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How to Establish and Maintain Healthy Boundaries
Would you ever leave your house without securing the doors and windows? Or, leave your car unattended, unlocked, with the windows down?
I’m sure you wouldn’t. No one wants their property ransacked, stolen or tampered with.
I find it interesting that we all invest a considerable amount of time and energy in keeping our belongings safe, yet when it comes to keeping ourselves safe, psychologically and energetically, we pay far less attention.
I’m talking here about personal boundaries.
Personal boundaries are the imaginary lines we draw around ourselves in order to protect our bodies, minds, emotions and personal resources, such as time and energy, from other’s people’s behaviour or demands, so that we can maintain our inner balance.
They are the guidelines, rules or limits that we create to identify how we want other people to behave towards us, and what we consider to be reasonable, safe and permissible.
Our personal boundaries also determine how we respond when someone crosses these lines.
Some people are born into families that model good boundaries: adults show respect for each other, are able to read each other’s emotions, and care about other people’s needs and feelings.
Some people aren’t so fortunate. They grow up in homes where parents and primary caregivers don’t have healthy boundaries. Either people don’t attend to, respect or care about each other’s needs or they place more emphasis on fulfilling other’s needs and wishes while ignoring or neglecting themselves.
Good personal boundaries are truly invaluable.
They keep you safe and prevent people from hurting you. They counteract stress and overwhelm. They allow you to exercise high levels of personal power, and to honour your natural instinct for self-preservation.
As one of the essential habits of happy people, strong boundaries are a sign that you value and respect yourself.
Whatever your upbringing, it’s never too late to set healthy boundaries for yourself. Here are some ways you can do this.
1. Identify your limits
You can’t set good boundaries if you’re not clear what your personal limits are. We’re all different, and the levels of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual stress we’re able to tolerate depend on many factors that are unique to us.
For example, while some people may be perfectly happy to spend most of their time in company, others may regularly need time alone to recharge. For the latter, their personal limits will be determined by the amount of time they’re comfortable spending with other people.
Where do you draw the line between what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in different areas of your life?
Start by reflecting on this if you’re unsure what boundaries you need to put in place.
2. Tune into your feelings and become more self-aware
How do you know when your boundaries are being violated? The clue lies in your feelings. There are two emotions that act as red flags: discomfort and resentment.
If someone is making you feel uncomfortable then they are dishonouring you in some way. It’s a good idea to think about the interaction and ask yourself what exactly is causing the discomfort. What is it about this situation or this person that is bothering you? And why is it bothering you? Is it because the other person has unrealistic expectations of you, isn’t treating you the way you want to be treated, or is intruding on your personal space in some way?
The second feeling to look out for is resentment. Resentment usually comes when you’re being taken advantage of or are not being appreciated. It can also arise when you’re either pushing yourself beyond your limits (for example, you may be responding to others’ expectations of you) or when someone else is imposing on you their expectations, views or values.
3. Make yourself a priority
Setting and maintaining boundaries involves making a decision to put yourself first.
This can be challenging if you were raised to focus solely on others’ needs to the extent that, now, ignoring your own has become your norm. If that’s the case, then you will need to make a major shift in your relationship with yourself and start to prioritise self-care.
Some people falsely believe that self-care means being selfish. I would argue it’s the total opposite. It takes a mature, balanced person to recognise that if they want to be there for others, they have to first look after themselves. If you have people relying on you, then self-care is not a selfish thing to do but a selfless thing to do. It shows that you are putting your loved ones first by doing all you can to be as healthy, energised and motivated as you can be.
If you want to live a happy, healthy, balanced life, one where you are filled with vitality, vibrancy and enthusiasm, self-care is not an option, it is a vital necessity. (For more guidance and tips on self-care see my blog: The one habit that could keep you out of therapy)
4. Give yourself permission to set limits
When it comes to establishing boundaries, fear, guilt and self-doubt are big potential pitfalls. You might be fearful of the other person’s response if you set and enforce your boundaries. You might feel guilty about speaking up or saying ‘no’ to a family member. You may believe that you should be able to deal with everything life throws at you and say ‘yes’ to all that is demanded of you because you’re a good person, even though you feel drained or taken advantage of. You may wonder if you even deserve to have boundaries in the first place.
Well, you do.
And it’s down to you to enforce them. You, and you alone, can give yourself permission to do that.
5. Reflect on and plan how to handle each situation
The best way to figure out your own boundaries and what you will do when people cross them is to sit quietly and think about each situation individually. It’s important to make the reflection all about you because boundaries are about honouring your own needs; it’s not about judging other people’s choices.
Here are a few questions that will help you do this.
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Take one situation that occurred recently where you felt uncomfortable, upset or resentful. Write down what happened, where and when. Who was involved and what did they do? What did they say?
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How did you react? Think about how you felt and behaved.
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What would you have liked the other person/people to say or do?
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What could you have said or done differently?
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What do you need to do now (if anything) to regain your personal power or stand up for yourself?
- Think of a specific phrase that will ensure you clearly communicate the boundary you want to put in place.
Here are some examples:
“It’s not okay with me that you comment on my weight. I’d like you to stop.”
“I’ve decided to take all personal calls in the evening in order to get my work done. I will call you later.”
“I’ll have to sleep on it, as I have a policy of not making decisions right away.”
“I can’t do that right now; I’ll get to it in due course.”
6. Muster up the courage to be direct
Some people are considerate and/or intuitive, and they’ll naturally work out when they’ve upset you or crossed a line and adjust their behaviour accordingly.
Others, however, may need to be explicitly told. You will have to learn to be clear and direct with them.
Establishing boundaries requires good assertiveness skills. Since other people can’t read your mind, you will have to firmly and unambiguously communicate your boundaries to them.
Once you are clear with yourself what each boundary looks like, respectfully let the other person know what in particular is bothersome to you and how you would like to be treated in the future.
And remember to say what you mean and mean what you say. We can easily become frightened and hide our true feelings when we’re afraid of other people’s reactions, but the clearer and more authentic you are the more seriously they will take you.
Take a look at the following examples, which are succinct and to the point:
“I won’t be lending you money any more. I love you, and you need to take responsibility for yourself.”
“Please do not yell at me. If you continue, I’ll have to leave the room.”
“If you’re going to keep complaining about how I drive, then I’m going to stop the car and won’t drive any further until you get out or be quiet.”
“If you keep shouting at me, I’m going to put the phone down.”
7. Let your behaviour speak for you
There may be situations where your actions can speak louder than your words in establishing your boundaries.
For example, if you’ve decided you don’t wish to take personal calls during work hours, then simply stop answering those calls during the time you’re working. People will soon work out that you’re unavailable and stop ringing you. Or if you feel someone is taking advantage of you, emotionally or otherwise, then limit the amount of time you spend with them or stop seeing them altogether.
8. Decide the consequences ahead of time
Once you’ve decided what your boundaries are and have put them into place, you have to ensure you maintain them. People will always inadvertently test your boundaries. So it’s a good idea to be prepared and know what the consequences will be if someone violates them.
For example, if you’re in a monogamous relationship and find that your partner has been cheating on you what would you do? Leave immediately? Ask your partner to leave?
If you lend your friend money and find that she keeps forgetting to repay you, what would you do? Stop giving her money?’ Ask her to pay for you when you next go out together?
9. Start small
Like any new skill, assertively communicating your boundaries takes practice. It’s best to start by laying down a small boundary with someone who doesn’t intimidate you so that you don’t get overwhelmed. You can then build on your success and incrementally move towards establishing boundaries with more challenging people and situations.
For instance, if you have a good-natured friend who takes up more of your time than you’re comfortable with, practise politely letting her know how long you are available for and firmly ending the conversation or meeting when the time is up.
Ultimately, having strong personal boundaries allows you to take responsibility for yourself, your choices and your well-being, while leaving others to do the same. You may find that some people react less than positively when you firmly tell them what you’re no longer willing to tolerate. Expect this, but don’t allow it to deter you, because as Brene Brown says, “Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others”.
And, remember, the only people who will get upset about you setting boundaries are the ones who benefit from you not having any. | https://harinderghatora.co.uk/blog/post.php?s=2019-02-25-how-to-establish-and-maintain-healthy-boundaries |
A research team headed by Sarah L. Szanton, an assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, has received a $4 million grant over five years from the National Institutes of Health to extend the team’s home-based intervention study with low-income older adults in Baltimore City.
In a successful pilot program completed in 2010, the school’s investigators tested an initiative called CAPABLE, for Community Aging in Place: Advancing Better Living for Elders. The pilot intervention included up to six in-home visits with an occupational therapist, up to four in-home visits with a nurse and an average of $1,200 in household handyman repairs and modifications. The team’s goal was to test the effectiveness of multiple complementary strategies to increase the subjects’ functioning and mobility while improving their physical environments, so that older low-income adults could continue to live at home.
While most elders would prefer to stay in their familiar surroundings, many require admission to a nursing home or other facility because they cannot perform the basic activities of daily living.
Such “disabilities” are the primary predictor of nursing-home admissions. And the annual cost of such out-of-home care in the United States currently totals approximately $150 billion, most of which is publicly funded through Medicaid and Medicare.
But Szanton points out that often a “disability” may be modified by addressing the disconnect between a person’s ability to function and the environment in which he lives. “We designed CAPABLE to improve self-care ability and mobility,” she said, “by intervening directly on these abilities as well as on the factors that modify them: pain, medication management, strength and balance, depression and the physical environment of the home.”
The Nursing team believes that given the increasing number of disabled, low-income older adults and the resulting costs to health care systems, testing novel, cost-effective interventions to enhance daily functioning at home should be a public health priority.
Based closely on the successful pilot program, the extended study will be a randomized controlled trial that exposes participants to either a physical intervention with three components (pain management, medication adherence and dealing with depression; exercise, strengthening and adapting; and physical improvement of the home to facilitate livability and safety) or a cognitive intervention (which includes sequenced life-review interviews that have been shown to help with memory and mood).
Participants will be enrolled from now through March 2015 and will experience up to 10 in-home sessions over a four-month period. The expanded study will involve 300 predominantly African-American low-income residents of Baltimore City, age 65 or older, who live at home but have difficulty with such daily functions as housework, preparing meals, taking medications as prescribed, managing finances, personal hygiene or toileting.
In addition to measuring short-term improvements in functionality and quality of life, Szanton and her team will test the longer-term effects of the interventions and weigh their economic value by assessing the impact on total health care costs over the 52 weeks following randomization. If successful, the planned cost analyses will offer the potential for wider translation of the strategies, positioning CAPABLE to reduce Medicare and Medicaid costs while decreasing health disparities among minority and low-income older adults. | https://gazette.jhu.edu/2012/05/14/expert-on-aging-to-expand-outreach-study-with-balto-seniors/ |
In Figure, PQ and RS are two parallel tangents to a circle with centre O and another tangent AB with point of contact C intersecting PQ at A and RS at B. Prove that ∠AOB = 90º.
Find the ratio in which the line x – 3y = 0 divides the line segment joining the points (–2, –5) and (6, 3). Find the coordinates of the point of intersection.
In Figure, a square OABC is inscribed in a quadrant OPBQ. If OA = 15 cm, find the area of the shaded region. (Use π = 3.14)
In Figure, ABCD is a square with side 2√2 cm and inscribed in a circle. Find the area of the shaded region. (Use π = 3.14)
A solid is in the form of a cylinder with hemispherical ends. The total height of the solid is 20 cm and the diameter of the cylinder is 7 cm. Find the total volume of the solid. (Use π = 22/7)
For what value of k, is the polynomial f(x) = 3x4 – 9x3 + x2 + 15x + k completely divisible by 3x2 – 5 ?
Find the zeroes of the quadratic polynomial 7y2 – 11y/3 – 2/3 and verify the relationship between the zeroes and the coefficients.
Write all the values of p for which the quadratic equation x2 + px + 16 = 0 has equal roots. Find the roots of the equation so obtained.
Amit, standing on a horizontal plane, finds a bird flying at a distance of 200 m from him at an elevation of 30°. Deepak standing on the roof of a 50 m high building, finds the angle of elevation of the same bird to be 45°. Amit and Deepak are on opposite sides of the bird. Find the distance of the bird from Deepak.
A solid iron pole consists of a cylinder of height 220 cm and base diameter 24 cm, which is surmounted by another cylinder of height 60 cm and radius 8 cm. Find the mass of the pole, given that 1 cm3 of iron has approximately 8 gm mass. (Use π = 3.14)
Which term of the Arithmetic Progression –7, –12, –17, –22, ... will be –82 ? Is –100 any term of the A.P. ? Give reason for your answer.
How many terms of the Arithmetic Progression 45, 39, 33, ... must be taken so that their sum is 180 ? Explain the double answer.
In a class test, the sum of Arun’s marks in Hindi and English is 30. Had he got 2 marks more in Hindi and 3 marks less in English, the product of the marks would have been 210. Find his marks in the two subjects.
The absolute refractive index of Ruby is 1.7. Find the speed of light in Ruby. The speed of light in vacuum is 3 × 108 m/s.
On heating blue coloured powder of copper (II) nitrate in a boiling tube, black copper oxide, O2 and a brown gas X is formed.
(a) While diluting an acid, why is it recommended that the acid should be added to water and not water to the acid ?
(b) Dry hydrogen chloride gas does not change the colour of dry litmus paper. Why ?
How is sodium hydroxide manufactured in industries ? Name the process. In this process a gas X is formed as by-product. This gas reacts with lime water to give a compound Y, which is used as a bleaching agent in the chemical industry. Identify X and Y and write the chemical equation of the reactions involved.
What are amphoteric oxides ? Give an example. Write balanced chemical equations to justify your answer.
What is a homologous series of carbon compounds ? Give an example and list its three characteristics.
List in tabular form three distinguishing features between autotrophic nutrition and heterotrophic nutrition.
(a) What is translocation ? Why is it essential for plants ?
(b) Where do the substances in plants reach as a result of translocation ?
What is transpiration ? List its two functions.
What is carpel ? Write the function of its various parts.
A 10 cm tall object is placed perpendicular to the principal axis of a convex lens of focal length 12 cm. The distance of the object from the lens is 18 cm. Find the nature, position and size of the image formed.
Write the essential function performed by ozone at the higher levels of the Earth’s atmosphere ? How is it produced ? Name the synthetic chemicals mainly responsible for the drop of amount of ozone in the atmosphere. How can the use of these chemicals be reduced ?
What are solar cells ? Explain the structure of solar panel. List two principal advantages associated with solar cells.
The electrons in the atoms of four elements A, B, C and D are distributed in three shells having 1, 3, 5 and 7 electrons respectively in their outermost shells. Write the group numbers in which these elements are placed in the Modern Periodic Table. Write the electronic configuration of the atoms of B and D and the molecular formula of the compound formed when B and D combine.
How does the metallic character of elements vary on moving from
of the Modern Periodic Table ? Give reason for your answer.
List any three observations which posed a challenge to Mendeleev’s Periodic Law.
How do nerve impulses travel in the body ? Explain.
Why is the use of iodised salt advisable ? Name the disease caused due to deficiency of iodine in our diet and state its one symptom.
What is hydrotropism ? Design an experiment to demonstrate this phenomenon.
What are homologous structures ? Give an example.
Consider the given circuit and find the current flowing in the circuit and potential difference across the 15 Ω resistor when the circuit is closed.
Calculate the equivalent resistance of the following network :
A teacher provided acetic acid, water, lemon juice, aqueous solution of sodium hydrogen carbonate and sodium hydroxide to students in the school laboratory to determine the pH values of these substances using pH papers. One of the students reported the pH values of the given substances as 3, 12, 4, 8 and 14 respectively. Which one of these values is not correct ? Write its correct value stating the reason.
What would a student report nearly after 30 minutes of placing duly cleaned strips of aluminium, copper, iron and zinc in freshly prepared iron sulphate solution taken in four beakers ?
What is observed when a pinch of sodium hydrogen carbonate is added to 2 mL of acetic acid taken in a test tube ? Write chemical equation for the reaction involved in this case.
After examining a prepared slide under the high power of a compound microscope, a student concludes that the given slide shows the various stages of binary fission in a unicellular organism. Write two observations on the basis of which such a conclusion may be drawn.
List in proper sequence four steps of obtaining germinating dicot seeds.
List four precautions which a student should observe while preparing a temporary mount of a leaf peel to show stomata in his school laboratory.
The current flowing through a resistor connected in a circuit and the potential difference developed across its ends are as shown in the diagram by milliammeter and voltmeter readings respectively:
Describe Economic Hardships Faced By Europe In 1830s?
Describe the serious problem faced by the modern part of Hanoi in 1903.
How had the printing press created a new culture of reading in Europe ? Explain with examples.
How had Charles Dickens depicted the terrible effects of industrialisation on peoples lives and characters ? Explain with examples.
Describe any three main features of ‘Alluvial soil’ found in India. | https://myaptitude.in/cbse-x |
Tendinopathy is an injury to the tendon. It can cause pain, swelling, and limit movement. The injuries can include:
- Tendonitis — an inflammation of the tendon (Although this term is used often, most cases of tendinopathy are not associated with significant inflammation.)
- Tendinosis — microtears (tiny breaks) in the tendon tissue with no significant inflammation.
The posterior tibial tendon runs from the posterior tibial muscle to the inside of the ankle and the arch of the foot. The main job of this tendon is to support the arch of the foot. If the tendon is injured or weak the arch of the foot can collapse. This will make the foot pronate (roll outward). These injuries can make it painful to walk.
Posterior tibial tendinopathy – Causes
The tendinopathy is caused by overuse of the posterior tibialis tendon. This most often occurs due to:
- Running and jumping
- Dancing, for example ballet pointe work and excessive foot rotation
- Trauma with high impact
Posterior tibial tendinopathy – Risk Factors
Factors that increase your chance of posterior tibial tendinopathy include:
- Chronic inflammation — history of rheumatoid arthritis or other arthritic conditions
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Hypertension — high blood pressure
- Previous surgery or trauma
- Local steroid injections
- Having pronated feet (rolled outward)
- Aging — tendons may become weaker with age
Posterior tibial tendinopathy – Symptoms
Symptoms may include:
- Pain and swelling near the arch of the foot and on the inside of the ankle
- Pain that increases when standing on the ball of the foot or if the foot is flexed
- Pain that increases with activity
- Tiredness in the foot after little activity
- Pain that becomes more disabling
- Later in the course of the tendinopathy, a flattening of the arch of the foot and pronation
- An inability to push off well when running
Posterior tibial tendinopathy – Diagnosis
The doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history. A physical exam will be done, paying special attention to the foot. Pain in the ankle and foot can be due to many causes. Posterior tibialis tendinopathy can be difficult to diagnose.
The doctor will try to feel the tendon through your skin. He will note how the foot moves and handles resistance to moving the foot inwards. The doctor will look at the foot from behind and from the side and see how flat the arch is. You may be asked to try to stand on the ball of your foot. If you cannot do this you are likely to have a problem with your posterior tibial tendon.
To confirm changes in your foot and exclude other causes, your doctor may order:
- X-rays — a test that uses radiation to take a picture of structures inside the body
- MRI scan — a test that uses magnetic waves to make pictures of the inside of the body
- Tendoscopy — a small lighted flexible tube is inserted into the tissue surrounding the tendon to view the area
Posterior tibial tendinopathy – Treatment
The goals of treatment are to:
- Prevent the foot from pronating
- Decrease inflammation and prevent deterioration of the tendon
You may be referred to an orthopedic specialist. Early treatment and correction of the underlying cause improves the prognosis. Treatment may include:
- RICE — rest, ice, compression, and elevation
- Anti-inflammatory and pain medicines
- Strapping or taping the foot; some people need a cast or a brace
- Physical therapy, including:
- Exercises to strengthen the posterior tibial muscle
- Correction of poor dance or exercise techniques
- Custom-made orthotics — These are shoe inserts that can decrease tension on the tendon, reduce pronation, and help support the foot.
- Surgery to repair the tendon
Posterior tibial tendinopathy – Prevention
To help prevent posterior tibialis tendinopathy, practice good foot care:
- If you notice you are walking on the inner aspect of your foot, consult a doctor. Early care leads to better prognosis.
- If you have a foot or ankle injury, get medical care.
- Wear good, supportive shoes that provide arch support.
- Obtain proper training for sports and dance activities. | https://mednhealth.com/posterior-tibial-tendinopathy.html |
Mountain Park Community Church (MPCC) is a thriving church in beautiful Ahwatukee, an affluent area within sunny Phoenix, Arizona. This community has a true small town feel and is known as the “largest cul-de-sac in the world” because of the nearby mountain ranges and tribal lands secluding it from the rest of Phoenix. Starting as a church plant nearly 30 years ago, MPCC has grown to one of the largest churches in the area averaging over 1,600 on Sunday mornings. The local community features excellent schools, abundant sports and outdoor activities, beautiful desert surroundings and a health conscious culture. Through a major freeway expansion project, God has given MPCC a unique opportunity to relocate two miles down the street to a prominent spot at the "gateway" of our community. We're in the process of building a brand new, state of the art, $11M building with expanded children and student areas to handle projected growth. We'll be in the new facility in June of 2017, so this is an ideal time for a Family Pastor/Director to come on board and help shape the future of MPCC.
Position Summary
The Family Pastor/Director is responsible for championing MPCC’s value to thrive in our family roles. This role is responsible for all aspects of the discipleship strategies from birth to young adults. Additionally, this role oversees all marriage and parenting initiatives. This role manages and leads the Family team including a Children’s Ministry Associate, Student Ministry Associate, Children’s Coordinator, Interns and hundreds of volunteers. The key objectives for this role are to assure ministries are aligned with the overarching mission of Mountain Park, to work together collectively as a single team and to partner with parents and families in passing faith to the next generation.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Manage and lead the Family Team
- Manage and lead the Family team to include but not limited to hiring, scheduling, distribution of duties, coaching, training, performance reviews, discipline and termination when necessary.
- Assure a safe, welcoming and fun environments for all areas of ministry with children, students, and college-age
- Lead ministry areas in support of the overall mission and strategy of the church through amazing children, student, and college-age programming on Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights, as well as annual camps, trips, special events, and other various needs
- Ensure high quality teaching in all aspects of Family Ministry, including Children’s, Student’s, premarital, marriage and parenting
- Recruit, develop and lead hundreds of volunteers
- Ensure all leaders and volunteers, for all areas, are properly trained and have clear expectations
- Assess the ongoing effectiveness of ministry areas including programming, staff, and volunteers; lead adjustments and changes as needed
- Meet regularly with the Family team to provide ongoing coaching, feedback, and leadership
- Responsible for the development and management the budgets and calendars for ministry areas
- Play an active role on the Leadership Team to include participating in weekly meetings and collaborating with the Leadership Team to set church-wide strategic direction
Children/Student Ministry
- Ensure efficient check-in process for Children Ministry whereby new families have a great first impression and returning families have great clarity of the system
- Lead Fellows, a weekly intensive discipleship program with High School seniors preparing to launch into adulthood
- Ensure that students are integrated into the rest of the church and not be limited to a self-contained student ministry experience
- Lead Student Ministry team to align with Mountain Park mission. The goal of Student Ministry is NOT just to gather a crowd, but to disciple young men and women and to give them opportunities for meaningful service and leadership
Marriage/Parenting
- Manage the premarital process as well as the scheduling of and format for weddings on our site
- Provide ongoing assistance for marriages in crisis as well as marriages seeking development and improvement
- Support the development and implementation of HomeTeam strategies to equip and empower parents as the primary disciplers of their children, this includes serving as the champion of Relay, an intentional strategy to equip parents at each stage of their child’s spiritual development
Qualifications
Education
- Required: Bachelor’s degree in a related field
- Preferred: Master’s level work
Essential Experience
- Minimum of five years’ experience leading family, children and/or student ministry at a church averaging at least 500 in attendance
- Experience preparing and teaching biblical messages to audiences of at least 100 students and/or adults
- Previous supervisor experience preferred
- Previous experience in recruiting, leading and developing hundreds of volunteers is preferred
Essential Qualities
- Commitment to MPCC’s mission, values and leadership
- Align with the MPCC Personality of
- Safe yet Dangerous
- Fun yet intentional
- Confident yet Humble
- Spiritually mature Christian with a consistent track record of Christ-like behavior including…
…knows the story
…trusts the author
…living with margin
…thriving in my family role
…thriving in my kingdom role
- A self-starter who has a strong work ethic
- Enthusiasm and joy – a naturally “bright” face and smile
- Emotional and relational intelligence; ability to quickly build relational equity and maintain a strong rapport with children, students, parents and volunteers
- Effective in verbal and written communication
- Someone who models/desires healthy biblical relationships
Addendum
- Additional projects and responsibilities may be necessary as requested by the Lead Pastor.
- Job descriptions at MPCC are fluid - meaning this job description represents the minimum expectations when it comes to tasks and areas you may be working in. The reality is that we work as a team and there are numerous other tasks that will require the participation of the person holding this position.
Mountain Park Community Church is an Equal Opportunity Employer
M/F/D/V
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About Mountain Park Community Church
We are a community of believers in Jesus Christ committed to Loving God and Loving Others. More... | http://www.churchstaffing.com/job/206134/family-pastordirector/mountain-park-community-church/ |
Use the filter menu and interactive map to explore the past competitions offered and grants awarded through the Environmental Literacy Program.
To learn more about project findings and outcomes, view the summaries of our grantees’ summative evaluation reports.
- American Museum of Natural History (1)
- Angelo State University (1)
- California State University at Monterey Bay (1)
- Earth & Sky (1)
- Lawrence Hall of Science (1)
- NatureBridge (1)
- Research Foundation of the City University of New York / Queens College (1)
- Tech Museum of Innovation (2)
- U.S. Satellite Laboratory (1)
- University of Wisconsin-Madison / Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) (1)
- (-) 2011/2012: ELG for Formal K-12 Education (3)
- (-) 2007: ELG for Formal K-12 Education (1)
- (-) 2006: Environmental Literacy (3)
- (-) 2005: Environmental Literacy (4)
- 2021: NOAA OED Broad Agency Announcement for FY 2021—2024 (1)
- 2020: ELG for Community Resilience to Extreme Weather Events and Environmental Hazards (3)
- 2018: ELG for Community Resilience to Extreme Weather Events and Environmental Hazards (1)
- 2016: ELG for Community Resilience to Extreme Weather Events and Environmental Hazards (2)
- 2015: ELG for Community Resilience to Extreme Weather Events and Environmental Changes (2)
- 2013: ELG for Building Capacity of Informal and Formal Educators (3)
- 2012: Ocean Education Partnership Grants (1)
- 2012: NOAA Broad Agency Announcement for FY 2012—2013 (1)
- 2010: NOAA Broad Agency Announcement for FY 2010—2011 (1)
- 2010: ELG for Informal/Nonformal Education (5)
- 2009: Ocean Education Grants for AZA Aquariums (3)
- 2008: ELG for Spherical Display Systems for Earth Systems Science-Installations & Content (3)
- 2008/2009: ELG for Formal K-12 Education (1)
- 2007: ELG for Free-choice Learning (1)
Earth & Sky NOAA Partnership
Earth & Sky is a short-format science radio series airing daily on more than 1,000 commercial and public radio stations and translators in the U.S. as well as on satellite and Internet radio outlets. The series consists of 90-second programs on a wide variety of topics mostly drawn from environmental sciences, earth sciences and astronomy. NOAA supported the development, broadcast and Internet archiving of 72 programs, covering topics based on NOAA data and research findings.
Educational Applications of the National Maritime Center Science on a Sphere
This project is developing and implementing a strong environmental literacy and science education program to accompany NOAA's Science on a Sphere® (SOS) at The National Maritime Center's Nauticus museum. The program will use the SOS as a focal point to support learning about global oceanic and atmospheric circulations and their effect on local environments. The team is creating real-time global displays of environmental phenomena for the SOS from the expansive University of Wisconsin environmental satellite database. Computer visualization systems and user-driven interactive displays will allow viewers to move from global scale to regional and local scale in order to explore specific features of the phenomena being visualized and to understand them in greater detail. The displays will be integrated with high quality education materials that are aligned with national standards and specifically address the NOAA Education Strategic Plan. The teaming of the University of Wisconsin, Hampton University, and the National Maritime Center offers the opportunity to expose students from ethnic minority groups to various NOAA career paths and help produce graduates with solid technical backgrounds.
Integrating Science on a Sphere into The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, CA.
This cooperative agreement will support the Tech Museum of Innovation (The Tech) in San Jose, California in acquiring SOS-related hardware and software, as well as providing the technical support to facilitate the installation of SOS in The Tech's Exploration Gallery in 2005-2006. Science On a Sphere® will be the focal point of The Tech Museum's newly renovated Explorations gallery. The dramatic sphere will draw visitors to the center of the 8,000 square-foot space. Hands-on experiences around the sphere will engage visitors in meaningful explorations of NOAA data. The Tech Museum will apply its exhibit and program development expertise to make SOS accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds, and educational levels. All panel text, audio, and captions will be presented in both English and Spanish to allow greater accessibility for local audiences. The Tech's SOS system will focus on three topics of great interest to Californians: Earthquakes, Oceans, Space. NOAA data will enable us to showcase the technology that is used to measure, monitor, and track environmental changes in our world. We hope to further address the potential of data modeling to aid in predicting the future state of the environment based on our actions. The Tech is also opening a new environment exhibition, Green By Design (GBD) in 2006. This exhibit focuses on how sustainable design and technological innovation offer potential solutions to many of our global environmental challenges. SOS will provide a compelling centerpiece to support the educational purpose of this gallery as it effectively illustrates how data collected with remote sensing technologies are helping us understand and make predictions about our dynamic environment and the future of our planet. SOS will illustrate how these data collecting technologies assist us in developing our knowledge about our planet and its solar system.
The Tech Museum Environmental Literacy Programming Grant
The Tech Museum of Innovation (The Tech) in San Jose, California proposes to partner with NOAA to integrate Science On a Sphere® (SOS) into The Tech's Exploration gallery and to facilitate the development of informal and formal learning programs. Exhibits and programs at The Tech focus on the integration of emerging technologies into hands-on visitor experiences. In 2004, The Tech partnered with NOAA, the Maryland Science Center (MSC), and a consortium of national science centers to explore the potential and effectiveness of SOS as a method of engaging and informing the general public about NOAA-related sciences. Initial testing of SOS at the Maryland Science Center revealed that SOS is a visually compelling and engaging medium for conveying complex scientific information to museum visitors. Ninety-eight percent of visitors tested regarded a facilitated SOS program as a good or excellent experience with strong visitor retention suggesting the potential of SOS as a compelling visitor tool. However, when the experience was not facilitated this retention dropped dramatically. Support from NOAA will enable The Tech to test SOS and NOAA data in a number of formats to determine the most effective ways to utilize this incredible technology. The results of this evaluation will be shared with other museums using SOS to improve its reach in teaching informal audiences and promoting interest in both STEM content and NOAA research. The SOS exhibit will bring together scientists, technologists, informal education specialists, and young users to unlock the educational potential of NOAA's datasets and further NOAA's educational plan. Hands-on experiences using SOS will engage visitors in meaningful explorations of NOAA data. The Tech Museum will make SOS accessible to people of all ages, backgrounds, and educational levels. All panel text, audio, and captions will be presented in both English and Spanish to allow greater accessibility for local audiences. SOS will provide the programming platform upon which to explore the educational opportunities of this gallery as it illustrates how data collected with remote sensing technologies is helping us understand and make predictions about our dynamic environment and the future of our planet. SOS will illustrate how these data collecting technologies assist us in developing our knowledge about our planet and its solar system.
Interpreting Global, Half-hourly Cloud Observations to Promote Weather and Climate Literacy
AMNH will use NOAA weather satellite data to annotate 72 high definition (HD) video time-series global cloud cover visualizations using thermal infrared brightness temperature data acquired by five geostationary satellites and joined into global mosaics at half-hourly intervals. The HD visualizations will be used in informal and formal education activities and will be made available on the Web. These media pieces will be used for informal education activities at AMNH and 28 other informal science institutions (ISI) around the United States . The target population of visitors to subscribing ISIs is currently ten million and is projected to be over 15 million by the end of the grant. The HD visualizations will be used in formal settings, as well. Fifteen schools throughout New York City with large numbers of new English Language Learners will be targeted and professional development for teachers of ELL students will be provided through programs at AMNH as well. AMNH's effort focuses on weather and climate patterns that will be visible in the cloud-data visualizations. All viewers of the media will learn about general circulation patterns and changes in phase of water associated with the hydrologic cycle.
Signals of Spring - ACES [Animals in Curriculum-bases Ecosystem Studies]
Signals of Spring ACES (Animals in Curriculum-based Ecosystem Studies), will use NOAA remote sensing data with curriculum-based activities for middle and high school students (see http://www.signalsofspring.net/aces/). Students use Earth imagery to explain the movement of animals that are tracked by satellite with NOAA's ARGOS monitoring system. The project addresses the issues surrounding the animals and environments of NOAA's National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS). Comprehensive teacher professional development will be delivered both onsite and online for 250 teachers. The project will impact 20,000 students and parents. Ten curriculum modules will be delivered to students, accompanied with an investigation of El Nino and animals, as well as ocean life and global climate change. ACES will provide classrooms with the curricular area of conservation and the ecological issues surrounding the ocean, using marine animals as the engaging component. Students will apply NOAA Earth data to animal migrations and the critical environmental issues that face these animals that are of depleting populations. Once teachers and students have the necessary skills to interpret data, students will perform the ACES investigations.
Building Ocean Literacy in our youth through unique learning experiences in our National Marine Sanctuaries.
This project aims to develop and implement residential and non-residential science camp and summer camp programs and related activities to over 1500 youth and teachers from 8 elementary and middle schools. NOAA's Multicultural Education for Resource Issues Threatening Oceans (MERITO) program will serve as a key outreach mechanism to reach underserved youth and their families. The proposed project will utilize existing ocean educational materials, including those developed by NOAA, in experiential learning programs for youth through Camp SEA (Science, Education, Adventure) Lab. The two major goals of the project are: (1) to develop and implement marine-oriented outdoor science and summer camps in close collaboration with the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, resulting in an effective model for dissemination of the Ocean Literacy Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts to large numbers of youth and their teachers; and 2) to develop a model and a feasibility plan to implement the program across a broader geographical area, e.g. through other National Marine Sanctuaries.
Ocean Sciences Curriculum Sequence for Grades 3-5
In close collaboration and partnership, the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) at the University of California, Berkeley, the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Coastal Ocean Observation Laboratory (COOL), Rutgers University Institute of Marine & Coastal Sciences, and the Carolina Biological Supply Company will update, adapt, transform, and widely disseminate existing instructional materials from the LHS Marine Activities Resources & Education (MARE) and Great Explorations in Mathematics and Sciences (GEMS) programs. The materials will provide teachers with a standards-based tool for teaching basic science using the ocean as a compelling integrating context. The materials will be grounded in current research on teaching and learning and designed to connect to the Ocean Literacy Essential Principles and Fundamental Concepts, and national and state science standards. The activities will be thoroughly pilot and field tested to ensure their effectiveness and applicability nationwide. The finished product will include print materials for teachers, with inquiry-based learning activities, student readings and data sheets, curriculum-embedded assessments, and commercially available materials kits that will allow the Sequence to be adopted by whole school systems and/or states (see http://www.lhsgems.org/CurriculumSequences.htm).
Into the Woods (ITW)
Queens College’s Into the Woods (ITW) project is an environmental literacy program for New York City Elementary School Teachers enhancing content knowledge about the Earth System and extending their classrooms outdoors into Nature. The classrooms continue to evolve into school stewardship and service learning in partnerships with parks and environmental organizations. The ITW project starts with five Elementary Globe books that link science, math and literacy. Fiction becomes reality during field training that uses GLOBE books as blueprints for how teachers can guide their students to conduct their own research to enhance understanding of the environment. The project trains teachers to design and supervise grade-appropriate research projects using GLOBE protocols in local parks; support them during those projects; and host annual research symposia during which students present their results. The project's template of immersing teachers and students in environmental research is becoming a national model for improving environmental literacy in all school systems. The NYU Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education works in partnership with Into the Woods to connect teachers to the resources, materials, and strategies required to successfully implement environmental education, outdoor learning, service learning and hands-on experiences across all grade levels and curriculum areas.
Environmental Literacy for All: Creating Comprehensive Environmental Service Learning and Professional Development for Diverse K-12 Students and Teachers
NatureBridge is expanding its highly successful, 41-year environmental education model through teacher engagement and service learning programs to empower the next diverse generation of climate and environmentally literate citizens. Through partnerships with schools, districts, and environmental organizations, service learning opportunities will be established for civic engagement in NatureBridge students' home communities. This engagement effort includes the creation of new climate literacy curriculum, the application of cutting-edge monitoring technology and online resources for public participation in scientific research, the exposure of youth to STEM career options, and the significant increase in diversity of students served by NatureBridge programming. This work will be informed by and benefit from NOAA assets across our service areas. By strengthening existing and creating new engagement programs throughout our organization, teachers will become fully versed in the principles of environmental and climate literacy. These programs will focus on increasing accessibility, diversifying our participants, and incorporating best practices and climate literacy content.
Earth System Science for Elementary Teachers (ESSET)
Angelo State University (ASU), in partnership with Texas borderlands school districts and the National Weather Service Office in San Angelo, Texas, are recipients of a NOAA Environmental Literacy Grant Priority 1 grant titled "Earth System Sciences for Elementary Teachers" (ESSET). This project will: 1) Increase the knowledge and skills level of 25 elementary in-service teachers regarding best practices for teaching integrated Earth System Science concepts in a learner-centered, outdoor environment; 2) Increase teachers' ability to align integrated science content with Texas standards-based curriculum and NOAA's Education Strategic Plan; and 3) Integrate concepts of environmental stewardship with teachers' newly acquired pedagogy and science content. Participants will receive nine semester-hours of ASU graduate credit, and a variety of tools and equipment for their classrooms following successful completion of this 18-month project. Anticipated results include increases in overall integrated science content knowledge, best practices, and self-efficacy for participating teachers. Scaling-up this proof-of-concept project to catalyze change across Texas will occur near the end of ESSET. | https://www.noaa.gov/office-education/elp/grants/awards?f%5B0%5D=field_competition_%3A2005%3A%20Environmental%20Literacy&f%5B1%5D=field_competition_%3A2006%3A%20Environmental%20Literacy&f%5B2%5D=field_competition_%3A2007%3A%20ELG%20for%20Formal%20K-12%20Education&f%5B3%5D=field_competition_%3A2011/2012%3A%20%C2%A0ELG%20for%20Formal%20K-12%20Education&f%5B4%5D=field_ela_state%3ACalifornia&f%5B5%5D=field_ela_state%3ANew%20York&f%5B6%5D=field_ela_state%3ATexas&f%5B7%5D=field_ela_state%3AWisconsin |
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Neuropsychology and Behavioral Neurology
- Author : Georg Goldenberg,Bruce L. Miller
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2008-06-05
- Total pages :608
- ISBN : 0444518975
Summary : This volume presents a comprehensive guide to one of the most important goals of neuroscience, establishing precision structure-function relationships in the brain. Progressing from the early stages of research, specifically the advent of computerized tomography and later, magnetic resonance imaging, this invaluable resource will take clinicians on an all encompassing journey into the ways different fields of neurology can work together to advance our understanding of brain disorders. Complex topics including the neurochemistry of cognition, neuropsychology of aging and dementia, disorders of semantic memory, working memory, and the dysexecutive syndromes, amongst others, are thoroughly discussed and presented. Clinicians will find a state-of-the-art reference guide that can be used to further understand how the fields of neuropsychology and behavioral neurology can complement each other to produce advancements in the neurosciences. * Comprehensive information on the ways neuropsychology and behavioral neurology can work together to advance research * Complex topics that explore the neurochemistry of cognition, the neuropsychology of aging and dementia, and disorders of semantic memory, amongst others * Important breakthroughs in brain mapping techniques that have advanced diagnosis and patient care management within the neurosciences
Neuropsychology, Neuropsychiatry, and Behavioral Neurology
- Author : Rhawn Joseph
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2013-04-17
- Total pages :383
- ISBN : 9781475759693
Summary : This book is written for the clinician, students, and practitioners of neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, and behavioral neurology. It has been my intent throughout to present a synthesis of ideas and research findings. I have reviewed thousands of articles and research reports and have drawn extensively from diverse sources in philosophy, psychol ogy, neurology, neurosurgery, neuropsychiatry, physiology, and neuroanatomy in order to produce this text. Of course I have also drawn from my own experience as a clinician and research scientist in preparing this work and in this regard some of my own biases and interests are represented. I have long sought to understand the human mind and the phenomena we experience as conscious awareness. After many years of studying a variety of Western and Eastern psychologists and philosophers, including the Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophical systems, I began, while still an undergraduate student, to formulate my own theory of the mind. I felt, though, that what I had come upon were only pieces of half the puzzle. What I knew of the brain was minimal. Indeed, it came as quite a surprise when one day I came across the journal Brain as I was browsing through the periodicals section of the library. I was awed. An entire journal devoted to the brain was quite a revelation. Nevertheless, although intrigued by the possibilities, I resisted.
Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychology, Second Edition
- Author : Todd E. Feinberg,Martha J. Farah
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2003-07-17
- Total pages :910
- ISBN : UOM:39015056292173
Summary : This new edition has five new chapters on cerebral plasticity, functional brain imaging, genetics of neural development, & alterations to the state of consciousness. There is authoritative coverage of disorders of perception, attention & awareness.
Topics in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychology
- Author : Daniel B. Hier,Philip B Gorelick,Andrea Gellin Shindler
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2013-10-22
- Total pages :272
- ISBN : 9781483192710
Summary : Topics in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychology provides information pertinent to neuropsychology and behavioral neurology. This book serves as a guide to those caring for patients with disorders of higher cortical function. Organized into 18 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the classes of disorders of higher cortical function according to major behavioral disturbance. This text then presents the various classification schemes for aphasic syndromes. Other chapters consider the multidimensional process of the analysis of various speech disorders, including dysprosody, dysarthria, hysteria, anomia, and aphasia. This book discusses as well the various forms of alexia, including pure alexia, alexia, alexia with agraphia, and frontal alexia. The final chapter deals with stroke and other brain disorders. This book is a valuable resource for neurologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, neurology residents, speech pathologists, and rehabilitation medicine specialists. Readers who are interested in the study of the disorders of the higher cortical function will also find this book useful.
Principles of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology
- Author : M.-Marsel Mesulam
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2000-01-27
- Total pages :574
- ISBN : 0198030800
Summary : This thoroughly revised new edition of a classic book provides a clinically inspired but scientifically guided approach to the biological foundations of human mental function in health and disease. It includes authoritative coverage of all the major areas related to behavioral neurology, neuropsychology, and neuropsychiatry. Each chapter, written by a world-renowned expert in the relevant area, provides an introductory background as well as an up-to-date review of the most recent developments. Clinical relevance is emphasized but is placed in the context of cognitive neuroscience, basic neuroscience, and functional imaging. Major cognitive domains such as frontal lobe function, attention and neglect, memory, language, prosody, complex visual processing, and object identification are reviewed in detail. A comprehensive chapter on behavioral neuroanatomy provides a background for brain-behavior interactions in the cerebral cortex, limbic system, basal ganglia, thalamus, and cerebullum. Chapters on temperolimbic epilepsy, major psychiatric syndromes, and dementia provide in-depth analyses of these neurobehavioral entities and their neurobiological coordinates. Changes for this second edition include the reflection throughout the book of the new and flourishing alliance of behavioral neurology, neuropsychology, and neuropsychiatry with cognitive science;major revision of all chapters; new authorship of those on language and memory; and the inclusion of entirely new chapters on psychiatric syndromes and the dementias. Both as a textbook and a reference work, the second edition of Principles of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology represents an invaluable resource for behavioral neurologists, neuropsychologists, neuropsychiatrists, cognitive and basic neuroscientists, geriatricians, physiatrists, and their students and trainees.
