge base. The underlying issue is that this expertise and skills are not easily transferable. In this regard, Cognitive AI in manufacturing is already making its mark.
To illustrate, manufacturing generally across all industries would involve individuals with high expertise and accumulated experience they received by working in a variety of operations setups and scenarios. With the declining workforce, there’s only so much that existing employees can do when facing a particular issue in a challenging situation. This is where the experience of older operators needs to be captured somehow to be used in their absence. New operators must be equipped with the ability to resolve pressing issues that could possibly lead to bigger problems across the board, from an operation or profitability perspective.
Yet there is a gap in manpower capabilities where older or more experienced operators have left or been laid off. They have been replaced by new operators who have limited experience. Enabling digital solutions that are paired to Cognitive AI, allows the technology system to capture human knowledge – which, in this case would be the experience of the more senior operators – translating it to new joiners. With all the dynamic factors with manufacturing operations, Cognitive AI can provide advice or recommendations to young operators on what actions to take to either correct an error or optimise to maximise certain goals.
IMNA: What kind of role do you see technology playing here, what can you do to help?
Lee: Take Automatic Optic Inspection (AOI), for quality control (QC) in Surface Mounting Technology (SMT), as an example. It is easy to buy into the idea that smarter, stronger, and more inspection equipment reduces the quantity of human labour in the QC stage. On the contrary, highly sensitive AOI equipment generates a large number of false alarms that require double inspection from humans.
Instead of improving the accuracy of AOI and reducing false alarms, Beyond Limits collaborated with one the world’s largest electronic Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) in Taiwan to deploy Knowledge Base Operation (KBOps), which extracts and digitalises knowledge from seasoned domain experts, for root cause analysis.
In this case, AOI equipment becomes more than just inspecting units. It captures features previously unavailable to human eyesight for KBOps to learn and document. With cognitive reasoning, Beyond Limit's hybrid AI is capable of providing optimised solutions and actionable insights for SMT manufacturers, reducing downtime, human labour, and material waste.
IMNA: How can manufacturers ensure they have the right level of AI?
Lee: The manufacturing industry has widely accepted that an imminent need exists for an industrial, state-of-the-art software solution that brings several steps or processes into a singular, cohesive platform. At the same time, they need to integrate their extremely valuable institutional knowledge to leverage their most valuable asset – historical data records. Through the implementation of next-generation AI software, manufacturers have unlocked process automation and automated scheduling towards quality monitoring and defect management, as well as applications to shorten design time and customise experiences. However, while the sector has largely embraced the adoption of machine learning, it needs to be even more timely to shift towards cognitive AI solutions.
Cognitive AI is essentially a glass box, versus conventional AI which is a black box. Conventional AI takes a whole bunch of data, churns it, and then comes up with a recommendation, without our knowing how it arrived at that point. Whereas a glass box, or what we call Explainable AI, has an audit trail, and gives us the ability to figure out and understand how it arrived at that recommendation. With Cognitive AI, there is a human reasoning component which is set in place.
For manufacturers, tapping into this insight will allow them to elevate their processes. Through knowledge capture of all existing data, including operators' expertise and skills, the Cognitive AI system is then able to take all this data and provide recommendations for an action depending on the situation. This is especially useful for the multitude of scenarios that could occur within a manufacturing plant, ranging from production schedules and equipment failures to the interdependence of the various machinery, which will then impact the ability to provide output.
IMNA: How can small and medium-sized companies in APAC improve their manufacturing?
Lee: When considering small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), especially in the manufacturing sector, there is a need to transition from legacy technology to a modern solution that allows SMEs to remain competitive in terms of output and efficiency. According to the DBS Digital Readiness Survey, the region’s SMEs are lagging behind large corporates and middle-market companies in terms of digital readiness. Only four in 10 SMEs (41%) have a digital transformation plan in place, and one in 10 have a clearly defined digital strategy (12%). Hence, for manufacturers to improve their outputs, they first need to upgrade their processes internally, so that they can start their digital transformation journey.