Principles and Practice of Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychology
- Author : Matthew Rizzo,Paul J. Eslinger
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2004
- Total pages :1168
- ISBN : UOM:39015058139968
Summary : Written on a non-specialist level, this highly practical text emphasizes the basic principles and applications of behavioral neurology and neuropsychology. Emphasis is on the broad recognition of the signs and symptoms of neurobehavioral disorders and attendant acute and long-term management strategies. The text covers the broad recognition of signs and symptoms, acute and long term management strategies, and current, therapeutic options. Each chapter begins with an outline, and highlighted key words and main points Each chapter ends with a list of main points and key readings, glossary and references Each chapter contains a generous number charts, tables, algorithms, and figures With over 80 Contributors
The Roots of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Author : Anjan Chatterjee,H. Branch Coslett
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2013-11-26
- Total pages :424
- ISBN : 9780199875351
Summary : The Roots of Cognitive Neuroscience takes a close look at what we can learn about our minds from how brain damage impairs our cognitive and emotional systems. This approach has a long and rich tradition dating back to the 19th century. With the rise of new technologies, such as functional neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation, interest in mind-brain connections among scientists and the lay public has grown exponentially. Behavioral neurology and neuropsychology offer critical insights into the neuronal implementation of large-scale cognitive and affective systems. The book starts out by making a strong case for the role of single case studies as a way to generate new hypotheses and advance the field. This chapter is followed by a review of work done before the First World War demonstrating that the theoretical issues that investigators faced then remain fundamentally relevant to contemporary cognitive neuroscientists. The rest of the book covers central topics in cognitive neuroscience including the nature of memory, language, perception, attention, motor control, body representations, the self, emotions, and pharmacology. There are chapters on modeling and neuronal plasticity as well as on visual art and creativity. Each of these chapters take pains to clarify how this research strategy informs our understanding of these large scale systems by scrutinizing the systematic nature of their breakdown. Taken together, the chapters show that the roots of cognitive neuroscience, behavioral neurology and neuropsychology, continue to ground our understanding of the biology of mind and are as important today as they were 150 years ago.
Handbook of Neuropsychology and Aging
- Author : Paul David Nussbaum
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :1997-05-31
- Total pages :559
- ISBN : 0306454602
Summary : Leaders in neuropsychology, behavioral neurology, speech and language science, neuropsychiatry, and many other disciplines contribute to this volume, the first comprehensive review of knowledge in the field. They discuss a wide range of disorders, including areas of recent research - such as frontal lobe dementias and the neuropsychological aspects of late life depression - and clinical problems typically given insufficient consideration in other works, such as seizure disorder, head injury, and mental retardation. Normal aging is also covered in detail, and assessment procedures and clinical interventions are given thorough treatment. Other highlights include discussions of guardianship and caregiving personality and behavior, psychotic disorders, Alzheimer's, and head trauma.
Behavioral Neurology & Neuropsychiatry
- Author : David B. Arciniegas,C. Alan Anderson,Christopher M. Filley
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2013-01-24
- Total pages :668
- ISBN : 9780521875011
Summary : The only textbook written specifically for physicians training and practising in this developing medical subspecialty.
Neuroscience, Neuropsychology, Neuropsychiatry, Brain and Mind
- Author : R. Joseph
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2011-11
- Total pages :778
- ISBN : 0974975559
Summary : Neuroscience, Neuropsychology, Neuropsychiatry, Brain and Mind Chapters 1. Right Hemisphere -12 2. Left Hemisphere -79 3. Frontal Lobes -130 4. Parietal Lobes -188 5. Occipital Lobe -250 6. Temporal Lobes -280 7. Limbic System -350 8. Limbic Language & Social Emotional Development -418 9. Hippocampus, Amygdala, Memory, Amnesia -486 10. Basal Ganglia & Striatum -533 11. Brainstem, Neurotransmitters, Dream Sleep, and Cranial Nerves -584 12. The Cerebellum -632 REFERENCES -654
Exploring the History of Neuropsychology
- Author : Arthur Benton
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2000-09-07
- Total pages :348
- ISBN : 9780195138085
Summary : Arthur Benton has long been recognized as a distinguished researcher, an influential educator, and a gifted writer. Early in his career, he was struck by the extreme divergence in the acceptance and usage of concepts and terms such as "agnosia," "amnesic aphasia," and "apraxia" by leading figures in the then young field of neuropsychology/behavioral neurology. This prompted him to explore the literature of 19th century neurology and led to an abiding interest in the historical background of current developments, which often proved to be the outgrowth of earlier formulations. In this collection of his historical papers, he traces the evolution of thought and practice in diverse areas of neuropsychology and behavioral neurology. He captures the setting in which observations and discoveries were made and shows how the limited knowledge of basic neuroscience that prevailed at the time influenced their interpretation. He emphasizes the interplay of clinical and experimental approaches in advancing understanding of brain-behavior relationships and clarifies the connections between past and present knowledge. Some of the essays are systematic accounts of developments in the broad discipline of neuropsychology while others deal with individual clinicians and scientists whose contributions are now components of current knowledge. Among the topics covered are the frontal lobes, developmental dyslexia, disorders of spatial thought in patients with brain disease and the role of cerebrovascular disease in the history of aphasiology.
Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience
- Author : Jeffrey L. Cummings,Michael S. Mega
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2003-01-23
- Total pages :432
- ISBN : 019803170X
Summary : This is the long-awaited successor to Jeffrey Cummings' classic work, Clinical Neuropsychiatry, published in 1985. That book represented an integration of behavioral neurology and biological psychiatry into a single volume devoted to explicating brain-behavior relationships. It was clinically oriented and intended for practitioners caring for patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. The new title reflects the authors' effort to link the recent explosion of new information from neurochemistry, neuroanatomy, genetics, neuropharmacology, neuropathology, and neuroimaging to the clinical descriptions. Yet the clinical emphasis of its predecessor has been maintained. Each chapter has a consistent approach and the book as whole provides a practical, easy-to-use synthesis of clinical advice and basic science. The volume is enhanced by 4-color images throughout. It is intended for students, residents, fellows, and practitioners of neurology, psychiatry, neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience. It will also be of interest to individuals in neuroimaging.
Behavioral Neurology
- Author : Jonathan H. Pincus,Gary J. Tucker
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2003
- Total pages :276
- ISBN : 0195137817
Summary : This is a thorough revision of one of the landmark books in the field of neuropsychiatry. The authors, one a distinguished neurologist and the other an eminent psychiatrist, provide a clear, well-integrated account of the behavioral aspects of neurological conditions and the neurological aspects of psychiatric disorders. Earlier editions presented the view, then provocative, that disordered brain function underlies psychiatric illnesses. A more balanced view characterizes the Fourth Edition, in which the authors discuss the most recent data from the neurosciences and molecular biology, including changes in the brain induced by the environment and by emotions. There is also a valuable new clinical chapter on differentiating the etiologies of disturbed behavior. Avoiding the deluge of information in multi-authored volumes, this very readable text provides a consistent approach to the understanding and diagnosis of disturbances of behavior. While the book is directed toward medical students, residents, psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, and psychology students (particularly those taking abnormal psychology courses), it has also been used by a wide variety of health professionals and attorneys.
The Neurological Side of Neuropsychology
- Author : Richard E. Cytowic
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :1996
- Total pages :529
- ISBN : 0262032317
Summary : Neurologists, neuropsychologists, and cognitive scientists work with many of the same problems and patients and yet know little about the literature and approaches of the other disciplines. The Neurological Side of Neuropsychology is a primer for neurology residents, graduate students, and established professionals from other fields who wish to enter behavioral neurology. It provides a clear and coherent introduction to contemporary neurological ideas, carefully contrasting the conventional hierarchical model of brain organization to the newer multiplex model that scientists from biological backgrounds currently use. Instead of presenting laundry lists of arcane maladies along with a key of "where in the brain the responsible lesion is," or a compendium of tests for a given situation--the received wisdom that students are required to memorize--Cytowic gives students the historical and conceptual tools they need not only to get up to speed regarding present knowledge, but to go forward.
Contemporary Neurobehavioral Syndromes
- Author : Gerald Goldstein,Theresa M. Incagnoli,Antonio E. Puente
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2011-05-23
- Total pages :328
- ISBN : 9781136816833
Summary : During the twentieth century, new neurobehavioral diseases appeared or were described for the first time. Exposure to certain toxins or noxious environments, for example, produced illnesses that did not exist before the twentieth century. In addition, established illnesses were reconceptualized with regard to their cause or neurobiological basis. Autism, for instance, was described for the first time during the twentieth century and may not have existed previously. Its cause was subsequently reconceptualized from a disorder related to inadequate parenting, to a brain disorder with possible genetic causes. These major new and reconceptualized disorders are reviewed in this book with regard to their neurocognitive characteristics, causes, and outcome. Disorders covered include ADHD in adults, Lewy Body Dementia, autism, multiple chemical sensitivity, deployment syndromes found in veterans of the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan wars, effects of low birth weight, neurobehavioral respiratory disorders, PTSD, and comorbid disorders such as depression and brain injury. The expert reviews of these disorders give balanced coverage of the ongoing and often controversial research findings that continue to generate much professional and public interest. This volume provides an essential resource for researchers, instructors, and clinicians in the fields of neuropsychology, psychiatry, behavioral neurology, neuroscience, toxicology, as well as the informed general public concerned and affected by these disorders.
Neuropsychology of Art
- Author : Dahlia W. Zaidel
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2015-11-06
- Total pages :272
- ISBN : 9781317517443
Summary : Fully updated, the second edition of Neuropsychology of Art offers a fascinating exploration of the brain regions and neuronal systems which support artistic creativity, talent and appreciation. This landmark book is the first to draw upon neurological, evolutionary, and cognitive perspectives, and to provide an extensive compilation of neurological case studies of professional painters, composers and musicians. The book presents evidence from the latest brain research, and develops a multidisciplinary approach, drawing upon theories of brain evolution, biology of art, art trends, archaeology, and anthropology. It considers the consequences of brain damage to the creation of art and the brain’s control of art. The author delves into a variety of neurological conditions in established artists, including unilateral stroke, dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, and also evidence from savants with autism. Written by a leading neuropsychologist, Neuropsychology of Art will be of great interest to students and researchers in neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and neurology, and also to clinicians in art therapy.
Neuropsychology of Human Emotion
- Author : Paul Satz,Kenneth M. Heilman
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :1983
- Total pages :237
- ISBN : 089862200X
Summary :
The Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology of Stroke
- Author : Olivier Godefroy,Julien Bogousslavsky
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2007-01-18
- Total pages :229
- ISBN : 9781139461894
Summary : The care of stroke patients has changed dramatically. As well as improvements in the emergency care of the condition, there have been marked advances in our understanding, management and rehabilitation of residual deficits. This book is about the care of stroke patients, focusing on behavioural and cognitive problems. It provides a comprehensive review of the field covering the diagnostic value of these conditions, in the acute and later phases, their requirements in terms of treatment and management and the likelihood and significance of long-term disability. This book will appeal to all clinicians involved in the care of stroke patients, as well as to neuropsychologists, other rehabilitation therapists and research scientists investigating the underlying neuroscience.
Clinical Neuroanatomy
- Author : John Mendoza,Anne Foundas
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2007-12-12
- Total pages :704
- ISBN : 9780387366005
Summary : Clinical Neuroanatomy offers an extensive review of higher cortical – behavioral functions and their anatomical substrates. The book begins with a review of the basic internal and external morphology, major nerve and fiber tracts, behavioral correlates, and clinical syndromes associated with spinal cord, brain stem, and cerebellum, reacquainting readers with the functional anatomy of the subtentorial central nervous system. The central chapters offer more detailed, integrated, and, at times, theoretical models of cortical systems and their internal organization. Additional chapters highlight vascular anatomy and neurochemical systems. Nearly 300 illustrations help identify key structures and pathways, as well as providing clinical and pathological examples.
Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience
- Author : Anonim
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2010-06-03
- Total pages :1816
- ISBN : 9780080453965
Summary : Behavioral Neuroscientists study the behavior of animals and humans and the neurobiological and physiological processes that control it. Behavior is the ultimate function of the nervous system, and the study of it is very multidisciplinary. Disorders of behavior in humans touch millions of people’s lives significantly, and it is of paramount importance to understand pathological conditions such as addictions, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, autism among others, in order to be able to develop new treatment possibilities. Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience is the first and only multi-volume reference to comprehensively cover the foundation knowledge in the field. This three volume work is edited by world renowned behavioral neuroscientists George F. Koob, The Scripps Research Institute, Michel Le Moal, Université Bordeaux, and Richard F. Thompson, University of Southern California and written by a premier selection of the leading scientists in their respective fields. Each section is edited by a specialist in the relevant area. The important research in all areas of Behavioral Neuroscience is covered in a total of 210 chapters on topics ranging from neuroethology and learning and memory, to behavioral disorders and psychiatric diseases. The only comprehensive Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience on the market Addresses all recent advances in the field Written and edited by an international group of leading researchers, truly representative of the behavioral neuroscience community Includes many entries on the advances in our knowledge of the neurobiological basis of complex behavioral, psychiatric, and neurological disorders Richly illustrated in full color Extensively cross referenced to serve as the go-to reference for students and researchers alike The online version features full searching, navigation, and linking functionality An essential resource for libraries serving neuroscientists, psychologists, neuropharmacologists, and psychiatrists
Neuropsychology of Everyday Functioning
- Author : Thomas D. Marcotte,Igor Grant
- Publisher :Unknown
- Release Date :2009-11-16
- Total pages :477
- ISBN : 9781606234600
Summary : While neuropsychological testing can accurately detect cognitive deficits in persons with brain injury, the ability to reliably predict how these individuals will function in everyday life has remained elusive. This authoritative volume brings together well-known experts to present recent advances in the neuropsychological assessment of key real-world capacities: the ability to live independently, work, manage medications, and drive a car. For each of these domains, contributors describe cutting-edge tests, procedures, and interpretive strategies and examine salient theoretical and methodological issues. Chapters also review approaches for evaluating specific populations, including older adults and patients with traumatic brain injury, depression, dementia, schizophrenia, and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. | https://www.saintlukebc.org/book/neuropsychology-and-behavioral-neurology/ |
Where are asteroids and comets found in our solar system?
The majority of the asteroids stay within the asteroid belt, a band of chunks of rock between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Short-period comets, or those with orbits from a few to 200 years, are thought to have originated in the Kuiper Belt, a fat disk of comet-like objects beyond the orbit of Neptune and Pluto. Long-term comets, or those that travel into the solar system every few thousand years (or may never return at all), are thought to originate in the Oort Cloud, a theoretical cloud of comets proposed by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort (1909–1992). The cloud surrounds the solar system about 100,000 astronomical units from the Sun (one astronomical unit is equal to about 93 million miles [149,637,000 kilometers], the average distance between Earth and the Sun). | https://www.papertrell.com/apps/preview/The-Handy-Dinosaur-Answer-Book/Handy%20Answer%20book/Where-are-asteroids-and-comets-found-in-our-solar-system/001137014/content/SC/52cb005a82fad14abfa5c2e0_Default.html |
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AeroCal Limited’s Health and Safety Policy will be continually monitored and updated to reflect any changes in business activities and/or legislation. The policy it will be reviewed at least annually. | http://www.aerocal.co.uk/health-and-safety-policy/ |
A verifiable consequence of the mutator hypothesis is that even low grade neoplasms would accumulate a large number of mutations that do not influence the tumor phenotype (clonal mutations). In this study, we have attempted to quantify the number of clonal mutations in primary human gliomas of astrocytic cell origin. These alterations were identified in tumor tissue, microscopically confirmed to have over 70% neoplastic cells.
Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was performed using a set of fifteen 10-mer primers of arbitrary but definite sequences in 17 WHO grade II astrocytomas (low grade diffuse astrocytoma or DA) and 16 WHO grade IV astrocytomas (Glioblastoma Multiforme or GBM). The RAPD profile of the tumor tissue was compared with that of the leucocyte DNA of the same patient and alteration(s) scored. A quantitative estimate of the overall genomic changes in these tumors was obtained by 2 different modes of calculation.
The overall change in the tumors was estimated to be 4.24% in DA and 2.29% in GBM by one method and 11.96% and 6.03% in DA and GBM respectively by the other. The difference between high and lower grade tumors was statistically significant by both methods.
This study demonstrates the presence of extensive clonal mutations in gliomas, more in lower grade. This is consistent with our earlier work demonstrating that technique like RAPD analysis, unbiased for locus, is able to demonstrate more intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity in lower grade gliomas compared to higher grade. The results support the mutator hypothesis proposed by Loeb.
In normal germ-line and somatic cells, DNA synthesis and cell division are tightly controlled by various genes, which help in the maintenance of genetic stability. Defect in any of these genes results in accumulation of mutations in the cells. Since an overwhelmingly large portion of the genome is non-coding, cells might tolerate large number of mutations in these regions of the genome. If mutations occur at a critical point in the coding region of gene(s) involved in the maintenance of cellular control on proliferation, DNA repair and differentiation, it might lead to development of a cancerous cell.
Loeb proposed the mutator hypothesis, which stated that cancer cells would accumulate a large number of mutations without influencing the phenotype of a cell. These mutations would arise early in tumor development. In contrast, the persistence of the mutator phenotype would be unnecessary, if not detrimental, to the clonal overgrowth during the final stages of tumor progression . The mutator hypothesis was based on the observations of numerous mutations in different types of tumors, which could not be explained by the mutation rates of normal somatic cells. We felt that determination of the extent of clonal mutations in different stages of neoplasia would provide experimental evidence towards verifying the mutator hypothesis.
A comparison of the DNA fingerprinting pattern of tumors with constitutional DNA from the same patient would identify alterations in tumor genomes in a manner unbiased for locus. Previous reports [3–5] have demonstrated the utility of multi-locus VNTR probes for this purpose. Our group [6, 7] and others have demonstrated 'clonal' genomic changes in the genomes of brain and lung tumors by RAPD analysis. By 'clonal' changes we refer to those mutations that do not influence the tumor phenotype. We have identified alterations in DNA by RAPD analysis, a DNA fingerprinting method that does not select for specific genomic locus; therefore, we considered these changes as 'clonal' mutations. Since most of the human genome is non-coding and our selection of RAPD primers was arbitrary, the majority of the bands amplified by RAPD analysis represent the non-coding regions of the genome. Such alterations would differ from the changes identified using locus specific probes or other methods, typically used to look for alterations in known oncogenes or tumor suppressor genes. We have shown that RAPD analysis can demonstrate extensive intra tumor genetic heterogeneity [7, 9]. We had also observed that the extent of heterogeneity demonstrated by primers that did not select for loci capable of critically influencing tumor phenotype, was more in DA than the GBM .
Glial tumors are the commonest primary brain tumors and second highest cause of mortality by cancer in young adults (after hematological malignancies). According to the WHO classification glial tumors of astrocytic origin are of four grades, ranging from the least aggressive grade I (pilocytic astrocytomas) to the grade II (low grade diffuse astrocytoma (DA)), the grade III (anaplastic astrocytoma (AA)) and the most aggressive grade IV (GBM). Low grade tumors can recur as higher grades .
Several alterations in specific oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes in glial tumors have already been determined. These include, amongst others, p53 mutations, EGF receptor gene amplification, changes in the p21 gene, and consistent alterations in loci on chromosome 10 and in the 17p13.3 locus [11–13]. These changes as well as chromosomal alterations and aneuploidy are more frequent in GBM. But the overall extent of clonal changes in glioma genome has not been reported. Recently, an inverse correlation between genetic aberrations and malignancy grade was reported in ependymal tumors . Moreover, colorectal cancers with a high frequency of point mutations displayed a comparatively stable karyotype . Whether similar is true for tumors of astrocytic origin is not known.
In this study we tried to determine the extent of mutations in low and high grade primary human tumors of astrocytic origin. Any attempt to quantify the overall changes in a tumor genome would have its limitations. However, we have tried to clearly define the assumptions and delineated the limitations as precisely as possible.
This study was approved by the institutional ethics committee. Tumor and blood samples were obtained from patients with prior informed consent from each patient. Surgically resected tumor samples were collected from the neurosurgery operation theatre of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, India. All cases were primary tumors and had received no prior chemo or radio therapy. No recurrent tumors were taken. Tissue was snap frozen immediately after surgery and frozen sections cut from the entire tumor. Every 15th section was stained with toluidine blue and examined microscopically. Regions of the tumor having more than 70% neoplastic cells (rest necrosed tissue or vasculature, inseparable from the tumor cells) were scraped and used for preparation of DNA. Large tumors were compartmentalized to segments of 50 sections each and DNA from only one such segment (selected at random) was used in the study. Leucocytes of the same patients were the source of corresponding constitutional DNA. DNA from both tumor and blood were extracted by Proteinase K digestion and Phenol:Chloroform extraction .
10-mer primers of random but definite sequences of 50–80% GC content were purchased from Genosys, Texas, USA; and used with varying magnesium chloride concentrations and annealing temperature (Table 1) for PCR amplification. In RAPD a single primer serves as both the forward and reverse primer [17, 18]. A set of 15 such primers was used in this study. A band was amplified when complementary sequences capable of primer binding were present in genome on opposite DNA strands within a PCR amplifiable distance. For each 20 μl PCR reaction, 100 ng genomic DNA, 50 pM of primer, 0.75 U of Taq DNA polymerase, 200 μM of dNTP (both from Genie, Bangalore, India) each and specified concentration of magnesium chloride were used. After Hot-start, PCR was done for 33 cycles of 1 min. at 94°C, 1 min. at specified annealing temperature and 2 min. at 72°C with 1 sec extension in each cycle in either a MJ Research mini thermalcycler (Model No. PTC 150) or Perkin Elmer DNA Thermocycler (Model No. 480). PCR conditions were set to obtain a reproducible and distinct banding pattern. The annealing temperature varied from 22°C to 48°C and MgCl2 concentration varied from 1.5 mM to 4.5 mM. PCR products were subjected to 1.5% agarose gel electrophoresis in 1× TAE buffer, visualized by ethidium bromide staining and documented. The model of the thermal cycler was not changed for a particular primer during the course of the study. Each RAPD reaction showing altered bands in tumor was confirmed by at least two independent experiments.
Scoring was done by comparing the RAPD profile of every tumor with each primer to its paired constitutional DNA RAPD profile of the same primer . In order to rule out artifacts caused by efficiency of amplification or sample loading, only those bands were scored for alterations where the preceding and succeeding bands had comparable intensities in the tumor and paired normal DNA. A new band in tumor profile was scored as 'gain', and a band present in normal DNA but not in tumor DNA, was scored as 'loss'. Total number of amplified and altered bands (gain/loss) were counted. To ensure uniformity in scoring, bands showing increased intensity in tumors have not been scored even though that may have resulted in alterations being under reported. RAPD bands in tumors with intensity significantly lower (≤ 30%) than the control were scored as loss of band (as some contamination with normal tissue could not be ruled out). This was similar to scoring for loss of heterozygosity reported in literature. Scoring was done by three observers independently. Any difference was resolved mutually.
The size of different bands in the RAPD analysis was calculated with the help of FotoEclipse System (Fotodyne Inc, Wisconsin, USA), Collage version 4 Software. The total length of all the bands amplified as well as the total length of the altered bands in each RAPD reaction was calculated. Mean percentage alteration of DNA for each tumor by each primer and in the groups of DA and GBM were calculated.
Since it was not possible to obtain corresponding normal brain tissue as a control for tumor DNA, we used blood DNA of same patient as normal DNA. With the assumption that DNA from any normal tissue will essentially be the same and would give same profile, we compared the RAPD profile of leucocyte DNA with buccal mucosal DNA of same person in 6 volunteers. We also collected leucocytes from individuals at intervals of 4–6 months, up to a period of 2 years and determined the reproducibility of the RAPD profile in same individual's DNA over time.
One of the concerns regarding data obtained by RAPD analysis regards reproducibility of data. In this study extensive precautions were taken to maintain consistency in experimental results as discussed in our earlier reports [7, 9]. Essentially, only those primers that demonstrated clear and reproducible RAPD amplification patterns were used. We took precautions to maintain DNA and primer quality and also observed the precautions for scoring that are described earlier in the paper.
Five randomly selected altered bands were hybridized to the RAPD profile of the tumor and control DNA from which they were derived. This was done to determine whether an altered band was unique in its corresponding RAPD profile or whether the alterations were caused by minor changes in the microsatellite repeat sequences of any of the other bands in the same sample. After the RAPD profile of the tumor and corresponding normal DNA was resolved by agarose gel electrophoresis, it was transferred to a nylon membrane (Hybond N, Amersham, UK) by capillary blotting and UV cross-linked to the membrane. The altered band, which had been previously eluted from a gel and purified, was labeled by PCR reaction using P32dCTP (NEN, USA). The labeled probe was extracted and purified. Hybridizations were carried out in 5× SSC, 0.5% SDS and 5% dextran sulfate at 62°C over night. The membranes were washed twice with 2× SSC at room temperature, followed by 2 washes in 0.5× SSC at 62°C for 30 minutes each and 2 washes with 0.1× SSC for 2–3 min at room temperature and auto-radiographed by using X-omat XK-5 film (from Kodak).
Five altered bands identified by RAPD analyses were further analyzed by cloning, sequencing and homology search.
The calculations for determining the extent of genomic changes in tumors were done by two modalities using criteria, which were mutually exclusive. For both these modalities we have made certain assumptions. These assumptions were not complete and carry obvious limitations as stated. However, we believe that these limitations do not challenge the essential validity of our observation.
The basic assumption was that the RAPD primer binding sites were representative of the entire genome in an unbiased manner. Obviously this cannot be true for coding or critical regulatory sequences but are likely to be representative of the non-coding regions of the genome, which any way, form the bulk of the genome. For amplification of a band in RAPD analysis same primer has to bind to complementary sites on both strands. These sites should be at a distance suitable for PCR amplification. Because of the low stringency employed in the technique, RAPD priming can occur even with 6–8/10 matches in the primer if the 3' end is matched . Hence, a total of 2 such (6–8 base) matches per haploid genome or 4 matches per diploid genome is assumed if a band was observed. Another important assumption was that each band in a RAPD profile actually represents two bands, each amplified from a haploid genome. We felt this as a justifiable approximation because: a) PCR products were resolved by 1.5% agarose gels that cannot separate the 2 alleles (that may vary in size by a few base pairs) as seen in LOH studies. b) Keeping in mind the frequency of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and other differences between two haploid genomes (~1 in 1000 bases), two stretches of DNA at same locus have a much greater likelihood of being similar than different. Hence, the minimum information that can be derived from one band in a RAPD profile is that of 12–16 bases (6–8 × 2) on primer binding sites. Any change in the RAPD pattern arose because of loss or creation of a site suitable for RAPD priming. Since annealing of a RAPD primer occurs at a low stringency, and up to 2–4 mismatches can be tolerated under such conditions, it is likely that a band would not be amplified if there were a mismatch at the 3' end of any one of the two primer binding sites. This would be particularly true for an enzyme like Taq polymerase that does not have proof reading activity. If a band was visible in RAPD pattern of normal (leucocyte) DNA but not the tumor (referred as ' loss of band'), it meant mutation at the 3' end of at least one primer binding site on both the alleles (that is alteration at 2 sites). The minimum change required for every new band in a tumor DNA, compared to its corresponding leucocyte DNA (referred to as 'gain' in this paper) would be one mutation, which generates a perfect match, creating a primer binding site. This needs to occur on only one allele. Since the probability of having up to 2–4 point mutations in a 10 mer stretch is low, we have not considered these situations for our calculations. Our calculations are based on only the need for a perfect match at the 3' end of the primer for PCR to occur, assuming that a homologous site already exists within an amplifiable distance from the other primer binding site where the primer can bind in the reverse direction.
Number of amplified bands × 4 = the number of relevant 3' ends (as the same primer acts both as forward and reverse primer and there are two alleles). These are the total number of bases under consideration.
Number of lost bands × 2 = mutations complementary to the 3' ends of the primer (this is because while a single mutation altering the base complementary to the 3' ends of a primer will prevent PCR amplification from one haploid genome, a homozygous change with mutations occurring in both the alleles is needed for the absence of a band).
Appearance of a new band corresponds to, at least, a single change which creates a perfect match with the 3' end of the primer within an amplifiable distance of a preexisting match i.e. one additional band in the tumor = 1 mutation. Again, it was assumed that a homologous site for primer binding already exists and the single mutation generates only one binding site complementary to the 3' end of the primer.
The values for every leucocyte/tumor pair for each primer were calculated separately.
In the previous method we had only considered mutation at 3' end of primer binding site as a relevant reason for observing loss/creation of a new band. No role of genomic rearrangements, large losses etc. were considered. In this method, we calculated the extent of change taking the other extreme assumption that all changes are due to rearrangements or losses and none were due to mutations at the bases annealing to the 3'end of the primer. The size of each RAPD amplified bands (33 sample pairs, each with 15 different primers) was determined (as mentioned above). The length of DNA amplified by each primer from each patient's leucocyte DNA was individually determined and added up to estimate the total length of DNA amplified by all the primers for each tumor. The length of each altered fragment (lost/gained) was determined and added up to estimate the total length of the DNA fragments altered in a tumor. Mean percentage alteration in each tumor by each primer and in DA and GBM were calculated.
A limitation by this method is that loss/gain of a larger band on the RAPD profile may not necessarily represent a larger genomic change than in case of a smaller band. However, this limitation would be true for both high and low grade tumors.
The basic difference between both the methods is that while the first method considers only those bases, which bind the primer, the second method considers only the region, which gets amplified by the PCR reaction. It is also assumed (for both the methods) that bands observed on RAPD are essentially distinct from each other. This is based on experiments (discussed below), where in a number of different tumor-primer combinations, an altered band was hybridized to the same RAPD profile, did not hybridize to any other band.
Two tailed t test was used to compare extent of aberrations in DA and GBM by both the methods.
The PCR amplified bands varied between 3 Kb to 400 bp in size, the majority of bands were less than 1 Kb size (Figure 1). When the RAPD profile of normal and tumor DNA was compared, differences were observed within a number of blood-tumor pairs. This is similar to what we had reported earlier [6, 7].
RAPD patterns of different tumors compared to their corresponding normal DNA. Leucocytic DNA RAPD profile is marked as B and tumor DNA by T. Grade II astrocytoma is indicated as DA and Glioblastoma multiforme is indicated as GBM. Arrow indicates an altered band. From left to right, upper panel: 80/32 with 154; 80/03 with 278; 60/39 with 195; 70/09 with 195; 50/09 with 172; lower panel: RE21 with 173; RE05 with 195; primer 70/09 with tumor 175; RE06 with 154; RE21 with 175.
Leucocyte DNA was taken as a representative of the normal DNA. The stability of RAPD profile for each primer was indicated by identical RAPD pattern obtained from DNA extracted from buccal scraping and the peripheral blood leucocyte in healthy volunteers (Figure 2). Also the RAPD profile was stable when leucocyte DNA was obtained from the same individual on intervals of 4–6 months over periods of up to two years (data not shown).
Comparison of the normal RAPD profiles obtained from DNA extracted from buccal scraping and the peripheral blood leucocytes of a healthy volunteer with different primers. The primers number is indicated on the top of the figure. B and L indicate buccal mucosal and leucocyte DNA respectively.
The RAPD results are summarized in Tables 2, 3, 4, 5. Thirty two tumors (out of 33) showed genetic alteration(s) when studied with this panel of 15 RAPD primers. These included loss of band/s, gain of band/s, gross change in intensity of bands or any combination of them. Approximately half of these alterations were loss of a band in the tumor, which is present in paired constitutional DNA of same patient. Tumors of same histological grade showed different degrees of genetic alteration (e.g. tumor No. 137 vs. 194; tumor No. 154 vs. 159); also some primers were more efficient in identifying changes (primer No. 50/09, 80/32) than others (primer No. 70/31, 80/37). In some cases extensive alterations were demonstrated by one primer but not by others (eg. tumor No. 137, primer No. 50/09 and 60/39).
The number of lost/gained bands are indicated by L/G, while the total number of bands amplified in the corresponding normal DNA is given as the denominator.
Mean percentage alteration in each tumor by each primer was calculated.
Five altered bands (80/35/127B, RE06/125B, 80/35/195T, RE05/195B and 70/09/173T) chosen randomly were tested for homology to other bands in the RAPD profiles (both tumor and corresponding normal DNA) from which they were amplified. Southern hybridization revealed that these altered bands did not hybridize with any other band in that RAPD profile. This indicated that these altered bands were not part of any other band in the profile or were not result of minor changes in microsatellite repeat sequences in other amplified band. A representative experiment is shown in Figure 3.
Representative Southern hybridization experiment for detecting homology of the altered band with other bands in the RAPD profile. When RAPD analysis was performed with tumor no 195 and corresponding normal DNA with primer RE 05, loss of a normal band in tumor tissue was detected. Probe made by labeling this band (eluted from the gel in a previous experiment), did not hybridize to any other band in either tumor or normal DNA.
i) Altered fragment (80/35/127B) (accession no. AF264058) showed homology with parts of retroposons of human endogenous retrovirus origin (accession nos. X07417, X07418 and X07419). Retroposons are repeated sequences and are widely distributed in the human genome. BLAST homology also showed several stretches of various lengths of this altered sequence interspersed throughout the human genome (accession nos. AV373514, Z73358, AB000381, AC000387, U91326, D84394, Z69710, Z69710, AC002992, Z11740, Z82196 and Z83841).
ii) Altered fragment (RE06/125B) (accession no. AF264061) showed partial homology to L1 repetitive sequence. L1 sequences are highly repetitive interspersed sequence, an estimated 100,000 L1 elements are present in the entire human genome. These sequences comprise as much as 17% of the human genome by weight (Smit AFA, 1996, Curr.Opin. Genet. Devel., 6, 743–48).
iii) Altered fragment (80/35/195T) (accession no. AF264060) On homology search, the complete stretch has no homology with sequences in the public domain database. However, it has 6 nucleotides of the Chi core octanucleotide (GCTGGTGG) sequence of E.coli. Chi-core octanucleotide sequence is present at the DNA break points in human tumors. Chi core influences the probability of the nearby rearrangement or it alters the regulation of oncogene transcripts once rearrangement occurs (Krowczynska et al., 1990, Nucleic Acids Res., 18, 1821). Many such Chi homology sequences repeated in the human genome have been used for DNA fingerprinting (Ehtesham et al., 1990, Ind. J. Biochem. and Biophysics. 27; 275–279).
iv) Altered fragment (RE05/195B) (accession no. AF264059) shows no homology in the human genome sequence in the public domain data base. However it is an AT rich sequence and AT rich sequences are reported to be prone to rearrangement by recombination.
v) Altered fragment (70/09/173T) (accession no. AF264057) shows no homology in the human genome sequences in the public domain till date. This sequence also showed an AT rich sequence.
The changes observed in Method I are listed in tables 2 (for DA) and 3 (for GBM). For every tumor-primer combination, the number of lost/gained bands are indicated by L/G, while the total number of bands amplified in the corresponding normal DNA is given as the denominator.
The number of alterations (3' ends mutated) = Number of lost bands × 2 + number of gained bands × 1.
The total number of 3' ends studied is = total number of bands amplified in normal DNA × 4.
The extent of alterations varied from 0.66% to 9.28% in DA, with a mean value of 4.24 ± 2.62 (standard deviation or SD). In GBM it varied from 0% to 5%, the mean value 2.29 ± 1.49 (SD). The alterations were more in DA and statistically significant (two tailed p = 0.014).
The results are summarized in table 4 (for DA) and 5 (for GBM).
The ranges of alterations in DA and GBM were 2.3% to 27.8% and 0% to 20.2% respectively. Only one tumor (No. 131) showed no genetic change. The mean percentage alteration in DA was 11.96 ± 7.44 (SD) and in GBM was 6.03 ± 5.24 (SD) (Tables 4 and 5). Changes in DA was significantly higher than in GBM (two tailed p = 0.013).
There is considerable debate over the role of genomic instability as a cause or consequence of tumorigenesis. By the time a tumor is clinically manifest, it has survived a checkered history of multiple rounds of cell division, cell death, clonal expansion and selective growth of some surviving clones. The altered nature of the tumor cells, and indirectly, the natural history of the tumor would be reflected in the magnitude of the overall genetic changes in a tumor. In this work RAPD-PCR of tumors and its comparison with the normal DNA has been used as a measure of genomic instability.
Genomic instability in the form of chromosome instability, aneuploidy, LOH, microsatellite repeat alterations are seen in almost all types of neoplastic and preneoplastic cells. All these mutations have different implications in the tumor development and progression. However the cause of genomic instability is still debated. Some authors find aneuploidy as the primary cause of the genomic instability in the tumors [23, 24]. Ninomiya et al have found chromosomal instability and LOH to play role in the development of lung cancer. Goel et al have characterized the role of chromosomal and microsatellite instability in the progression of colon cancer. In other systems, if one restricts to microsatellite repeat alterations, there has been some evidence linking genomic instability to tumor progression [27, 28]. Microsatellite instability was found to be associated with aggressive colorectal carcinoma and ovarian carcinoma . However in a broader sense, the association of generalized genomic instability with tumor progression would be somewhat in contradiction with the mutator hypothesis, in which the mutations are phenotypically neutral with no direct role in the progression of the tumors. A mutator phenotype might be a liability to an aggressive rapidly dividing clone arising during tumor progression as extensive mutations might adversely affect the growth properties of these cells . This apparent contradiction can be resolved if it is kept in mind that the assays for genomic instability measure different phenomena, with varying biological implications. For example, in colorectal tumors increased frequency of point mutations is associated with a stable karyotype , which is less likely to be associated with progression.
There have been several attempts to estimate the extent of alterations in tumor genomes. Ionov et al used radioactive Arbitrarily Primed PCR (AP-PCR) and PAGE to study genomic mutations in colorectal carcinoma, documenting and characterizing bands altered in tumors. AP-PCR is similar to RAPD except the primers used are longer. They resolved PCR product on PAGE with a higher resolution for band sizes up to 1 kb and observed that altered bands in tumors were identical to the closest normal band except for deletions in repeats like poly A, dinucleotides like CT and CA or trinucleotide repeats. Their estimation of changes in the genome was about 1.3–1.5 per 105 bases in cancer tissue. This is very different from what we see. In our study, most of the altered bands do not have any homology with any other bands in the same RAPD profile as confirmed by Southern hybridization of the altered bands to the RAPD profile (Figure 3).
Jackson and Loeb estimated ~100,000 genome wide alterations in cancers in the form of base substitutions, deletions, chromosomal translocations, and gene amplifications, and these mutations are found to accumulate as tumors progress. They proposed that the genomic instability caused by these alterations result from a mutator phenotype, which occurs early during tumor development and predisposes the tumor cell to the accumulation of further mutations. They emphasized the importance of considering different types of alterations in genome of malignant cells, like aneuploidy, translocations and amplifications along with those detected by molecular methods like analysis of loss of heterozygosity, microsatellite instability etc. Similarly Kerangueven et al have found extensive genetic diversity from a genome wide scan for loss of heterozygosity. Accumulation of simple random point mutations can lead to carcinogenesis . To predict the relative contribution of mutator mutants in cancer, Beckman and Loeb have developed a mathematical model that quantitatively determines the efficiency of carcinogenesis with and without mutator mutations. Recently Beilas et al have measured random mutations in normal and neoplastic human tissues and have found an elevation in random mutations of at least two orders of magnitude in neoplastic tissues.
There are studies using inter-simple sequence repeat PCR (ISSR-PCR), a DNA fingerprinting method to identify genomic instability in the tumors. Basik et al found that the extent of alterations detected in colorectal cancer using ISSR-PCR had no relationship with the tumor stage at diagnosis and microsatellite instability, though it was associated with loss of heterozygosity. The number of genomic alterations in colorectal cancer cells was more than expected and mean number of alterations per cell was ~11,000 . The lack of association of this phenomenon with tumor grade and observation of similar number of events in colonic polyps and colon carcinoma supports the theory that genomic instability occurring early during malignant change. Stoler et al using ISSR-PCR found genomic instability in invasive breast carcinoma. The mean instability index was 3.08%, which was similar to the mean value observed in colorectal and thyroid carcinoma studied by the same group. Using ISSR-PCR Rai et al showed genome wide instability with the mean instability index of 12% in chewing-tobacco associated oral cancer. However, ISSR-PCR measures only a specific type of regions in genome, between two defined repeats located end to end within a certain distance from each other. The RAPD analysis used in our study targets genomic loci of a different nature and we estimate that the number of overall alterations in tumor genome seems to be greater than earlier appreciated. While the estimated number of alterations in our study is different from that observed using ISSR-PCR, the observation of absence of increased genomic alteration by Basik et al in higher grade tumors is similar to our finding. Both ISSR-PCR and RAPD-PCR are techniques for measuring genomic changes that are likely to be phenotypically neutral.
Tomlinson et al proposed that normal mutation rate is sufficient to explain a large number of mutations in tumors if the number of cell divisions during normal development is taken into account. We were not able to study normal brain tissue as control, and used normal leucocyte DNA. We checked the stability of the RAPD analysis by comparing the RAPD profile of buccal mucosal DNA with the leucocyte DNA from the same volunteer. Also the leucocyte DNA from individuals was obtained in intervals of 4–6 months over a period of two years, and RAPD profile of each sample were identical for the same person. The identical RAPD profile from buccal mucosal and leucocyte DNA, along with stability of leucocyte DNA profile over a period of 2 years, during which there would be a lot of cellular turnover, indicates that the alterations described in this study do not represent alterations accompanying cell division that might occur during normal development. These results, along with the universal forensic practice of taking the DNA fingerprinting profile of leucocyte DNA as representative of normal DNA for comparison with DNA of diverse tissue origins, body fluids etc. justifies the use of blood as constitutional DNA in our study.
Most of the published work till date on the extent of mutations in tumors is on colon carcinogenesis. Our study is on primary human glial tumors of astrocytic origin and we have taken DA and GBM as representative of low and high grade tumors of same cell origin. The mean estimate of alterations observed in tumor genomes varied between 4.42% in DA and 2.29% in GBM by method I and 11.96% (DA) and 6.03% (GBM) by method II. The difference between DA and GBM by both the methods was statistically significant. The increased extent of alterations occurring in tumors of a lower grade differs from the results obtained by some studies using AP-PCR [29, 30]. Both RAPD and AP-PCR are basically similar techniques, relying on a single primer to identify sites in both directions on double stranded DNA to prime a PCR reaction. However, there are basic differences in the methods employed by us and by the other researchers, which seems to have resulted in an altogether different form of clonal mutations identified in our study. In previous studies using AP-PCR followed by PAGE, the altered bands (as determined by sequencing) were found to differ from the closest normal counterpart only by small runs of simple repeat sequences. In our case the altered bands did not have any similarity with the normal bands on the RAPD profile. Five of the altered bands, characterized in detail, did not hybridize with any other band in the RAPD profile of either tumor or paired normal DNA (Figure 3). Sequencing showed no microsatellite repeats in these altered fragments. These unique sequences were homologous to some recombinogenic sequences like HERV-K , L1 repeat sequence and Chi-core sequences (manuscript in preparation) and had the potential to mediate alterations in the genome by repeat mediated recombination and other mechanisms. Thus the changes identified by us are not due to microsatellite repeats being deleted from or added to the nearest normal band. The different nature of changes identified by us could be because of use of agarose gel to separate the PCR amplified bands. Agarose gel has a lower resolution range than PAGE, and while they have been extensively used in RAPD analysis, they do not resolve changes of few base pairs caused by microsatellite expansion and contraction. Hence, the changes detected by us were qualitatively different from the earlier studies. The size of bands studied by us is also different, up to 2.5–3 kb as opposed to much smaller bands studied by other groups. We have also used 10 mer primers, which would be expected to prime more promiscuously than longer primers used by others.
Our observation of a higher number of genetic changes in tumors of lower grade could be a consequence of an increased mutation rate in early tumorigenesis due to acquisition of a mutator phenotype. It is assumed that in absence of selection pressure the number of mutations would be more. However, the mutator phenotype would be at a disadvantage to a more aggressive rapidly growing clone as would be expected in a GBM, especially in a primary GBM. The higher number of mutations could also be a reflection of the longer time taken by a low grade tumor to clinically manifest, compared to a higher grade tumor. Mutations could accumulate in non-dividing cells , thus making tumors with low proliferation indices e.g., grade II (DA) tumors accumulating more mutations than grade IV (GBM) tumors. Another factor could be the higher rate of apoptosis in low grade tumors, which would lead to cell populations in DA accumulating more clonal mutations, both as a function of time as well of cell divisions, before the tumor is manifested clinically.
We have earlier demonstrated that RAPD analysis reveals increased intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity in DA compared to GBM . When DNA was independently extracted from consecutive segments of 50 sections each, more differences between the segments of the same tumor were detected in DA compared to GBM. This result was also in concordance with the acquisition of a mutator phenotype early in tumorigenesis, leading to the co-existence of progeny cells with different DNA fingerprinting patterns, especially in low-grade tumors. It would be expected that heterogeneity might give the impression of increased change in a large tumor. In order to exclude such a possibility, we used DNA made from only one segment of 50 consecutive sections in each tumor used in our study. Similarly another study by our group has observed very significantly higher level of loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in the hMLH1 gene locus in DA compared to GBM using microsatellite markers, correlating with our earlier result which showed more intra tumor genetic heterogeneity in low grade gliomas.
The uniqueness of our study lies in the high estimated number of mutations. Also the estimated number of clonal mutations is greater than earlier reported, and not just restricted to microsatellite repeat sequences length. The extent of such changes is more in the low grade tumor type (DA) than in high grade GBM. Our evidence is in favor of dissociation of the dynamics of clonal mutations that are phenotypically neutral from those genetic changes leading to a phenotype with growth advantage. This is in concordance with the applicability of the mutator hypothesis. A further study comparing primary and secondary GBM would provide more evidence for its applicability in glial tumors. Similar approaches can also be used to study the role of mutations that do not have phenotypic consequences in other tumor types as well.
In this study, using locus non selective RAPD fingerprinting method, we studied the genomic instability in the astrocytic tumors of WHO grade II (DA) and grade IV (GBM), using leucocyte DNA of the same patient as control. The alterations detected were non coding sequences, not common among tumors, and indicate that they are not selected for specific locus. The quantitative estimation of the overall genomic changes detected in these tumors was done by two mutually exclusive modes of calculation, yielding similar results. The results demonstrate the presence of extensive clonal mutations in gliomas, more so in the grade II astrocytomas. This is in line with the mutator hypothesis – that, those mutations/genetic alterations that do not have a significant phenotypic correlation are likely to be more frequent in low grade tumors. This is in consistent with our earlier work demonstrating that technique like RAPD fingerprinting analysis is able to demonstrate extensive intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity in all grades of gliomas, more so in lower grade as compared to higher grade. Our results showed the acquisition of a mutator phenotype early in tumorigenesis and support the mutator hypothesis proposed by Loeb.
We thank Drs L.A. Loeb, Burt Feuerstein and S.S. Chauhan for their valuable comments. Anjan Misra is a recipient of a senior research fellowship of the CSIR, India and this study was part of his PhD thesis. We thank Dr. K.R. Raju for help during densitometry. We thank Mr. Mathura Prasad for technical help and Mr. Satish Kumar for secretarial assistance. The work was funded by the Swarnajayanti Fellowship project of the Dept of Science and Technology, Govt. of India to S. Sinha.
AM carried out the samples processing, RAPD PCR standardization, study design, RAPD analyses, cloning, sequence alignment and drafted the manuscript. PC participated in sequence alignment and performed the statistical analysis and helped write the manuscript. KC carried out the sample processing, RAPD analysis and helped write the manuscript. CS carried out the pathological analysis of the tumor samples, including determining the proportion of tumor and normal cells and helped write the manuscript. AKM carried out the tumor samples selection and analysis and helped write the manuscript. SS conceived the study, helped in study design, statistical analysis, coordination and helped write the manuscript. | https://bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2407-7-190 |
In a two-stage delegation game model with Nash bargaining between a manager and an owner, an equivalence result is found between this game and Fershtman and Judd’s strategic delegation game (Fershtman and Judd, 1987). Interestingly, although both games are equivalent in terms of profits under certain conditions, managers obtain greater rewards in the bargaining game. This results in a redistribution of profits between owners and managers.
1. INTRODUCTION
Industrial organization has enlarged the traditional economic theory view of firms as mere profit maximizers (see, for instance, Simon, 1957 and Baumol, 1958, for early critics of the pure profit-maximizing hypothesis). Nowadays, economic relationships recognize the complexity of managerial decisions and the role that separation between ownership and management plays in modern large corporations. Indeed, these reasons are found as a major obstacle to achieve the target of pure profit-maximization. To alleviate this problem, corporate governance codes have been implemented. Corporate governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way in which a certain corporation is managed or controlled. Optimal corporate governance consists of designing mechanisms that alleviate, among others, the principal-agent problem between those who take decisions and the other stakeholders, mainly owner-shareholders 4. However, the ultimate goal is to increase profits and enhance economic efficiency. Thus, the relative power of managers and shareholders is at the center of the optimal design of contracts so that profit-maximization is encouraged.
The principal-agent problem is revisited here. An early approach on the effect of strategic delegation under Cournot competition with homogeneous product was undertaken by Fershtman and Judd (1987a) (hereafter, F&J) and Sklivas (1987). They found how the optimal rewarding scheme yields a more aggressive behavior on the part of managers and, as a result, profits for managers shrink. Their conclusions also hold in a more general setting of asymmetric information (F&J, 1987b)5. This result comes from the Bulow et al. (1985) characterization of strategic substitutes and strategic complements. According to this, quantities are strategic substitutes, thus owners offer a contract such that production is increased with respect to the game in which there is no delegation, whereas prices are strategic complements and the optimal rewarding scheme is to offer a contract in which a more cooperative behavior is encouraged to maximize profits.
Recently, in Van Witteloostuijn et al. (2007) a new approach to the study of strategic delegation is found. They analyze the choice of optimal contract design that relates payoffs to a combination of sales and profits. Indeed, an alternative approach to F&J (1987a) is proposed. In a model where firms’ strategies are substitutes, it is assumed that bargaining exists between a manager and an owner when discussing compensation, where bargaining power is exogenously determined. Thus, optimal rewarding scheme is determined by Nash bargaining solution. Nakamura (2008) later extends the results of Van Witteloostuijn et al. (2007) with respect to the sales delegation case to those of a differentiated product duopolistic game and also to price competition.
This note analyzes which incentive scheme is better for owners in order to achieve the highest profits. To do so, the predictions of Nakamura (2008) are compared with those in F&J (1987a). Interestingly, it is found that both types of contracts are equivalent in terms of profits when managers do not have bargaining power. However Nakamura’s purpose results in a bigger remuneration for managers and smaller payoffs for owners. Thus, profit redistribution between agents is reached.
2. THE MODEL
Assume a duopoly model where products are substitutes. Substitutability is modeled by using a version of the consumer surplus function by Singh and Vives (1984) and Vives (1984). A representative consumer derives utility from the consumption of goods labeled 1 and 2 and a numeraire. Utility is quadratic in the consumption of , ,, and linear in the consumption of . Callthe price of product and normalize to one the price of the numeraire. The consumer net-utility function is given by
where substitutability between products is measured by . Therefore, by maximizing (1) with respect toinverse demand functions are found. Setting as a function of prices demand functions are
On the supply side, identical firms produce with unit-cost of production . Firms are Bertrand competitors. Assume each owner hires a single manager and delegates the strategic decisions to him. Each manager is rewarded with a fixed salary and a bonus. Following van Witteloostuijn et al. (2007) the following contract is considered: pay to the manager a proportional weighted sum of profits and quantity sold as implied by , where are profits for firm and is the share of the quantity sold in the product market.6
The owner and the prospective manager bargain over, where the owner wants to maximize profits and the manager tries to get as highly paid as possible. It is assumed both managers have the same bargaining power regardless of the firm with which they are negotiating. Bargaining is modeled by means of the generalized Nash bargaining solution: for the firm, the outcome of the bargaining process is the weight such that maximizes the Nash product where measures the relative bargaining power of the manager7.
The timing of the game is as follows. At the first stage, agents (owners and managers) simultaneously decide the optimal contract as a function of the horizontal product differentiation and the exogenously given bargaining power . At the second stage firms’ managers engage in price competition.
The game is solved by backward induction (for more details see Nakamura, 2008). Optimal strategies of the firms are obtained at the market competition stage. Given weights each manager maximizes choosing a price level . Using equation (2) the rewarding scheme function can be written as a function of prices . Any equilibrium at the price competition stage must satisfy first-order conditions,
Note that and are strategic complements: an increase in each player’s own decision, raises the marginal payoff of the rival8. Solving the resulting equations’ system optimal prices are:
with the following properties. First, as the shareshifts inwards best response functions. Then, equilibrium prices become lower than in the absence of delegation, which yields to a more intense competition in the product market. Second, this result is reinforced with respect to the rival’s shift in,. However, given the weighting, the magnitude of the effect is not increasing with the degree of product substitutability9.
The solution to the bargaining game consists of choosing such that maximizes the Nash product. Using the first order condition in the price stage subgame, the objective function can be expressed in terms of prices. First-order conditions are
By using (3) and assuming symmetry, the optimal delegation weight is:
It depends largely on the nature of the goods as implied by. Suppose goods were perfect substitutes ; then it holds that for every. If goods were independent delegation weight would be; so the wage would be strictly proportional to the bargaining power of the agent. Moreover, weight is increasing with respect to the bargaining power no matter the value of because. In the symmetric equilibrium price, quantity and profits are as follows
On the one hand, price decreases with respect to where as quantity increases with the relative bargaining power of the manager. This encourages more intense competition. On the other hand, while price increases with, quantity can increase or decrease with because the sign of the marginal effect depends on. Finally, profits decrease with bargaining power and increase with the degree of substitutability
3. STRATEGIC DELEGATION VERSUS BARGAINING: THE COMPARISON
In this section predictions of the above bargaining model with those in F&J (1987a) are compared. F&J assume managers do not have any power to Nash-bargain over the contract they are offered. Instead, owners offer a contract that consists of a linear combination of profits and sales, which can be written as . Note that, in the symmetric equilibrium, equation (24) in F&J (1987a) becomes:
where for every and. Therefore, the rewarding scheme encourages less intense competition since managers are less concerned of cost minimization. Besides, approaches 1 as. Under a symmetric equilibrium price, quantity and profits are as follows
Our main results are presented in Propositions 1 and 2.
PROPOSITION 1: If then and; that is, bargaining type of contract rewards managers better than F&J’s (1987a) type of contract when managers do not have any bargaining power.
Proof: Under Bertrand competition, in equilibrium, the manager’s payment is , whereas in F&J (1987a), under the same setup,. Hence, when it yields, and then . Thus, under both incentive structures the manager will achieve the same payment if and only if Taking the equilibrium values, evaluated at become,
which is not feasible since, for any value of , it is found that indeed.
This completes the proof.
Thus, the absence of bargaining power on the part of the managers yields to the same market outcomes as in strategic delegation. However, the payoffs to the managers are larger. As a consequence, the payoffs owners obtain are smaller, so we get profit redistribution between managers and owners.
Finally, the implications of for market outcomes are also analyzed. Proposition 2 summarizes the conclusions for differences in prices, profits and compensation for managers.
PROPOSITION 2: Bargaining type of rewarding scheme induces lower prices, larger quantities and lower profits than those under strategic delegation.
Proof: After some simple algebraic manipulations the difference in prices,, and quantities,, can be expressed as
where. Therefore, for every and it is straightforward to show that and . The difference in profits is
which is always negative given the restrictions on the parameters. This completes the proof.
Thus, as it has been proved, managers with bargaining power induce more intense competition in the product market than in its absence. The contract design favors greater competition between managers on the product market the lower the bargaining power of the owners of the firms is.
4. FINAL COMMENTS
In this note, two streams of literature on managers’ compensation schemes are blended and find equivalence results. The first scheme consists of compensation equal to profits plus a fraction of sales which depends on the bargaining power of each agent. The second scheme is a linear combination of profits and sales, endogenously determined by the owners. It is found that both approaches are equivalent in terms of market results only if , that is, managers do not have any bargaining power and owners choose the contract that maximizes their own payoffs. However, there is a redistribution of payoffs that favors managers in case of the first scheme. Furthermore, when managers have bargaining power , more aggressive behavior is induced than in its absence.
REFERENCES
Baumol, W.J., 1958. On the theory of oligopoly. Economica New Series 54, 121-138.
Binmore, K., Rubinstein, A., Wolinsky, A., 1986. The Nash bargaining solution in economic modelling. RAND Journal of Economics 17(2), 176–188.
Bulow, J.I., Geanakoplos, J.D., Klemperer, P.D., 1985. Multimarket oligopoly: Strategic substitutes and complements. Journal of Political Economy 93, 458-511.
Fershtman, C., Judd, K.L., 1987a. Equilibrium incentives in oligopoly. American Economic Review 77, 927-940.
Fershtman, C., Judd, K.L., 1987b. Strategic incentive manipulation in rivalrous agency. Hoover Institution Working Papers in Economics E-87-11.
Freeman, R.E., 1984. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Pitman, Boston.
Nakamura, Y., 2008. Bargaining over managerial contracts in delegation games: The differentiated goods case. Economics Bulletin 12(6), 1-8.
Nash, J., 1950. The bargaining problem. Econometrica 18(2), 155-162.
Simon, H. A., 1957. Models of man -social and rational. John Wiley and Sons, New York.
Singh, N., Vives, X., 1984. Price and quantity competition in a differentiated duopoly. Rand Journal of Economics 15, 546-554.
Sklivas, S.D., 1987. The strategic choice of managerial incentives. RAND Journal of Economics 18, 452-458.
van Witteloostuijn, A., Jansen, T., van Lier, A., 2007. Bargaining over managerial contracts in delegation games: Managerial power, contract disclosure and cartel behavior. Managerial and Decision Economics 28, 897-904.
Vickers, J., 1985. Delegation and the theory of the firm. The Economic Journal 95, 138-147.
Vives, X., 1984. Duopoly information equilibrium: Cournot and Bertrand. Journal of Economic Theory 34, 71-94.
- University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Bilbao, Spain.
- Universidad Miguel Hernández, Elche, Spain.
- University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Bilbao, Spain.
- The term stakeholders was first used in 1984 by R. E. Freeman in his book “Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach” to refer to those who can affect or are affected by the activities of a company.
- In F&J (1987a) the incentive scheme is a linear combination of profits and sales, and delegation is a dominant strategy for both firms. Thus, the case in which only one firm delegates and the rival does not, is strictly dominated.
- This is a version of the Vickers (1985), F&J (1987a) and Sklivas (1987) incentive contract that relates profits and revenue to manager’s reward.
- Nash bargaining as it was initially proposed by Nash (1950). Economic applications can be found in Binmore et al. (1986).
- In other words, this means that the function is sub modular when the price decisions are strategic complements, | https://rches.utem.cl/articulos/note-bargaining-power-managerial-delegation-multimarket-oligopolies/ |
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Do you want to expand your culinary repertoire and learn about different cultures? Join the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) Global Learning Hub and the Wellness Kitchen to learn more about Indian cuisine, agriculture and how you can prepare three authentic recipes! The class will be led by local chef Amrita Mahapatra, and free samples of tandoori chicken, sautéed vegetables and naan will be provided. A student guest will also share how the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR) and CASNR research bridges the distance between the wonderful Indian food many of us enjoy and the agricultural practices that support it. | https://eca.state.gov/iew-events/cooking-culture-casnr-indian-cuisine-0 |
Main network connection Mobile phones, Internet or data information. At present it is converted to light. And pass to the fiber optic cable. Because its high stability, Low loss , More secure data. And long life.
That is why we should know information communication with fiber. This article discusses. The moving length is used in the optical transmitter, the optimum length of light transmission, called the window, the communication frequency, the attenuation, the attenuation of the Intrinsic Attenuation
There are many different types of light transmitters in the system. Parameter affects the system, so we need to understand the parameters of Fiber Optic. It can be designed. And completely installed error-free.
1. Wavelength
The visible light is visible to the naked eye, called the Visible Spectrum. The light in this area can be seen in various colors. The visible light is a red, orange, yellow, green, and purple light as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Optical Spectrum
Fiber Optic transmitters use wavelengths higher than the Visible Spectrum and are not visible to the naked eye. Typical wavelengths include 850 nm, 1310 nm, and 1550 nm.
Light emitting diodes (LASERs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are used as light source emitters.
- LASERs use wavelength 1310 nm and 1550 nm for single mode.
- LEDs are used in Wavelength 850 nm and 1310 nm in Multi Mode.
CAUTION: Do not look at the end of the fiber optic cable. We can not see the light in the 1310 nm and 1550 nm areas, and the light can harm the eyes.
2. Windows
This is the best wavelength range for each Windows session, as shown in Figure 2. Main Windows have 3 range are available for 850 nm, 1310 nm, and 1550 nm.
Figure 2 Windows Using Optical Fiber
3. Frequency
System frequency is the speed of modulation of the source light source. The number of pulses / second depends on the light source. The frequency is Hertz (Hz) 1 Hz equal to 1 pulse or 1 cycle per second, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 pulses per second (1 pulses / second is called 1 hertz)
4. Attenuation
Attenuation is the loss of light traveling through the fiber optic cable. The attenuation unit is (dB / km) relative to the distance. Fiber Optic The system has a very low loss. Most of the loss is due to the fiber optic cable connector or the cable from the lack of a problem. Loss is quite unusual. Attenuation can be observed from the initial Figure 4
Figure 4 is a sample table Attenuation.
5. Intrinsic Attenuation
Intrinsic attenuation is the attenuation caused by the inside of the fiber optic cable. Some cases are caused by the dirt mixed in the glass. In the production of fiber optic cable from the manufacturer. In the past, the factory had no way to remove all the dirt. Modern production technology in the 1970s. Can reduced the attenuation of contaminants.
When light travels to the dirt in fiber optics. One of these effects is scatter or absorption of light (Absorbed)
5.1 Scattering
Most scattering causes attenuation in fiber optic cables up to 96%. Light travels in the fiber and interacts with the atoms in the glass. Light waves are flexible when colliding with the atoms and impacting the diffusion of light. Scattering Scattering is caused by interference between the light wave and the atoms of the fiber optic. If we can control the scatter in the fiber optic, then there will be no attenuation in the fiber optic. The angle of the light wave changes. Can not go forward or travel short distances, or light may redirect you outside the fiber optic.
Figure 5 shows the Light Lost.
Sometimes scattering of light can back to the light source. This is a feature that is used in the Optical Time Domain Reflectometer (OTDR). Can be used to find the loss in the fiber. Like the point where the line is broken. Or spots with a splice line.
5.2 การดูดซึม (Absorption)
The second type of Intrinsic Attenuation in the fiber optic cable is absorption (absorption of light) in the fiber. The absorption of attenuation 3-5% is a natural phenomenon. This is caused by the dirt mixed in the glass and changed to Some vibration or energy is shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6 shows the Light Absorbed.
What is different from scattering is that the absorption can be limited. The amount of dirt that is in the process of fiber optic cable.
By MiMhee
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The European Medicines Agency and the FDA will host a joint workshop in November to discuss quality challenges and approaches that can be used to prepare quality data packages for use in accelerated drug development.
The London workshop will include discussions between stakeholders and regulators on product characterization, validation and stability testing and ways to identify quality issues early on in the development process.
The agencies will consider developing follow-up guidance based on insights gained from the workshop. | https://www.fdanews.com/articles/187811-fda-and-ema-plan-joint-workshop-on-prime-and-breakthrough-submissions |
I. Mission of WWF Singapore: WWF-Singapore is a Singapore-registered charity, part of WWF International – one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organisations. We protect critical resources for people in Singapore by driving change across government, business, civil society and local communities. To meet key Singapore and around the region. As one of WWF’s global hubs, WWF-Singapore supports a global conservation goals, we address issues such as deforestation, haze pollution, seafood sustainability and illegal wildlife trade in network that spans over 100 countries.
II. Background: In early 2016, WWF Singapore setup an entirely Inhouse fundraising team. WWF Singapore is currently embarking on an ambitious growth strategy to quadruple income in 3 years to achieve our urgent conservation needs in Singapore and regionally and telemarketing is one of the top 3 ways we are raising funds. The team has grown to nearly 100 Face to Face Fundraisers and 20 telefundraisers in the last 18 months.
III. Major Duties and Responsibilities:
- Create public awareness to support global conservation efforts
- Call donors to upgrade their regular gifts, reactivate lapsed regular gifts, or convert donors or petition signatories to regular monthly donors
- Be well-versed with WWF’s goals and objectives for awareness and education to the prospective donors
- Attend regular training and discussions for improvement
- Maintain good relationships with WWF supporters and a high level of donor care
IV. Profile:
Required Qualifications
Required Qualifications
- Minimum O Levels / Diploma holder
- Experience in tele-sales or fundraising will be an added advantage
- Action-driven person that enjoys achieving and exceeding targets
- Energetic and self-confident, combined with strong personal values and a motivation for wanting to make the world a better place
- Motivated and driven, with the desire to pursue a career with telesales
- Strong team player
V. Working Relationships:
- Internal – Work closely with the fundraising on learning and improving the technique and tactic to raise funds for WWF Singapore
- External – Spread the knowledge and conservation awareness to the public and engage them to be our regular donors.
This job description covers the main tasks and conveys the spirit of the sort of tasks that are anticipated proactively from staff. Other tasks may be assigned as necessary according to organizational needs.
Post Date 24 November 2017
End Date 24 December 2017
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WWF-WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE (SINGAPORE) LIMITEDSingapore - Central - Tanglin
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is one of the world’s largest and most experienced independent conservation organisations.
Established on 29 April 1961, it was the product of a deep concern held by a few eminent gentlemen who were worried by what they saw happening in our world at that time. Since then, WWF has grown up to be one of the largest environmental organisations in the world.
Today, we have more than 5 million supporters worldwide; and we are present in more than 100 countries to conserve and protect our natural environment.
Gland, Switzerland is the home of WWF International, the secretariat for WWF's global organisation. Its role is to lead and coordinate the WWF Network of offices around the world, through developing policies and priorities, fostering global partnerships, coordinating international campaigns, and providing supportive measures in order to help make the global operation run as smoothly as it can.
WWF is governed by a Board of Trustees under an International President, Yolanda Kakabadse. Our President Emeritus is HRH The Duke of Edinburgh.
Why join with us?
* We provide opportunities for career advancement within the company.
* Outstanding career advancement opportunities await our staff.
Singapore & Asia Pacific
We started our Singapore office in March 2006 to engage individuals and organisations towards making a positive change in their lives and business operations.
Through our awareness campaigns and outreach activities, we aim to educate individuals from all walks of life on how a simple action can add up to make a big difference to our environment and safeguard the world’s biodiversity. We also work with businesses both locally and within the Asia Pacific region to help them identify sustainable business practices, as well as on how they can reduce their ecological foot print on the planet. | http://www.singacareers.com/detail/tele-sales-6-months-min-5-daysweek-100day-6114079 |
Lëpushë: A Sublime Town at the Core of the Albanian Alps
Lëpushë is one of the most charming mountainous villages in Albania. It is located 1,270 meters above sea level (4,167 feet), deep into the northern Albanian Alps. The surroundings are spectacular, dotted by the Alpine trees and plants of the Sheniku block, part of a wide area called Bjeshkët e Nemuna (Accursed Mountains).
The Journey To Lëpushë
The village of Lëpushë occupies the northmost part of Albania, some 95 kilometers (60 miles) from the city of Shkodra. It belongs to the region of Kelmendi, with a prominent and distinctive culture and a significant mountainous lifestyle. Lëpusha is so north, near the Albania-Montenegro border, that it is closer geographically to Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital than it is to Albania’s capital Tirana.
To get to Lëpushë, one must follow the Shkodër to Vermosh road that passes through Qafa Rrapshit and Tamara Bridge. This passage to this area, also called Leqet e Hotit, offers some awe-inspiring views without par in other Alpine terrains in the nation.
When you reach the glacial-like valley of the Lëpushë River, the town of the same name appears. Surrounded by some 45 peaks over 2,000 meters (6,562 feet) high, Lëpushë offers a spectacular sight. From this little northern village, a climber can begin unforgettable mountain hikes. These hikes vary in difficulty from easy ones to the hardest ones can find.
From a Small Settlement to a Tourist Destination
The first inhabitants settled in Lëpushë in the first years of the XX century. These people came mainly from the towns of Nikçi and Vukli. At the end of World War II, Lëpushë had only 18 households, still preserving its core demographic. In 1998, the community had a population that had increased six times; notably 495 people.
In recent years, the village of Lëpusha has attracted an increased number of tourists in search of unique mountainous destinations. The improved road and accommodating infrastructure have also contributed to this increase in visits.
Currently, the Alpine village spreads into three small boroughs: Lëpusha, Gropa, and Budaça, with 26, 22, and 24 houses each. Many of these homes serve as cozy guesthouses. The committed investment of the locals in these pastoral homesteads is evident; original and well-thought accommodations surrounded by a clean agricultural economy.
A Three-Season Snowy Village
In the second week of August, the “Logu i Bjeshkës” event happens at the spot called “Qafa e Perdelecit” in Lëpushë. It is a yearly folk festival with roots in the ancient era. It includes performances of local folk music, art exhibitions, beauty content of girls in traditional clothing, and, at times, a local product fair.
Local fairs are convenient opportunities to get to know the high-quality local dairy products and fresh potatoes. Meanwhile, wood-made and engraved utensils of local artisans represent the main non-food products in such exhibitions.
During winter, Lëpusha gets hit by a harsh and snowy winter. The thickness of snowfalls has exceeded, at times, the four meters (13 feet). Snowfall is also common during fall and spring. This snowy countryside is thus ideal for the practice of winter sports and recreational activities such as mountaineering, skiing, and snowboarding.
When to Visit Lëpushë
The best time to visit the village of Lëpushë is summer. Hikers can effortlessly follow multiple marked paths during summer through high beech forests and small streams. Some other upcoming natural attractions are some hidden and intriguing Alpine caves. Wildlife in the area is diverse, attracting naturalists from all over the world.
On the other hand, autumn and winter turn Lëpushë into a difficult location to access. Due to its altitude, heavy snowfalls immerse the village, isolating it from the regional communication network. | https://www.albanopedia.com/travel/lepushe |
The Privacy Director will lead Bright Health’s Privacy Program including but not limited to daily operations of the program, development, implementation, and maintenance of policies and procedures, monitoring program compliance, investigation and tracking of incidents and breaches and ensure that member and patients' rights remain in compliance with federal and state laws.
This role is located remotely or in Minneapolis, MN.
YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES
- Leads a strategic and comprehensive privacy program that defines, develops, maintains and implements policies and processes and training that enable consistent, effective privacy practices which minimize risk and ensure the confidentiality of protected health information (PHI), paper and/or electronic, across all media types
- Establishes, with the information security officer, an ongoing process to track, investigate and report inappropriate access and disclosure of protected health information
- Performs and oversees initial and periodic information privacy risk assessments, analyses, and appropriate mitigation and remediation
- Accountable for ensuring the organization maintains all appropriate privacy forms and disclosure statements, including confidentiality consents, authorization forms, notices of current privacy practices, consumer-facing form disclaimer language, etc.
- Leads the development, implementation, and ongoing compliance monitoring of all business associates and business associate agreements, to ensure all privacy concerns, requirements, and responsibilities are addressed
- Works cooperatively across all organization units in overseeing patient rights, including activities to inspect, amend, and restrict access to protected health information when appropriate
- Manages all required breach determination and notification processes under HIPAA and applicable State breach rules and requirements
- Establishes and administers a process for investigating and acting on privacy and security complaints
- Performs required breach risk assessment, documentation, and mitigation
- Works with Human Resources Team to ensure consistent application of sanctions for privacy violations
- Maintains current knowledge of applicable federal and state privacy laws, accreditation standards, and evolving privacy-related enforcement actions and case law
EDUCATION, TRAINING, AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- Bachelor’s degree required; JD preferred
- Eight (8)+ years’ experience with privacy/compliance experience
PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES
- Subject matter expertise in state and federal information privacy and security laws, including but not limited to HIPAA
- Strong attention to detail and demonstrated ability to manage numerous projects with varying degrees of scope
- Exceptional written and oral communication and presentation skills
- Demonstrated skills in collaboration, teamwork, and problem-solving to achieve goals
- Demonstrated skills in verbal communication and listening
- Excellent writing skills
- A high level of integrity and trust
LICENSURES AND CERTIFICATIONS
- Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP) or similar certification (preferred)
ABOUT US
At Bright Health, we brought together the brightest minds from the health care industry and consumer technology and together we created Bright Health: a new, brighter approach to healthcare, built for individuals. Our plans are easy to manage, personalized and more affordable, giving people the quality care they deserve. Through our exclusive care partnerships with leading health systems in local communities we are reshaping how people and physicians achieve better health together.
We’re Making Healthcare Right. Together.
We've won some fun awards like: Great Places to Work, Modern Healthcare, Forbes, etc. But more than anything, we're a group of people who are really dedicated to our mission in healthcare. Come join our growing team!
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we welcome and employ a diverse employee group committed to meeting the needs of Bright Health, our consumers, and the communities we serve. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.
BRIGHT ON! | https://www.builtinaustin.com/job/operations/director-privacy/66646 |
Representatives from the UC Collaborative to Promote Immigrant and Student Equity (UC PromISE) and the Undocumented Student Equity Project (USEP) discussed results from their 2020 research report on Dec 10. The report detailed the extent to which immigration-related policies produce inequalities for undocumented students based on survey responses from 1,277 undergraduate students from CSU and UC campuses throughout spring 2020.
The representatives proposed steps that educational institutions can pursue to combat these inequalities by supporting and promoting students’ educational success and well-being.
Panelists included: UCI Associate Professor of Chicano/Latino Studies, Laura Enriquez, CSUCI Assistant Professor of Sociology, Karina Chavarria, SFSU Assistant Professor of Psychology, Melissa Hagan; UCR Associate Professor and Chair of Ethnic Studies, Jennifer Najera; UCI Associate Professor of Public Health, Annie Rowe; CSLA Assistant Professor of Sociology, William Rosales; CSLA Associate Professor of Sociology, Haley Saraviya and UC Merced Associate Vice Provost for the faculty and Professor of Sociology, Zulema Valdez.
“Undocumented immigration status continues to compromise students’ educational experiences and yet students still find the wherewithal to maintain their academic performance which really points to a more nuanced story about undocumented college students’ experiences,” Chavarria said.
Chavarria said that campuses can create programs to help mitigate disruptions caused by immigration statuses such as peer mentoring programs; tools to navigate campus resources and support services; cross-campus collaboration teams for academic support and mental health services and professional development programs and internships.
The report also looked at mental health risks for undocumented students.
“[Undocumented] students show a really interesting mix of increased risk but also enhanced resilience,” Hagan said.
She proposed that campuses hire more mental health professionals who are trained to consider the unique needs of undocumented students, to increase a sense of belonging and to increase awareness of available campus services.
The survey investigated how students were affected by the ongoing pandemic, including finances, family finances, mental health, physical health, attention to academics and academic performance.
“We found that students were absolutely overwhelmingly negatively affected by the COVID pandemic,” Rowe said.
Policy recommendations include buffering financial strain by considering emergency grants that target available campus resources towards high risk parties.
“Punitive immigration enforcement policies in the recent years have really made this threat of deportation salient and real, driving feelings of exclusion, isolation, and discrimination among undocumented students. Importantly, undocumented students experience this deportation threat primarily as a threat to their parents,” Rosales said.
Rosales recommended that higher education institutions take leadership in advancing comprehensive immigration policies to push pathways to citizenship and provide accessible rights training and education to students and their families.
Valdez said that almost all undocumented students experience substantial financial strain and economic hardship, meaning that they do not have enough money for school-related materials, basic needs and food. The report recommends that institutions expand and make need-based aid, such as emergency grants, readily available.
She said that undocumented students struggle to access needed campus information resources but characterize campus climates as pro-immigrant. Valdez suggested professional
development training for staff to mitigate this difficulty.
“We found that undocumented students overwhelmingly use undocumented student research services,” Saraviya said.
She said that universities should increase funding for services, particularly the Basic Needs and Food Pantry, and that universities should strengthen collaborations and referrals between undocumented student services and key campus services.
Enriquez said that UC PromISE and USEP hope that the report will help to “create systematic and systemic change in higher education.”
Rachel Vu is a Campus News Intern for the 2020 Fall Quarter. She can be reached at [email protected]. | https://www.newuniversity.org/2021/01/06/persisting-inequalities-and-paths-forward-the-state-of-undocumented-students-in-californias-public-universities/ |
MATERIALS ANALYSIS SERVICES
A critical step in evaluating engineering materials is microstructural analysis. Our Materials Analysis Lab technicians perform sectioning, mounting, polishing, and examination of metallographic specimens. This facility supports our engineers by providing insight and valuable microstructural data. Such information can be used for product improvements, for expert testimony in failure analyses, or to explain the mechanical behavior of tested materials.
Using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) capabilities provides us a quick and simple technique to obtain semi-quantitative elemental analysis of samples.
We have upgraded and digitized our existing Optical Microscopes as well. This allows us to send information to customers instantaneously via electronic connections and has streamlined data processing and improved efficiency. | https://metcut.com/services/metallographic-services/ |
The FCA’s third thematic review of Sipp operators and the increase in the benchmark for capital adequacy requirements have reduced the appetite and ability for some in the marketplace to continue in the long-term. The introduction of the tapering annual allowance from April next year is also likely to have an impact on new contributions to Sipps at the medium and high end of the market.
We expect many sales, mergers and consolidations within the industry before September 2016: the deadline by which the new capital adequacy levels must be met. If providers do not meet capital adequacy levels, the operator will simply have their permissions removed. This leaves us with the spectre of a forced wind-up; surely an unintended consequence of regulation.
Should this happen, or where consolidation is taking place, there are several ways a Sipp business can be acquired. T
he first is a complete purchase of the Sipp administration and trustee company, meaning the entire Sipp book, including all the assets (and potential liabilities, although these are often indemnified), is assumed by the new owner. As a condition of the deal, however, it might be required that certain Sipps, where assets are held that the new provider is not prepared to hold, must be extracted by transfer from the book (or the offending assets sold) prior to the deal.
The second route is the individual transfer of Sipps into the new provider’s vehicle. This way, the new provider controls exactly what assets it receives.
The problem lies in the fact there will be some clients holding assets the acquiring firms simply might not want.
Acquiring books of business can be problematic at best and the risk can only be mitigated by considerable due diligence by the acquirer. This process, though, can be hugely time-consuming and may still not fully uncover the extent of “toxic” assets – that is, those the new provider would choose ordinarily not to hold. These problems have already led to one significant Sipp player publically stepping back from any future purchases.
Some notable press commentary recently surrounding FCA action has also identified a number of missold assets that have found their way into Sipp operators’ books. These assets are often of negligible value and are usually the sole purpose the Sipp was created. As such, there are no other liquid assets from which a Sipp provider can deduct their fees and thus be remunerated for the continuing administration of the plan and subsequent disposal or wind-up of it.
What is more, a feature of the new capital adequacy calculation formula is that the greater the proportion of Sipps holding non-standard assets (as these toxic assets would undoubtedly be classed) the potentially higher capital adequacy the provider must hold.
In addition to requiring unremunerated administration, these Sipps may require the raising, and holding, of additional capital reserves.
As a result some Sipps might get left behind or be refused altogether by the new provider.
Some acquisitive firms may be prepared to take a little rough with the smooth, accepting a degree of toxicity for the greater good.
In effect, these firms will act as a “lifeboat” for those Sipp customers that might otherwise not find a provider to administer their plan. But there will be a limit to the number of cases each provider can accept. What happens when these lifeboats are full?
A Sipp provider of last resort has been mentioned; perhaps one that is Government funded or even funded through a levy on existing providers (although this is unlikely). The favoured route would be an existing provider taking on the business after negotiation with the regulator, such that liabilities would be ring-fenced and the Sipps would not count towards the capital adequacy calculation.
We are sure the consequence of some Sipp clients not being able to find a willing provider to take on their toxic assets is not what the regulator intended. Therefore, it is inevitable some may need to find themselves a capacious lifeboat. | https://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/martin-tilley-what-happens-when-the-sipp-lifeboats-are-full/ |
Appendix and Appendicitis
Appendix is 3 ½ inch long tube which extends from large intestine. No significant function of appendix is known, but some doctors believe that it contains a special tissue, which produces antibiotics and helps in fighting infection. As its function is unknown, so you can easily survive without an appendix and no health difficulties may occur as such.
Inflammation of the appendix leads to a condition known as appendicitis. Inflammation of appendix occurs due an infection or blockage of stool or foreign body or due to cancer. It is a medical emergency which requires an urgent removal of appendix through a surgery. If not treated quickly, then it can burst or perforate and as a result, it will spread the infection in the abdominal cavity. This infection will result in acute inflammation of peritoneum (abdominal cavity lining), which is a fatal condition if not treated quickly with the help of antibiotics.
Appendicitis Pain: How do you feel when you have appendicitis pain?
Appendix pain is one of the major symptoms of appendicitis. Appendicitis pain starts near the naval or upper abdomen, which may not be permanent. This is the first sign of onset of appendicitis that can occur in an individual, but it is only observed in less than half of the appendicitis patients.
Then within few hours, the appendix pain travels to the lower right-hand side of the abdomen, where the appendix is located. A severe pain is observed in this area which remains constant. This occurs due to swelling and inflammation of the appendix.
See also: Appendicitis Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatments, Surgery, and Complications
See also: Appendicitis in Kids: Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, And Treatment
What does appendix pain feel like?
An appendicitis patient may feel a dull, cramping or aching type of pain throughout the abdomen during the onset of symptoms. With time, the pain becomes quite severe and remains constant as a sharp ache on right-hand side. This makes the patient quite uncomfortable.
Which side does appendix pain occurs? Where does appendix pain starts?
With the onset of symptoms, the appendicitis pain is located in the center of abdomen, particularly near the navel (bellybutton) and lower and upper abdomen region. Gradually, with time the pain travels to the lower right-hand side of the abdomen, which is quite severe and remains stable.
What are the symptoms of appendix pain?
The major symptom of appendicitis involves occurrence of extreme pain in the lower right side of abdomen. Other symptoms commonly experienced along with appendicitis pain are as follows:
- Loss of appetite
- Nausea or vomiting which begins after onset of abdominal pain
- Abdominal swelling
- Fever ranging about 100-101.F
- Constipation or diarrhea with gas
- Inability to pass gas
- Painful urination
- Severe cramps
Features of appendicitis pain
Appendix pain is the one of the significant symptoms that an appendix patient experiences. It occurs on the lower right-hand side of the abdomen. The abdominal pain has the following characteristics:
- Appendix pain occurs suddenly and may result in waking you up at night
- It occurs before others symptoms may appear
- Appendix pain begins near the belly button and moves to lower abdomen region
- The pain felt is quite new and never experienced by the patient before
- The appendicitis pain becomes quite extreme in a few hours
- It becomes quite worse while walking, taking deep breath, coughing or sneezing
Back pain in appendicitis: Is back pain during appendicitis common?
Most people experience appendicitis pain on the right side of abdomen only, as the appendix is located in that region. In some people, the appendix may be present behind the colon, due to which they may experience lower back pain or pelvic pain during appendicitis. Therefore, back pain is quite rare during appendicitis.
What happens when an appendix bursts?
If the inflamed appendix is not treated on urgent basis, then it may lead to an appendix burst. It involves spreading the infection in the inner lining of abdomen, known as peritoneum. Appendix burst is extremely painful and cause severe inflammation. Such a condition is known as peritonitis. It is a life-threatening condition and requires immediate medical attention.
How long does it take for an appendix to rupture?
An inflamed appendix has a potential risk to get ruptured after 48 hours of onset of appendix pain and other such symptoms. However, it rarely gets ruptured within the first 24 hours of onset of symptoms. As soon as you experience any symptoms of appendicitis, you should consult a doctor urgently for its treatment.
See also: How Long Does It Take To Recover From Appendix Surgery?
How do you know if your appendix got busted?
When the appendix ruptures due to severe inflammation, then the infection spreads in the abdominal cavity and body temperature may rise above 101.F. Increase in heart rate may also indicate presence of ruptured appendix in the abdominal region.
When do you require medical assistance for appendicitis pain?
If you experience any middle/lower/right side abdominal pain along with fever and vomiting, then you should consult a doctor. If your symptoms continue for more than 4 hours then you should immediately visit a doctor’s clinic or a hospital’s emergency department.
Treatment of appendix pain
Appendicitis pain cannot be treated at home. Any home remedies can exaggerate the situation. Never try any home remedies for appendix treatment. You should immediately visit a doctor or move to emergency department of a hospital.
The doctor will surgically remove the appendix by either appendectomy or laparoscopy. In some cases, he or she may recommend certain antibiotics to reduce the infection in the appendix and then remove it through surgery.
What should be avoided during an appendicitis pain?
The following practices or home remedies should be avoided as they can lead delay the diagnosis of appendicitis symptoms. This delay in diagnosis may lead to rupture of appendix and thereby exaggerate the condition. In certain conditions, these steps could even rupture the appendix directly leading to peritonitis.
These preventive measures include:
- You should not eat or drink anything, as it can delay or lead to complications during appendix surgery. If you feel thirty, you can wash your mouth with water.
- You should not consume any over-the-counter medication such as a laxative, antibiotic, antacid and pain relief medication. | https://www.diseasefix.com/page/appendicitis-pain-what-does-appendix-pain-feel-like/4578/ |
The development of modern society is impossible without the existence of an effective system of social communication media. In this context, communication is understood as a socially conditioned phenomenon, whose main function is to influence an audience through the content of the transmitted information.
Mass communication is regarded as an indirect communication though the media, because direct communication involves a high, but not a mass audience and direct contact and interaction between participants of communication. Due to the increasing of the audience and difficulty to receive the audience feedback, the emphasis is made not on the interaction, but on the effect.
This feature is the main reason for close collaboration between media and politics.
We can write a Custom Research Paper about Media and Politics for you!
In the structure of mass communication, the main role belongs to media to carry out regular exposure to numerically large dispersed audience. It includes radio, television, Internet, as well as cinema, theater, mass spectacle, fiction, and telephone, teletype, computer networks, etc.
The combination of these assets and their functional properties form the communication space that interacts with the political system. Currently, mass communication (MC) is not just a factor of production, distribution, and exchange of information, but also a form of organization of public communication processes. They, in turn, determine the direction and the corresponding character of the socio-political. Thus media can have the most significant impact on the mass audience.
Information – the rapid provision of relevant information to citizens about events and processes in social and political life. This feature contributes to a picture of the world and the individual’s orientation in a complex system of social reality.
function of socialization (including political) – the formation and maintenance of cultural and political stereotypes, norms of behavior, etc.
the function of mobilizing public opinion – to attract attention to a particular socio-political issues can cause a public outcry and lead to serious social consequences. The media can also be engaged by one or other political forces to mobilize public opinion in support of certain political actors.
feedback function of society and power structures – the media can be a means of expression and the public instrument of pressure on government institutions, encouraging them to take adequate measures.
To discover more date on the phenomenon, use free sample media and politics research paper topics. | https://usefulresearchpapers.com/media-and-politics-research-paper/ |
Found the Blaze at clue 5
Mr. Fenn says, "Although many have tried, I doubt that anyone will find the blaze before they have figured out the first clue. f" And that is what we are doing following the contiguous clues to find this unique blaze. There has been a lot of work getting this far and it might seem complicated, but we have been using the "follow the star" and the contiguous clue methodology to keep the pattern simple and relevant. The summary to date: stanza 1 contains a riddle in the last line a which tells us where to start. The answer to the riddle is lunacy so we start at the State Mental Hospital in Warm Springs as clue 1. The last word of clue 1, "halt" is also a train stop and is the beginning of clue 2. Clue 2 ends with the word "walk" and is a hint to the answer of clue 3 - baseball. This gives us Brown who we find out is Shoeless Joe Jackson and his home is "Sweet Spot". Brown being the last word in clue 3 hints to another Brown as the hint to the answer of clue 4 and that is the continental divide.