Unfortunately, many are facing difficulty in considering where to even begin. The first step, which is also the most crucial step for starters, is always ensuring the availability of data. Manufacturers must look at implementing solutions that arrange and compile data that is scattered in silos and place the existing data in a single repository. This key step would allow for additional technology implementations to run smoothly, such as the adoption of next-generation AI software to churn out recommendations for improving efficiency throughout the company.
IMNA: Finally, how do you see the future, with special reference to Beyond Limits?
Lee: We believe that the move towards digitalisation will only continue to advance as more organisations embrace technology and improve business outcomes. In the manufacturing sector, driving operational excellence, using techniques like Lean Six Sigma, is no longer sufficient to drive the level of productivity and efficiency needed. Combining the best features of technology and human knowledge, Cognitive AI would allow manufacturers to elevate their efforts on their smart manufacturing journey. Digitalisation is a "must have," and cognitive AI is the key differentiator. There is no doubt we can look forward to the progress of the smart manufacturing industry in Asia Pacific, while we continue our efforts to shape this dynamic region into the next global smart manufacturing hub.
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Ringier Trade .com (c) Ringier Trade Media Ltd., accept no responsibility or liability for any information provided by any third party on this website. | https://www.industrysourcing.com/article/Beyond-Limits-APAC-President-on-adoption-of-Cognitive-AI?tid=216 |
In a fast-moving factory environment, it’s easy for products with minor flaws to slip past the watchful eyes of quality-control professionals.
Even the most skilled inspector might have an off day. Here it can be useful to outsource mundane or mechanical tasks to ‘intelligent’ machines.
Poorly defined quality-control procedures were blamed for one of the most extensive automotive parts recalls in history, involving the airbag manufacturer Takata. The firm’s inflators, which contained the chemical ammonium nitrate, were found to be unsafe – leading 19 US carmakers to recall 69m of the products. Similar recalls were issued in Japan, China and Oceania. Such procedures are known for being particularly costly in the automotive sector.
With such high stakes, it’s little wonder that major carmakers are hoping to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to improve their quality-control processes. They’re pairing high-resolution smart cameras with image-recognition technology to cut the costs and improve the accuracy of inspections. In 2018, Audi began using small cameras in the press machines at its Ingolstadt production facility in Germany to assess the quality of components. Software based on an artificial neural network was then used to detect and mark the location of fine cracks in sheet metal.
Similarly, BMW has piloted an AI application to evaluate hundreds of components during its own vehicle production process. In a matter of milliseconds, the technology can identify deviations from the standard and check whether parts are mounted correctly. To ‘train’ its neural network, the company assembles a database of 100 or so images of a given component, with and without flaws, and runs them through a high-performance server. Following a test run and possible tweaks, BMW says its neural network reaches 100% reliability.
The Capgemini Research Institute, the consultancy’s in-house think tank, identified three foremost use cases for AI in manufacturing in a 2019 report. Product quality control was among them, in addition to demand planning and intelligent maintenance. According to Capgemini’s researchers, 29% of AI implementations in manufacturing were for maintaining critical machinery – while 27% were for quality control.
Research by Deloitte found that unplanned downtime costs industrial manufacturers $50bn a year. While many firms have perfected the art of preventive maintenance, in which maintenance is performed before an equipment failure occurs, there remains room for improvement. With the help of machine learning, it’s possible to carry out predictive maintenance, in which sensor input and algorithms gauge the health of equipment – encouraging the just-in-time replacement of components.
Although there have been successful pilot schemes to introduce AI to factory floors in various roles, there is still a long way to go before these applications are ubiquitous. One 2018 PwC survey of manufacturing executives in 26 countries found that only 9% had implemented AI in their processes to improve decision-making. However, in a post-Covid world, the idea of reducing costs through better planning is likely to have universal appeal. The picture could soon change.
For decades, large, centralised production hubs have been the norm in industrial manufacturing. Now that companies have been reminded of how fragile global supply chains can be, they might seek to open up smaller production facilities in a greater number of locations.
Agility, and the ability to respond to shocks in supply and demand, will be paramount. While AI can’t literally predict the future, it can provide helpful maintenance forecasts and spot errors in production before they become a problem.
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