We last left off below the home of Brown looking for a place that is the no place for the meek from the Bert Mooney Airport. We need to fly to the clouds (heady loads and water high) to get to the continental divide and the place we need to look for the blaze must be identified by the answer to clue 4 "lighting" and the last word of that clue "high." Lightning is Fenn's horse, and the picture if the horse has a blaze with an arrow pointing down. "High" is associated with high horse or tall in the saddle (John Wayne) and saddle is a term associated with "in the wood" as is sweet spot. Since we put in at the air-port, the poem clue 4 suggests we must fly "high" in the sky over the continental divide at a place called "Saddle Rock" and look down to find the blaze.
When we do this, something really amazing happens! We see a horse and a blaze on the nose of the horse is a white blaze. No, not like the image of a horse I found at Marble (see my book). This horse is not the kind of horse you might expect to see. Speak of "to see" or should I say "to seas" which is the "listen good" part of this clue:
"When you have been wise and found the blaze your quest to cease."
"To cease" sounds like "to seas" or look to the seas which is a confirmation of the continental divide which is defined as where the water divides to travel to the seas. Thus our horse we seek is actually a "sea horse." This is perfect puzzle thinking and the example of the Fenn sleight of hand, where the beginning of the poem suggest water but it isn't, but now the water horse appears from a high.
Forrest claims this puzzle will only be solved with imagination and this is it, the time for imagination. Get ready! Here is your horse at saddle rock. Or should I say seahorse:
Notice the hexagon shaped building? If it was an octagon we would have the stops sign or halt or the synonym of "to cease" but it forms the eye of the seahorse. Remember the tight focus on the word that is key? The answer to tight focus is "eye." When joining the apexes of the hexagon, it forms a star. Follow the star! One physically looks from the eye, so look quickly down from the eye you see the nose, or in this case the nose of the seahorse. The blaze of the horse is actually the blaze or the seahorse. This explains Forrest's clever hint of fly fishing or fly-fish (fly to find the fish).
Mr. Fenn has stated:
"I was just wondering. If I can find the blase, why should I worry about where warm waters halt? All I need to do is look “quickly down” like the poem says, and there is the treasure, right? ~ Philadelphia Franklin "That’s correct Philly, but that’s not a plausible scenario. If you can find a fish already on your hook you needn’t go fishing, right? Don’t force those kinds of aberrational thoughts on yourself or you’ll likely walk back to your car with a very light back pack. f"
Notice the clever subtle hint to Philadelphia and Franklin linking the previous clue Lightning to the looking down and the blaze? This reminds me of Mr Fenn's statement "You don't want to go so far down the road that you don't see what is laying down in front of you." This is ironic, when we see the blaze is the road of which we walk to the treasure, we just need to use our imagination to see what is laying down in front of us. | https://www.findingfenn.com/single-post/2018/10/12/found-the-blaze-at-clue-5 |
Viola Davis has spent years building a dazzling career, first distancing herself from a past of poverty and trauma and eventually reconciling with that past. The actress’ artistic performance as the first African-American to achieve the triple acting crown, with an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony to her name, was intriguing at first, but she eventually realized that the past still haunted her. She decided to stop running and question her story to understand her present and embrace her own story.
Davis embarked on a hero’s journey of self-discovery as described in The hero with a thousand faces, as she referred to in her interview with Oprah and said: “When you go down this path of transformation where you are really trying to become your ideal self, you will meet the part of yourself that you do not want to be. You come to to see all your faults; you will see all the things that cause you pain. You will not see God; you will see yourself. And then you hope that when you meet the I, you will no longer be “You have two choices at the moment: You can just stay there and be swallowed, or you can move on. I choose to move on. I did not want to be swallowed.”
Here are five books that inspired her on her journey. What they share is the importance of looking inward, as Brené Brown says – identifying your feelings and returning to core values through the discovery of one’s true, authentic self.
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1
Atlas of the heartby Brené Brown
Brené Brown’s groundbreaking latest book is based on her more than 20 years of groundbreaking research to explore and expand the vocabulary of emotions. Brown says emotions are multilayered and consist of biology, biography, behavior, and background history. Through the revelation of these feelings, it is necessary to create a meaningful human connection based on your values.
2
The color Purpleby Alice Walker
It’s almost 40 years since Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was published. Oprah called it one of the “national anthems of women’s empowerment.” In it, Celie is separated from her sister Nettie and suffers under the hands of her husband in rural Georgia. The women in The color Purple, among them Sofia and Shug Avery, fight against misogyny and racism; through their friendships and support, the women are resilient and triumphant. In this American classic, Walker portrayed women who were complicated, tragic, violent, and inspiring.
3
To defy the wildernessby Brené Brown
Brown emphasizes the key practices of “true belonging,” she says, that we can reconnect to who we really are by standing alone and strong in the midst of an increasingly distracting, perfectionist world. A key factor? Embraces nature.
4
The hero with a thousand facesby Joseph Campbell
Inspires many, including filmmaker George Lucas, The hero with a thousand faces was first published in 1949. In it, Joseph Campbell introduces the “monomy myth”, which focuses on the idea that every myth follows the same structure. He refers to the archetypal hero who appears in most mythologies, basic stories and religions. Through separation, the person leaves his familiar state to embark on the hero’s journey. During the introduction, the hero discovers new experiences and trials, and must locate their inner strength to get through. By returning, the hero is transformed and serves others through the dissemination of knowledge and sometimes sacrifice. Individually, we need to take a spiritual journey, leave what is comfortable, and challenge ourselves to discover our true potential.
5
The power of the nightby Eckhart Tolle
Tolle teaches what most therapists embrace, and that is to be fully present in the now. He writes that giving the past unnecessary weight can paralyze and hinder your way forward. The same goes for living in the future and not acknowledging your current situation. By recognizing and then satisfying our thoughts and fears and not letting our egos derail us, we can find the path to true fulfillment. | https://voutrabalharemcasa.com/five-books-that-are-crucial-to-viola-davis-journey/ |
Midland discussion to focus on relationship between technology and health
The many relationships between technology and health will be explored during the Our Health discussion on Oct. 30 at the Midland Cultural Centre.
A panel with four local experts will navigate their way through the complex relationships of digital communication, social media and our personal health.
Access to the internet and new technology has provided new opportunities in the world of communication and health care. It is also resulted in negative effects, such as cyberbullying, gaming disorders, unwanted or unintended distribution of digital materials, addiction tendencies, anxiety and depression, all of which can lead to significant mental health concerns.
“The discussion won’t be all negative or all positive. It is going to be a balanced panel unpacking the issues from a few different perspectives,” said Holly Archer, one of the event organizers.
The experts will include Georgian Bay District Secondary School principal John Playford, mental health educator and social worker Danielle Mink, the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care’s John Weekes and IT professional Paul Davis.
“It is going to be a broad conversation about not only the perils of some of these new forms of communication, but it will also look at opportunities in a health care setting, educational setting and community setting,” said Archer.
The conversation will touch on a variety of aspects of health and technology and will be aimed at a wide ranging audience.
“Part of it was wanting to reach out to a youth audience. Another part of it was wanting to look at how technology effects adults,” said Archer. “It is easy to think that technology only effects youth, but it also has an impact on all ages.”
Keith Rose, a retired physician who previously practised in Midland, moderates each discussion. After a facilitated chat, the conversation is opened up to the audience for questions.
Our Health will take place at the Midland Cultural Centre on Oct. 30 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
Midland discussion to focus on relationship between technology and health
The many relationships between technology and health will be explored during the Our Health discussion on Oct. 30 at the Midland Cultural Centre.
A panel with four local experts will navigate their way through the complex relationships of digital communication, social media and our personal health.
Access to the internet and new technology has provided new opportunities in the world of communication and health care. It is also resulted in negative effects, such as cyberbullying, gaming disorders, unwanted or unintended distribution of digital materials, addiction tendencies, anxiety and depression, all of which can lead to significant mental health concerns.
“The discussion won’t be all negative or all positive. It is going to be a balanced panel unpacking the issues from a few different perspectives,” said Holly Archer, one of the event organizers.
Related Content
The experts will include Georgian Bay District Secondary School principal John Playford, mental health educator and social worker Danielle Mink, the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care’s John Weekes and IT professional Paul Davis.
“It is going to be a broad conversation about not only the perils of some of these new forms of communication, but it will also look at opportunities in a health care setting, educational setting and community setting,” said Archer.
The conversation will touch on a variety of aspects of health and technology and will be aimed at a wide ranging audience.
“Part of it was wanting to reach out to a youth audience. Another part of it was wanting to look at how technology effects adults,” said Archer. “It is easy to think that technology only effects youth, but it also has an impact on all ages.”
Keith Rose, a retired physician who previously practised in Midland, moderates each discussion. After a facilitated chat, the conversation is opened up to the audience for questions.
Our Health will take place at the Midland Cultural Centre on Oct. 30 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.
Top Stories
Midland discussion to focus on relationship between technology and health
The many relationships between technology and health will be explored during the Our Health discussion on Oct. 30 at the Midland Cultural Centre.
A panel with four local experts will navigate their way through the complex relationships of digital communication, social media and our personal health.
Access to the internet and new technology has provided new opportunities in the world of communication and health care. It is also resulted in negative effects, such as cyberbullying, gaming disorders, unwanted or unintended distribution of digital materials, addiction tendencies, anxiety and depression, all of which can lead to significant mental health concerns.
“The discussion won’t be all negative or all positive. It is going to be a balanced panel unpacking the issues from a few different perspectives,” said Holly Archer, one of the event organizers.
Related Content
The experts will include Georgian Bay District Secondary School principal John Playford, mental health educator and social worker Danielle Mink, the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care’s John Weekes and IT professional Paul Davis.
“It is going to be a broad conversation about not only the perils of some of these new forms of communication, but it will also look at opportunities in a health care setting, educational setting and community setting,” said Archer.
The conversation will touch on a variety of aspects of health and technology and will be aimed at a wide ranging audience.
“Part of it was wanting to reach out to a youth audience. Another part of it was wanting to look at how technology effects adults,” said Archer. “It is easy to think that technology only effects youth, but it also has an impact on all ages.”
Keith Rose, a retired physician who previously practised in Midland, moderates each discussion. After a facilitated chat, the conversation is opened up to the audience for questions.
Our Health will take place at the Midland Cultural Centre on Oct. 30 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. | |
Associations and societies are able to provide educational support and guidance to healthcare professionals specific to the country or region for which they serve. The links below will take you to sites outside the COPD Knowledge Centre where you can further your knowledge of the treatment and management options available.
Containing links to several articles with advice on living and coping with COPD and other lung conditions, the American Association of Respiratory Care lung health site makes a useful resources for healthcare professionals and patients alike.
With the aim to promote the prevention and treatment of diseases of the chest, the American College of Chest Physicians are the leading resource for cardiopulmonary health and critical care worldwide. Healthcare professionals can gain access to publications, treatment guidelines and resources.
America’s leading organization for the promotion of professionalism in medicine, setting standards for medical education and ethics, and advancing improvements in public health.
Dedicated to advancing the clinical and scientific understanding of pulmonary diseases has lead to the American Thoracic Society gaining a reputation as one of the world’s leading medical association.
A British charity that focuses its efforts on supporting all those affected by lung disease through raising funds for research and patient helplines and assessment days throughout the UK.
The British Thoracic Society is focused on working towards promoting optimum standards of care and advancing knowledge across all areas of respiratory disease.
The American National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute provides global leadership for a research, training and education programmes promoting the prevention and treatment of heart, lung and blood diseases, enhancing the health of all individuals so that they can live longer and more fulfilling lives.
This non-profit organization that supports respiratory research, education and training in Latin America. As such this site is only available in Spanish. The organization provides support to patients suffering from respiratory disease and helps raise awareness of these conditions.
Promoting the advancement of respiratory knowledge through research, improved clinical practice, conferences and awareness of pulmonary health problems in the Asia Pacific region, the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology site is a key resource for healthcare professionals in the region.
The mission of the European COPD Coalition is to raise awareness on COPD and to find ways to reduce the burden of the disease through collective action and advocacy, developing and implementing a comprehensive EU public health policy on COPD by being a key facilitator of health policy initiatives.
The European Respiratory Society aims to alleviate suffering from respiratory disease and to promote lung health through research, knowledge sharing, and medical and public education.
The International Primary Care Respiratory Group (IPCRG) is a clinically-led charitable organisation with the prime mission of carrying out and promoting research into the care, treatment and prevention of respiratory diseases and tobacco dependence in the community.
The COPD foundation aims to develop and support programs which improve quality of life for patients affected by COPD through research, education, early diagnosis, and enhanced therapy. The site includes links to the COPD information line and COPD Glossary.
GOLD works with health care professionals and public health officials to raise awareness of COPD and to improve prevention and treatment of this lung disease for patients around the world. | https://www.epgonline.org/copd-kc/en/resources/useful-links.html |
Water • To understand water, we must understand its characteristics, and roles: • Water has a high capacity to absorb and store heat. • Water is the universal solvent. • Water has a high surface tension. • Water is the only compound whose solid form is lighter than its liquid form. • Sunlight penetrates water to variable depths, permitting photosynthetic organisms to live below the surface.
A Brief Global Perspective • We are facing a growing global water shortage linked to the food supply. • Global hydrologic cycle • Transfers water from the atmosphere, to land, to oceans and back to atmosphere • 97% in oceans • 2% in ice • Only 0.001% in atmosphere
A Brief Global Perspective • At Earth’s surface water can be found in liquid, solid or gaseous form. • Residence time varies from a few days to thousands of years • Amount of water for which all people, animals and plants compete is < 1% • Industrial production increases water use • Mass of water used 1000x total production of minerals
Groundwater and Streams • Groundwater refers to the water below the water table • Where saturated conditions exist • Locations where surface waters move into the ground are recharge zones • Places where it flows or seeps out are discharge zones (points) • Area where water seeps through pore spaces known as vadose zone
Groundwater and Streams • Aquifer is an underground zone from which groundwater can be obtained • When water is pumped from an aquifer forms a cone of depression
Streams • Effluent stream • Flow is maintained during the dry season by seepage • Perennial stream • Influent stream • Entirely above the water table and flows only in direct response to precipitation • Ephemeral stream • A given stream can have reaches that are both or intermittent at varying times of year.
Interactions Between Surface Water and Groundwater • Should be considered part of the same resource. • Nearly all surface water environments have linkages w/ ground water • E.g. withdrawal of groundwater can lower stream flow or lake levels • Pollution can spread from one source to the other
Water Supply: A US Example • Water supply at any point on the land surface depends on several factors in the hydrologic cycle, • including the rates of precipitation, evaporation, transpiration • stream flow • subsurface flow • Water budget • A model that balances the inputs, outputs, and storage of water in a system. • Precipitation - evaporation = runoff
Water Supply: A US Example • Amount of water vapor passing over the US every day ~ 152,000 million m3 • 10% falls as precipitation (66% of which is evaporated or transpired) • Only 34% enters surface or groundwater
In developing water budgets for water resources management it is useful to consider annual precipitation and runoff patterns. Potential problems can be predicted in areas where average runoff and precip low Total storage of runoff not possible because of evaporative losses Precipitation and Runoff Patterns
Droughts • Because there are large annual and regional variations in stream flow, even areas with high precipitation and runoff may suffer from droughts.
Groundwater Use and Problems • ½ the people in the US use groundwater as a primary source of drinking water • 20% of water used • In many parts of the country withdrawal from wells exceeds natural inflow • Overdraft • Nonrenewable resource • Problems include damage to river basins and land subsidence
Desalination as a Water Source • Seawater is 3.5% salt • Desalination- a technology to remove salt from water • Must be reduces to 0.05% to be fresh water • Requires large amount of energy, tied to fuel prices • Has place value- price increases quickly with transport distance • Discharge may affect local salinity
Water Use • Off-stream use • Refers to water removed from its source for use • May be returned to source after use • Or consumptive use- water enters tissues, product or evaporates during use and not returned
Water Use • In-stream use • The use of the river for navigation, hydroelectric power, fish and wildlife habitats, and recreation. • Multiple uses can create controversy
Water Use • Another problem with off stream use is how much water can be removed w/o damaging the stream ecosystem. • E.g. Aral Sea. Diverting water for agriculture caused sea to dry up • Surface area of sea reduces 90% in 50 years
Aral Sea • Salt content of the water has increased • Dust storms from dry salt flats • Climate changes • Winters colder, summers warmer • Loss of fishing and decline of tourism
Transport of Water • Ancient civilizations constructed canals and aqueducts to transport water • From distant river to where it is needed • In modern civilization water moved from areas of abundant rain and snow fall to areas of high usage • E.g. California moves water from north to south • E.g. New York City has had to obtain water from farther and farther away
Some Trends in Water Use • Withdrawal of surface water far exceeds withdrawal of groundwater • Since 1980 use has decreases and leveled off • Suggests improvement in water management and conservation
Some Trends in Water Use • Trends in freshwater withdrawals by water-use categories suggests that: • 1. The major uses of water are for irrigation and the thermoelectric industry. • 2. Water use for irrigation increased from 1950-1980. It decreased and leveled off from 1985-2000 • due to better irrigation efficiency, crop type and higher energy costs.
Some Trends in Water Use • 3. Water use by thermoelectric industry decreased slightly in 1980, and stabilized in 1985. • Due to reticulating water for cooling • 4. Water for public and rural supplies continued to increase through the period from 1950 to 2000 • presumably related to the increase in human population.
Water Conservation • The careful use and protection of water resources • Involves the quantity of water used and the quality • Important component of sustainable water use • Expected that a number innovations will reduce the total withdrawals
Agricultural Use • Improved irrigation could reduce agricultural withdrawals by 20 to 30% • Tremendous savings because ag is the biggest user
Agricultural Use • Suggestions for conservation: • Price agricultural water to encourage conservation • Use lined or covered canals that reduce seepage and evaporation. • Use computer monitoring and schedule release of water for maximum efficiency. • Integrate the use of surface water and groundwater to more effectively use the total resource.
Agricultural Use • Irrigate at times when evaporation is minimal, such as at night or in the early morning. • Use improved irrigation systems, such as sprinklers or drip irrigation, that more effectively apply water to crops. • Improve the soil to increase infiltration and minimize runoff. • Encourage the development of crops that require less water or are more salt tolerant.
Domestic Use • Accounts for about 10% of total national water withdrawals • But concentrated in urban areas • May pose major local problems
Domestic Use • Water use can be substantially reduced by: • In semiarid regions, replace lawns with decorative gravels and native plants. • Use more efficient bathroom fixtures. • Turn off water when not absolutely needed. • Flush the toilet only when really necessary. • Fix all leaks quickly.
Domestic Use • Purchase dishwashers and washing machines that minimize water consumption. • Take a long bath rather than a long shower. • Sweep sidewalks and driveways. • Using gray water to water vegetation. • Water lawns and plants at cool times to reduce evaporation.
Domestic Use • Use drip irrigation and place water-holding mulch around garden plants. • Plant drought-resistant vegetation. • Learn how to read the water meter to monitor for unobserved leaks and record your conservation successes. • Use reclaimed water
Industry and Manufacturing Use • Water conservation measures that can be taken by industry: • Using cooling towers that use little or no water • In-plant water treatment and recycling
Perception and Water Use • Perception of water is based partly on its price and availability. • If water is abundant and inexpensive, we don’t think much about it. • If water is scarce or expensive, it is another matter. • E.g. people in Tucson pay about 100% more for water than people in Phoenix. • Tucson residence use less water per person per day
Sustainability and Water Management • From a water supply use and management perspective, sustainable water use defined as: • use of water resources by people in a way that allows society to develop and flourish into an indefinite future • W/o degrading the various components of the hydrologic cycle or the ecological systems that depend on it.
Sustainable Water Use • General criteria: • Develop water resources in sufficient volume to maintain human health and well-being. • Provide sufficient water resources to guarantee the health and maintenance of ecosystems. • Ensure minimum standards of water quality for the various users of water resources. | https://fr.slideserve.com/cora/chapter-21-water-supply-use-and-management-powerpoint-ppt-presentation |
Fossils, from the Latin, fossilis, which means “dug up from the earth,” are the remains or impressions of prehistoric organisms preserved as a mold or a cast in rock. Today, the term is reserved for impressions or remains that are at least 10,000 years old.
Fossils have been studied for thousands of years. The ancient Greeks described the fossils of marine organisms and concluded that the land was once under water. The ancient Chinese thought that they were the remains of dragons. Today, our best explanation for the fossil record is that fossils are prehistoric remains of now extinct organisms that lived on our planet sometime over the past 3.5 billion years.
What does the fossil record reveal about the history of life on our planet? First, it reveals that the origins of life are very ancient. There are fossils of photosynthetic bacteria in rocks in Western Australia that are 3.5 billion years old. Second, the fossil record shows that God created life over a long period of time, gradually using natural forces to diversify living things from simple one-celled organisms to more complex ones. Third, it indicates that the evolution of one form of life to another was often gradual over millions of years with intermediate transitional forms of life, though dramatic transformations can also be identified in the fossil record.
To illustrate some of these generalizations, let us examine the fossil record of one very striking evolutionary change, the transformation of lizards into snakes.
The similarity in the natural form of lizards and snakes indicates that they have common origins. God created the lizards about 240 million years ago. The fossil record reveals that He created the snakes about 150 million years ago. How did He do this? Again, as I explained in my first post in this disputatio, God created snakes through instrumental causes in nature that transformed some ancient lizards into snakes by extending their spines, eliminating their legs, and reshaping their skulls.
Two strands of evidence support this claim. First, we have identified fossils of transitional life forms that reveal this evolutionary change. For example, archaeologists have found fossils of an ancient legged snake called Najash that still had hind legs. What is striking is that Najash has a skull that has some of the flexible joints found in modern snakes but not all of them. Its middle ear is intermediate between that of modern lizards and modern snakes and unlike living snakes it retains a well-developed cheekbone, which lizards have but snakes do not have. It is a true transitional form.
I am often asked: If transitional life forms existed in the past, why don’t they exist today? What is striking however is that we do have living transitional life forms that illustrate the evolutionary change between lizards and snake. Legless lizards are common today! Some lizards have lost their front legs; some have lost their hind limbs; while others have even lost both sets of limbs. We even have living lizards that have greatly reduced limbs which are not used for movement. These living transitional forms indicate that the transitional lizards found in the historical record were indeed robust living organisms and not “broken” kinds of animals.
Second, we have begun to understand the genetic changes that accompanied the lizard-to-snake evolutionary change in form that we see in the fossil record. One of the genes involved is Oct4. High levels of Oct4 extends the body length of mouse embryos, and the exceptionally long bodies of snakes likely result from changes in Oct4 behavior during the early development of the embryo. Another gene is Sonic hedgehog (Shh). Changes in Shh have been linked to the loss of limbs in snakes. In fact, molecular biologists can eliminate legs in mice by simply modifying their Shh gene.
Together these two strands of evidence – the fossil record that reveals that transitional forms between lizards and snakes and the molecular evidence that reveals the genetic changes that were involved in this transition – support the claim that God created snakes from lizards using evolutionary forces as instrumental causes.
Though the evolutionary transformation of some ancient lizards into snakes is only one transformation among the many that define the landscape of evolution, I describe it here because it is one of the most striking evolutionary changes for which we have both robust fossil and molecular evidence. It is my paradigm example because it explains well why I am convinced that God created through an evolutionary process.
Some will object. Some will say that we still do not have adequate evidence for the evolutionary transformation that took place that evolved some of the ancient lizards into modern snakes. They will say that all the evidence is circumstantial. We still have not “seen” a lizard change into a snake. Instead, it could be that God specially created the lizards, both the legged and legless forms, and the snakes independently at different moments in prehistory. He simply created them in a way that seems like they evolved from one to another.
The problem with this view is that it suggests that God set things up in nature to trick us into thinking that the fossil and molecular evidence supports an account of evolutionary change when in truth this convergence of the evidence would only be a mirage. This would destabilize our ability to even do science because we could never be sure if the evidence of nature would be reliable. More importantly, this trickster god would not be the Creator God who created us so that we could know the universe that He created for us.
Our objectors may then retort that we can reject an evolutionary account of change despite fossil and molecular evidence that seems to support this view because evolutionary change is simply not reasonable for the believer. It is unreasonable because it defies sound philosophical reasoning and contradicts the testimony of scripture.
As I will explain in later posts, however, this objection fails. It does not acknowledge that human reason can propose a robust philosophical account that explains evolution and a robust theological account that explains how God wrote the sacred scriptures in a way that does not contradict the findings of human reason engaged in scientific inquiry.
Finally, others will say that all the fossil and molecular evidence simply indicates that snakes and lizards belong to the same natural kind. Snakes and lizards are both lizards in the same way that German shepherds and Chihuahuas are both dogs.
The problem with this view is that it suggests that our intellects are unable to properly discern the essences of living things. We could never trust if we could ever know what a thing is. Instead, we should affirm that lizards and snakes are different kinds of things as our intellect grasps and that God created them in the way that evolutionary creation suggests that He did. Both of these are reasonable claims. | https://www.thomisticevolution.org/how-would-you-explain-the-fossil-record-that-reveals-that-there-have-been-living-organisms-created-by-god-that-existed-for-a-time-in-the-past-but-do-not-exist-today-2/ |
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
0001 This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/335,649, filed Jun. 18, 1999, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/089,959 filed Jun. 19, 1998. This application incorporates the co-pending patent application by reference into this description as fully as if here represented in full.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
0002 The present invention generally relates to credit and identity verification systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to credit approval systems at the point of sale that utilize biometric data such as fingerprints, signatures, and/or other methods to ascertain if the identity of the person attempting to pay by use of a token, such as a negotiable instrument (e.g., a check), a credit card, a smart card, is an authorized person for that particular checking or credit account, and if that account is in order.
0003 There are devices known in the art that gather biometric data from persons for storage or for comparison with stored biometric data for purposes of identity verification. An example of storing biometric data for identity verification is U.S. Pat. No. 4,213,038 to Silverman, et al., for an access security system. Silverman, et al., discloses storing a fingerprint on a card, in either an actual print or micropattern, and the card is read by a control means. The fingerprint recordation is ancillary to the preferred function of the card which is identification based upon solely the microperforation of the card, which is not directly related to the fingerprint.
0004 Check funds verification systems are also known in the art that allow merchants and others to verify that customers have funds available in a specific checking account. U.S. Pat. No. 5,484,988 to Hills, et al., discloses a check-writing point of sale system that provides for remote verification of funds availability. Hills, et al., is particularly directed to the purchase of goods through an electronic funds transfer.
0005 U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,086 to Szwarcbier discloses a process and apparatus for positive identification of customers that is particularly disclosed as using a fingerprint on a credit card and comparing the fingerprint of the customer to that on the card, and selectively, with a master print on file. Szwarcbier also discloses a printed fingerprint card.
0006 There are smart cards known in the art which include fingerprint identification means, such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,086 to Lilley, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,985 to Lfberg, U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,068 to Piosenka, et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,901 to Hiramatsu. All of these references disclose smart cards that have, at least, a stored fingerprint in a local memory (such as magnetic tape or integrated circuit) that interacts with a reading means at the point of sale to assist in customer identification.
0007 An example of an actual fingerprint sensor is U.S. Pat. No. 5,745,096 to Hsumi, et al., which is for a surface-shaped sensor identification device. The Hsumi, et al. device is focused on the specific element of sensing and recording the fingerprint, as opposed to a complete identity verification system.
0008 There are various types of biometric measurements in common use today. The types of biometric measurements include fingerprint verification, hand geometry, voice recognition, retinal scanning, iris scanning, signature verification, and facial recognition. Each biometric device and system has its own operating methodology. The process for any given individual usually begins with an enrollment process. The system captures one or more samples of the biometric. The samples are stored in a biometric template (also referred to herein as a biometric database), and are used for future comparison during authentication. Once enrollment and storage are complete, users authenticate themselves by matching the template against current input (live data). Comparison of the live data and the template results in a simple binary yes/no match.
0009 Fingerprint verification is a well-known type of biometric measurement. If properly implemented, fingerprints provide high accuracy and at relatively low cost. Hand geometry measures physical characteristics of the individual's hand and fingers and is most widely used in physical access control systems. Voice recognition remains difficult to implement. Despite recent advances in voice recognition technology, background noise, microphone quality, the common cold, and anxiety can alter the human voice enough to make voice recognition difficult, if not impossible. Voice recognition technologies include telephone authentication. Extraction and pattern matching algorithms embedded on computer chips are used to analyze voices. Retinal scanning is well established and highly accurate, however, it requires that the individual look directly into the retinal reader. Retinal scans shoot a low-intensity beam of light into the eye and record the pattern of veins in the eye. Iris scanning overcomes most of the problems of retinal scanners and does not require direct contact with the scanner, nor does it require the individual to remove eyeglasses. The technology works by scanning the unique random patterns of the iris. Unlike retinal vein patterns that can change over time, the iris is unique and does not change during a person's lifetime. Facial recognition systems measure characteristics such as the distance between facial features (e.g., pupil to pupil) or the dimensions of the features themselves (such as the width of the mouth). Neural network technology or statistical correlations of the facial geometric shapes are used with this kind of system. Signature verification is a relatively accurate system and is treated separately from the other forms of biometric systems described herein.
0010 With fraudulent check losses alone reaching ten billion dollars annually, the banking industry is striving for ways to reduce these losses. Many proposals have been presented over the last five to ten years. One of the least sophisticated approaches is placing the individual's fingerprint on a sticker and attaching the sticker to the check being presented. Among the more sophisticated approaches is the use of smart cards that have a chip containing biometric information of the account holder. The biometric information stored on the chip can be compared with the biometric information of the person presenting the smart card at the transaction location. However, these alternative methods of reducing fraudulent activity are not meeting the needs of industry. The use of fingerprint stickers are a deterrent for the least sophisticated forger, but the process of identifying the fingerprint on a sticker can take a long time in crime labs due to their backlog and their obvious priority of processing fingerprints obtained from crime scenes in which felonies involving violence occurred. Smart cards with embedded biometric chips are used with credit cards or debit cards, but still do not prevent the more sophisticated identity thief. The more sophisticated identity thief steals account information and then produces his own credit card containing his own biometric information embedded in the chip. When the identity thief presents his biometric information at the transaction location, the verification is being made against an already faulty biometric sample stored on the chip.
0011 The present invention, in its simplest form, combines the use of valid biometric samples obtained from authentic identifications (IDs) with biometric samples provided by a person at a transaction location, thereby verifying that the biometric information presented for a transaction is a valid biometric for a particular person. In addition, the ID and the biometric sample can also be checked against known invalid users. Although it is possible for someone to counterfeit what is believed to be the authentic ID, in such cases, the identity thief provides an actual fingerprint that has been taken and placed on the token or on the transaction slip. When the token is returned to the transaction location as forged, counterfeit, stolen, etc., the fingerprint is entered into the database of known invalid users, thus preventing any further identity theft activity by this person on the verification system. The present invention, in its most complex form, adds additional safeguards, such as verifying the ID with information from the state. This ensures that an ID has not been altered, and is in fact an authentic state-issued ID (e.g., driver's license). Another such safeguard is verifying the information at the processing center of the token with the original information that a bank or token company obtained at the creation of the bank or token account.
0012 The present invention, in one exemplary embodiment thereof, comprises a verification system for check/negotiable instruments or other form of tokens, which has the ability to scan the information from negotiable instruments such as the magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) line, and gather biometric data such as fingerprints. The system alternately scans driver's licenses or other identification cards, and obtains and transmits a signature of a customer, preferably all occurring at a transaction location (e.g., point of sale) for purposes of identity and fund verification. However, the electronic transaction can occur at places other than a point of sale. For example, the electronic transaction can occur over the Internet, as part of an Internet-based transaction and include transmission of biometric data or signatures for user verification. Therefore, in general, transaction location refers to the place where the user or customer enters his information, such as account data or biometric data into the electronic transaction verification system. The verification system preferably digitizes various indicia of the check, the preferred indicia being the magnetic ink (MICR line) on the check, tendered by the customer at the transaction location, and transmits the data to a negotiable instrument information database, through a communications medium, whereby the inputted data is compared with an existing database of information to determine if the customer at the point of sale is in fact authorized to use the account, and if the account is in satisfactory condition for check approval. The communications medium can be a broadband connection, a dial-up connection, a direct communications link, a satellite link, or fiber optic cable or any other communication link that allows communications between a transaction location and a central or local database.
0013 In this exemplary embodiment, the verification system alternatively includes a device and method for recording and/or transmitting a biometric measurement of the customer at the location of the transaction and, in the case of a fingerprint biometric, printing the fingerprint on the negotiable instrument, either in actual or digitally encoded form, such that the fingerprint can be later checked against a biometric database of existing fingerprints at such time as the instrument is processed at a bank, which provides an added means of security in the event that fraudulent activity has been discovered between the time of receiving the token at the transaction location and the time it is presented at the processing center. If the system includes a device for scanning an information card that contains biometric data, such as a proper fingerprint printed on a driver's license, and/or signature, then the fingerprint and signature of the user can alternatively be compared to the recorded data on the card, in addition to or instead of, transmission of the various databases.
0014 In an alternate embodiment of the verification system, a negotiable instrument or other token is swiped and the fingerprint is simultaneously taken and digitized whereby the combined data is transmitted to a central (or local) system that includes an account information database and a biometric database, and the transmitted data is compared with identification data already on file, and the central (or local) system determines if the identification data of an authorized user on file matches with the transmitted data from the user at the transaction location. Local system, in the present context refers to a system that is in physical proximity to the transaction location (e.g., same store). The system then returns the results of the decision on approval to the transaction location. A device at the transaction location displays the decision data and/or prints out a hard copy indicating whether the negotiable instrument/token was approved or denied.
0015 As is well known in the banking industry, the MICR line on a check includes the bank routing number, account number, check number, check amount, and other information, that can be printed near the bottom of the check in magnetic ink in accordance with generally applicable industry standards. In operation, the central (or local) system receives data from the transaction location and then determines if the ABA magnetic number on the MICR line of the check is a valid number, if the fingerprint data is that of an account owner authorized to use that account, and/or if the signature is that of the authorized account owner, whereby any negative response to these decisions preferably causes return of the data indicative of the negative response to the transaction location. Upon affirmative indications in the decisions, the central (or local) system retrieves the frequency of the account accesses to determine if the current requested access is in excess of a pre-determined limit of an allowable number of accesses. If the current access is in excess of the pre-determined allowable limit, then the data is returned to the transaction location indicating the unacceptable request to exceed the limit, and thus, disapproval of the transaction. If the current access is not in excess of the allowable determined limit, then the verification of the check is approved and such verification is used to update the frequency of account access database, and the approval is returned to the transaction location. Various account conditions can be used, alternatively, to verify the condition of an account. Such conditions include outstanding checks,returned checks, and account closed among others. For example, if there are outstanding checks on the system for a user's account, then the present invention can return an indication to the transaction location that the user's account is not in condition to satisfy the negotiable instrument.
0016 The verification system preferably includes the capability to provide reports on user/customer activity to a merchant or business upon request. The merchant directs an inquiry to the central (or local) system which is in communication with a series of databases and which preferably includes databases indicative of: a number of transactions for a specific account; the location of the transactions for such account; and a user/customer list and relevant data associated with the user/customer. Depending upon the inquiry generated from the merchant, the main (or local) system retrieves the requested information to generate a report on a specific customer, and then returns the report to the merchant.
0017 Alternatively, the verification system can be used in conjunction with a bank proofing machine during batch processing of checks. When the proofing machine scans the magnetic number from the check, the identification data imprinted on a check at the transaction location is compared with account owner identification data as recorded and maintained by the bank to determine if the correct account owner submitted the check. The verification system can also be used in conjunction with an Electronic Check Exchange (ECE) system in which the check information is exchanged electronically, in lieu of or in addition to the exchange of paper checks. For forward presentment, an ECE system is usually referred to as an Electronic Check Presentment (ECP) system. The verification system also can be used in conjunction with a token processing system such as a credit card or debit card processing center to verify the information read from the magnetic strip on the token with information recorded and maintained by the credit or debit card processing center.
0018 Accordingly, the present invention has a practical application in that it provides an electronic transaction verification system to a merchant for use at a transaction location, which determines if the user/customer is authorized to use a specific account, and if the account is in satisfactory condition to remit funds for the negotiable instrument drawn against it.
0019 The present invention of the electronic transaction verification system further has industrial applicability in that it provides a computer system which correlates biometric data that is precise with not easily forgeable measurements of a customer, such as fingerprints and/or data from identification cards, and that can be digitally encoded and processed along with the information relative to a negotiable instrument such that the risk of the merchant accepting a bad instrument is greatly reduced. Thus, the present invention can be quite economically beneficial to a merchant utilizing the system.
0020 More generally, the invention is applicable to electronic transaction verification of a person initiating a transaction with a token at a transaction location. In the context of the invention, a transaction token can be a negotiable instrument, a check payable on demand, a substitute check, a traveler's check, a debit card, a credit card, a smart card, a promissory note, or food stamps. The token is presented at a transaction location to a vendor or merchant. The transaction is initiated by the user presenting a token at the transaction location along with a biometric measurement being taken to verify the identity of the individual against information stored in a database. Information read electronically from the token is used to determine the condition of a user account.
st
0021 A substitute check, as used herein, has the meaning given to it in the Check Clearing for the 21Century Act, Public Law 108-100, Oct. 28, 2003. A substitute check is a legal equivalent of the original check that has been truncated. It contains an image of the front and back of the original check and bears a MICR line containing all information appearing on the MICR line of the original check.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
0022 The invention is better understood by reading the following detailed description of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
0023FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the electronic transaction verification system illustrating a verification unit in communication with a central system and identification database.
0024FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an alternate embodiment of the present invention whereby the electronic transaction verification unit is in communication with a central database that returns an approval decision to the electronic transaction verification unit.
0025FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an alternate embodiment of the verification system illustrating the electronic transaction verification unit transmitting the identifying data of a check and a fingerprint to the central system for processing.
0026FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating the processing of transmitted data by the central system upon receipt of the data from the electronic transaction verification unit at the transaction location.
0027FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the main system generating a customer report based upon receipt of an inquiry from a retailer.
0028FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a proofing machine interacting with the biometric data scanner at the transaction location, with the interrelation of a first biometric database for known customers and a second biometric database for known invalid data.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
0029 The following description of the invention is provided as an enabling teaching of the invention in its best, currently known embodiment. Those skilled in the relevant art will recognize that many changes can be made to the embodiments described, while still obtaining the beneficial results of the present invention. It will also be apparent that some of the desired benefits of the present invention can be obtained by selecting some of the features of the present invention without utilizing other features. Accordingly, those who work in the art will recognize that many modifications and adaptations to the present invention are possible and may even be desirable in certain circumstances and are a part of the present invention. Thus, the following description is provided as illustrative of the principles of the present invention and not in limitation thereof, since the scope of the present invention is defined by the claims.
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0030 Referring now in greater detail to the drawings, in which like numerals represent like components throughout the several views, FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary embodiment of the verification system illustrating an electronic transaction verification unit in communication with a central processing system that includes an identification database . The identification database can include a number of databases used in the identification process such as a biometric database of known customer data, as well as a separate database of known invalid users. The database of known invalid users can be established by correlating a biometric presented at a transaction location that is used with a fraudulently obtained transaction token, and storing the biometric as invalid. Central processing system can be a main system remote from the transaction location. While a check is disclosed as one type of token to be processed in an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive system, other tokens can be processed in the same manner as disclosed herein. Negotiable instrument, as the term is used herein is defined in Article 3 104 of the Uniform Commercial Code. An instrument is negotiable if it is: (1) a written instrument signed by the endorser or maker; (2) an unconditional promise to pay a certain amount of money, either on demand or at a future date; and (3) payable to the holder or bearer. Examples of negotiable instruments are checks, bills of exchange, and promissory notes. A check as used herein means a draft, payable on demand and drawn on a bank, or a cashier or teller's check. This is the customary definition of a check. The exemplary embodiment of the electronic transaction verification unit is comprised of, at least, a check scanner or token reader and a biometric data-gathering device , such as a fingerprint recording device.
0031 Many check scanning devices are known in the art that scan the magnetic ink on the bottom of checks and such devices range in use from point-of-sale devices to scanners used at banks, where the more advanced devices are referred to as bank proofing machines. However, such device alternately includes the capability of video digitization of the check or gathering of other characteristics of the check that are useful for comparison.
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0032 The biometric recording device preferably digitizes the fingerprint of a customer at the point of sale for transmission to a remote biometric database. Many devices for digitization and transmission of fingerprints are well known in the art, such as the devices of digital biometrics. Other biometric devices such as retinal scanners and voiceprints are alternately used with, or in lieu of, the exemplary fingerprint scanner. Such biometric devices are commercially available and adaptable for use with the invention. The electronic transaction verification unit also preferably includes a card reader/scanner, such as a driver's license scanner which scans information from a driver's license, which is especially useful in states that put information, such as fingerprints, in a computer-readable medium such as a magnetic strip (e.g., a California license) or a bar code (e.g., a Georgia license) on the driver's license. When the license contains this information, the electronic transaction verification unit can perform an initial comparison between the biometric recorder device and the device's license scanner for determination of the user's/customer's identity, in addition to or instead of, transmitting biometric data to the biometric database of the central processing system . The information gathered from the license scanner can also be verified with information licensed from a state division of motor vehicles in order to authenticate a driver's license. Finally, the electronic transaction verification unit preferably includes a signature taking device that allows a customer to write his or her signature on the device that then encodes the signature into digital format for transmission. Such transmissions can occur with or separately from the transmission of the check identification and biometric data. There are many devices known in the art that allow a signature to be digitized for storage and comparison, and any of such devices will work satisfactorily in the present inventive system.
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0033 The electronic transaction verification unit is preferably a computer platform which has the capability to receive, digitize and process the incoming data from the devices, shown by block , for transmission to a central system . The central system can be remotely located from the electronic transaction stations or can be at the same location as the electronic transaction station, e.g., an in-store central processor and database connected to electronic transaction stations by a local area network. The other devices can be integrated with the computer platform of the electronic transaction verification unit , however, the devices can also be independent from the computer platform as long as they are in connection to the electronic transaction verification unit sufficient to transmit and have received by the unit the relevant data from the devices. The central processing system is in connection with, at least, an identification database which at a minimum contains the relevant specific identification data related to various checking and/or credit accounts. The identification database can be a hard drive on the central processing system , computer platform, or other type of memory device located either locally or remotely, but in connection with, the central system . Thus, in its most basic form, the present invention solely generates and records identification data of the customer relevant to a single sale and acceptance of a token at a transaction location through recordation of the specific token identification and biometric data of the customer at the transaction location, which is then transmitted by the various devices of the electronic transaction verification unit for recordation. When the simple recordation of the event is effected, it is preferable that the electronic transaction verification unit output a fingerprint (or other biometric data) for inputting on the specific check, negotiable instrument, or in conjunction with another type of token at the transaction location, shown by output , either in actual or digitally encoded form, whereby this identifying characteristic of the person cashing or tendering the check is contained upon the check itself and banks processing the check have the capability to compare that imprinted fingerprint with fingerprints on file for the actual account holders, if necessary. However, the printing of the fingerprint on the check or in conjunction with the token (e.g., credit card receipt) can be alternately used in any embodiment of the present inventive verification system.
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0034FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative embodiment of the electronic transaction verification unit in communication with a central database such that the central database allows the data stream of the electronic transaction verification unit to be acted upon by decision block to determine if the token verification is approved or denied, and then returns the approval decision to the electronic transaction verification unit . In such embodiment, the computer platform receives, processes, and transmits the data of the various devices, shown by logic block , to the identification database included in the central database , via a communications link, for a simple comparison step to determine approval. The central database includes a customer account information database (i.e., transaction information database), a biometric database of known customer biometric data, as well as a separate database of known invalid users. The database of known invalid users can be established by correlating a biometric presented at a transaction location with a fraudulently obtained transaction token and storing the biometric as invalid.
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0035 At the central database , the incoming data is compared, either in parallel with or separately with token identification data, with the existing known data for authorized users of accounts, shown by decision block , and an approval is made as to whether or not to accept the token. Either a yes decision or a no decision on approval is then re-transmitted back to the computer hardware platform of the check verification unit . While the check verification unit is shown in communication with a database remotely located thereto, it is not necessary that the central system or the database be located remotely to the electronic transaction verification unit . In fact, the electronic transaction verification unit and central system can be self-contained at the transaction location whereby the central database, or the account information and biometric databases are continually updated within the electronic transaction verification unit through either a data connection to a master database or through periodic manual updates from storage media such as floppy disks or CD ROMs. In such an embodiment, the electronic transaction verification system is preferably self-contained and includes all the necessary devices for scanning drivers' licenses , gathering biometric data (e.g., fingerprints) , or scanning checks/reading tokens (gathering check or token information data) within one unit comprising the system.
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0036FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an exemplary embodiment of the processing logic of the electronic transaction verification system showing the electronic transaction verification unit where a check or token is swiped, shown by logic block , and a fingerprint is taken, shown by logic block , with the fingerprint then being digitized, shown by logic block . Both the check information data and the biometric fingerprint data are unified at the transmitting data platform, shown by logic block , for parallel transmission. The transmitted data then reaches the central system that is in communication with a check or token account and biometric identification database such that a decision is made within the central system in regard to check or token approval. As discussed previously, the identification database can include a plurality of databases used in the identification process. One of these is the biometric database of known customer data. An additional biometric database of known invalid users can also be established. The identification database collectively refers to the one or more biometric databases. The central system performs a decision determining if the check/token information and biometric data are consistent with an authorized user for the account against which the check is drafted or token is provided, shown by decision block , whereby a yes decision or a no decision is returned to the transaction location, shown by logic block . Upon return of the data from the central system , the data indicative of the decision is displayed, shown by display block , and/or a hard copy is printed out, shown by document block , indicative of the decision made, and alternatively, the grounds for acceptance or rejection.
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0037 The present invention accordingly utilizes an inventive digital process whereby a dataset originates from the transaction location from the electronic transaction verification unit , shown by logic block , and is preferably processed on the central system as shown in the processing logic flow chart of FIG. 4. A decision is made as to whether information on the MICR line (e.g., ABA number) or on the token is valid, shown by decision block , and then a decision is made as to whether the fingerprint (biometric data) is that of the registered account owner, shown by decision block , and then a decision is made as to whether the signature presented is that of the account owner, shown by decision block . Affirmative responses to these decisions, shown by yes arrows , , and , preferably allow further processing of the data, and no decisions shown by arrows , , and , preferably effect a return of data to the transaction location indicative that the transaction is disapproved, shown by block .
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0038 Once affirmative responses have been received to decisions , , and , then the data is further processed by accessing a frequency of access database which has information on accounts based upon the numbers of inquiries to the system for a specific account, shown by logic block , and such information is maintained and updated in the frequency of account access database, shown by database , which can be either integrated with or remote to the central system . Then a decision is made as to whether the current access is in excess of a predetermined allowable amount of access inquires to the system for a specific account, shown by decision block , and if the current access is in excess of the allowable pre-determined amount, shown by yes arrow , then the data is returned to the transaction location indicative that the requested access exceeds the allowable amount, shown by logic block , and thus that the transaction is disapproved. Otherwise, if the current access is not in excess of the allowable pre-determined amount, shown by no arrow , then the electronic transaction verification request is approved, shown by logic block . Other measures can also be used in lieu of, or in addition, to these steps, to verify the condition of the account.
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0039 Upon approval, the information regarding approval is transmitted, shown by arrow , to the frequency of account access database for updating of the records contained therein. The information regarding the approval of the electronic transaction is then returned to the transaction location and electronic transaction verification unit , shown by logic block .
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0040 The steps of the processes set forth in FIG. 4 are preferably performed by software being executed on the computer platform comprising the central system , located either at the transaction location and integrated with the electronic transaction verification unit , or located remotely thereto. One of skill in the art of computer programming can determine from the present disclosure and the flow charts disclosed herein the objects sufficient to write a program for the computer platform sufficient to perform the tasks as disclosed herein.
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0041 The present invention of the electronic transaction verification system preferably includes the capability to return a report to a merchant/vendor upon request, as shown in FIG. 5. As so embodied, an inquiry and/or request is made from a merchant directed towards the central system , shown by logic block , which requests a specific report or series of reports. The central system preferably includes access to a variety of databases , which preferably contains separate databases including a database indicative of a number of checks cashed for a given account, shown by database , locations of checks cashed for a specific account, shown by database , and a database containing various information regarding the customers of the account, shown by database . The central system selectively accesses and interacts with these databases in response to the inquiry from the merchant at logic block , and generates a report on the specific customer or customers, shown by processed data logic block . The processed data then is returned in report form to the specific merchant, shown by logic block , which made the inquiry and request to generate the report. Such information generated by the verification system can prove highly informative as to customer trends such as drops in frequencies of purchases, customer dissatisfaction, or other trends that can then be effectively targeted by marketing efforts.
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0042 The present inventive verification system further provides that after the biometric identification data, such as a fingerprint, has been imprinted on the check, the present invention can alternately be used at a bank in conjunction with the proofing machine to determine if the biometric identification data on the check is that of the account owner. As shown in FIG. 6, the biometric data from the biometric scanning device , preferably at the transaction location , is sent, either electronically or physically, to the proofing machines for checks or negotiable instruments , typically at a bank processing center . In the past, checks were typically sent physically to a bank or processing center and the magnetic line of the check physically scanned by the proofing machine . Currently, many checks are being truncated electronically and the information contained therein is being processed directly or indirectly by host computers at the bank or processing centers.
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0043 In the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the biometric data is printed on the check by the biometric scanning device and the printed biometric data is scanned, and thus gathered, in addition to the magnetic numbers of the check. A comparison step preferably occurs within the proofing machine during the batch processing and scanning of the magnetic numbers of the checks for transfer of funds from the accounts. The biometric data is retrieved and updated from a first biometric database that contains the biometric data for known customers having accounts. The proofing machine also preferably perform a comparison step with a second biometric database containing biometric data for known invalid users who have perpetrated, or attempted to perpetrate, fraudulent activity with regard to tendering checks/negotiable instruments. Databases and can reside on the proofing machine , or can be located remotely. Such information in biometric database is preferably also accessible by the biometric scanning device at the transaction location for updating and comparing, either separately from or in conjunction with, the proofing machine . If the check/negotiable instrument being compared was tendered fraudulently, the biometric database is useful for determining the perpetrator's actual identity, and comparison between databases and can also be made for identity determination. In that regard, biometric database is also accessible by central system , identification database , central database , as well as electronic transaction verification unit for detection of known fraudulent users.
0044 The present invention can be utilized in a variety of forms with a variety of sources of information other than those described in detail herein. As an example, the electronic transaction verification system can be interfaced to various transaction and identification information databases containing customer account information and biometric information.
0045 While there have been shown a preferred and alternate embodiments of the present invention, it is to be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise than is herein specifically shown and described, and that within the embodiments, certain changes may be made in the form and arrangement of the parts without departing from the underlying ideas or principles of the present invention of an electronic transaction verification system set forth in the claims appended herewith. | |
Soner:
It is okay now. It is doing what you describe abow.
furious programming:
Ok, thank you very much for testing and feedback. Anyone else found any problems?
furious programming:
New version available for download — Fairtris 2.0.0.6 beta 3
There were no big changes — only slight fixes for several menu screens, making it easier, for example, to resume and restart the game. I also changed the behavior after pressing the help button. Previously, the window would minimize and the browser help would open, but for some users, the window would not minimize properly when exclusive video mode was active. Therefore, I gave up minimization in favor of switching to windowed mode. I've also added code to open a specific wiki page based on the current scene, so you can get helpful information faster.
furious programming:
The final, stable version has been released — Fairtris 2.0.0.7
Final and stable version, implementing all fixes and improvements from the three previous beta versions. The last modification is the rendering of the window just after waiting for the next frame, which better imitates the NMI of the NES console (get input, handle logic, wait for the interrupt and then display the image on the screen).
This release is designed for 64-bit Windows only (Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10 and further).
If there is anyone willing to port the project to platforms other than Windows, I still encourage you.
End of development
Fairtris was created mainly to test, in conditions similar to the original NES console, whether the classic Tetris® could be better by implementing a different and better RNG, as well as introducing changes to the gravity system in the PAL region. In one sentence, it allows you to check different variations of the same game and choose what's best for it. Considering the job is done, the development of this game is complete — all plans have been fully realized.
If there is ever a demand for a PC version to replace the NES consoles, the code for this project can be used to create a worthy successor. In this case, the only need will be to select one or invent fair but challenging RNG and select NTSC region (possibly additionally PAL, if players care about it), implement the correct transition calculation and avoid any bugs in the game mechanics that exist in the original.
furious programming:
I decided to break the compatibility with this Nintendo crap and fix the mechanics to create responsive controls. This will allow the player to focus entirely on stacking, rather than thinking about whether the DAS is charged or not (and if not, what to do to charge it). The original DAS is just as shitty as the controls in Prince of Persia — the player feels like pulling a charcoal cart rather than shifting small pieces.
The latest version is now available for download — Fairtris 2.2.0.1
Repaired DAS
In the original game, DAS is clunky to use, preventing smooth play at levels 19 and above, which effectively limits the player from maximizing scores. To keep the DAS charged, you need to use the "wall charge" frequently. But wall charge was implemented to make the tucks possible, and using it to load the DAS so you can move piece quickly is nothing more than exploit.
Therefore, I decided to fix this mechanism so that it does not hinder the player's gameplay. DAS works as in the original, but is additionally fully charged during the "entry delay" if the player is holding the left/right button. Since the player is holding the left/right button before a new piece spawns, it means the player want to move it as quickly as possible after spawning and should be able to do so.
This solution makes the controls responsive, but on the other hand, it is backward compatible — the basic technique of playing is still "skill stop", but thanks to the fix, "slow-tap" can be used without fear that it will not be possible to quickly move the next piece.
Spin buffering
In the original game, it is possible to make tucks in two ways — either by pressing the left/right button at the right moment (when the piece is on the desired row), or in advance (in a buffered manner). The second method makes it possible to "rub" the piece against a fragment of the stack, and in the first frame of the game, in which the piece is on the desired row, it is automatically slid into the slot. Unfortunately, in the case of spins, their buffering is not implemented.
In order to make the mechanics consistent and encourage the player to undertake advanced stacking techniques, spin buffering has been implemented. Thanks to this change, it is possible to press the rotation button a little earlier, and the piece will be rotated in the first frame in which it will be possible (similar to the case of tucks).
Wall kick
The original game has such poor control mechanics that a piece that is pushed against the stack frame cannot be rotated in certain configurations (because after rotation, a part of the piece would be outside the stack frame). This means that some spins, e.g. allowing you to burn a line in order to prepare for a tetris, are not available at all. For example — "S-spin" on the right edge is possible and often used, but not on the left, and would be very helpful.
In order to expand the spin pool and give the player more room for maneuver, a basic "wall kick" has been implemented.
However, the wall kick has been implemented in its basic form, i.e. the piece can only bounce off the walls of the stack and only changes its position horizontally. It is impossible to bounce off the contents of the stack, and the unrealistic, overcomplicated spins and twists, known from modern Tetrises, are also unavailable. Thanks to all of this, the controls are comfortable, intuitive and powerful, giving the player tons of possibilities, while maintaining the classic style (which is important in this case).
New RNG algorithm
The last thing added is a new generator — called BALANCED. This generator works very similar to the classic one, however, it prevents droughts by checking drought counters for each type of Tetrimino, and also prevents flooding by keeping a short spawn history.
The operation of this generator is similar to the classic one, but it is balanced in such a way as not to hinder the gameplay unfairly. The generated sequences are unpredictable, the distribution of pieces does not seek equality, which makes the game challenging. However, on the other hand, it does not prevent the player from stacking perfectly, although only a few (the best stackers in the world) will be able to get to the killscreen without burning a single line.
IMO, this is the best generator available in Fairtris. | https://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,56201.10/wap2.html?PHPSESSID=f51dcuf79m3imal0i07q2kg793 |
58 B.R. 632 (1985)
In re FLR COMPANY, INC., Debtor.
FLR COMPANY, INC., Movant,
v.
BRANT CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INC. and Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Respondents.
In re FLR COMPANY, INC., Debtor.
FLR COMPANY, INC., Plaintiff,
v.
UNITED STATES of America, Internal Revenue Service, Mellon Bank, D.L. Smith Company and Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Defendant.
In re FLR COMPANY, INC., Debtor.
BETHLEHEM STEEL CORPORATION, Plaintiff,
v.
FLR COMPANY, INC., Defendant.
Bankruptcy No. 85-1160, Adv. No. 85-260, Motion Nos. 85-2260, 85-2278.
United States Bankruptcy Court, W.D. Pennsylvania.
August 8, 1985.
*633 Gary W. Short, Humphreys, Nubani & Short, Pittsburgh, Pa., for debtor.
Kevin C. Hansen, Meyer, Unkovic & Scott, Pittsburgh, Pa., for Bethlehem Steel Corp.
Joseph E. Schmitt, Stonecipher, Cunningham, Beard & Schmitt, Pittsburgh, Pa., for Brant Const. Co.
Reed J. Davis, Davis & Reilly, Pittsburgh, Pa., for Mellon Bank.
MEMORANDUM OPINION
JOSEPH L. COSETTI, Bankruptcy Judge.
The Debtor, FLR Company, Inc., has need of progress payments recited in its various contracts with Bethlehem Steel Corporation ("Bethlehem"). To accomplish this result, the Debtor filed a Complaint in Turnover at Adversary Proceeding No. 85-260 on May 29, 1985, which was answered by Bethlehem on June 18, 1985. The Debtor also filed a Motion to Assume Various Executory Contracts at Motion No. 85-2260. Bethlehem filed a similar Motion to reject these same contracts. The Debtor filed a Motion for an expedited hearing, which was granted. A preliminary hearing was conducted on June 3, 1985.
The Court declined to grant the Complaint in Turnover on June 3, 1985, because the time was not available to hear evidence and the hearing was continued. On July 1, 1985 the Motions were heard in a preliminary manner and continued to July 3, 1985. At the hearing on July 3, 1985, the Debtor and Bethlehem presented evidence concerning this dispute. The Court received the evidence on the issues of turnover, 11 U.S.C. § 542 and on assumption and rejection of the contract.
It appears that the IRS on May 5, 1985 issued a Notice of Levy upon Bethlehem (Defendant's Exhibit F-1) in the amount of $224,018.33. At present the IRS is willing to release their levy so that the Debtor may use these accounts to operate. However, the Debtor has not made an offer of adequate protection to the IRS. The claims of Bethlehem, if valid, are superior to the IRS.
The Debtor presented evidence (FLR Exhibit # 1) that it is owed $259,427.25 by Bethlehem, and after all proper claims are paid a net amount of $149,528.23 (FLR Exhibit # 2) would be available to continue the business related to the Bethlehem contracts. The Debtor's President testified (FLR Exhibit # 11) that this amount, if paid by Bethlehem, would provide adequate cash flow to begin operating under these Bethlehem contracts.
Bethlehem is unwilling to release these progress payments and accounts. Bethlehem presented evidence that (1) mechanics' liens and (2) claims of subcontractors, materialmen and labormen exceed the payments being claimed by the Debtor. Bethlehem presented evidence that the Debtor would require approximately $350,000-$370,000 in working capital to continue to operate these various contracts. Bethlehem argued that $149,528.23 would not be adequate to continue the contracts. The Court found the evidence of Bethlehem's more convincing.
Paragraph Sixth of the January, 1985 contract (Exhibit B of Bethlehem Motion No. 85-2278) is in dispute. Paragraph Sixth provides that Bethlehem may withhold payments to provide for mechanics' liens. The parties dispute whether Bethlehem may withhold payments for other claims not meeting the requirement of mechanic's lien law, but which claims could become conventional judgment liens against the property of Bethlehem. The mechanic's lien laws of New York (Lackawanna), Maryland (Sparrows Point) and Indiana (Burns Harbor) are involved, as well *634 as the contract law of those states and Pennsylvania.
Paragraph Twelfth provides Bethlehem with the right of set off in this contract and Bethlehem's defenses are reviewed under this provision also.
The Court now turns to the bankruptcy concept of turnover, 11 U.S.C. § 542 (also 11 U.S.C. § 543). Implicit in the bankruptcy concept of turnover is the idea that the property being sought is clearly the property of the Debtor but not in the Debtor's possession. Turnover, 11 U.S.C. § 542, is not the provision of the Code to determine the rights of the parties in legitimate contract disputes. In 11 U.S.C. § 542(b) the following language is used to describe such property:
[A]n entity that owes a debt that is property of the estate and that is matured, payable on demand or payable on order shall pay such debt to, or on the order of, the trustee, except that such a debt may be offset under section 553 of this title against a claim against the debtor.
The Whiting Pools case, U.S. v. Whiting Pools, Inc., 674 F.2d 144 (2d Cir.1982), aff'd, 462 U.S. 198, 103 S.Ct. 2309, 76 L.Ed.2d 515, 8 C.B.C.2d 710 (1983), provides some insight into the concept of turnover. In that case, the IRS had seized property of the debtor, but the IRS had not sold the property to a third party and the Supreme Court permitted turnover. However, the Supreme Court also called attention to the debtor's need to provide adequate protection to the IRS under these circumstances.
In In the Matter of Chick Smith Ford, Inc., 46 B.R. 515 (Bkrtcy.M.D.Fla.1985), the debtor filed a mandatory injunction requiring turnover by a creditor on an executory contract. The action was treated as one requiring specific performance and the Court did not permit monies to be paid, although it permitted other aspects of the executory franchise contract to be performed. The Chick Smith Ford Court treated the action as one for a preliminary injunction and found that money damages were not appropriate in a preliminary injunction action. In In re Arthur Treacher's Franchise Litigation, 689 F.2d 1137 (3rd Cir.1982), the Court of Appeals found similarly. The Court of Appeals found no authority for awarding money damages at a preliminary stage of a proceeding.
This instant turnover action is similar to an injunction for specific performance. To award specific performance of the progress money payments called for under these Bethlehem contracts while other aspects of the same contracts are in dispute under a rubric of an action in turnover would not be equitable, unless adequate protection were offered to Bethlehem. Under the facts of this case, we find that adequate protection has not been offered to Bethlehem for a turnover of these progress payments.
In these types of cases the Court was concerned that the owner under the mask of a contract dispute not refuse to release progress payments for improper reasons. Understandably, debtors in possession have very limited capital and are dependent on regular payments after they have performed on their contracts. It would be possible for an overreaching owner to force his contractor into insolvency by refusing to make progress payments called for in the contract for improper reasons. Although the debtor could sue the owner for damages under the contract, the time lost during the lawsuit could delay or prevent reorganization.
The prompt hearing provided in this case has examined that possible condition. For purposes of this adversary proceeding, this Court holds that the labor, materialmen and subcontractor claims arising from these contracts are properly raised by Bethlehem as setoff defenses to this Complaint in Turnover. Bethlehem established that such claims exist and that they exist in an amount that is greater than the payments due to the Debtor. As an owner, Bethlehem is secured by possession and the claim is not matured. The Debtor is required to perform additional acts.
*635 The Court decides that the defenses raised by Bethlehem to liability under various mechanics' liens and other claims are of such a magnitude that Bethlehem's right to set off requires adequate protection. The Debtor's only offer was an offer to use these disputed payments as start-up capital to complete the various contracts. That offer does not constitute adequate protection.
Bethlehem's Motion to Dismiss the Complaint in Turnover is granted.
It is important to note what the Court has not decided. Dismissal of this action in turnover has not decided the merits of the contract dispute between Bethlehem and the Debtor. This Court need not decide the merits of that dispute under a proceeding in turnover. This Court believes from the facts at the hearing that Bethlehem is likely to prevail and therefore is entitled to adequate protection.
In response to Bethlehem's objection to jurisdiction, the Court has decided that the Debtor's interest in thee progress payments is interest enough to provide the Bankruptcy Court with jurisdiction over the property interest, 11 U.S.C. § 541(a)(1). The Debtor treats the Court's finding of jurisdiction to decide the quantum of the property interest of the Debtor as synonymous with the Debtor's absolute right to turnover. That is a boot strap which this Court is not inclined to make.
Based on the same evidence adduced at the hearing, the Motion to Assume or Reject the Contract can also be decided. The Debtor indicated, absent these progress payments, it did not have other sufficient funds to proceed on the contracts or to cure the defaults. Therefore, the contracts cannot be assumed and are rejected. If this is not the case, the Debtor has 10 days within the appeal period to file pleadings asserting other funds exist to proceed on these contracts or to cure.
The Motion of Bethlehem to reject is granted.
The Motion of the Debtor to assume is denied.
The Debtor, in its brief in support of its motion to stay these orders pending appeal, offers Georgia Pacific Corp., et al. v. Sigma Service Corp., 712 F.2d 962 (5th Cir. 1983), in support of its case. This Court believes the legal posture to be quite different. In Georgia Pacific, the subcontractors raised claims for the money on a constructive trust theory. That is not the case here. Bethlehem, as the owner, refuses to pay money over which it has possession, asserting setoff rights because of Bethlehem's liabilities for claims of subcontractors, etc. In Georgia Pacific it was the subcontractor raising a claim against the debtor on a constructive trust theory.
The Motion of the Debtor for stay pending appeal is denied.
| |
We are currently accepting applications for term Process Plant Operators to be responsible for the operation and monitoring of equipment within their designated area, by ensuring that safety is foremost while production objectives are met.
Duties
Working collaboratively with operational and mechanical departments, you will be responsible for:
- Completing assigned plant operation duties in designated areas
- Operating various small loaders and miscellaneous equipment including but not limited to Bobcat, skid steer, forklift, and light vehicle.
- Completing operational checks in designated sections of the plant and report findings to supervisor;
- Performing process plant clean-up and maintaining the cleanliness of the plant and equipment to a high standard;
- Ensuring basic operational maintenance tasks and repairs are completed within allotted time frames
- Completing logbook entries, daily reports on delays, production, and safety issues;
- Clearly communicating all production and safety related issue to team members
Qualifications
- A commitment to the safety of yourself and your team
- Minimum 1 year operator experience in a Process Plant or Plant setting;
- Solid proficiency in reading and understanding manuals and written instructions;
- Ability to learn and understand technical procedures and information quickly;
- Ability to work in high stress situations and resolve issues;
- Ability to take initiative and work independently and as part of a team;
- Knowledge of computer programs including common office software.
Company Info
Khione Resources, Ltd. is a Yellowknife-based company that offers a fully qualified and reliable workforce to clients. We are committed to providing exceptional work opportunities for our employees and remarkable service to our clients.
Established in 2009, Khione focuses on connecting qualified workers with project-based opportunities across all industries – from construction to exploration and mining. Our mission is to provide a northern workforce for northern projects. | https://edgenorth.ca/job/process-plant-operator-term-casual/ |
House Bill 5 – A bill to be entitled an Act to amend Article 3 of Chapter 11 of Title 16 of the O.C.G.A.
During the Georgia General Assembly 2015-2016 Regular Session, Representatives Geisinger, Kidd, McCall, Rice, and Bentley have proposed a bill to be entitled an act to amend Article 3 of Chapter 11 of Title 16 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.),which regulates invasions of privacy, including wiretapping, eavesdropping, and surveillance. On February 12, 2015, the bill entered the House’s second reading. This house bill is an amendment to provide a definition of invasions of privacy and clarify its current law on drones.
The bill defines the term “image” and clarifies the situations under which it would be lawful to capture an image using an unmanned aircraft (16-11-95.1), and the situations under which it prohibits the capturing of certain images by unmanned aircraft (16-11-95.2). For those who are found guilty for violating 16-11-95.3(a)(1), their violation will result in either a misdemeanor or a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature. The amendment then provides for defenses to prosecution. The amendment restricts the use of such images in legal proceedings (16-11-95.4), and provides for civil actions against those who commit violations under the proposed bill (16-11-95.5). Furthermore, the amendment provides for rulemaking authority for the Department of Public Safety for law enforcement use of such unmanned aircraft.
A summary of the bill and its current version can be found here, and this article includes reactions in Georgia to the proposed bill. A summary of current state laws on drone regulation can be found here.
This proposed bill clarifies Georgia’s regulation on drones, especially the circumstances under which a drone operator could violate the law. It also lays out the penalties for violating the law. The proposed bill includes a number of exceptions to the regulations, reserved primarily for government agencies, among others. As more states are adopting legislation relating to drones, Georgia state legislatures are responding to the increased prevalence of drones and how to regulate them, taking into consideration the benefits drones provide in light of the potential privacy and economic issues they bring as well. | http://jolt.law.harvard.edu/digest/georgia-house-of-representatives-proposes-bill-to-regulate-drone-use |
In no particular order. Myofascial Release techniques (aka FOAM ROLLING). Fasicia is the connective tissue that unites all of the body's moving musculature. Trigger points can be areas in you body that need attention and "rolling out" may improve your movement. Foam rolling is recommended before and/or after your workout. Roll and hold the "point" where feel any restriction; breathe and hold the roller at that point for 30-90 seconds.
This workout is the product of the trainer who created it. IDEA and Athletes' Performance, Inc. are not responsible nor endorse the efficacy of this program or the appropriate use of the exercises held within. | https://www.ideafit.com/workout/97226%3Fshared%3D1 |
Classics AT WABASH
CLASSICS IS THE INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME. The Department, which has been at the center of the Wabash curriculum since its founding, continues to give instruction in Greek and Latin from the beginning through advanced levels, in ancient history, in Greek and Roman art and archaeology, in mythology, and in ancient literature in translation.
These offerings are supplemented by other courses that focus on aspects of ancient civilization, e.g., ancient medicine, Greek and Roman religion, Roman urban planning, ancient political theory, Greek philosophy, and ancient rhetoric. Students are encouraged to broaden their intellectual perspectives by study abroad, whether through the Department’s own Immersion Courses to Italy and Greece, or through semester long programs at the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome and College Year in Athens. We also bring the world here to Wabash, with an active program of visiting speakers and a core faculty who travel regularly to the Mediterranean.
Whether a student has aspirations to become the next Indiana Jones or simply loves reading ancient texts, the Classics Department at Wabash is a stimulating and welcoming intellectual home. Join us for the next Suovetaurilia (sacrifice of a pig, sheep, and bull, accompanied by feasting, song, and athletic competition), chariot races on the Mall, outreach to the local community through staged readings of ancient plays, and much more.
We encourage all students to study Greek and/or Latin as the most immediate means of exploring the ancient world, of understanding the structure and vocabulary of our English language, and of preparing for the technical vocabulary used in the medical and legal professions today. Students can satisfy the College’s Foreign Language Requirement through two courses in Greek or Latin. | https://www.wabash.edu/academics/classics |
Fresh colors and new accent pieces have transformed these rooms into cozy nooks.
Beach-Like Escape
For the past 17 years, Susanne and Mark Frey have enjoyed their two-story Crystal Lake home. They fondly recall their children, who are now adults, spending their free time in the upstairs family room, just down the hall from the bedrooms.
“When our kids still lived at home, it was a place where they could crash on the couch and watch TV,” Susanne says. “It’s also the room that was furnished with retired pieces from a previous home.”
Recently, these empty nesters decided that, rather than let the room collect dust, it was time to convert the space into something functional and fun. The Freys turned to interior design firm Wickham Interiors, 67 N. Williams St., in Crystal Lake. President Lynne Wickham, ASID, started the business in 1982. The firm has refurbished several rooms throughout the Freys’ home and is currently helping with a kitchen remodeling project.
“We asked Lynne to come in and help us design a second family room,” says Susanne, a retired teacher. “We wanted a place that our family could use when they come back home, and also have a place for my husband and I to read, relax and enjoy listening to music.”
Last year, the Freys sat down with Wickham and talked about the ambience they wanted in the room, which is located directly at the top of the stairs. “Since our master bedroom is on the first floor, the upstairs family room isn’t in our regular traffic pattern,” says Susanne. “We had vacationed in Cape Cod years ago, and it was so relaxing to be surrounded by water. We wanted a room that gave us that peaceful, restful, rejuvenating feel. It was a good opportunity to make the room something special.”
The project took three months to complete. Wickham redesigned the entire room, starting with the color scheme. “We opted for blues and soft greens throughout the room, from the window treatments to accessories,” Susanne says. “We don’t have blue anywhere else in the house. The color recaptures that wonderful vacation by the water that we had as a family so many years ago.”
Says Wickham: “Susanne wanted an inviting, tranquil refuge with an updated Cape Cod look. So, we changed everything from the carpet to the furniture. We added soft blue, green, taupe and white, which elevated the ordinary room to a whole different ambience.”
Another subtle change made a huge impression on the Freys. “We had existing cabinetry that Lynne felt was blending in with the rest of the woodwork, so she had us repaint it black,” says Susanne. “Now, the cabinetry really stands out as an architectural feature, rather than just blending in.”
And, they replaced the furniture. “All the mismatched pieces from the past had to go,” Susanne says. “The kids were sad to see the old plaid couch go, but I was delighted.”
In its place came a soft-textured sofa in blues, greens and creams, along with a soft-blue lounge chair and ottoman. A Destin coffee table, with a butter pecan finish, anchors the room. The sofa is flanked with two Narragansett tables in a green jellybean finish. A distressed chest, in a vanilla bean finish, sits next to the chaise lounge.
“Lynne came up with a great idea to have a chaise lounge in the corner, which is a nice place to put your feet up and read a book,” says Susanne. Other standout features include a spacious bookcase, a desk area, a flat-screen TV and a cherry oak fireplace mantle.
The Freys love their new room. It’s a place where their children can relax in privacy, and the grandchildren can watch movies and play games.
“It’s a relaxing oasis,” Susanne says. “There’s a calm feeling when you walk into the room. It’s beautiful, but comfortably elegant. You wouldn’t feel uncomfortable coming in and just putting your feet up. It’s so different from the rest of the house, yet it works together perfectly. It’s really stunning and unexpected because it’s on the second floor. As you arrive at the top of the stairs, you’re anticipating several bedrooms and a couple of baths. Instead, we have this spacious, and very inviting, family room.”
The Freys credit Wickham for having the vision to make a once-dreary room into a vibrant space. “Lynne can visualize things and has so much knowledge of design,” says Susanne. “She’s a great listener who can pull things together and really capture the feeling we’re looking for. She brings out examples, and if they don’t touch upon what we’re trying to do, we’ll say we’re looking for something else. She’ll go back to the drawing board as many times as necessary to get what we want. We have a saying: In Lynne We Trust. The bottom line is that she’s always right. She guides us in ways we never imagined, and it always turns out gorgeous.”
Wickham is equally pleased with the end result. “We kept the room livable and delightful,” she says. “We brought a light, happy mood to the space. Our mission was to make this room a cozy getaway. The end result was that the room almost feels like it’s in the sky, a restful little piece of heaven.”
Subtle Touches
Mike and Lynda Trimarco knew it was time for a change in the dining room of their St. Charles home.
“It was time for something new that allowed for more seating for entertaining and holidays,” says Mike, a banker. “We also wanted to change the style to match the decor in the rest of our house.”
So, about 1.5 years ago, the Trimarcos enlisted the help of Strawflower Shop, an interior design firm and home accents retailer at 210 W. State St., in Geneva. Strawflower’s influence is all over the Trimarcos’ home.
“For the past eight years, we’ve done a Strawflower project every year, just by going through the house, picking a room and updating it,” Mike says. “They’ve freshened up our living room, den, family room, bedrooms, sunroom and kitchen.” Up next, he adds, is the basement.
The couple worked with Rebekah Brigham, an interior designer who has worked for Strawflower Shop for seven years. Her approach is simple. “From floor to ceiling, I do it,” she says. “I choose the paint colors, the furniture, art for the walls, and all of the accessories, from rugs to lighting. I get a feel for the client’s home and what their lifestyle is, what direction they want to go, and what makes them feel comfortable.”
While the Trimarcos were initially looking for more seating, Brigham saw a broader need in the couple’s dining room. “It really needed to be updated,” she says. “The furniture was very old. The legs on the dining room table were thin, and china cabinets have become passe. It needed a transformation.”
The furniture was replaced with a handmade dining room table and chairs from the Foxglove line. Brigham replaced the china cabinet with a buffet table and mirror against a long wall.
“I took out another display cabinet against another wall and added a nicer, narrower piece and angled it for another dimension,” says Brigham, who added a small console near the stairs to fill an empty space. Window treatments were swapped out, and a beautiful chandelier was installed over the table.
Brigham also added smaller accents, like a table runner, a new art piece above the console and a floral centerpiece. “Accessories pull it all together,” says Brigham.
Additionally, Brigham brightened the room with two new lamps, something that the Trimarcos have done with other rooms. “I’m big on lamps,” says Brigham. “It’s a great accessory that’s wonderful for ambience. Lamps are so important to a room. They make everything cozier.”
Initially, Mike didn’t think much of the idea, but quickly changed his mind. “I like the lower, softer lighting, rather than using the bright chandelier,” he says.
Not everything is new. Brigham opted not to paint the cinnamon-colored walls, which matched the new furniture perfectly. Most of the artwork and a fine area rug remained.
“They weren’t out of style,” she says. “You don’t have to get rid of everything and start anew. I believe that if something’s not broken, don’t fix it. We can always work with existing pieces that mean something to the homeowner. I’ve always been able to incorporate sentimental pieces that have meaning.”
Mike and Lynda agreed with that philosophy. “I don’t want to gut a room in every project,” Mike says. “That takes time and money. The Strawflower Shop always does a good job of providing nice solutions by including existing pieces from either that room or other rooms in the house.”
Overall, the project took less than six weeks to complete. Both the homeowners and designer are pleased with the results. | http://northwestchicagoland.northwestquarterly.com/2014/09/from-tired-places-to-refreshed-spaces/ |
Regulate, certify, monitor and provide air navigation services for the civil aviation activity of the Dominican Republic, supervising compliance with national and international regulations, ensuring operational safety.
To be recognized as a reference of aeronautical authority in the national and international scope based on models of high efficiency and sustainable development.
Committed, with demonstrated abilities, competent in his work. He does it with quality, equity and ethics.
It includes a set of moral and ethical values such as honesty, honesty, respect for oneself and others, emotional control, loyalty, neatness, congruence and firmness in their actions. He is reliable and incorruptible.
It is the mechanism by which the accessibility of the information is guaranteed sincerely, clearly, objectively, and corresponding to the reality in face of the interested parties, preventing acts of corruption.
It is governed responsibly by the rules and statutes and its consistency generates a result that meets the expectations of the interested parties.
Teamwork concept that concerns the entire organization on how to serve all interested parties. This requires an attitude of openness and adaptability that allows permeating the management of cultural change around the service.
Compliance with the applicable legal regulations.
The effective management of the Regulation, Certification and Surveillance of the aeronautical activity, as well as the effective provision of the Air Navigation Services.
The prevention of accidents, injuries and occupational diseases and pollution.
The responsible use of natural resources and their derivatives.
The continuous improvement of our processes, with emphasis on quality, safety and occupational health and environmental performance.
The development of our activities within the framework of social responsibility.
The promotion and development of aeronautical activity. | https://www.atc-network.com/atc-organisations/idac-dominican-republic |
Perfectly beautiful on an appetizer buffet, these puff pastry tartlets will charm your guests. Mustard and brown sugar add to the classic combination of Brie and walnuts for terrific flavor.
1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed
1/3 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 tbsp. packed brown sugar
1 tbsp. Dijon-style mustard
3/4 lb. Brie cheese, chilled, rind removed and cut into 36 pieces
Heat the oven to 400°F.
Unfold the pastry sheet on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pastry sheet into a 14-inch square. Cut into 36 (2 1/4-inch) squares. Press the squares into 36 (1 3/4-inch) mini muffin-pan cups.
Stir the walnuts, brown sugar and mustard in a small bowl. Spoon about 1/4 teaspoon walnut mixture into each tartlet shell. Top each with 1 piece cheese.
Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastries are golden brown. Let the pastries cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. | http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?catID=778&recipeID=50017 |
Civil Engineering Jobs – What Does The Work Of A Civil Engineer Involve? Civil engineers plan, design, supervise and direct the construction of various structures such as buildings, roads, bridges, and water supply systems. With their knowledge on environment and its possible effects on a structure, they would see to it that the structure being built is as safe as possible. With this, they anticipate earthquakes, wear and tear and a lot more natural factors that would have a direct impact on the structure. Civil engineering is one of the oldest engineering disciplines and they have been recognized for creating the structures all of us use everyday.
This job would require a lot of mathematical and technological skills as the day to day tasks would deal with a lot of computations and planning. In order for civil engineers to be effective in their jobs, they also would have to be patient, hardworking and enduring.
Civil Engineering Jobs Outlook
Civil engineering is one of the oldest disciplines of engineering and it has never been out of the picture as this profession plays a very important role in society. With the increasing day to day demands, more opportunities are up for civil engineers.With the rise of infrastructure as well as the development of a lot of projects all over the country, it is highly expected that there would be a higher demand for civil engineers in the near future. The number of civil engineers is expected to increase by 18%.Another reason for the possible increase is because of an increase in population which would bring about the demand to create more structures in general. With these given reasons, civil engineers are given more opportunities.
Society relies heavily on civil engineers because of a lot of things. One is because civil engineers are in charge of keeping structures safe for everyone and another is that civil engineers are in charge of developing and creating new structures for society to use and that would increase the standards of living in a given community.
Civil engineers can work in a lot of companies and their day to day duties can vary depending on their work. Their work would require a lot of drafting, designing, and possess good technical knowledge.
Civil Engineering Jobs RequirementsFor a civil engineer to be able to practice his profession, he must first obtain a license of which can be obtained through a licensure exam. In order to be qualified to take the licensure test, one must also be a graduate of civil engineering. While these are the basic requirements, advanced positions for this job might require more training or even a master’s degree.
Since civil engineers can take part in a number of specialties, different training programs are available for every specialty. These would include structural engineering, geotechnical engineering, and transportation engineering. Some other training civil engineers can get are land surveying, water quality engineering, highway engineering, and computer processes.
Civil Engineering Jobs Salary ExpectationThere are a lot of factors that could affect how much a civil engineer would be earning. Civil engineers who are working for private architectural and engineering firms were some of the highest earning at an average annual salary of $78,000. Those working for local government earned slightly lower at around $74,000.
The mean annual salary for all civil engineers would be around $77,500 according to a survey conducted in 2007. | https://ez-on-web.com/civil-engineering-jobs/ |
By Simon Kim, Professor, South Baylo University
Last month, I contended that there is a certain commonality between the cosmology of the philosophy of organism and the Qi philosophy: the union of Heaven and Human (天人合一). Comparing with macroscopic cosmology, the Yinyang theory is a sort of microscopic theme in the interpretation of nature. However, without this basic concept of the qi philosophy, we cannot capture any phenomena in the whole universe. From the matter, virus and to the human body, there is nothing that cannot be seen through the Yinyang structure. As you know, the concept of Yinyang is the most pervasive idea in the East Asian medicine.
In the organismic Qi world, the relationship of Yin qi and Yang qi looks like two poles of one world. I already introduced the concept of reciprocity in the section of the Yinyang theory. Reciprocity (待對) means that one thing is given or done or owed to each other. The Taiji diagram expresses the reciprocity logic exactly. The Yinyang reciprocity is a way of thinking that carries time and mobility in the process of qi realization. When I defined the concept of Yin and Yang, I called the organic synthesis of Yin qi and Yang qi as the reciprocity of qi organism.
As Richard Rorty (1931-1998) spotlighted the anti-reductionistic features of Whitehead’s cosmology, he unwittingly verified the reciprocity logic of the philosophy of organism. (‘Matter and Event’ from The Concept of Matter in Modern Philosophy, edited by Ernan McMullin, 1963) According to his analysis of Whiteheadian realism, distinctions of Actual Entity and Actual Occasion – a basic concept of the philosophy of organism – are attempts to locate ultimate and irreducible categoreal distinctions. Rorty argued for the correlative relation of AE and AO that something can only sustain external relations if it also sustains internal relations, or the converse, or both.
Some prominent philosophers who can interpret Whitehead’s metaphysical theory of organism tend to define AE as Yin qi and AO as Yang qi. “While the Yinqi from inside serves to hold the active Yangqi, the Yangqi which exists outside vitalizes the inner Yinqi. (陰在內 陽之守也 陽在外 陰之使也: 內經 素問)” Whitehead holds that an AE cannot be analyzed without remainder either into its physical prehensions of other AE. (PR, 134). Nor can these two poles be disjoined in order to be interpreted as two independent AEs in their own right. Likewise the relationship of Yin and Yang, an actual entity can retain its integrity only by being interpreted in terms of both levels of entities.
The philosophy of organism shows apparently a reciprocal and correlative logic which can be applied to both Yinqi /Yangqi and AE/AO. According to Rorty’s interpretation, each level of AE/AO must be essentially incomplete, and completable only by interpretation in terms of the other level. As such, two philosophies, the Qi philosophy and the philosophy of organism, inevitably used the reciprocity logic of yin and yang because of the common view that all beings in nature are interconnected. | https://theacupuncturetimes.com/whiteheads-actual-entity-actual-occasion-interpreted-by-the-reciprocity-logic-of-yinyang-%E9%99%B0%E9%99%BD%E5%BE%85%E5%B0%8D/ |
The primary objective of WUDAPT is to gather data on the world’s cities suited to urban climate studies. These data should be gathered in a consistent manner so as to facilitate comparison between cities and include information on urban form (surface cover, materials and building geometry) and function (human activities that drive water and energy use) that can be used for modelling (Table 1).
Table 1: Urban characteristics and parameters
|Characteristic||Parameters|
|Cover||Vegetative, building, impervious surface cover|
|Material||Wall type, roof type, window type, road materials, window fraction on the wall, colour/albedo|
|Geometry||Building height, width of streets, contiguous or isolated buildings, roof geometry|
|Function||Building use, irrigation, road type, temperature setting, occupancy, air conditioning, shutters or shading, window opening, building age, building renovation post 1990.|
WUDAPT has a hierarchic approach to gathering data:
- Level 0: Cities are mapped using the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) scheme (Stewart and Oke, 2012), which categorizes landscapes into 10 urban and 7 natural surface cover types. Each LCZ type is described in terms of the typical appearance of each in ground-based and aerial photographs and is linked to some urban parameter values.
- Level 1: The LCZ maps are used to sample the urban landscape to provide information on more aspects of form and function in greater detail.
- Level 2: This is the highest level and refers to urban data gathered at a specified spatial scale (e.g. 250 m) across the entire urban area (‘wall-to-wall’ coverage).
Level 0 data is the coarsest level of data gathering but should provide comprehensive and consistent coverage. These data describe the urban landscape in terms of neighbourhood-scale (>1km2) spatial units using the LCZ scheme. The classification of an urban area into LCZ types is based on semi-automated process (Bechtel and Daneke, 2012, Bechtel et al. 2015) using available multi-spectral satellite imagery (Landsat8) and free SAGA (Conrad et al., 2015) and Google Earth software. For this process to function, a sample of training areas that identify LCZ types across a selected city is needed. These training areas are used to identify the statistical characteristics of LCZ pixel values within the available multi-spectral images; this information is used then to develop a model that categorises the entire images into LCZ types. | https://www.wudapt.org/create-lcz-training-areas/step-1/ |
The Disability Royal Commission (DRC) has raised questions about why there has been no increase in employment opportunities for people with disabilities. This blog will explore the key recommendations advocated for by people with disabilities and other related parties as to how employment opportunities and workplace rights can be better realised. To examine the recommendations more closely, let’s break them down into the following categories: Education, Organisational, Incentives, and Policy Mechanisms.
Education
As highlighted in our previous blog on barriers to employment for people with disabilities, negative assumptions about people with disabilities exist in relation to employment. Hence, there is a need to educate and demystify the inability of people with disabilities to be involved, productive contributors within the workforce. This is not limited to addressing the common misunderstanding that there is a significant cost in making the necessary workplace adjustments when hiring people with disabilities, despite there being long-term evidence highlighting that the majority of people with disabilities do not need significant adjustments.
Organisational
In business, there is always room for improvement. Raised in the Disability Royal Commission are some practical recommendations made by people with disabilities as to what they think can be done to help improve the employment of those with a disability.
One person commented that when it comes to recruitment, job advertisements need to be offered in Easy Read form as well as being accessible for screen reading software and containing inclusive language. Another person mentioned that in interviews, if possible, an employee with a disability ought to be on the interview panel. When interviewing a person with a disability and there is a concern in relation to doing the job, it is recommended to ask the person with a disability about the concern directly, as it might actually not be an issue.
Finally, another person made numerous recommendations, including that:
All senior staff, as opposed to solely being the responsibility of HR management, ought to be accountable for promoting workplace inclusion
When it comes to career development and opportunities for promotion, there ought to be personalised support for people with disabilities, and;
When developing policies and strategies affecting people with disabilities, the relevant staff ought to consult people with disabilities and involve them in the process, as opposed to taking a top-down approach.
Incentives
While government policies exist that incentivise hiring people with disabilities, the rate of employment for people with disabilities remains static, highlighting that there needs to be a greater emphasis on incentives. One incentive recommended is the use of mandatory quotas, which will be supported by tax breaks. It has been suggested that this could operate as a mechanism to ensure that people with disabilities are a critical group to engage with when promoting employment opportunities, rather than being perceived as an afterthought.
Also, there needs to be more awareness and funding of ‘JobAccess’, arguably one of Australia’s best-kept secret initiatives in driving employment for people with disabilities. JobAccess is a Department of Social Services initiative aimed at both employees with disabilities and employers in ensuring that people with disabilities enter the workforce. JobAccess provides advice, support, and funding to businesses to help drive employment for people with disabilities, but research shows that very few Australian businesses are aware of this initiative.
Policy Mechanisms
Government policy is everywhere, from Medicare to taxation. The DRC has raised that to help improve the employment of people with disabilities, existing government policies either have to be reformed or implemented.
It was noted by the Commissioners involved that there is no Disability Standard featuring minimum compliance measures in relation to employment, despite such standards being utilised for education, transportation, and accessible premises. However, what many may not be aware of is that a draft for Disability Standards for Employment DOES exist and has yet to be implemented, despite existing for an astonishing 25 years.
Ben Gauntlett, the Australian Human Rights Disability Discrimination Commissioner stated that there ought to be an implementation of the ‘Willing to Work’ report, with a key recommendation involving reforming the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) to report on disability related initiatives. The WGEA is a statutory body which requires organisations that have at least 100 employees to issue a report addressing gender related initiatives. Currently, it is optional for organisations to have a Disability Action Plan to lodge to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
Ultimately, if employment outcomes for people with disabilities are to improve, then the people who are affected by these outcomes should be consulted and their experiences and recommendations should be taken into account when devising strategies to tackle these issues. | https://www.karenansen.com/post/drc-part-3-recommended-changes-by-people-with-disabilities-to-improve-employment-outcomes |
Researchers have long known that the human brain is capable of incredible feats, but what they didn’t know was how interconnected the different regions of the brain are. Recently, a study has been published that may change the way we think about the brain and its ability to function. The study found that when one part of the brain is damaged, it can often cause other regions to suffer as well.
A study published in the journal “Paleo” found that humans and their Paleolithic ancestors were able to digest grains and other starchy vegetables quite well, suggesting that a grain-free diet may not be the best for our health.
The use of technology in the classroom has become increasingly common. This can be a good thing, as it can help to increase student engagement and learning. However, there are also some potential downsides to the use of technology in the classroom. One such downside is that students may become too reliant on technology and miss out on face-to-face interactions. In order to combat this issue, educators may want to consider incorporating more traditional teaching methods into their classrooms alongside technology. | https://zollbox.com/y%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%82/ |
Modernising Legal Education (Cambridge University Press), edited by Catrina Denvir, is a collection of articles challenging traditional methods of teaching law. Recognising that technology, changing demographics, deregulation of the market and globalisation are affecting how legal services are delivered, the task for legal educators is to ensure they are equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need to flourish in the changing world of professional practice. Universities are widening their curricula and introducing new teaching and learning models to make learning an active process in which students are fully engaged.
qLegal is central to Queen Mary’s commitment to playing its part in developing the next generation of lawyers. The entrepreneurship law clinic provides experiential learning to law students as they work on real client cases, alongside experienced external practitioners. How and why qLegal has been doing this are set out in the chapter Skills Swap? Advising Technology Entrepreneurs in a Student Clinical Legal Education Programme written by the Director of CCLS, Professor Ian Walden and Patrick Cahill, former qLegal Director.
Feedback from students indicates they respond well to practical problem-solving and the ability to develop professional skills. qLegal gives context to their academic study and helps bridge the gaps between theory and practice, and academia to life beyond university. The introduction of new programmes such as Design the Law and Future Clients, enables qLegal to further its mission to help change the way that law is practised, for the benefit of everyone. | https://www.qmul.ac.uk/law/news/2020/items/qlegal-as-a-case-study-in-the-newly-published-book-modernising-legal-education.html |
Before hitting the club we drop by Alex’s apartment building to interview Charlotte for our 7pm appointment with her. Charlotte is a 26-year old sculptor who lets us in to her apartment and immediately wants to get down to business with the interview. Her apartment is filled with sculptures of varying quality.
• Charlotte feels that she doesn’t know Alex very well personally but “pretty deeply” in an existential manner. He volunteered to be a sculpture model for her on several occasions and was one of her best subjects.
• She shows us her sculpture that was inspired by her work with Alex called “Bioroid adrift”. It depicts Alex in mid-stride yet his head is turned behind him while his head moves forwards, intending to convey a sense of conflict. She thinks this figure captures his “essence”.
• She feels that she connected with him on a different level and felt that his soul was deeply conflicted.
• She had several sessions with him, the last of which was about a month ago.
• They talk some during these sessions, on various topics. She felt like there was a deep spiritual connection with their conversation while at the same time conversed on his life, his plans, etc.
• Aleksy asks whether he’d mentioned leaving town or if there was somewhere Alex wanted to go. Charlotte didn’t recall any specific destination but she seemed to think he would skip town at some point as she felt like he had something he needed to do.
• Aleksy also wants to know if she’s done sculpting with her neighbors at all, which she said that she has.
• She knew that Sibyla and Alex had been having sex for a time. She also expressed some negative feelings [jealousy, I’ll bet] of Sibyla.
As we’ve, at that point, had our fill of existential BS we thank her and head to the nightclub.
At the nightclub we elect to wait in line like the common folk we are and get let in without issue. We hand in our weaponry at the door.
The club does indeed have a heavy bass beat that reverberates through our bodies, although our VII’s help tone out the extra noise. The club is a two-floor affair with private rooms up above and a dance floor down below. With AR turned on the club is a pretty happening place. As it turns out despite our drab appearance we don’t look horribly out of place, although we might stick out slightly. We split up to help cover the place. Along the way we also notice security cameras around the bar, watching things.
Spencer goes after Elias. He asks him for a Manhattan and five minutes of his time and gives him a large tip. He comes back with the manhattan and sits down at Spencer’s request. Spencer begins by indicating that Elias probably has noticed that one of his coworkers, Alex, hasn’t been in for quite awhile. Elias felt like he just left suddenly; they were going to work on music together (something they had just started recently) but they weren’t able to after Alex suddenly left. He doesn’t express very much care for Alex’s whereabouts or why he would suddenly leave but Elias does seem quite concerned with his own singing career. He wasn’t sure of anything odd going on the last night Alex was at work but says to talk to one of the other servers for info. Spencer asks about the manager and Elias says to ask the bartender where she is, he doesn’t know.
Aleksy flags down Aimee. He makes some small talk and then tries to order a martini with sentient olives. Aimee replies that they can put a sentient snack in a martini (a humanoid or perhaps a duck) but no sentient olives. Aleksy goes with the sentient snack and also asks for some kind of vegetable added. She returns a short time later. Aleksy indicates that it’s been awhile since he last visited and about a month ago saw someone named Alex here and wants to know if he’s still around. She indicates that he hasn’t been around for about a month and that he “just left me, I mean the bar”. Apparently Aleksy’s delivery was rather poor but Aimee is apparently rather dense and fails to pick up on the lie.
Aimee comes back a bit later and gives him another drink, on the house. She wants to know if he’s a cop, which Aleksy says he isn’t, and she wants to know whether he’s looking for Alex, which he says he is. Aimee indicates that she and Alex were dating. She expresses concern for his welfare and that she’s concerned for his safety. She shows Aleksy some videos from club security cameras that display Alex at work, periodically walking by a group of Asian men who have entered the bar. The men look his way periodically and it’s obvious that they’re watching Alex, keeping an eye on him. Aleksy shares out the feed to the rest of the group. Everyone can see that Alex is nervous in the video. However Spencer notices that Alex looks to be “forcing” his nervousness. Satori comes to the same conclusion. Another video shows the two men going into a private room that Alex walks into, stays in for five minutes and then leaves. Aimee indicates she hasn’t seen these men back in the bar since. We run facial recognition on the Asian men and begin researching it, analyzing the individuals and any audio on the clip.
Aimee also relates that a short time before the new year she walked by a door that the men and Alex were in; it sounded like they were having a very intense conversation. Aleksy asks and Aimee directs him to a backroom to meet with the manager.
Xenia (the Eros bioroid) is surrounded by horny men and isn’t easily approachable without prying them off with a crowbar. However after a short time she walks by the table Aleksy and Aimee are at. Aleksy is immediately caught up by her feminine powers of persuasion (and her pheremones—Crit Fail on his HT check) and loses all self-control. She stops by as she’s overheard the two of them talking about Alex. She also expresses concern for his well-being and wants to know if we’re going to find him. Aleksy, overpowered by chemical persuasion, wants desperately to get her somewhere private to tell her all about it. Satori, listening in on the conversation, realizes that Aleksy has fallen for it and is compromised at the moment; he sends a message over to Aleksy and Spencer informing them of this. Aleksy fails to instill the same desires in Xenia (failed Sex Appeal) however, who tries to stay on topic and continues to express concern about Alex. Spencer IM’s Xenia, introduces himself, and asks her to direct Aleksy to the backroom so they can talk to the manager and to “get him back on track.” She helpfully complies and during the walk of shame Aleksy’s head clears somewhat and he’s able to come down off the pheromones somewhat.
Aleksy and Spencer meet at the door to the back room, joined by IQ and virtual-Satori, to meet with Donna Ashton, the manager. She’s middle-aged, genefixed, decently attractive.
• She recognized that Jan 4th was about the last time he was in.
• His attendance was good and punctual.
• He was a great employee and performed his job well. He was extremely easy to manage – a feature of his bioroid type.
• Regarding the Asian men, she remarks she didn’t have much else in the way of footage beyond what we’ve already seen. Those men were regular visitors for the first month or so of his employment.
• She didn’t have much day-to-day contact.
• Periodic security issues at the club, nothing out of the ordinary. Spencer asks and Donna agrees to provide footage of the weapons check area – specifically during the times these men go through it. She indicates that it will take about half a day.
• Spencer asks about Elias and his relationship with the other servers. Donna indicates she doesn’t sense any malicious intent from him.
• Alex was not particularly nervous during the last week or so he was around, with the exception of what’s on the camera footage.
• IQ asks and Donna refuses to provide account numbers for Alex’s bank account.
• Spencer asks for identifying information from the Asians’ transactions when they purchased drinks. She indicated all of their transactions were handled with anonymous Islandia currency.
• Donna doesn’t have much idea why Alex left. Her personal opinion is that he’s either confused as to what he’s supposed to do or is running.
• Satori IMs Aleksy to find out if the private meeting rooms have video surveillance. Donna indicates they are indeed private, although monitored by a NAI that has its memory erased after five minutes and that it has certain triggers that cause it to alert employees. At her answers to this question everyone except Satori detect that she’s holding something back. Amy indicates that for the integrity of her “private” rooms nothing could be recorded. Spencer asks, “hypothetically” what might be recorded; Amy indicated that full audio and video might be “hypothetically” recorded.
• Satori asks about some kind of code of conduct for the club and whether it was violated during the recording. She indicates that five minutes before and after the malicious event would be recorded.
• IQ and Spencer try to diplomatically talk her into releasing the data she obviously is holding back but she doesn’t buy into it. We decide it’s time for Aleksy to play bad cop. He slams the desk, stands up abruptly and shouts that she’s holding back on us. Donna reveals that when an employee lingers in a room footage is tracked to allow monitoring of why they’re doing so, for the safety of the employee and the club. She indicated she can check to see if such footage was recorded for Alex.
We leave the club.
In the morning Satori finishes his research, as does IQ. We get a data burst from the nightclub as well containing encrypted footage of Alex and the two Asian men in the private room. Spencer also gets his footage of the security check station. The two men drop off fairly standard-model, uninteresting electrolasers and go into the club.
IQ finishes looking at security footage of the train station in Quebec and Cincinnati but gets nothing of interest besides Alex showing up in Quebec and walking away from the station in Cincinnati. Cincinnati is one of the poorest areas in the US, a fourth wave city that’s fairly grimy compared to some other modern cities we’ve been to. It doesn’t have the same amount of AI’s and cybershell activities . A number of emancipated bioriods are present in the city as well. Really there’s no good reason to go there.
As for the private room footage we all sit down to examine it together. Spencer and IQ notice that the Asian men show indications of subservience from their body language. The audio of the conversation is scrambled somehow; Spencer realizes that some kind of white noise generation device is being used here. Their lips are visible only occasionally in the video due to poor camera placement. IQ and Silvie try and download a lip-reading program to get what they can out of the video. Silvie just barely fails making anything out but IQ is able to pick out a few phrases like “Cincinnati” and, otherwise, it seems like they might even be using some kind of code in their speech. Satori also determines that, psychologically, his speech patterns look to be different than expected, although that could be chalked up to being in a different social role in this conversation. It almost seems like he’s giving orders.
Spencer submits information to his FBI contact to see what they might know about this. They indicate that a DNA sequence is required for them to get any information. Hunter agrees to go back to the Pulse and go over the private room with forensics equipment. He expects to return in about six hours.
We also go over video records in the train station for images of the Asian men; we find they arrived about two days earlier in Cincinnati.
IQ transmits himself ahead of the group to Cincinnati and rents a techspider to go do stuff. Spencer orders a very nice Close Assault Weapon to loan to Carlos until he can get some money to pay for his own weaponry. He has it shipped to Cincinnati; it should arrive in about two days.
Sometime during our movements around town we notice we’re being followed by a mixed race man in a hoodie. We notice him while on our way to the train station to go to Cincinnati, about ten minutes out. We elect to get off at the next stop and go have lunch somewhere. Spencer asks Silvie to find a place with outdoor seating nearby the stop we just got off at. He gets off the train at the same time, hanging around nearby at a coffee shop when we stop for lunch. Aleksy and Satori go over to the same area and go talk to him, confronting him. He unfortunately isn’t very talkative but decides to leave the area after being confronted. Spencer, based on his appearance and mannerisms, thinks he’s part of some kind of criminal element. Satori mentions Cincinnati, and the man thanks him for the information before walking away.
During the train ride Satori looks up the stalker and finds a minor criminal record of some varied offenses, nothing too horrible; he seems like a small-time player.
Spencer’s knowledge of streetwise indicates that the Maple Syndicate has a large operation in Cincinnati as a smuggling/distribution/minifacturing center.
We continue on to Cincinnati and get hotel reservations. IQ works to acquire CC video footage of Alex leaving the train station to see if that generates a lead. IQ makes a list of the hotels in the area and begins asking around for people of Alex’s description.
Satori researches video clips or images that would be available of either the Asian guys or Alex in Cincinnati, which takes the better part of the day.
Spencer’s FBI contact gets back to him that evening. Ho Teng Su and Lai Tao are the two Asians, listed as possible triad or tong members. They were arrested in China as young men but not at all after. Unfortunately there isn’t any other information about those two available.
Spencer contacts a small-time underworld member named Johnny Sledge who is involved in the minifacturing racket. He talks to him about illicit goods, trying to feel out whether there are certain classes of goods that have flooded the black market, or whether there have been any substantial changes that coincided with Alex’s arrival. Unfortunately this dealer hasn’t heard of any developments in that regard and is suspicious of Spencer’s inquiries. | https://in-the-shadows-of-venus.obsidianportal.com:443/adventure-log/session-6-finding-alex |
Freedom to Rock’n’Roll
In April 2017, Lithuanian politics announced an intent to ban alcohol sales in mass events (music festivals, art exhibitions, concerts incl.). Music and culture promoters, sports and music celebrities joined #FreedomToRockNRoll initiative to stop illogical bans. In response to the proposed amendments, festival organizers, sports and music representatives, bar owners have united to say loudly that the proposed draft amendments to the Alcohol Control Law are chaotic, not taking into consideration the future losses to the country’s economy, culture and sports, labor market and international image.
Peaceful protest-live music concert took place next the Parliament building featuring most popular musicians and speeches by most influential public persons as also politics. Active communication in social media helped to boost awareness about new legislation and to manage discussions including most powerful/popular influencers into the topic.
The campaign gained recognition in international awards: the best communication campaign of the year in the Baltic States (SABRE Awards 2018). | https://fabula.lt/en/project/freedom-to-rocknroll/ |
The Olympic Games Were Not Always So Friendly
The modern Olympics we see are often held up as a continuation of the first games. While the basic idea of sporting events is common to both, there is much that is different.
The Olympic Games Were Not Always So Friendly
The original Olympics were actually only one part of four games held during the year. the others were the Nemean, Isthmian and Pythian Games. the Olympics, however, were by far the most famous. These games derived their name from Olympia, were they were held.
The Olympics were first held in 776 BC. the games were part of a religious festival in honor of the Greek gods. They were held in the temple sanctuary of Olympia in Peloponnesus, which is located in southern Greece. the games celebrated sporting achievement and excellence as well as victory. in fact, victory was the only thing celebrated and it often stood in place of open warfare between various factions. There was no silver or bronze medal awarded.
Every year, the Olympics were held on the second full moon after the summer solstice. This would have put them in July or August of each year. the games lasted for roughly five days. a truce was declared for the up to three months prior to the games so contestants could heal from battles and prepare themselves.
The origin of the games has not been conclusively determined. Greek legend has it that Zeus, himself, started the games. Other legends have it that Herakles founded the games. a third view is that they games were created as a memorial to Pelops, a hero. Whatever the reason, the games have certain stood the test of time even if the original Greeks would not recognize them today.
The original Olympics had only one event – the foot race. Not until the 18th Olympiad were individual events such as wrestling, horse riding, discus and javelin throwing were added. at its height, over 40,000 people would pile into a stadium in Olympia to watch the events.
Given the peaceful tone of the modern Olympics, it is somewhat surprising the pankration was one of the most popular events of the early games. it was essentially a brawl between as many contestants as entered, fighting all at the same time, with the last man standing declared the winner. All Olympic events were restricted to men, to wit, women could only watch.
Ancient Greeks were very competitive, and the games were about the only no-war outlet for their passion. Given this basic truth, it is somewhat odd that the modern Olympics attempt to disdain politics and national rivalries. | https://www.zido.gq/2018/03/the-olympic-games-were-not-always-so.html |
DigitalStakeout Scout allows users to boolean search through historical and real-time data by time, making it easy to find specific information quickly. With this feature, users can search for data from any folder (comparment) or monitor (feed) within a specific time frame, such as the last week, month, or year.
This feature is particularly useful for investigations, compliance, and threat hunting where the timing of events is critical.
Users can set time ranges for their searches, including custom ranges, and can also filter results by keywords, phrases, and other criteria. This feature allows for advanced search capabilities, such as searching for specific keywords within a certain time frame or finding all data related to a certain event. Additionally, users can also save their search criteria for future use, making it easier to re-run searches at a later time. | https://www.digitalstakeout.com/scout/historical-search |
Why study Economics at ANU
Why is something as superfluous as diamonds so costly, but something as essential as water so cheap? How can the cost of the coffee beans make up only a few cents of the price of a cup of coffee? With the world’s highest minimum wage rate, can Australia ever compete with low wage countries?
The ANU Bachelor of Economics provides a framework and a way of thinking to help answer questions like these. Your coursework will span economics (both theory and applied), economic history, and econometrics while developing your analytical problem-solving and quantitative skills.
Whether working as an economist or in some other role, your Bachelor of Economics degree and training will be sought after.
Length: 3 years full-time
CRICOS #: 002290B
UAC code: 134003 (B Economics)
Semester intake: 1 or 2
Career options
Economics provides a foundation for careers in:
- Public policy
- International development
- Business and management
- Government and politics
- Law
- Finance and insurance
- Teaching and education
- Marketing and tourism
- Examples of job titles in economics are listed below.
Government Departments
Australian and overseas governments provide many career paths for economists. Departments like Finance, Treasury, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Productivity Commission and the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics recruit heavily from the ANU. Economists are also much in demand in other government departments dealing with issues such as Trade, Education, Employment and Social Security.
Business and Management
Firms recruit economists because their advice is vital to businesses in understanding their business environment, how competitors react, and how changes in things such as interest rates, oil prices, exchange rates and consumer demand are likely to affect the business. Consultancy and accounting firms employ economists to advise their clients which include both private firms and governments.
International Agencies
International agencies such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Oxfam recruit economists to advise them on the effects of policy changes, financial crises and conflicts in one part of the global economy on another, as they are transmitted through trade and financial flows. Economists advise on trade policy and macroeconomic policy coordination.
Resource and Environmental Economist
Economists are employed to study natural resource use and environmental problems and their relationship to economic behaviour. Employers include mining firms and regulatory agencies. Economists contribute to the better management of natural resources and improving the global environment.
Schools and Universities
There is a thriving national and international market for academic economists in High Schools / Colleges and Universities.
Finance and Banking
Financial institutions including Banks, and in particular the Reserve Bank of Australia, actively recruit economists to advise them on the state of the economy and on risks from factors such as interest rate changes and exchange rate movements.
How to apply
If you’ve decided to apply to the ANU College of Business and Economics, then you've made a great choice. Here you can follow a step-by-step guide to lead you through the application process.
Why choose the ANU?
ANU is Australia's top-ranked university, positioned among the world's leading universities. When you graduate, you will be recognised globally for your world-class qualifications.
Scholarship opportunities
We offer a wide range of scholarships to future students to assist with the cost of their studies. There are also funding support opportunities offered by the Australian and overseas governments, and other industry partners and affiliates, that you can take advantage of.
Life on campus
Our students widely report that one of the best things about studying at ANU is the on-campus experience. Our strong focus on residential living has helped build a vibrant and diverse community, where you can find like-minded peers and make lifelong friends.
Accommodation
ANU offers more homes to students on campus than any other Australian university, and a residential experience that's second-to-none. | https://cbe.anu.edu.au/study/programs/bachelor-of-economics |
As a designated Welcoming City through the Welcoming America network, Roanoke will be celebrating “Welcoming Week” from September 14th through September 23rd. According to Welcoming America, “welcoming cities are guided by the principles of inclusion and creating communities that prosper because everyone feels welcome, including immigrants and refugees.”
During this annual week of celebration, our community will bring together refugees, immigrants, and native-born residents to celebrate our diversity and raise awareness of the benefits of welcoming all.
68.5 million people around the world have been forced from their homes due to war, armed conflict, or persecution according to the United Nations. Welcoming Cities, and Welcoming Week, helps to show these people that their new home will embrace them and show them that they belong.
At Family Service, we gladly serve those members of our community who have been displaced from their homes and relocated to the U.S. begin life anew. Through our work with the Health and Wellness Interpreter’s Program, Family Service has been honored to support Refugees and Immigrants from across the globe as they work to overcome past trauma and adjust to life in a new country.
Research shows that processing trauma in the language used at the time of the event can significantly facilitate the healing process by allowing unique access to traumatic memories.
At Family Service, individuals are able to access counseling and advocacy services in their own language through the use of professional interpreters. #RestoringHope should not have language barriers. | https://fsrv.org/roanoke-welcoming-week/ |
Beyond education, the benefits of a creative life can be immeasurable. If you have an interest, get out there and support our local art scene by attending openings, events, and exhibitions or, if you are so inclined, delve into to some creative work yourself. You can meet some unique and thought-provoking people as well as always learn more about yourself. Cheryl states, “When it is going well, it is a real high. It has also brought a lot of interesting people into my life I would have never known them without my interest in art. People from every spectrum of life are interested in art and we all meet through our shared and common interest.” McClure finds inspiration in a long and growing list of artists whose work she admires including Richard Diebenkorn (painter associated with abstract expressionism with geometric, lyrical abstractions with luscious surfaces), Kathryn Frund (contemporary, mixed media artist using space and layering), Janet Jones (contemporary printmaker and collagist using paper and other tactile materials), Krista Harris (contemporary, abstract painter using organic shapes, calligraphy, and space), and Jeri Ledbetter (contemporary, abstract painter who uses a contrast of ground and line within the realm of nature to be observed and felt). | https://eguidemagazine.com/cheryl-mcclure/ |
The Australian public was becoming disenfranchised with politics and something needed to be done before society ‘fractured more’ according to newly elected Member for Burt Matt Keogh.
Mr Keogh made the comments in his maiden speech to parliament on October 10 and said something had to be done.
“I am concerned by the number of people that feel disenfranchised and disengaged with Australian political life today,” he said.
“This has been reflected in ever decreasing voter turn-out as well as expressions, through the ballot box and other forums, of sentiments akin to those expressed by Brexiters and Tea Partiers.
“I do not condemn them…though I may have strong disagreement with them.”
Mr Keogh said they must acknowledge the public’s ‘fears and concerns’ and address them through the values and compassion or else they risked ‘fracturing society’ even more.
“By not only speaking to, but acting consistently with, the values I’ve outlined, as well as clearly articulating and explaining their imperative and rationale.
“We can as a nation come back together with a greater belief in our parliamentary democracy and what we can achieve together,” he said.
“I do not mean that we pander to or compromise on what I believe to be the fundamental promise of the Australian fair go for anyone who wishes to join us.
“I mean that we must actively engage in reminding each other why we cherish it and act consistently with it.”
In his speech Mr Keogh also highlighted his concerns about domestic violence in the country and his electorate and advocated for more resources to combat it.
“We must also ensure we have adequate, available and fully supported domestic violence services, adequately funded legal assistance and community education,” he said. | https://www.yourlocalexaminer.com.au/keogh-concerned-public-pollie-relations/ |
Atom Bomb and Ahimsa,
Cited in The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi
In 1945, on learning about the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi said that “Unless now the world adopts nonviolence, it will spell certain suicide for mankind”.
Last week the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists re-affirmed this point by re-setting the Doomsday Clock at 100 Seconds to Midnight, indicating the continuing threat to humanity from nuclear weapons, in conjunction with the new existential risk of climate change and the disturbing trends in politics away from truth and science, and fostering division and hate.
In commemoration of the 73rd anniversary of the death of Mahatma Gandhi, the Gandhi Development Trust and the Phoenix Settlement Trust organised a memorial service which featured reflections from Ela Gandhi and other representatives of the two Trusts, presentations from winners of youth essay competitions on Gandhi’s principle of The Power of Love to Transform, and keynote addresses by Alyn Ware, Director of the Basel Peace Office and Vanda Proskova, Co-convenor of Youth Fusion and Vice-Chair of PragueVision Institute for Sustainable Development.
Adrial Naidoo, winner of the secondary school essay contest with his reflections of the different leadership values of Donald Trump and Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand Prime Minister)
Mr Ware focused on key quotes and principles of non-violence advanced by Mahatma Gandhi relating to nuclear abolition and the end of war. Ms Proskova focused on the role of youth, and on ways to move the immense budgets and investments in the nuclear arms race to instead support the climate and sustainable development, and to build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Abolition of war
On the abolition of war, Gandhi said that “Peace will not come out of a clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.” This ideal, along with the principles and many of the methods of nonviolence, are part of the UN Charter which prohibits the threat or use of force in international relations and provides a range of mechanisms for resolving conflicts peacefully, including through the International Court of Justice. In addition, some countries, like Costa Rica, have adopted constitutions embracing the principles of non-violence and abolishing the armed forces as a permanent institution.
Mr Ware called on all UN member states to implement their UN commitments and better use the methods for peaceful resolution of conflicts in order to end war globally.
Alyn Ware presenting at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial service
Nuclear Abolition
On nuclear abolition, Mr Ware noted a range of developments and initiatives taking forward the goal to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world. These include the new Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, an initiative of non-nuclear countries which could have a real impact on the nuclear arms race if states parties to the treaty adopted strong national implementation measures such as prohibiting transit of nuclear weapons and ending investments in the nuclear weapons industry. (See The Nuclear Ban is Here. Now What?)
Mr Ware also highlighted a number of initiatives to engage nuclear armed states in the process of nuclear disarmament including the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones (which restrict deployment of nuclear weapons), the Global Zero plan, the proposed Nuclear Weapons Convention, no-first-use campaigns, the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, human rights and nuclear weapons project, parliamentary initiatives and the Stockholm Initiative. He noted that the Gandhian approach is not to demonise or stigmatise our adversaries, i.e. those who still rely on nuclear weapons, but to engage with them in order to be able to address concerns of both sides (us and them) in forging win-win solutions.
Mr Ware encouraged the audience to support by endorsing the Protect People and the Planet Appeal for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World.
Move the nuclear weapons money
Ms Proskova highlighted the human security and environmental needs that could be addressed if part or all of the $100 billion annual nuclear weapons budget was redirected. These include medical needs for the COVID-19 pandemic, faster conversion to a fossil-fuel free economy, provision of education for all children in the world, ensuring basic healthcare for everyone, supporting the peace and development efforts of the United Nations which is woefully under-funded, implementing economic development plans that protect bio-diversity and more.
Civil society in nuclear armed states can support legislative efforts, like the SANE Act in the USA and Defence Diversification/Economic Conversion in the UK, to cut nuclear weapons budgets and re-direct these to human, environmental and economic need.
Civil society in both nuclear and non-nuclear states can engage in efforts to stop investments in the nuclear weapons industry, whether these are personal investments, or those by ones’ church, university, city, pension fund or other investment body.
The Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign highlights the nuclear weapons corporations to stop investing in, plus examples of divestment action and social media promotion.
Vanda Proskova presenting at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial service
Role of Youth
Ms Proskova also focused on the important role of youth to carry forward the aspirations and campaigns for peace, disarmament and a sustainable world. She noted the importance of youth learning from the experience, examples and wisdom of visionary and effective leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Bertha von Suttner, the Prague born woman who was a leader of the European anti-war movement in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries and who was the first woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ms Proskova highlighted that youth are making the connections and building cooperation between peace, climate, human rights, disarmament and sustainable development issues. A prime example of this is the Youth Fusion platform. | https://www.youth-fusion.org/articles/gandhis-legacy-for-nuclear-abolition-and-the-end-of-war/ |
If the Attorney General believes that a sentence is “unduly lenient”, or too soft as the newspapers may say, she can ask for the case to be referred back to court to be reconsidered. This is what happened to Taha Amin. He pleaded guilty to several robberies and thefts and was sentenced to 23 months’ imprisonment, which was suspended for two years. Although the judge referred to imprisonment, this should have been expressed as detention due to his age.
Amin was 18 years old at the time of the offences and had not been in trouble before, before the sentencing hearing he had been remanded in custody for seven months. Conditions were attached to the suspended sentence that he complete a Thinking Skills Programme, abide by a tagged curfew for four months, complete 180 hours of unpaid work and undergo supervision with the probation service for two years.
It was submitted that the sentence was unduly lenient, and each offence was aggravated by the fact Amin had been acting as part of a group. However, it was acknowledged there was remorse, a lack of maturity or significant planning, and Amin had also made steps to break away from his friends in between the last of the offences and his arrest.
On behalf of Amin, the court was reminded of a recent court decision which indicated account could properly be taken of the effects Covid-19 had on conditions in custody. Amin had been locked in a cell for 23 ½ hours a day and had not received any family visits. It would also mean that if he did receive immediate custody, he would not be able to complete any rehabilitative courses.
The court agreed that the seriousness of the offences meant that a suspended sentence should not have been imposed. The view was taken that a sentence of 3 years detention would have been appropriate, even taking into account the mitigation. That length of sentence is one that is not capable of being suspended.
Having decided that the sentence was unduly lenient, the court then had to determine if the sentence needed to be varied. Even when a court decides a sentence is unduly lenient, it has a discretion to not to change the sentence.
Amin had used the time since his sentence wisely. Although only two months had passed, he had attended all required appointments, complied with his curfew and developed a good rapport with his offender manager. Probation provided a positive report confirming Amin was very motivated to engage with them. The fact that the conditions on his sentence were a significant restriction on his liberty and the amount of time spent in custody were also taken into account.
In deciding not to vary his sentence, the court said his behaviour since sentencing demonstrated the contrast between the prospects of rehabilitation under the present sentence and if he were required to return to custody.
When can a sentence be referred?
The power to review only applies to sentences passed in proceedings in the crown court and to certain offences.
The sentencing judge is usually best placed to weigh the relevant factors so leave to refer should only be granted in exceptional circumstances. There should be some error made that public confidence would be damaged if it was not rectified.
What does unduly lenient mean?
A sentence has to be considered unduly lenient rather than simply lenient. A sentence is unduly lenient if it falls outside of the range of sentences the judge could reasonably deem appropriate. Regard needs to be had to reported cases, guideline cases and the relevant sentencing guidelines.
Varying the sentence
If the court finds that the sentence was unduly lenient, the sentence can be increased. The court can also take ‘double jeopardy into account. Double jeopardy refers to the fact the person is being sentenced for a second time and the sentence can be reduced to account for that.
As can be seen from the case of Amin, the court does not have to change the sentence even when it is unduly lenient. Although part of the considerations, in this case, was the impact of Covid on prisoners, it is clear that the court can and will take into account any behaviour or compliance with the sentence that had been imposed.
We notify our clients if their offence is one which can be referred and also provide advice as to whether we think it is likely.
How can we help?
If you would like to discuss any aspect of your case, please contact Broadbents Solicitors. We cover various fields of law, ensuring that you have access to expert legal advice. You can call our dedicated team today: Alfreton 01773 832 511, Derby 01332 369 090, Heanor 01773 769 891, or Sutton-in-Ashfield 01623 441 123. Alternatively, you can head over to our online contact form and we’ll be in touch. | https://www.broadbentssolicitors.co.uk/reviewing-a-sentence/ |
Each month, the FSU Honors Program will highlight the noteworthy achievements and accomplishments of an Honors Alumni. These individuals have used their Honors education to make a mark on the world in their respective professions. Please read a little about some of our exceptional Alumni and reach out to the Honors Program if you would like to learn more.
Being featured is a great way for current students to learn from FSU Alumni and a way for you to stay in contact with the FSU Honors Program. With your help and support, we hope to build an even stronger relationship between our alumni and current Honors students
If you are interested in being featured in our Alumni Spotlight forum, please fill out our Spotlight Questionnaire. If you would not like to be featured, but would like to stay connected, please complete our Alumni Contact Form.
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Jodi Wilkof
Jodi Wilkof, class of 1992, is a successful business owner of Green Party Events. The company specializes in eco-friendly event planning and design. Jodi and her company both call Tallahassee home...
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Lee Metcalf
Dr. Metcalf is currently the Director of International Affairs here at Florida State University. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Political Science at FSU in 1983...
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Norman Thagard
Dr. Norman Thagard is one of the first FSU Alumni to graduate from the Honors Program. He was born in Marianna, FL, but considers Jacksonville to be his hometown...
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Cara Castellana
Meet Cara, a Florida east-coaster and 2006 FSU Honors alum with a passion for helping others and living life to its fullest...
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Noel McDonell
Noel McDonell graduated from the FSU Honors Program in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in Criminology, and from the FSU College of Law in 1990...
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Catherine Froehlich
In the spring of 2016, Catherine (Katie) graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance. She is now part of the Finance Leadership Development Program (FLDP) at Siemens conglomerate company...
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Victoria Sunnergren
Victoria graduated from FSU in the spring of 2016 with a double major in Art History and Religion. She was part of the first class of the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)... | https://honors.fsu.edu/honors-alumni-spotlight |
Large-scale reforestation projects such as New Zealand's One Billion Trees program are underway in many countries to help sequester carbon from the atmosphere.
But there is ongoing debate about whether to prioritize native or non-native plants to fight climate change. As our recent research shows, non-native plants often grow faster compared to native plants, but they also decompose faster and this helps to accelerate the release of 150% more carbon dioxide from the soil.
Our results highlight a challenging gap in our understanding of carbon cycling in newly planted or regenerating forests.
It is relatively easy to measure plant biomass (how quickly a plant grows) and to estimate how much carbon dioxide it has removed from the atmosphere. But measuring carbon release is more difficult because it involves complex interactions between the plant, plant-eating insects and soil microorganisms.
This lack of an integrated carbon cycling model that includes species interactions makes predictions for carbon budgeting exceedingly difficult.
How Non-Native Plants Change the Carbon Cycle
There is uncertainty in our climate forecasting because we don't fully understand how the factors that influence carbon cycling - the process in which carbon is both accumulated and lost by plants and soils - differ across ecosystems.
Carbon sequestration projects typically use fast-growing plant species that accumulate carbon in their tissues rapidly. Few projects focus on what goes on in the soil.
Non-native plants often accelerate carbon cycling. They usually have less dense tissues and can grow and incorporate carbon into their tissues faster than native plants. But they also decompose more readily, increasing carbon release back to the atmosphere.
Our research, recently published in the journal Science, shows that when non-native plants arrive in a new place, they establish new interactions with soil organisms. So far, research has mostly focused on how this resetting of interactions with soil microorganisms, herbivorous insects and other organisms helps exotic plants to invade a new place quickly, often overwhelming native species.
Invasive non-native plants have already become a major problem worldwide, and are changing the composition and function of entire ecosystems. But it is less clear how the interactions of invasive non-native plants with other organisms affect carbon cycling.
Planting Non-Native Trees Releases More Carbon
We established 160 experimental plant communities, with different combinations of native and non-native plants. We collected and reared herbivorous insects and created identical mixtures which we added to half of the plots.
We also cultured soil microorganisms to create two different soils that we split across the plant communities. One soil contained microorganisms familiar to the plants and another was unfamiliar.
Herbivorous insects and soil microorganisms feed on live and decaying plant tissue. Their ability to grow depends on the nutritional quality of that food. We found that non-native plants provided a better food source for herbivores compared with native plants – and that resulted in more plant-eating insects in communities dominated by non-native plants.
Similarly, exotic plants also raised the abundance of soil microorganisms involved in the rapid decomposition of plant material. This synergy of multiple organisms and interactions (fast-growing plants with less dense tissues, high herbivore abundance, and increased decomposition by soil microorganisms) means that more of the plant carbon is released back into the atmosphere.
In a practical sense, these soil treatments (soils with microorganisms familiar vs. unfamiliar to the plants) mimic the difference between reforestation (replanting an area) and afforestation (planting trees to create a new forest).
Reforested areas are typically replanted with native species that occurred there before, whereas afforested areas are planted with new species. Our results suggest planting non-native trees into soils with microorganisms they have never encountered (in other words, afforestation with non-native plants) may lead to more rapid release of carbon and undermine the effort to mitigate climate change.
Lauren Waller is a Postdoctoral Fellow, Lincoln University, New Zealand.
Warwick Allen is a Postdoctoral fellow, University of Canterbury.
Disclosure statement: Lauren Waller receives funding from the Tertiary Education Council. Warwick Allen was supported by Centre of Research Excellence funding from the Tertiary Education Commission.
Reposted with permission from The Conversation.
- Importance of Old Growth Forests: Carbon Capture Potential Grows ... ›
- 8 Ways to Sequester Carbon to Avoid Climate Catastrophe - EcoWatch ›
- Plant More Trees—Young Forests Use Carbon Most Effectively ... ›
EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Florida Breaks U.S. Daily Record With Over 15,000 New Coronavirus Cases
Florida broke the national record for the most new coronavirus cases reported in a single day on Sunday, with a total of 15,299.
Climate Explained: What the World Was Like the Last Time Carbon Dioxide Levels Were at 400ppm
By James Shulmeister
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.
If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, please send it to [email protected]
By Jo Harper
Investment in U.S. offshore wind projects are set to hit $78 billion (€69 billion) this decade, in contrast with an estimated $82 billion for U.S. offshore oil and gasoline projects, Wood Mackenzie data shows. This would be a remarkable feat only four years after the first offshore wind plant — the 30 megawatt (MW) Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island — started operating in U.S. waters.
COVID-19 and the Global Food Supply: Big Lessons From the World’s Small Farms
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed both the strengths and limitations of globalization. The crisis has made people aware of how industrialized food production can be, and just how far food can travel to get to the local supermarket. There are many benefits to this system, including low prices for consumers and larger, even global, markets for producers. But there are also costs — to the environment, workers, small farmers and to a region or individual nation's food security.
By Joe Leech
The human body comprises around 60% water.
It's commonly recommended that you drink eight 8-ounce (237-mL) glasses of water per day (the 8×8 rule).
By Michael Svoboda
The enduring pandemic will make conventional forms of travel difficult if not impossible this summer. As a result, many will consider virtual alternatives for their vacations, including one of the oldest forms of virtual reality – books.
Trending
Watchdog Accuses Trump's NOAA of 'Choosing Extinction' for Right Whales by Hiding Scientific Evidence
By Julia Conley
As the North Atlantic right whale was placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's list of critically endangered species Thursday, environmental protection groups accusing the U.S. government of bowing to fishing and fossil fuel industry pressure to downplay the threat and failing to enact common-sense restrictions to protect the animals. | https://www.ecowatch.com/carbon-sequestration-2646173228.html |
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This decision tree helps organizations working on violence against women migrant workers decide when and how to best collect data on women migrant worker’s experiences of violence and their access and use of relevant services.
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Developed by the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) through a participatory process involving a wide range of stakeholders from within and outside of the PNTL Gender Cabinet, the National Police of Timor-Leste Gender-Strategy (2018-2020) complements the PNTL Strategy to support a professional, trustworthy and inclusive police force. The five-year Strategy, approved by the General Commander and launched on 16 August 2018, highlights the multiple challenges that Timorese women face in the...
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The Asia and the Pacific region is more vulnerable to disaster impacts than any other region in the world, and is home to multiple complex emergencies and protracted humanitarian crises. The vulnerabilities of marginalized people are often exacerbated in disasters, emergencies and crises. There is a growing literature that demonstrates that this is the case for people of diverse sexual orientation identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC),with impacts during preparedness...
Integrating Gender into Humanitarian Action: Good Practices from Asia and the Pacific 6 - LGBTIQ+ Rights and Inclusion in Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction
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This is the sixth compilation of good practices on integrating gender into humanitarian action in Asia, developed on behalf of the Regional Network Working Group on Gender in Humanitarian Action in Asia-Pacific.Despite recent strides towards ensuring the safety and enjoyment of equal rights by LGBTIQ+ persons in the Asia-Pacific region, persistent and sizeable obstacles to inclusion remain, including harmful legal frameworks and religious, cultural, and societal stigmas which, when combined...
People at the Margins: Whose Budget? Whose Rights?- The Transgender Question in India: Policy and Budgetary Priorities
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The transgender (TG) community is one of the most marginalized social groups in India. Historically subjected to structural violence, the TG community continues to face widespread stigma and discrimination at the hands of their own families, society and even the state. Despite some recent progressive measures by the government, the community’s social mainstreaming and access to rights and entitlements remains shrouded in challenges. 'The Transgender Question in India: Policy and Budgetary...
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This paper highlights the unique discriminations and exclusions lesbians, bisexual women, transgender and intersex persons (LBTI) face across the region as well as the challenging issue that gender and sexual diversity remains based on the proceedings of the 2016 Regional Consultation on Promoting and Protecting the Rights of Lesbians, Bisexual women, Transgender and Despite changes in national legislations and policies, such as the abolition of a ban on same-sex marriages...
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Tailoring, embroidery, tie-and-dye, sujani (kaatha work) and carpet making are all done by women workers, who have little formal training and education. | https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications?country=df874a4d2b154980aefbfade31f3616d&f%5B0%5D=subject_area_publications%3A1387&f%5B1%5D=subject_area_publications%3A1829&f%5B2%5D=subject_area_publications%3A1903 |
Singer Rachel Brown performs tonight (Oct. 25) at the Darby NYC, where she’ll showcase her captivating musical mélange of pop, Caribbean, Hawaiian, country and hip-hop sounds.
The soulful Brown, a stunning Harvard-educated singer/songwriter, recently released her debut EP “Building Castles,” which is being touted for Rachel’s smooth, enchanting voice and eclectic blend of sweet and sultry sounds.
The self-taught Rachel, a native New Yorker, was the 2010 recipient of the prestigious ASCAP Foundation‘s Robert Allen Award for songwriting as well as a 2011 recipient of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame Abe Olman Award for excellence in songwriting.
Brown’s Ethiopian and Bermudian roots shine through in her catchy, easy-listening tunes, which feature mesmerizing sounds from the ukelele, guitar, hand percussion, bass and drums.
Her next performance in New York is Oct. 30 at the Darby. For more information, check out Rachel’s website. | https://www.theimproper.com/59482/harvard-beauty-rachel-brown-voice-match/ |
"This annual report is the most positive and encouraging assessment that we have seen of our schools. It highlights the great progress we have made but also the scale of the challenge ahead of us to create world class standards in every school and college in every part of the country.
"Against tough inspection standards, more schools are outstanding, the proportion of inadequate schools is lower, and Ofsted's close monitoring of schools where there have been concerns in the past is paying off. I am particularly pleased that the report highlights the impact that strong and effective leadership of schools can make to pupils' progress. The report is a testament to the hard work of teachers, schools and early years professionals.
"Overall, inspection evidence across the board shows a broadly positive picture and I am pleased that the work of the great majority of providers is meeting demanding Ofsted standards. The report says that improvements are evident across childcare, education, and adult skills.
"This report confirms that our reforms are on the right track. All schools and nurseries now have access to high-quality, engaging classroom materials to help them teach phonics, and the Every Child a Reader pilot is helping six year olds with literacy problems learn to read. Our changes to the secondary curriculum will mean more engaging and interesting lessons for pupils and, for teachers, more flexibility to tailor teaching to pupils' needs and aspirations. Changes to history and citizenship classes will put understanding core British values at the heart of teaching. Our new duty on schools to promote community cohesion will help all children understand how they fit in to the world around them. New Diplomas and our plans to raise the participation age to 18 will engage more young people in education and training and give them a foot in the door to the world of work.
"But as well as highlighting progress, the report asks some very pertinent questions. All of us involved in services for children and young people must constantly ask ourselves how their experiences of education and care can help improve their chances in life. We know that we must do more to help the poorest, the most disadvantaged and the vulnerable to prosper and succeed. These are harder nuts to crack, but our new department has been established to help us take measures to support every child in the round, and to carry opportunities to those most in need. Only last week we published delivery plans to raise standards, to promote all children's health and wellbeing, and to put every child on the path to success.
"We have invested over £21bn in the early years, and will spend an extra £4bn in the next spending period to give all children the best start in life. We have established 1,500 Sure Start Children's Centres in some of the most disadvantaged areas in the country, and are helping them reach out to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
"We are giving all of those working in education and care the resources and the tools to make sure that every child really does matter. We are providing investment and leadership for a greater focus on personalised learning, with appropriate support and schooling for gifted and talented children, those with special educational needs and those falling behind. We want every child to make progress at every stage of their education, whatever their background, gender or ability.
"The report finds that one of the key features of successful schools is high aspirations for pupils' personal and academic success. I know that our ambition for every school to be a good school is shared by everyone working in education.
"We will not be satisfied until we have closed the gap between the poorer and the more affluent, and until every child and young person has the opportunities they deserve to prosper and succeed. Supporting children, young people and their families in the community is integral to helping all children, promoting excellence and closing the achievement gap in schools."
Minister for Children and Young People, Kevin Brennan, added:
"We know that in the past society has failed our children in care, which is why we want local authorities, carers and schools to work together to give children in care a decent start in life. We want them to have the same aspirations and ambitions for these children as they do for their own.
"We are going to make sure that children in care get places in the best schools and help from a designated teacher. Those children in care who need it will get £500 a year to support their education, for example, to buy books and hire tutors. We are also going to give them free access to after-school activities, £100 a year in their Child Trust Fund to build up a nest egg for when they leave care and a £2000 university bursary. It is time for a radical change for these children, so that they get the same sort of opportunities as other children."
NOTES TO EDITORS
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If you would like to receive email notification of new press notices in the subjects of your choice, please click on 'register' on our site: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk, 'Latest News'. | https://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/0/876DE6D0F2A40CE2802573770035D94C?OpenDocument |
Before undertaking any programming task, there is a need to have a visualization of the program. Programmers make use of Unified Modeling Language to undertake the visualization of their programs. Systems design undergoes a lot of processes and stages. This is taken so that all the processes that are required have been made. This is the reason there is a need to have a thorough system analysis process when creating a system. System analysis entails having a thorough understanding of the system and what will need to be integrated and also looking at the possible bugs that might be introduced in the system. It is therefore important to have a physical representation of the system so that it becomes clear what needs to be achieved.
This paper will focus on the design of a book system where there are several classes that will print the book that has a specific value. The classes in the class diagrams show the aspect of inheritance in the design. This helps in getting other attributes from the parent classes so that there is the avoidance of repetition. Classes and objects help the programmer to understand the relationship that is found in a system.
Flow chart diagram
The flow chart of the system is shown in the diagram below:
For effective object oriented design, there is a need to have objects and classes well laid out, there is a need to understand inheritance and how code will be reused in the program. Objects are basically things which may include persons, places which are of significance to the system being designed or analyzed. It may also be graphical user interfaces or text areas on a display. Several objects may share some attributes or have common characteristics this object are grouped together into one class. E.g. class shapes with objects like Triangle, Circle, and rectangle. The classes may also have further subclasses with further defining attributes. Classes have unique create a distinction from other classes and avoid ambiguity. Objects are mainly instantiated from a class. Methods are behaviors attributed to objects of a particular class an object triangle may have methods e.g. area and circumference. Inheritance involves reuse of code associated with an object in a particular class.
CRC cards are used in object oriented analysis to represent the responsibilities and functions of classes and to enhance interaction and collaboration between the classes. CRC cards are used as an aid to help in getting objects which are not object oriented to think objects it is also a useful tool in validating the set of chosen classes to conform to the required behavior using models such as a use case model. CRC cards are an aid to clear thought, and it’s not an accepted part in the design process of a system. However UML permits the analyst to record the information from them in the class model. A CRC session entails identification of all possible classes, create all possible scenarios then finally identifying and defining responsibilities of the classes.
Unified modeling language is a programming language that is used to develop object oriented systems and programs. UML provides a set of notations for expressing models of Object
Oriented Analysis and Design (OOAD) .Currently the programming language is a de-facto standard for object oriented modeling and analysis.UML comprises of several diagrams that can be used to model the different aspects of the program or system to be modeled. Among these diagrams is the use case model which is a technique for modeling system functionality based on the users’ perspective. Use case model follows a sequence of actions which are aimed at achieving a particular goal, system requirements of the new system are captured using use case diagrams. The functionality of the system is partitioned or split into major parts the actors and use cases. Actors depict the roles played by the system users, these system users could be humans, computers, other hardware and even software that must be external to the system being portioned for analysis. The Actors must therefore be external and be able to stimulate the system and receive results and outputs from the system.
Use cases on the other hand describe the behavior of the system in the event of stimulation by any of the actors. The behavior is then documented or described textually. It describes the inputs and outputs from the actors in the process of conversion of the inputs to produce the outputs and the effects of the outputs to the other actors of the system. A use case also describes errors that can be encountered in the process of conversion of input to output and explains the possible mitigation measures. An example is point of sale system, the actors of the system would include, customer and the sales clerk. Both of these actors stimulate the system by feeding in some input and expect outputs from the system.
UML also employs several other diagrams used for system analysis. A class diagram shows an overview of a system by exhibiting its classes and their relationships they are always static showing only the interactive elements not the way they interact.Sequence diagram is basically an interaction diagram that explains how operations are conducted and at what instance. They are organized according to time. The time progresses as you go down the page. The objects involved in the operation are listed from left to right according to the stipulated or assigned time they should take part in the message sequence.Another diagram is the activity diagram which is essentially a flow chart it mainly focuses on the flow of tasks and activities involved in a process in the system .it also gives details and illustrations of how those activities relate and depend on each other.
Object oriented programming is gaining popularity in the programming field due to the benefits it has over other programming paradigms. OOP languages are easy to learn with a lot of code simplification thus the programmer is saved the hustle of writing numerous codes, the use of inheritance also allows for code re use thus simplifying program designing and coding. OOP is also quite responsive to changes undertaken and the changes may be implemented to individual objects which do not call for a system overhaul.Through encapsulation there is simplicity and effectiveness in object interaction and communication thus testing, debugging and system maintenance is simplified. Easier to manage because of the fact that the code can be reused and also because the functionality is modeled using objects and classes. It is possible to use code which has been written before. There is code re-use. With object oriented programming, there is a lot of flexibility because it is possible to get code which performs the same function for a given functionality. | https://www.wowessays.com/free-samples/the-class-diagram-of-the-system-is-shown-in-the-diagram-below-essay-example/ |
NASA has discovered an active galaxy far, distant that appears eerily paying homage to a TIE fighter from “Star Wars.”
The galaxy, often known as TXS 0128+554, is 500 million light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia. TXS 0128+554 is taken into account an active galaxy, because it emits extra gentle than all of its stars collectively. In 2015, researchers discovered TXS 0128+554 was a “faint source of gamma rays,” nevertheless it wasn’t till not too long ago that they went in for a better look.
“After the Fermi announcement, we zoomed in a million times closer on the galaxy using the [Very Long Baseline Array’s] radio antennas and charted its shape over time,” mentioned Purdue University professor and examine lead writer Matthew Lister in a statement. “The first time I saw the results, I immediately thought it looked like Darth Vader’s TIE fighter spacecraft from ‘Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.’ That was a fun surprise, but its appearance at different radio frequencies also helped us learn more about how active galaxies can change dramatically on decade time scales.”
THE UNIVERSE WILL END IN THIS WAY, AT THIS TIME, RESEARCHER SAYS
TXS 0128+554 has a “supermassive black hole” that’s believed to be 1 billion occasions the solar’s mass, which can present a cause for the gamma-ray emissions.
The galaxy is additionally producing two jets, “beams of high-energy particles traveling at nearly the speed of light in opposite directions,” that give it the TIE fighter-like look. It’s believed these jets could also be producing among the gamma-ray emissions.
The researchers used NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory to take a look at the galaxy to get a greater thought of what it seems to be like.
“The real-world universe is three-dimensional, but when we look out into space, we usually only see two dimensions,” examine co-author Daniel Homan added. “In this case, we’re lucky because the galaxy is angled in such a way, from our perspective, that the light from the farther lobe travels dozens more light-years to reach us than the light from the nearer one. This means we’re seeing the farther lobe at an earlier point in its evolution.”
‘MILKY WAY LOOK-ALIKE’ GALAXY FOUND 12B LIGHT-YEARS FROM EARTH
The analysis has been printed in The Astrophysical Journal.
TXS 0128+554 is just not the one “Star Wars”-linked discovery in space in latest reminiscence.
In June 2016, exoplanet Kepler-1647 b was found 3,700 light-years from Earth. It is a part of a double-star system, just like Luke Skywalker’s planet, Tatooine. Three years later, exoplanet LTT 1445 A b and its three stars had been found.
Researchers found what they described as “the first volcanically active exomoon” in August 2019, a celestial physique eerily paying homage to the tiny, fiery “Star Wars” planet, Mustafar, the place Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. | https://weekdaytimes.com/science/2020/08/27/nasa-finds-active-star-wars-galaxy-in-deep-space |
International professors and a global multidisciplinary perspective: This master's degree has been framed and supported by the International Urban Resilience Research Network, and the programme is taught by professors from some of the most prestigious universities and research centres dealing with urban resilience in different parts of the world. The programme's global and multidisciplinary perspective (it addresses the environmental, social, economic, planning and political aspects of urban studies) enables students to learn about and understand resilience challenges on an international, national and local city level, thanks to the dense network of research and teaching partners involved in this master's degree.
Wide range of job opportunities: The programme is supported by the most prestigious foundations, networks and agencies dealing nowadays with city and community resilience. It includes a mandatory job placement period, which provides students the connections and work experience needed to ensure a successful and international career. A long list of cities from different continents have also pledged their support to the master's programme in the form of job placement opportunities in their city resilience units.
Bridging research and practical experience with an innovative educational model: In this master's programme, students will bridge science and policy through workshops and active involvement in panel-like classes, fostering different points of view and constantly re-framing the business-as-usual strategies often seen in the creation and management of resilient cities.
This master's degree is an innovative, international and multidisciplinary education programme that teaches students how to operationalise the most urgent calls for building more resilient and sustainable cities through urban planning and design, and how to frame adequate policies and governance models. This one-year programme provides the most up-to-date perspectives, methods and tools for dealing with the threat of climate change, natural disasters and the social and technical transformations required to minimise the environmental impact of the current global urbanisation trends, while addressing social justice. | https://www.uic.es/en/studies-uic/architecture/master-city-resilience-design-management |
Archive
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
Taking a “water bus” at the Wulinmen Wharf in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province, and traveling north for about 30 minutes along the Grand Canal, a vast waterway connecting Beijing and Hangzhou, one can arrive at the Gongchen Bridge, a stone arch bridge over the canal.
To the east of the bridge stand lofty modern buildings, and historical and cultural blocks are situated on the other side. Standing on the bridge spanning the Grand Canal, visitors can feel both the hustle and bustle of modern life and charm of the historical heritage of Hangzhou.
The Grand Canal, which stretches nearly 3,200 kilometers, is made up of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal, the Grand Canal built during the Sui Dynasty (581-618) and Tang Dynasty (618-907), and the Eastern Zhejiang Canal, which is an extension to the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.
With a history of more than 2,500 years, the Grand Canal is hailed as a grand project created by ancient Chinese people. The “golden waterway”, known as a crucial path for the transportation of goods in ancient China, is injecting new vitality into the city.
After putting into operation “water buses” along arteries of the canal, Hangzhou has launched four characteristic routes for sightseeing, not only allowing visitors to tour around the city by traveling along the river, but benefiting commuters in the city.
The Hangzhou section of the Grand Canal is surrounded by rich historical and cultural remains.
In 2014, the Grand Canal was incorporated into the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, including six heritage sites and five riverways of the Hangzhou section, which runs for about 110 kilometers, making Hangzhou one of the cities with the most heritage sites among all cities along the canal.
While vigorously promoting the comprehensive conservation of the Grand Canal, Hangzhou has improved road networks, enriched scenic spots, beautified the surroundings of the waterway, set up a museum for the canal and created a public space for leisure activities near the canal, fully showing culture along the waterway and making the “calling card” of the city more shining.
The protection of the Grand Canal has been based on the city’s development and integrated into the renovation projects of the city.
Under the principle of “renovating ancient buildings while preserving their original features and ensuring minimal intervention”, Hangzhou has improved the three historical blocks along the canal to protect and inherit its cultural heritage while actively boosted the development of cultural tourism in recent years.
Photo taken on August 10, 2021, shows the construction site of the Grand Canal Asian Games Park, which will soon be completed, in Hangzhou, east China’s Zhejiang province. (People’s Daily Online/Pan Haisong)
Gongshu district of Hangzhou, together with the Grand Canal Group, has been renovated while keeping the traditional features of ancient buildings in historical blocks near the canal. At the same time, it has improved the infrastructure for residents and allowed over two million residents to live comfortably and pleasantly on the banks, reshaping a characteristic urban waterfront landscape.
The three historical blocks along the canal in Hangzhou have different development orientations. Based on their geographical positions, they are designed as a miniature typical water town in south China, a block featuring relaxed pace of life, and a scenic area of intangible cultural heritage, respectively.
The closely related three blocks, while forming along the canal an area that enables the public to enjoy culture and entertainment activities, help spread excellent traditional Chinese culture among more people.
The ever-flowing canal represents numerous development opportunities. As long as cities along the canal earnestly fulfill their responsibility to protect and make use of the waterway while inheriting its historical and cultural heritage, ensure accurate positioning and introduce innovative ideas and methods to the development of their sections of the canal, and integrate and optimize resources, they will certainly revive the canal and give it a new charm. | |
The cost of shipping sector decarbonizationS. Himmelstein | January 22, 2020
At least $1 trillion of capital investment in land-based and ship-related infrastructure is required to halve international shipping’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to a new study by University Maritime Advisory Services (UMAS) and the Energy Transitions Commission for the Getting to Zero Coalition. If shipping was to fully decarbonize by 2050, this would incur additional investments of approximately $400 billion over 20 years, making the total investments needed between $1.4 and $1.9 trillion dollars.
The estimate of investments required is based on ammonia as the primary zero carbon fuel choice adopted by the shipping industry as it transitions to zero carbon fuels. Under different assumptions, hydrogen, synthetic methanol or other fuels may displace ammonia’s projected dominance, but the magnitude of investments needed will not significantly change for these other options.
Most of the investment would be directed toward land-based infrastructure and production facilities for low carbon fuels, which make up around 87% of the total. This includes investments in the production of low carbon fuels, and the land-based storage and bunkering infrastructure needed for their supply. The remaining 13% of the investments needed are related to the ships themselves for the equipment and onboard storage required to operate on low carbon fuels. | https://insights.globalspec.com/article/13366/the-cost-of-shipping-sector-decarbonization |
Daniel Pink gave an interesting TED talk on the science of motivation, particularly motivation in a world that places high value on right brain conceptual abilities.
To lift the main idea:
As long as the task involved mechanical skill, bonuses worked as they would be expected: the higher the pay, the better the performance. But once the task called for “even a rudimentary cognitive skill”, a larger reward “led to poorer performance.”
At issue is the age old dilemma of intrinsic vs extrinsic rewards.
What implications and questions does this raise for online education?
At least in the business community, Pink asserts that personal autonomy produces better results. I’m not certain how relevant this is to younger minds (which work differently than adults), but online learning certainly grants a larger degree of autonomy.
There’s also the question of how this plays out in my new job (which is considerably more reliant on “right brain conceptual abilities” and functions under a good degree of autonomy). | https://wordpress-177557-515943.cloudwaysapps.com/2009/08/27/wait-carrots-and-sticks-dont-work/ |
Brexit-related Twitter mischief supported by global far rightF-Secure’s analysis of 24 million tweets exposes inorganic activity in Twitter’s Brexit conversations.
Helsinki, Finland – March 12, 2019: Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms play a big role in shaping popular opinion. But they’ve opened a pandora’s box of potential disinformation and manipulation of the public. After investigating 24 million tweets related to Brexit, cyber security provider F-Secure has identified efforts to amplify pro-leave Brexit views by far-right Twitter users based outside of the United Kingdom.
The research found examples of inorganic activity on both sides of the Brexit debate (the “leave” and “remain” communities). But this activity was far more prominent in “leave” conversations. According to the research, the goal of these efforts was to amplify right-wing populist views around Brexit and other political issues, such as the Yellow Vest protests in France.
“The activity we found happening on the ‘leave’ side of the Brexit conversation was quite different from the more organic appearance seen in the ‘remain’ conversation. And inorganic activity, in relation to political movements and events, can sometimes be indicative of astroturfing or the spread of disinformation,” said Andy Patel, a senior researcher with F-Secure’s Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence. “At the very least, our research shows there’s a global effort amongst the far-right to amplify the ‘leave’ side of the debate.”
Evidence for the conclusions cited in the research includes:
- The top two influencers in the pro-leave community received a disproportionate number of retweets, as compared to influencer patterns seen in the pro-remain community
- The pro-leave group relied on support from a handful of non-authoritative news sources
- A significant number of non-UK accounts were involved in pro-leave conversations and retweet activity
- Some pro-leave accounts tweeted a mixture of Brexit and non-Brexit issues (specifically #giletsjaunes, and #MAGA)
- Some pro-leave accounts participated in the agitation of French political issues (#franceprotests)
The data consisted of 24 million tweets from 1.65 million accounts collected between December 4, 2018 and February 13, 2019 that contained the word “brexit.” The research analyzed the data looking for signs of suspicious activity, including evidence of botnets, disinformation campaigns, astroturfing, or other inorganic phenomenon.
While the research included a substantial amount of data regarding Brexit, Patel says it’s only a starting point for this type of investigation, and hopes others continue to build on the findings.
“Social networks generate huge volumes of data. Finding noteworthy trends and phenomena in this data can be complicated, resource-intensive work. But social media is an important source of news and information that many people are still learning how to use. We really hope people see this research, see how much more there is to learn, and start building on our methods to create new, better understandings of what happens on social media.”
The research is available on F-Secure’s News from the Labs blog.
More information
Pro-leave Brexit Twitter activity boosted by suspicious activity, foreign support
Latest Press Releases
F-Secure garners “superior technical skills” recognition in recent industry evaluation report
Helsinki, Finland – November 4, 2019: Independent research firm Forrester has named F-Secure Consulting as a “Strong Performer” in their recent report, The Forrester Wave™: European Cybersecurity Consulting Providers, Q4 2019*. The evaluation is the first to assess F-Secure’s newly-formed consultancy unit. In it, Forrester recognized F-Secure Consulting for demonstrating “superior technical skills”. Forrester’s evaluation […]
Expanded F-Secure, Zyxel co-operation accelerates the delivery of connected home security through service providers
Secure Wi-Fi gateways coming to homes in Europe and North America through Zyxel’s customers and partners.
MITRE ATT&CK evaluation confirms F-Secure’s industry-leading capabilities in detecting advanced attacks
The results establish F-Secure’s EDR technologies as a rock-solid foundation for building comprehensive detection and response capabilities, going beyond MITRE’s framework.
F-Secure joins ETIS to help Europe’s telecom providers secure smart homes
F-Secure’s experience working with operators is a critical asset to help telecommunications sector tackle connected home security challenges. | https://gb.press.f-secure.com/2019/03/12/brexit-related-twitter-mischief-supported-by-global-far-right/ |
"At once charming and heart-wrenching, this exquisitely performed film will steal the hearts of both art-house and mainstream audiences." - Variety
Oscar-Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film. “Master Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s latest film Shoplifters is about a family, but a very different kind. The impoverished Shibatas live in cluttered, cramped contentment in Tokyo; dad Osamu (Lily Franky) and young son Shota (Jyo Kairi) help out by stealing from grocery stores. When they find a tiny girl (Miyu Sasaki) shivering and neglected outside her parents’ home, they steal her, too; absorbing her into their household, which also includes mother Nobuyo (Sakura Ando), grandmother Hatsue (Kirin Kiki) and older sister Aki (Mayu Matsuoka). | https://playhousecinema.ca/print/24311 |
IMF published its staff report and selected issues report in the context of the 2017 Article IV consultation with China. Directors commended the authorities’ increased focus on reducing financial stability risks and urged them to continue to strengthen regulatory and supervisory efforts. To this end, they look forward to the findings and recommendations of the ongoing Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP), which is expected to conclude in November 2017.
The staff report highlights that China now has one of the largest banking sectors (310% of GDP) in the world. The sharp growth in recent years reflects both a rise in credit to the real economy and intra-financial sector claims. The large stock of intra-financial sector credit continues to raise important risks for financial stability. Intra-financial sector credit is a way for institutions to boost leverage and profits while avoiding regulatory hurdles such as capital and provisioning requirements on bank loans. Recent regulatory and supervisory tightening is thus critically important and should continue, even if it means some financial tension and slower growth. Given the size of accumulated imbalances, this tightening is bound to create difficulties in the form of defaults of overexposed firms and to dampen activity in related sectors. To prevent such tension from derailing the supervisory tightening and leading to another “stop-go” cycle, regulators should coordinate effectively to ensure that financial conditions do not tighten excessively; ensure that all solvent banks have equal access to The People’s Bank of China’s (PBC) standing lending facilities, provided they have the required collateral; and allow insolvent financial institutions to exit.
Also, in early 2017, the PBC extended the coverage of its Macro-Prudential Assessment to off-balance sheet activity for the first time by including wealth management products. The China Banking Regulatory Commission, or CBRC, published several new documents aimed at stricter enforcement of existing regulations and reducing regulatory arbitrage across financial products. The authorities recognized that the growth in the size and complexity of the financial sector raised risks but argued the problem was manageable. The ongoing FSAP will provide staff’s comprehensive assessment of the financial sector framework, risks, and recommendations.
The selected issues report, among other issues, discusses the implications of credit boom in China, the rise in corporate debt (focusing on the Central role of state-owned enterprises), and assesses the residential real estate market in China. In the second half of 2016, the authorities started tightening macro-prudential measures for the real estate sector, reversing much of the previous easing. The also report emphasizes that financial reforms are necessary to bolster the regulatory and supervisory framework, including closing loopholes for regulatory arbitrage, reining in leverage, and increasing transparency of nonbank financial institutions and wealth management products. | https://www.moodysanalytics.com/regulatory-news/Aug-15-IMF-Reports-on-2017-Article-IV-Consultation-with-China |
During the 2-day seminar, participants will be introduced to coaching, have a feel to what coaching looks like, what basic concepts are used in a coaching session and how these ideas can be applied to their own lives.
Coaching, which is different from mentoring, counseling and therapy, will also be explained so participants can appreciate how coaching can be an effective guide towards making change in their personal and professional lives. Participants will be encouraged to utilize the skills and knowledge gained for self-practice during and after the seminar.
Participants will be introduced to what coaching is, what a coaching session looks like and the key concepts used in coaching so they gain foundational understanding, knowledge and skills to support their own inner coaching journey.
The seminar is delivered in five parts, with each part focusing on a key concept and skill used in coaching and by coaches globally. These concepts provide the basis for understanding the coaching process, coach-client relationship and practical application for the everyday.
Each part will be followed by a tailored exercise to ensure participants are able to apply the knowledge gained into practice.
Please note that this seminar serves only as an introduction to coaching, the basic concepts and skills used in coaching and how those can be applied to one’s personal and professional life. This seminar is not intended as a certification of the participant’s capacity to coach others.
Program – Day 1
Day 1 will focus on the basic foundations of what coaching is, and introduction to two fundamentals of coaching skills.
Part 1: What is Coaching?
- Know what is coaching and differences between coaching, mentoring, counseling and therapy
In this part, an overview of coaching will be shared to showcase what coaching looks like in practice. Participants will be informed of key competencies required of coaches including confidentiality, transparency and trust. A video of a coaching practice session may also be shared.
- How coaching can benefit the individual professionally and personally
- Inner Critic vs. Inner Coach: Which one wins?
- The GROW Model by John Whitmore: How it’s used in a coaching session
This is the primary model used by many coaches around the world today, which focuses on 4 areas of questioning – Goal (desired outcome), Reality (awareness of current situation/context), Options (what available steps is possible) and Willingness (what resources or support you may need to realize your goal).
- Exercise: Intention Setting
This exercise is about setting intentions for a given situation, which is different from goal setting. Intention setting for the workshop, in this instance, will focus what commitments each participant will make to ensure a positive takeaway from the seminar.
Part 2: Underlying Beliefs
- How do my beliefs affect my behavior?
- Understanding the relationship between beliefs and values and how they shape your attitude and behavior
Focusing on our beliefs (what we hold to be true) have a direct impact on what we identify as key values we find important to us, and in turn how it impact our attitudes and how we act. By clarifying what our beliefs are, we can act with more impact.
- Exercise: Wheel of Life
This is a helpful exercise for participants to identify their current levels of satisfaction with respect to various parts (health, finance, career, etc.) of their lives.
Part 3: Awareness
- What is self-awareness and why it is vital for our personal and professional development?
Being self-aware is the cornerstone and foundation of fostering personal and professional change as without this component, the individual will be unclear and confused about what matters to them, how to address challenges in the best way possible and communicate their goals and desires confidently.
- How to Build Emotional Intelligence and Agility
- Exercise: What’s My EI? Checklist
Program – Day 2
Day 2 will focus on utilizing the knowledge gained on Day 1 to jumpstart action planning and applying basic coaching skills in our daily routine.
Part 4: Taking Actions
- Getting Familiar with Goal Setting and Forming Habits that Truly Stick
- Taking Minimum Viable Actions and the Kaizen Way
- Exercise: Micro Steps for Lasting Change
Part 5: Peer Coaching
- This part will focus on allowing participants to pair up and practice some coaching (15 minutes per person) through asking powerful questions.
- Formulating open-ended questions. The importance of not asking ‘Why’ questions.
- Skills to focus on: coaching presence and deep listening
Final
Wrap up and takeaway from participants
Nurhaida Rahim
Nurhaida is an aid worker, certified coach and Ayurvedic lifestyle consultant. For the last decade, she has lived in Singapore, Australia, Sierra Leone, China, Sudan, Turkey, and Syria, working on communications, post-conflict recovery and emergency programming. She holds an M.A. in Public Policy from the Australian National University and received her advanced coach training from the International Coaching Academy. She marries her coaching with mindfulness practices and intuitive healing of the body and mind. Her passion in holistic wellness has also led her to train as an Ayurvedic Practitioner. | http://trustconsultancy.org/portfolios/inner-coach/ |
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd (TSE:NDM) (NYSE:NAK) Director Gordon Keep sold 11,750 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of C$2.02, for a total value of C$23,754.98.
Shares of Northern Dynasty Minerals stock traded down C$0.05 during trading on Monday, hitting C$1.99. 1,014,218 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 818,833. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market cap of $920.20 million and a price-to-earnings ratio of -12.06. The firm’s fifty day moving average is C$1.48 and its 200-day moving average is C$0.85. Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd has a 52 week low of C$0.50 and a 52 week high of C$2.07.
Get Northern Dynasty Minerals alerts:
Northern Dynasty Minerals (TSE:NDM) (NYSE:NAK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 15th. The mining company reported C($0.02) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. On average, analysts forecast that Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd will post -0.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
About Northern Dynasty Minerals
Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. acquires, explores for, and develops mineral properties in the United States. Its principal mineral property is the Pebble copper-gold-molybdenum project that includes 2,402 mineral claims covering approximately 417 square miles located in southwest Alaska. The company was formerly known as Northern Dynasty Explorations Ltd. | |
I watched last week’s two-night “First Democratic Presidential Debate” while tweeting with other disabled people under the hashtag #CripTheVote. I’ve been doing this for various election events since early 2016. Unfortunately, we had to generate our own conversations because nobody in the debate mentioned disabled people or disability issues.
This was disappointing, but not surprising. Despite being supremely important to millions of disabled Americans, disability is nowhere near being regarded as a major issue in presidential politics. In fact, most people don’t see disability as a political issue at all, and that includes a lot of people who have disabilities.
Still, it’s not good. We had four hours of debate, on both domestic and foreign policy, between 20 candidates, overseen by four moderators, and disability never came up? Self-help / spirituality guru Marianne Williamson made some vague remarks about “unnecessary chronic illnesses” that had disabled viewers furrowing their brows. And Rep. Tim Ryan talked about providing more counseling in schools as an approach to gun violence, which skates pretty close to stigmatizing people with mental illness and autism. But that was all.
We heard nothing about long term home care during an extensive answering / yelling session on health care. We heard nothing about disability rights when candidates talked about basic human rights and equality for all. We heard nothing about subminimum wage even during discussions of minimum wage and income inequality. And we heard nothing about the ongoing institutionalization of disabled people in nursing homes and other “facilities,” even while candidates rightfully decried the cruelty of holding migrant children in squalid detention facilities.
I know it’s early in the game, and as I said, the great silence on disability didn’t surprise me. But still, what exactly is the problem? Why don’t the candidates bother to acknowledge us, and why don’t the moderators ask even one disability-related question? Maybe they just don’t know how.
Here are 5 simple ways to add disability to debates:
- The Moderator’s Direct Question
Moderator: “Over 48 million Americans have some kind of physical or mental disability. Name one thing you would do as President to make disabled people’s lives better.”
- The Candidate Brings It Up
Candidate: “Before we finish, I would like to address an enormous portion of the American public who’s unique concerns are almost never mentioned in Presidential debates … and that is the over 48 million Americans who have disabilities.”
- The Name Check
Candidate: “I will fight for all Americans who struggle for equality and opportunity, including people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and people with disabilities.”
- The Topic Shift
Candidate: “And by the way, my Medicaid For All plan would fully cover long term care, including home care, so that people with disabilities and aging Americans can live independently in their own homes, without being forced to enter nursing homes if they don’t want to.”
5. The Caregiver Appeal
Moderator: “Millions of parents have children with disabilities. Millions of adults have parents with age-related disabilities. And millions of people have spouses with disabilities. What policy steps should be taken to ensure that families are able to support loved ones with disabilities in healthy and financially sustainable ways?”
These are just models. The specifics will of course vary.
Including disability in Presidential debates is easy. It doesn’t take much time. It’s not as obscure a topic as it may seem. And once or twice in the seemingly endless series of debates we have in store for us doesn’t seem like too much to ask. | https://cdrnys.org/blog/advocacy/5-easy-ways-to-include-disability-in-debates/ |
Copper - From Beginning to End. Copper is a major metal and an essential element used by man. It is found in ore deposits around the world. It is also the oldest metal known to man and was first discovered and used about 10,000 years ago. And as alloyed in bronze (copper-tin alloy) about 3000 BC, was the first engineering material known to man.
Sep 26, 2019· Currently, about 80% of global copper production is extracted from sulfide sources. Regardless of the ore type, mined copper ore must first be concentrated to remove gangue or unwanted materials embedded in the ore. The first step in this process is crushing and powdering ore in …
Production trends in the top five copper-producing countries, 1950-2012 This is a list of countries by mined Copper production . Copper concentrates are commonly exported to …
This is a list of countries by iron ore production based on U.S. Geological Survey data. List. Rank Country Usable iron ore production (1000 tonnes) Year …
Jun 07, 2021· Acids are introduced to copper-bearing ore, seeping through and dissolving copper and any other metals, including radionuclides. The liquid that “leaches” through the rocks is collected. This liquid contains the dissolved copper, known as a pregnant leach solution (PLS). The copper present in this liquid is collected and later processed.
Processes: copper mining and production. Copper is found in natural ore deposits around the world. This page explains copper mining: the production route taken from ore-containing rock to a final product that is the highest-purity commercial metal in existence and used in a wide variety of applications essential to modern living.
COPPER (Data in thousand metric tons of copper content unless otherwise noted) Domestic Production and Use: In 2020, U.S. mine production of recoverable copper decreased by 5% to an estimated 1.2 million tons and was valued at an estimated $7.5 billion, 3% less than $7.75 billion in …
The mine production of iron ore in the United States reached approximately 56 million metric tons in 2014. By 2020, the annual production decreased to an estimated 37 million metric tons.
Dec 03, 2020· Copper ore that is rich in sulfides is processed via pyrometallurgy, while copper ore that is rich in oxides is refined through hydrometallurgy. Read on to learn more about the copper-refining ... | https://www.townhall.ch/germany/Apr/1302/Sat/ |
Language Arts in Kindergarten
In Kindergarten, the key goal is to have all children beginning to read and write on their own by the end of the year. In order to become successful readers, children need to learn to connect letters and sounds and decode words, but they also need to build an oral vocabulary adequate to understand the words they are decoding. Oral language skills, such as listening and speaking, are necessary prerequisites for written language skills like reading and writing.
Throughout Kindergarten, students will work on the key elements important to any program of reading:
World History and Geography in Kindergarten
The World History and Geography Sequence in Kindergarten provides the building blocks for a more complex understanding of history and geography in the later grades. Students will begin by developing an awareness of the physical properties as well as a sense of human interactions with their environment, the relationship between place and culture, and awareness of regions and culture.
Mathematics in Kindergarten
Research shows that all children have some inborn mathematical sense. Kindergarten is an opportunity to begin building upon this innate mathematical sense to establish a solid foundation for continued learning. Important to this goal is learning mathematical vocabulary as well as comparative vocabulary.
Science in Kindergarten
In Kindergarten, children will begin to explore science by observing and learning about things they encounter in their immediate environment. They will study: plants and animals, the human body and senses, matter and forces, patterns in nature through weather and seasons, and conservation.
Music in Kindergarten
Children will explore all forms of music participation (listening, singing, performing, moving to it, and improvising) and, in the process, begin to notice the musical concepts that unite them. In Kindergarten, the focus of their attention is on the elements of rhythm and melody.
The Visual Arts in Kindergarten
The visual arts in Kindergarten are composed of the most important elements of art: color and line. Students will examine warm and cool colors as well as the differences in lines in art. Lines in art can be visible barriers or invisible created when two colors meet. Students will examine the movement and direction in curvy, wavy, or zigzag lines.
*This and additional information on the Kindergarten curriculum can be found in What Every Kindergartner Needs to Know edited by E.D. Hirsch Jr. and Core Knowledge Teacher Handbook edited by E. D. Hirsch and Souzanne Wright. | http://cather.mpsomaha.org/kindergarten-overview |
A molecule has become the world's smallest movie star.
For the first time, scientists have observed a chemical reaction as it was happening at the molecular level, at speeds that previously were too fast to see. The experiment could lead to insights about how complex molecules behave and why they take the shapes they do.
At the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, a team of researchers used two laser beams — one in the ultraviolet and another in the X-ray wavelengths — to get a picture of a chemical called 1,3-cyclohexadiene (CHD) as it morphed into another form called 1,3,5-hexatriene. They captured images of the reaction on a scale of femtoseconds, or millionths of a billionth of a second. [Watch the Ultra-Fast Molecular Movie]
"We kind of know what CHD looks like," Michael Minitti, lead author of the new study and a staff scientist at SLAC told Live Science. "The issue was the steps between one form and another."
Such reactions are called electrocyclic, and they show up in a lot of different places — for example, it's one of the ways animals synthesize vitamin D from sunlight. Although they're common, electrocyclic reactions aren't so well understood. A big question for physical chemists has been what happens to a molecule like CHD after it gets hit by the UV light but before it turns into 1,3,5-hexatriene.
To make their movie, the researchers first put a gaseous form of the CHD into a chamber at very low pressure. Then, they fired the ultraviolet laser at it, breaking one of the carbon bonds. The next step was to use an X-ray laser to zap the molecule. The X-ray laser flashes lasted only a few femtoseconds, as the whole reaction from CHD to hexatriene takes less than 200 femtoseconds to complete.
The X-rays scattered off of the molecules, and by looking at a pattern of light and dark on a detector, the researchers could read the shape of the molecule. Firing the X-ray laser repeatedly over a tiny fraction of a second showed how the shape changed over time.
The technique is similar to X-ray diffraction used when investigating the structure of DNA or crystals. (In fact, the structure of DNA was discovered in just this way in the 1950s.) There are crucial differences, though: X-ray diffraction doesn't measure anything over time, so the resulting picture is static; the X-rays in this new experiment were generated by a laser; and CHD is a gas, unlike the DNA molecule. "Gas molecules don't have a structure," Minitti said. "It looks like someone sneezed on the detector."
When chemists can see the way the shape changes, it tells them how such chemicals transform in a specific way that wasn't known before. Molecules tend to go to states of minimum energy, just as a ball rolling between two hills will tend to fall to the bottom and stay there. Regions of high and low potential energy surround the molecule, and when that molecule changes shape, its atoms will tend to stay in the low-energy regions. That means the shapes are specific, and knowing what they are offers insight into the processes that create the final forms.
While the research team was able to see the CHD change, the resolution in time —corresponding to the number of "frames" in an ordinary film — wasn't quite high enough to see every step, Minitti said. Each "frame" was about 25 femtoseconds, so there would be about eight in the animation. In the next experiment, scheduled for January 2016, he hopes to get a better picture of the changes with smaller intervals. Even so, the new experiment shows that such molecular moviemaking is possible.
The study is detailed in the June 22 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters.
Follow us@livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. | https://www.livescience.com/51312-record-fast-molecular-movie.html |
One of the key provisions of the Obama administration’s healthcare law has been struck down as unconstitutional by Federal District Court Judge Henry E. Hudson. The decision is the culmination of a lawsuit brought by the Commonwealth of Virginia against Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
The complaint was filed by Virginia’s Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli in the Eastern District of Virginia in March of this year. It sought to prevent the enforcement of something often called the “individual mandate” but euphemistically referred to in the healthcare law as the “minimum essential coverage provision.” The Virginia lawsuit said bluntly and accurately that beginning in 2014 this provision of the Obamacare law (section 1501) would require Americans “to purchase health insurance for themselves and their dependents subject to a civil penalty.” Furthermore, the Commonwealth’s lawsuit stated that provision 1501 would force “healthy young adults and other rationally uninsured individuals” to purchase insurance in order to “cross subsidize older and less healthy citizens.” Now, due to the persistence of Attorney General Cuccinelli, that provision has been found to be constitutionally flawed, albeit by a lower-level federal court.
The important question is this: On what basis did the Obama administration and the Congress believe they could use the force of law (IRS enforcement) to compel U.S. citizens to purchase a service, in this case health insurance, against their will? More specific, where in the Constitution is Congress given that kind of power? The answer to that question, given by Judge Hudson, is a blunt, “nowhere.”
The expansive jurisprudence of the New Deal has given Congress and President Obama the boldness to try to augment federal power, to the point where such power has no limits.
What power does Secrtary Sebelius rely upon in arguing for the validity of this healthcare mandate? She claims that Congress’ power to “regulate interstate commerce” supports the government’s right to insist that persons purchase this kind of insurance or suffer monetary penalties.
What about this claim?
There is no question that the federal government is given a power to regulate commerce among the several states. The original interpretation of this clause required that in order for Congress to regulate commerce, the commerce must take place between persons located in two different states. Eventually, however, through more and more strained interpretations, the court came to regard almost any economic activity as part of interstate commerce. That view found its nearly comic zenith in 1934 in the case of Wickard v. Filburn, where an Ohio farmer who grew grain on his own farm and fed it to his own livestock was found to have engaged in interstate commerce.
However, Judge Hudson, aware as he was that the court in the past had gone very far toward regarding almost anything as interstate commerce, refused to countenance the view that refusing or failing to buy a service such as medical insurance was interstate commerce. As he said: “A thorough survey of pertinent constitutional case law has yielded no reported decisions from any federal appellate courts extending the Commerce Clause … to encompass regulation of a person’s decision not to purchase a product.… At its core, this dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance—or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage—it’s about an individual’s right to choose to participate” [emphasis mine].
This case is about individual liberty, and Judge Hudson’s well-reasoned, 42-page decision aggressively and firmly protects that liberty.
What will happen upon appeal remains to be seen. But it is evident that there will be appeals to the circuit court level and to the U.S. Supreme Court.
What is even more certain is that the Supreme Court will have a clear choice. It will have to decide whether Americans still have the right to refuse to purchase a good or service or whether they will have lost that right to federal bureaucrats whose voracious appetite for power seems insatiable. | https://www.faithandfreedom.com/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-obamacare/ |
# Solar eclipse of March 17, 1923
An annular solar eclipse occurred on March 17, 1923. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun's, blocking most of the Sun's light and causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring). An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the Earth thousands of kilometres wide. Annularity was visible from Chile, Argentina, Falkland Islands including capital Stanley, Gough Island in Tristan da Cunha, South West Africa (today's Namibia), Bechuanaland Protectorate (today's Botswana, Southern Rhodesia (today's Zimbabwe) including capital Salisbury, Portuguese Mozambique (today's Mozambique), Nyasaland (today's Malawi), French Madagascar (the part now belonging to Madagascar, and the Islands of Juan de Nova and Tromelin).
## Related eclipses
### Solar eclipses 1921–1924
This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.
### Saros 138
It is a part of Saros cycle 138, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, containing 70 events. The series started with partial solar eclipse on June 6, 1472. It contains annular eclipses from August 31, 1598 through February 18, 2482 with a hybrid eclipse on March 1, 2500. It has total eclipses from March 12, 2518 through April 3, 2554. The series ends at member 70 as a partial eclipse on July 11, 2716. The longest duration of totality will be only 56 seconds on April 3, 2554. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_March_17,_1923 |
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is an execution of Microsoft's ended event-driven programming language Visual Basic 6, and its involved bundled development environment (IDE). Visual Basic for Applications makes it possible for structure user-defined functions (UDFs), accessing and automating treatments Windows API and other low-level efficiency through dynamic-link libraries (DLLs). It supersedes and expands on the abilities of earlier application-specific macro programming languages such as Word's Word Basic. It can be used to handle great deals of components of the host application, including controling user interface functions, such as menus and toolbars, and handling personalized user types or dialog boxes. VBA can, nonetheless, control one application from another using OLE Automation. VBA can immediately produce a Microsoft Word report from Microsoft Excel details that Excel collects right away from surveyed noticing systems.
VBA indicates Visual Basic for Applications an event owned programming language from Microsoft that is now primarily made use of with Microsoft office applications such as Ms-access, ms-excel and ms-word. This tutorial will teach you principles of VBA and each of these locations consist of associated topics with standard and useful examples.
This recommendation has really been prepared yourself for the newbies to help them to understand the basics of VBA. This tutorial will offer you enough understanding on VBA from where you can take yourself to a higher level of understanding. Hi and welcome to the Home and Learn course for Excel VBA. This is an absolutely complimentary newbies programming course, and presumes that you have no experience with coding. In this course you'll learn methods to establish your own macros, so that you can bring your Excel capabilities to the next level, and put yourself ahead of the rivals.
Precisely exactly what is Excel VBA?
VBA represents Visual Basic for Applications. Understanding Excel VBA will enable you to do a lot more with the software application than you can through the routine spreadsheet view. This brief post is an excerpt from Beginning Access 2007 VBA by Denise M. Gosnell from Wrox (ISBN 978-0-470-04684-5, copyright John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2007, all rights scheduled).) No part of these chapters may be recreated, kept in a retrieval system, or sent out in any type or by any approaches-- electronic, electrostatic, mechanical, copying, tape-recording, or otherwise-- without the previous written authorization of the publisher, besides when it concerns brief quotes embodied in essential brief posts or assessments.
Microsoft Excel 2010 is an extremely efficient tool that you can make use of to manage, assess, and present details. Sometimes nevertheless, in spite of the plentiful set of functions in the fundamental Excel user interface (UI), you might want to find an easier approach to perform a regular, repeating task, or to perform some task that the UI does not appear to take care of. Office applications like Excel have Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), a programming language that supplies you the ability to extend those applications. VBA works by running macros, comprehensive treatments made up in Visual Basic. Finding ways to program might appear difficult, nevertheless with some determination and some examples such as the ones in this brief post, great deals of users find that discovering even a portion of VBA code makes their work easier and supplies the ability to do things in Office that they did not think were possible. When you have really found some VBA, it ends up being much easier to discover out a whole lot more-- so the possibilities here are unrestricted.
Without a doubt the most normal have to make use of VBA in Excel is to automate duplicated tasks. Anticipate that you have a few lots workbooks, each which has a number of lots worksheets, and each of those requirements to have in fact some adjustments made to it. The adjustments may be as simple as utilizing new format to some set series of cells or as complex as having a look at some analytical qualities of the details on each sheet, picking the absolute best sort of chart to reveal info with those qualities, then establishing and formatting the chart properly. You would most likely rather not require to bring out those tasks by hand, a minimum of not more than a couple of times. Rather, you may automate the tasks utilizing VBA to make up particular standards for Excel to follow. VBA is not merely for duplicated tasks. You can similarly use VBA to establish new capabilities into Excel (for instance, you may develop new algorithms to analyze your details, then use the charting capabilities in Excel to reveal the results), and to perform tasks that integrate Excel with other Office applications such as Microsoft Access 2010.
Are you handling a repeating clean of fifty tables in Word? Do you prefer a particular file to set off the user for input when it opens? Are you having difficulty identifying methods to obtain your contacts from Microsoft Outlook into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet efficiently? You can perform these tasks and attain a lot more by using VBA for Office − a standard, nevertheless efficient programming language that you can use to extend Office applications. This post is for knowledgeable Office users who want to read more about VBA and who prefer some insight into how programming can help them to customize Office. The fantastic power of VBA programming in Office is that practically every operation that you can perform with a mouse, keyboard, or a dialog box can also be done by making use of VBA. (In truth, the automation of repeating tasks is among the most common uses of VBA in Office.). Beyond the power of scripting VBA to accelerate every-day tasks, you can use VBA to consist of new efficiency to Office applications or to activate and interact with the user of your files in way where define to your service requirements. You may make up some VBA code that reveals an appear message that encourages users to save a file to a particular network drive the first time they try to save it.
We provide VBA Programming Assignment help & VBA Programming Homework help. Our VBA Programming Online tutors are used for instant help for VBA Programming tasks & concerns. VBA Programming Homework help & VBA Programming tutors offer 24 * 7 services. Send your VBA Programming jobs at support Homeworkaustralia.com otherwise publish it on the website. Immediate Connect to us on live chat for VBA Programming assignment help & VBA Programming Homework help. VBA Programming Homework help & VBA Programming tutors supply 24 * 7 services. Immediate Connect to us on live chat for VBA Programming assignment help & VBA Programming Homework help.
VBA Programming Homework help & VBA Programming tutors offer 24 * 7 services. Immediate Connect to us on live chat for VBA Programming assignment help & VBA Programming Homework help. The wonderful power of VBA programming in Office is that nearly every operation that you can bring out with a mouse, keyboard, or a dialog box can also be done by using VBA. VBA Programming Homework help & VBA Programming tutors offer 24 * 7 services. Immediate Connect to us on live chat for VBA Programming assignment help & VBA Programming Homework help. | https://www.homeworkaustralia.com/vba-programming-assignment-help-19833 |
People's Power Presidential Candidate Seok-Yeol Yoon presided over the first meeting since the official inauguration of the Election Countermeasures Committee. The name of the Election Countermeasures Committee was 'Saving the First Captain' and emphasized the unity of the organization for victory.
This is reporter Eom Min-jae's report.
<Reporter>
At the first meeting of the National Election Countermeasures Committee held after the official inauguration of the Election Countermeasures Committee, People's Power candidate Yoon Seok-yeol put forward the 'organization'.
He emphasized united efforts, saying that a strong and robust organization is the basis for election victory.
[Yoon Seok-yeol/People's Power Presidential Candidate: As the election approaches, we ask that our lawmakers and party association chairpersons do their best in their hometowns.] He
also said that he was deeply impressed by the youth who spoke at the inauguration ceremony, saying, "Declaring the youth as a partner in state affairs. I thought I did well,” he said.
Kim Jong-in, chairman of the General Election Task Force, was convinced that the election could be brought to power as long as the election committee, including the candidates, did not make any mistakes.
[Kim Jong-in/Chairman of the People's Power General Election Countermeasures Committee: The subject of the election can guarantee victory only when it is conducted in harmony and without noise... .]
After the meeting, Candidate Yoon visited the Seobu Smile Center in Seoul for the first schedule of the 'Accompanying Committee for the Weak', an organization directly under the chairperson he chaired.
We plan to listen to the current status of support and protection for victims of violent crime and come up with countermeasures based on this.
In the afternoon, they visit the 112 General Situation Room of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, and at night they patrol around Bamgil, Mapo-gu, Seoul with members of the Hongik Autonomous Crime Prevention Unit.
Considering the recent occurrence of a series of violent crimes such as poor response to the Incheon knife riot and stalking and murder in Seoul, this is a move that emphasizes the will for security.Keywords: | https://www.tellerreport.com/news/2021-12-07-first-meeting-of-the-captain----%22the-next-government-s-driving-force-is-party-members-and-youth%22.BJQ1t9U2FF.html |
About Alicia Keys:
Alicia Augello Cook is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Keys released her debut album with J Records, having had previous record deals first with Columbia and then Arista Records. Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, was a commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide. She became the best-selling new artist and best-selling R&B artist of 2001. The album earned Keys five Grammy Awards in 2002, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Fallin'" becoming the second American recording artist to win five Grammys in one night. Her second studio album, The Diary of Alicia Keys, was released in 2003 and was also another success worldwide, selling eight million copies. The album garnered her an additional four Grammy Awards in 2005. Later that year, she released her first live album, Unplugged, which debuted at number one in the United States. She became the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album to debut at number one and the highest since Nirvana in 1994. | https://www.uberquotes.net/quotes/authors/alicia-keys |
This issue of PARSE Journal, developed in collaboration with Nav Haq (Curator) and Stina Edblom (Artistic Director) of the Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art 2017 (GIBCA 2017), comes at a critical time for European social and political attitudes within a global context, in which many attitudes and principles are fundamentally being challenged. In particular, the very European truce between secular humanism and religious traditions has come under increasing scrutiny, challenged both from within and without. While there may certainly be good reasons to challenge any particular societal configuration, the question inevitably arises how human beings of different beliefs, or no particular belief and of different modes of life should be able to live together in peace and with a sense of equality, rights and freedom. This is the question of secularity. The subject for this issue of PARSE is taken directly from Nav Haq’s curatorial thematic for GIBCA 2017 that he has been developing throughout 2016 and 2017, titled WheredoIendandyoubegin—On Secularity, and is launched to coincide with the opening of the biennial to act as part-catalogue, part-contextual (re)source and part-imaginative interpolation in tandem with events that will be held throughout the biennial.
From early discussions within the editorial team, it became clear that, alongside the high-profile flashpoints of violence, misunderstanding, anger and despair caused by events in Europe over the past decade, including the killing of editors at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris in 2015, the fatwas issued against Jyllands-Posten for the publication of cartoons perceived to be blasphemous in 2005, the attacks by Anders Breivik on the island of Utøya in 2011, the recent suicide attacks in Brussels, London and Manchester, alongside the continued aggressive policies by Anglo-European governments and their agencies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Kurdistan and Syria, and the rise of right-wing nationalist and identitarian movements, the idea that the early-twentieth century is a time dominated by a consensualised secular humanism needs to be radically disturbed. Secularity itself needs to be negotiated not simply from the hermetic perspective of the Euro-American world, where it is broadly understood to be hegemonic, but from the perspectives from which belief offers spiritual and social freedom rather than the threat of persecution. As Ola Sigurdson points out in our editorial discussion, many confusions arise between secularism and secularity: “Secularism is a view of life which means that society or state shouldn’t contain religion. Secularity is a condition of society. To speak of secularity is not necessarily something normative.” In this issue, secularity is raised as a topic apropos questions about a space for negotiation between different modes of life, not as a particular world view or a political doctrine.
Such troubled territory is complex in the context of both an art biennial and Gothenburg—an apparently bourgeois city on the West coast of Sweden with a strong working class history, a lengthy trading history and a concomitant and still very present history of ethnic and class division. In the discussion carried out between us in this issue that serves as an extended editorial, we grapple with this context, along with the cautionary question of what is to be done, said, produced, by artists and curators within such conditions. As Haq points out in the discussion, there is a long history of visual culture prompting accusations of blasphemy and idolatry due to provocation, naivety and sometimes through new social sensitivities arising. Contemporary art, it seems, has its own forms of iconoclasm, but such a legacy does not simply belong to the twentieth century and the epoch of modernism. Art, design, music and craft’s relation to religion is ingrained in many cultures for differing rationales; useful, observant, subservient, doxological, economic, etc. As is discussed by many contributors to this issue, the historical entanglement of secular humanisms and religious traditions means that humanism is never rid entirely of its European religious forbearance; it is haunted by religion as much as majority religion in Europe has never been rid of challenges from other modes of life, religious or otherwise. This hybridity marks the great and violently affective ambivalence of our age. Perhaps ironically, the search for mutual disambiguation, an exorcism of the ghost of the other, has given rise to a profound lack of comprehension between cultures of belief and non-belief. As Jacques Derrida asked in Specters of Marx (1993):
How to distinguish between two disadjustments, between the disjuncture of the unjust and the one that opens up the infinite asymmetry of the relation to the other, that is to say, the place for justice? Not for calculable and distributive justice. Not for law, for the calculation of restitution, the economy of vengeance or punishment… Not for calculable equality, therefore, not for the symmeticizing and synchronic calculability or imputability of subjects and objects, not for a rendering justice that would be limited to sanctioning, to restituting, and to doing right, but for justice as incalculability of the gift and singularity of the an-economic ex-position of others. 1
In order to disambiguate a shallow narrative of “them” and “us” as the basis for religious and cultural difference, we begin this issue of PARSE Journal with the essay “Sealanguage: Field Notes from the Anthropocene” by philosophy and theology scholar Simone Kotva, who proposes a form of religious parsing in her ethnographic study of language, myth and belief on the Faroe islands. Spending time on the islands, Kotva studies and becomes intimate with words that, rather than “underwriting a ‘savage’” ontology, demonstrate “the mental dexterity required to understand (and perhaps invent) names.” She goes on: “sealanguage did not decline because the beliefs which it presupposed had begun to erode. Rather, it had begun to decline because the practices from which it is inseparable had begun to vanish, and beliefs immaterial to sealanguage (but important to scholars) were proposed in order to make sealanguage comprehensible as an object of study.” In this we understand that Kotva is pointing to the processes of study as a device which produces hierarchies of beliefs, sustained by the structure of the Anthropocene.
In his essay on “Secularisation in a Post-Secular Age”, philosopher and theologian Bengt Kristensson Uggla traces a historical lineage of Northern European religion, particularly through Luther, to find “sacrality” in the secular. He moves from this to posit a question perhaps provocatively within the pages of a journal devoted to artistic research: “Just the thought that a religious room, a cathedral, could in certain situations be more tolerant, as well as accommodate a richer expanse of interpretation interests, than an artistic room, an art museum, is something that feels very challenging in our time and age. Why do we become so surprised, and maybe provoked even, of the state of things?” In “Art as an Escape from Secularity: the Maryamiyya Case”, curator Klas Grinell explores the fact that in response to growing Islamophobia in the West many museums have dedicated room to new galleries for the exhibiting of Islamic art, but calls for “an islamisation of Islamic art [that] might open a space for addressing secularity.” Continuing the exploration of the role and emphatic power of cultural institutions, in her article “Seeing from Secular Spaces” curator Ruba Katrib uses her experience of working with Congolese artists whose practice registers differently in different situations. She says, “The gaps between the construction of Western secular knowledge… and other forms of knowledge must be acknowledged—and without falling into the impulse to transform what is unknown into something that can easily be understood or studied through Western secular lenses.”
The broader conditions of cultural production are tackled in “On the Curves of Turkish-Islamic Heritage: Understanding Turkey’s Contemporary Secularity across ‘Ottomania’”, by PhD scholar Fahrettin Ersin Alaca. He describes how the growing power of Turkish Islamic capital and the ensuing politicisation of consumption forces designers, artists, and architects to challenge their modernist educational background when performing professionally. Establishing the possibility of his own “internalised orientalism”, Alaca says, “commodification may represent… that both Islamism and secularism, as constantly reproduced co-constitutive ideological and political positions in Turkey, are socially constructed. This construction cannot be formulated and solved in a certain and linear fashion. In addition to political and ideological affiliations, commodification incorporates a myriad of socio-cultural and politico-economic domains with no regular boundaries, but rather with interpenetration of these domains and related positions.”
Artist and PhD scholar Azdeh Fatehrad looks at the momentous and controversial implications and political situatedness of Reza Shah’s 1936 Unveiling Act in Iran. In “State/Religion: Rethinking Gender Politics in the Public Sphere in Iran” she analyses how one of the consequences of Shah’s modernising project, which allowed for more open and progressive gender norms, which gave women access to education, work, and other opportunities, was the alienation of the vast majority of conservative Iranian families who no longer recognised the new secular public sphere they found outside their door.
Moving back and forth between mysticism and politics, the issue continues with “Differences and Sameness: Secularity in the Case of Nicholas Roerich”, in which historians and curators Eszter Szakacs and Mi You explore the continued legacy of Roerich, theosophist and Buddhist; “a curious figure who rose on the ashes and ruins of multiple broken orders: the empire/transnationalism, traditionalism, religiosity and Communism, as opposed to nation- state, modernity, secularisation and liberal democracy, yet paradoxically his failures surmount the categorical limits of the latter.”
Returning to the location of our own ventriloquism of secularity within a Northern European academic context, in “The Idea of the University and the Process of Secularisation” intellectual historian Thomas Karlsohn sketches the history of the development of education—and particularly university education—from a monasterial project towards a post-Enlightenment tradition of thinking “independently”. Rather than wanting to support the idea of a distinct space of education Karlsohn says, “[b]y elucidating the religious impulses that determined guiding ideas when the modern academic institutions once were established and reinforced we also better comprehend what is at stake in our own day. Moreover, the normative power of these ideas now tends to diminish and orientate us to a lower degree than before.”
Interspersed throughout this special issue of PARSE Journal, five of the participating artists to GIBCA 2017 have contributed with a series of interventions. These contributions, which range from textual provocations to visual interpolations, relate to the new projects the artists have developed for the biennial. The Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland (Leif Elggren & Carl Michael von Hausswolff) present a visual project on historic figures of monarchy, who in many nations embody the union of church and state. Maddie Leach looks at the phenomenon of Swedish black metal subculture, in particular the story of Jon Nödtveidt, vocalist of the band Dissection, who murdered Josef Ben Meddour in a homophobic hate-crime in Gothenburg in 1997. Francesc Ruiz’s visual project depicts, via the comic-strip medium, the plurality of cosmopolitan street life, including signs of its subcultures, minorities and other modes of living, which he will also install in Gothenburg. Jonas Staal reflects on how capitalism has replaced religion as the dominant form of faith in society through an analysis of the curious mirroring between the construction of each of the world’s tallest buildings and the biggest collapses in the stock exchange. Finally, Måns Wrange and Maria Karlsson contribute an essay which discusses the recent discourse around freedom of expression and censorship, using case studies from contemporary art.
We hope that this issue of PARSE Journal provides food for thought regarding the relations between religious histories, their socio-economic and territorial foundations and contemporary visual cultures. We are delighted to be collaborating on this issue with GIBCA 2017 and believe that the biennial provides an important locus for these debates, both within Gothenburg and within its growing international context.
End Notes: | https://metapar.se/article/introduction-to-secularity/ |
The interest in personality and mind is as old as humankind's history, yet these are the most unexplored and mysterious themes of investigation for any seeker. It is not easy to find a theory that is both perfect and universally accepted. Over the course of history, many seers explained the personality, most of which could not survive the rigors of time. Interestingly, the Indian perspective is an exceptional school of thought that has been standing strong for more than two thousand years and yet attracts the interest, scrutiny, as well as commendation of academicians.
Concept of Swabhava
The Sanskrit word 'Swabhava' can be considered a direct translation of the word 'personality,' though Swabhava may have a deeper meaning. Understanding the Indian approach to personality will require exploring some fundamental concepts that explain certain parts of personality as we currently understand it. The concepts of Prakriti, Tridosha, Triguna, and sheaths of mind, or the levels of consciousness, are Indian concepts that explain different dimensions and aspects of personality with underlying physiological, hereditary, and psychological explanations. These have been explored in the upcoming sections.
Swabhava is the quality of spirit and mind and helps predict a distinctive way of behaving. It has three components as sources of influence, i.e.,
- Purushottama, which is the supreme truth, provides the basic characteristics of spirit and nature, and provides a space for other elements to grow in whichever direction the being wants. In other words, Purushottama sets the limits and potential for development;
- Self is the present life's awareness and 'I'ness that an individual develops in the course of life;
- Jiva is the immortal spirit residing within the body that has a memory of all past and future lives, of evolution that has taken place.
Levels of mind
According to yogic tradition mind's cognition or 'pragna' has 16 dimensions collectively falling into four categories, namely (i) Buddhi, the logical dimension of thought referring to intellect, wisdom, and the power of the mind to understand, analyze, discriminate and decide; (ii) Ahankara, sense of who he or she is and the identity in whose context intellect works; (iii) Manas, the sensory or processing mind which is also present in every cell of the body in the form of intelligence (not intellect) and memories of the past; (iv) Chitta, pure cosmic intelligence which is unchanged and simply there, it is the bridge between conscious and unconscious on the one end and superconscious on the other end. All these categories interact with each other to form a complex mind.
The Upanishads further classify five levels or sheaths of mind, which are the basis of self and personality. These panchkoshas are −
- Annamaya Kosh − It is the outermost layer of existence, referring to the physical body, which is grounded in the food we consume.
- Pranamaya Kosh − This is the life or prana component, which represents the functions of breathing and metabolic process.
- Manomaya Kosh − It refers to the five sense modalities. It is the seat of the 'ego' based on personal involvement, desires, and activities.
- Vigyanmaya Kosh − It is the level of interaction of the senses and intellect that regulates worldly life. It leads to the feeling of "I"ness and a sense of self.
- Anandmaya Kosh − The highest, most profound level of self leads to the experience of spiritual bliss and euphoric pleasure derived from non-worldly foundations and pure spiritual pursuits.
These sheaths and one's connection with these levels determine one's personality, behavior, goals, emotions, cognition, etc.
Triguna
Guna refers to the basic attributes of human personality, which lead to different temperaments. These are inherent and developed by an individual within one's environment, including society, diet, experiences, and thought patterns. There are three Gunas −
- Sattva Guna − It is the spiritual quality characterized by stability, goodness, wisdom, dutifulness, calmness, spirituality, self-control, respect, and kindness.
- Rajas Guna − This implies an active quality characterized by passion, desire, restlessness, attachment, enthusiasm, longing for results, and self-interest.
- Tamas Guna − It is the material quality characterized by ambiguity, idleness, revengefulness, fantasy, apprehensiveness, laziness, persistence, and cynicism.
These guns interact to form many other gunas. As per Indian texts, there exist seven sattvik guna, six types of rajas guna, and three types of tamas guna, summing up to form 16 types of personality types.
Tridosha
The ayurvedic concept of tridosha is based on the Mahabharata, i.e., the five elements: air, fire, water, earth, and sky/ether. These five elements combine to form tridoshas −
- Vata − It is a combination of the sky and air.
- Pitta − It is a combination of fire and water.
- Kapha − It is a combination of water and earth.
These tridosha are largely biological in nature and impact an individual's physiological and psychological processes. Based on the above concepts, the Yoga sutra maps personality (as per U. Arya's commentary) as follows −
Conclusion
The Indian tradition holds the immense capability to change how we view the world and holds the key to opening doors to new knowledge. Nevertheless, the science embedded in Indian texts is science only beyond the complete understanding of the present paradigms of academic investigation. Perhaps a paradigm changes in the investigation methodology applied to this field study may bring relevant results. Finally, and fortunately, the zeitgeist and paradigm shift is taking place to accommodate this old science, and researchers have not only started doing relevant studies in this field but also started acknowledging its relevance.
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- Know Cloud Ports and Protocols Infra Perspective! | https://www.tutorialspoint.com/an-indian-perspective-to-personality |
Creating a Gratitude Practice
Sometimes it’s hard to find reasons to be grateful. Bryce Evans says finding a gratitude practice can be especially helpful for battling depression.
During difficult times it’s important to ask yourself: what are you grateful for?
For many years, I wrote in a journal and took photographs every day. These activities helped me to regularly reflect and be thankful.
My gratitude journal became an integral part of my toolkit. It helped me to notice that I need to work to counteract negative rumination due to depression and anxiety. Pausing to feel grateful helps pull me out of the negative loops where I sometimes get stuck.
A gratitude practice isn’t a cure. It isn’t always easy. It’s just another tool to manage symptoms of depression with the help of mental health professionals.
I know others have found a gratitude practice helpful. That’s why I reached out to ask The One Project community about what gratitude means to them and how they integrate it in their lives. Here are their stories:
“My photography lights up my dark days”
“Photos are my expression of gratitude, even though I sometimes don’t realize it. When I look at my photos, I sense warmth and reality. They represent my life, my experiences, and a deep love and inner peace in myself.
The photographs I take nearly every day remind me of the good side of life, especially when depression hits unexpectedly. I light up my dark days with pictures of the bright days. They show that there’s always something to look forward to.
You don't need to aim for a great and enviable life. Small things, like a sunset or a ladybug or a flower, can soothe your mind and soul. Be aware of it. Capture it.”
— Kali Mahavidya
“Being grateful does not mean everything’s OK”
“I’ve been through a lot. Living with a mental illness can be exhausting. I thought that being grateful was the same as saying things were OK when they were far from it.
I’ve learned that gratitude does not mean everything is OK. It allows me for a very brief moment to step away from my life.
At first it was hard for me to find things to be grateful for. The more I practiced, the more I found. I now practice a gratitude reflection throughout my day.
I sometimes think about the small things, like my morning cup of tea, the sun’s warmth on my face, or dew drops on a spider’s web. Sometimes I think about the bigger things, like my family and friends.
Being in the moment is like a brain break or a micro-vacation. It allows me to step out of my head during difficult times to see a view of the world that I hadn’t noticed before. For a few seconds, my brain and body are able to relax and just be.
Gratitude will not cure my illness. It does allow me to refuel by showing me that there is good in this world. That is something I am grateful for.”
— Suzanne Venuta
“I try to find beauty in the small things”
Gratitude seems like it should be easy. It never feels like it is. So many things might not be going the way you want. That clouds your ability to genuinely express gratitude. It is often far easier to appreciate an experience or a person in retrospect than it is in the moment.
Perhaps the underrated key to gratitude is finding beauty in chaos. Don’t wait for a picture-perfect moment. Squint your eyes and look patiently. Glimpses of humanity are more complex and riveting due to their flaws.
If we must count our blessings on a difficult day, we can remind ourselves that we’re breathing. We’ve experienced the warmth of the sun on a cold day. We’ve laughed at animals being unknowingly silly. And we’ve been loved.”
— Mariana Montes de Oca
Give yourself credit for being grateful
I’ve been grateful in the past without recognizing it. It’s important to give myself credit. A gratitude practice is much more powerful when I do it with intention and consistency.
No matter how challenging my situation is right now, I have many reasons to be grateful.
Take a photo. Grab a journal. Pause and take a few breaths to experience gratitude. Get a good sleep and repeat.
For more information on how to manage depression, reach out to your doctor or healthcare team.
NPS-US-NP-00605 MARCH 2020
The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in this article have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions. This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen.
This content was originally published by Teva on the Life Effects website, where additional articles and content are available for US and European audiences. | https://www.tevapharm.com/covid-19-updates-and-resources/creating-gratitude-practice/ |
National Research Center, Inc. and the Transparency Initiative
As a charter member of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) Transparency Initiative, NRC is committed to bringing a high level of professionalism and reliability to every aspect of our research. The Transparency Initiative (TI) recognizes survey organizations that make full disclosure of their research methods when publicly reporting findings, thus advancing the vision of open science in survey research.
NRC was proud to join the Transparency Initiative in 2015. With honesty being a core tenet of our business and research practices, the TI was a natural fit. In this recent article, AAPOR profiles National Research Center, Inc. and our dedication to transparency.
For the Sake of Clarity: A Profile of National Research Center
– By the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR)–
National Research Center, Inc. (NRC) has conducted survey research and evaluation since 1994, and serves a variety of public entities including local governments, nonprofits and school districts. Besides individual projects, NRC has built and maintains a database of hundreds of thousands of respondent records in which a standard set of about 130 questions from The National Citizen Survey™ (The NCS™) have been answered by representative samples of the public.
According to NRC President Dr. Tom Miller, there was no question on whether the organization would join the Transparency Initiative. “Our government clients, especially, need credible survey research so that they can create or modify policies and programs that better serve constituents. The Transparency Initiative (TI) offers an imprimatur of quality that consumers of survey research can rely on because, by keeping with TI standards, survey research organizations produce a better product. The mission and ethics of the TI also align with the core values of NRC and its staff. TI membership is an emblem of accountability that NRC is proud to live by and display,” Miller said.
In a recent survey of residents in Clive, Iowa, NRC demonstrated its strong commitment to transparency with a detailed methodology found in the technical appendices. This illustrates how an organization can provide methodological information to consumers of a survey, so those clients can easily identify trustworthy results.
This article originally appeared on aapor.org.
Related Articles
National Research Center, Inc. (NRC) is a leading full-service survey research and evaluation firm focusing on the information requirements of the public sector, including local governments, health care providers, foundations and non-profit organizations. Visit our home on the web at www.n-r-c.com. Check out our News and Knowledge page for more updates, tips and stories from NRC. | https://www.n-r-c.com/national-research-center-inc-and-the-transparency-initiative/ |
Nitrogen sources and cycling revealed by dual isotopes of nitrate in a complex urbanized environment.
Elevated nutrient inputs have led to increased eutrophication in coastal marine ecosystems worldwide. An understanding of the relative contribution of different nutrient sources is imperative for effective water quality management. Stable isotope values of nitrate (δ15NNO3-, δ18ONO3-) can complement conventional water quality monitoring programs to help differentiate natural sources of NO3- from anthropogenic inputs and estimate the processes involved in N cycling within an ecosystem. We measured nutrient concentrations, δ15NNO3-, and δ18ONO3- in 76 locations along a salinity gradient from the lower end of the Pearl River Estuary, one of China's largest rivers discharging into the South China Sea, towards the open ocean. NO3- concentrations decreased with increasing salinity, indicative of conservative mixing of eutrophic freshwater and oligotrophic seawater. However, our data did not follow conservative mixing patterns. At salinities <20 psu, samples exhibited decreasing NO3-concentrations with almost unchanged NO3- isotope values, indicating simple dilution. At salinities >20 psu, NO3- concentrations decreased, while dual NO3- isotopes increased, suggesting mixing and/or other transformation processes. Our analysis yielded mean estimates for isotope enrichment factors (15ε = -2.02‰ and 18ε = -3.37‰), Δ(15,18) = -5.5‰ and δ15NNO3- - δ15NNO2- = 12.3‰. After consideration of potential alternative sources (sewage, atmospheric deposition and groundwater) we concluded that there are three plausible interpretations for deviations from conservative mixing behaviour (1) NO3- uptake by assimilation (2) in situ NO3- production (from fixation-derived nitrogen and nitrification of sewage-derived effluents) and (3) input of groundwater nitrate carrying a denitrification signal. Through this study, we propose a simple workflow that incorporates a synthesis of numerous isotope-based studies to constrain sources and behaviour of NO3- in urbanized marine environments.
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We are looking for 2 Senior Marine Enforcement Officers (Team leaders) to manage a dispersed team of Marine Enforcement Officers to deliver Fisheries and Marine inspection and enforcement activities ...
The Responsible Sourcing Specialist will contribute to ZSL’s work in the forestry sector, conducting research, assessments, training and in-country engagement as part of our SPOTT project as well as ...
An exciting opening has arisen for an Environmental Analyst to work with the Promar International team to support the successful delivery of environmental consultancy projects. ...
Are you interested in applying fisheries science to influence sustainability outcomes? Can you lead innovative research? We’re looking for a Fisheries Research Scientist, who can use best available ...
China Dialogue Trust is looking for an experienced researcher (50% FTE) to support the editorial team on an investigative project looking at the environmental impact of of the global palm oil ...
This is an exciting opportunity to drive a place-based approach to circular economy, working with communities, towns, cities, and regions across Scotland. You will take a lead on driving change within ...
Are you interested in playing a pivotal role helping indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon protect and steward large swathes of the Amazon forest and hold forest destroyers to account? ...
This exiting role will be responsible for developing successful campaigns that engage the public, grow our audience and deliver measurable impact. ...
BCI seeks to deepen the impact of farm level programming around the world and is seeking an experienced senior manager to ensure measurable improvements in farming practices working through country ...
Are you a creative and effective Manager, equally adept at business development as you are at overseeing the successful delivery of a range of innovative, inclusive and exciting community programmes? ...
We are looking for a Senior Marine Enforcement Officer (HEO) to manage a team of officers within our newly created Welsh Fisheries Monitoring Centre. The WFMC will be the central hub for monitoring ...
The main purpose of this post is to lead operational delivery of the marine licensing regime and nature conservation legislation, as well as taking the lead on scientific work within the Control and ...
CPRE, The countryside charity is looking for an enthusiastic campaigner with an eye for policy detail who is comfortable working with local community groups as much as high level policy ...
The FSC has a number of field study sites and centres across the UK in rural and often breath-taking locations, and it is looking to appoint a National Infrastructure & Facilities Manager to support ...
We have an exciting opportunity to join the Operational Delivery team in London. The team operates in the areas of product assurance and verification, energy labelling, clean ...
This sector covers consultancy, ecological footprinting, recycling, BREEAM, corporate sustainability and CSR. | https://www.environmentjob.co.uk/jobs/50-Sustainability?job_function=57%7C54%7C50&last_filter=job_function&last_value=50&order=closing_date_asc |
The mission of the Registrar's Office is to keep accurate and up-to-date records, to insure the integrity, confidentiality, and security of institutional records and an accurate interpretation of such information. We strive to provide quality and courteous service to the University's constituency - administration, the public, faculty, staff, parents, and certainly students by using the best possible practices.
Office of The Registrar Staff
Lynn Dobbs
Registrar
(662) 329-7135
Jessica McDill
Assistant Registrar
(662) 329-7135
Sherry Durkin
Student Records Specialist
(662) 329-7135
Jody Peters
Enrollment Certification Officer
Veterans Certifying Official
(662) 329-7135
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Transcript Analyst
(662) 329-7135 | https://www.muw.edu/registrar/staff |
Validating Innovation with Teaching and Learning Grants
As Teal McAteer sat on a bench amid the campus trees with her friend and colleague Nancy Fenton, the bud of an idea began to form. McAteer had been describing the transformative learning approach in her “Leadership Development” course at the DeGroote School of Business and believed it was having a strong impact on her students—but she wanted to support her theory with evidence.
“Did you know there are grants available?” said Fenton, an Associate Director at the Paul R. MacPherson Institute for Leadership, Innovation and Excellence in Teaching. “I think you have a story to tell here.”
McAteer’s previous work as a practitioner in relocation counselling and embedded in the world of “fallen leaders” helped her identify a gap in leadership learning. It was clear to her that many high-performing leaders needed support long before they became high-performing leaders. After becoming an Associate Professor in Human Resources & Management at the DeGroote School of Business, she was given the opportunity to design and develop her own leadership courses and became fascinated with the world of transformative learning.
She believes that for students to truly understand topics such as change, stress and conflict management, they can’t just learn about them, they have to experience them. This method fundamentally shifts the role of an instructor in the classroom, but she says the results are clear: “life-changing skill development that is not forgotten.”
McAteer began exploring opportunities to apply for grant funding to see if she could better understand the full impact of her transformative learning approach. She applied initially for the Leadership in Teaching and Learning (LTL) Fellowship and her project was accepted in 2016.
To assess the efficacy of her 12-week leadership course, McAteer analyzed data sets of students in the 2016 and 2017 course deliveries. The data sets included two reflection journals written before and after a six-week transformative journey, which helped students create a “vision of self for the future” statement and a six-week action plan for change. At the end of the journey, students provided a detailed account of their transformative learnings. The grant funding allowed her to hire researchers to do qualitative data analysis on these journals looking for patterns and themes, which required heavy duty training to keep the analysis objective.
The project also evolved over time. McAteer realized after her first year that the amount of data was enormous and that there was very little longitudinal research on transformative learning. She believed a longer-term study could provide critical insights for her and the broader teaching and learning community.
As the study ballooned in time and scope it led to more challenges as well. She experienced turnover on her research team, multiple ethics renewals and increasing quantities of relevant literatures for the multiple diagnostics that were utilized. What began as a two-year study resulted in another grant application for funding through the Priority Areas for Teaching and Learning Grant and a renewed commitment to her research to gain critical evidence about the power of transformative learning.
“Every time I’d go back for more money, the MacPherson Institute would say ‘Teal, we’re behind you—we see the importance of this research,’” says McAteer. “They could have easily said, nope not interested, this is taking too long, but they never did. That was huge.”
Her determination and persistence eventually paid off. McAteer and her team recently received confirmation that their paper outlining the positive and measurable impact of transformative learning will soon be published, and her multi-year project will conclude with the evidence she was searching for.
“The guts of the paper say we should be getting people a lot earlier to assess the dissonance between the things that they’re not developing and what they should be developing,” says McAteer. “In fact, I believe it should be started in high school, long before they get to university.”
With the study soon behind her, McAteer believes she is on the right track. Her unique and innovative approach has been validated, not only by what has she heard from students, but through the data she collected to support it.
“I am odd, I am non-traditional, I do step outside the box in what I believe is important,” she says. “But I can’t reiterate enough, if it wasn’t for the MacPherson Institute, there is no way I would be getting published.”
—-
The MacPherson Institute provides financial support to encourage scholarly investigations and the development or implementation of projects that enhance McMaster students’ educational experience. This financial support is provided through the funding of various research grants
The Small Teaching and Learning Exploration Grant, the Priority Areas of Learning and Teaching (PALAT) Grant and the Leadership in Teaching and Learning (LTL) Fellowship are currently accepting project applications for the summer 2021 term.
The call for applications is open until Monday, April 19, 2021 at 12:00PM. | https://mi.mcmaster.ca/validating-innovation-with-teaching-and-learning-grants/ |
4 Main Tasks of Health Care Professionals
As one of health care professionals, there are different tasks that we may carry out.
Actually, there are several categories of health care professionals like nursing, clinicians, laboratory technicians, public health/community health worker, pharmacist and many more.
Therefore, here are the four (4) main tasks alphabetically:
a.)Administrative Tasks
They include:
- Liaising with County Health Officers and other officials responsible for supplies and supervision of the area.
- May need to order and store supplies e.g. equipment
- Maintenance of buildings and supervision of repairs.
- Keeping registers and preparing reports.
- Supervision of colleagues.
- Working with a village health committee.
b.) Technical Tasks
This refers to the actual health work of the health worker.
The problem solving process will go through the following stages:
- Collect information as much as possible by asking questions on areas of life e.g. feeding habits, housing, storage systems and hygiene.
- Interpret the information collected to identify the main dangers and problems i.e. what the problem is and your priority.
- Suggest solutions i.e. ways and means to solve the problems for example, the use of clean mat or clean piece of cloth or a bed for delivering.
- Explain to the community on how to carry out certain activities or organise and perform technical procedures.
- Evaluate by collecting data and make judgements on whether the activities proceeded well.
c.) Tasks related to Water in a Rural Community.
1. Collecting information which involves:
- Investigating the sources from which the community draws water. Examine each source and determine its adequacy, it’s degree of contamination and the methods by which it is collected.
- Estimate the seriousness or frequency of waterborne diseases within the community.
- Investigate people’s believes and customs relating to water, its supply and use.
2. Interpretation
Define the water problem of the community in general in essence, is it adequate? Are there seasonal shortages of water? How about the distance from the collection point? Is the source contaminated or is there contamination in the household?
3. Suggest Solutions.
This includes:
- Suggesting methods of increasing the quantity of water e.g. by digging deeper into the ground.
- Suggesting methods of protecting water e.g. by covering it.
- Explain health hazards related to water.
- Suggest methods of protecting the following types of water: From well, spring, river e.t.c
- Advice on local methods to reduce contamination.
4. Evaluation.
- Assess the household quantity of water.
- Estimate the level of water contamination.
- Estimate the levels of waterborne diseases.
d.) Tasks related to disposal of Excreta in Rural Communities.
Collecting information.
First, investigate where community’s septic tanks are if they are many.
Secondly, examine each site and its efficiency.
Thirdly, check on the way they dispose excreta for example, flying toilets and water together leading to water tanks.
Finally, examine their believes and reasons for the use of each of the disposal methods e.g. illiteracy or ignorance.
Resources to read more: | https://jamii-health.co.ke/4-main-tasks-of-health-care-professionals/ |
According to recent information from the Law Commission - the group responsible for reviewing and recommending changes to legislation in the UK, including with Immigration UK strategies, there will be a review on the proposals of immigration rules setting out practices for the home secretary. At this point in time, the rules in the Immigration environment for things like the tier 2 UK work permit are extremely complicated, with more than 1,100 pages to go through.
The proposal to update the legislation suggests that an audit is needed to make the application for and management of UK visas and the UK work permit more accessible. The audit will remove overlapping rules from the system and reduce the amount of times in a year that the rule system can be changed.
The home office has currently sponsored the Law Commission to complete this project, which will not address issues of substantive immigration.
Anyone who has dealt with UK immigration consultants in the past knows how difficult it can be to understand the complex laws that are currently in place. The law commission believes that the implementation of simpler rules would make life easier for people want to seek a UK work permit, while also helping Home Office workers to decide on cases faster.
This isn't the first time that the Immigration UK regulations and legislation have come into question. Various critics and judges have criticised the complex system of rules for being hard to understand, archaic, and repetitive.
Since they were first published in the 1970s, the rules have grown from a single 40-page booklet to over 1100 pages. According to the Law Commission, the home office has turned to them for help putting the legislative mess right. The new proposals will introduce clearer language, improve the presentation of the rules, and make the guidelines for UK work permit applications easier to follow. | https://www.visalogic.net/news/2019/1/3208/plans-emerge-to-simplify-1000s-of-pages-of-immigration-uk-rules |
In the Krivan park of the Mala Fatra National Park in picturesque Vratna Valley there is one of the best ski resorts that offer perfect sport conditions to sport activities. Vratna - Free Time Zone consists of 4 localities (Paseky, Poludnovy Grun, chleb and Pirslop). Each of them differs from others. No only those who love slope skiing or snowboarding but cross-country skiers as well (22 kilometers of trails), ski alpinism (19 kilometers of trails) or extreme skiing. Attached photos were taken in Paseky region.
GPS: 49 ° 13'45 .07'' N 19 ° 2'09 .16'' E
Text and photo: O. Maňáková
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The Old City’s Souq (open-air market) is an often-overwhelming collision of competing visuals. Its optical milieu is rooted in Jerusalem’s status as the meeting point of a wide range of cultures, as well as the market’s thousand-plus year history. One of the most jarring manifestations of this reality is the merchandise sold there; in shops across the souq, kuffiyehs hang next to tallits. The t-shirt vendors sell “Free Palestine” designs, and also “Guns’n ’Moses”. Food carts offer rugelach next to ka’ak, and postcards of the Dome of the Rock are for sale next to pictures of the Western Wall. Merchandise choices in the souk often seem so hyper political and contradictory as to cancel each other out.
Why do merchants sell such contradictory items? How do they balance such choices with their political opinions? And what do such decisions say about their attitudes towards a future peace? I went with these questions to the souq, hoping for answers from the merchants themselves. Passing from Jaffa Gate to Damascus Gate, I made my way through the market, looking for people willing to talk. I interviewed nine people, men and women, Muslims, Christians, and Jews, in conversations ranging from five minutes to over half an hour, and through their voices, a picture started to come together.
“Free Palestine” and “Guns’n’Moses” designs are side by side in the Old City Souq.
The first cause of the merchants’ contradictory offering of products, one that quickly became clear, was the souq’s economic malaise. As one Palestinian bakery owner told me bluntly, business was simply “very bad”. This is not news in Jerusalem, where more than 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, but the Old City market seems to face particular difficulty. Abdullah, a sweets shop owner near Damascus Gate, gestured toward the nearly-empty walkway and said that, in his estimation, his customer base was only fifteen percent of what it was some thirty years ago.
These economic challenges stem primarily from a radical shift in clientele over the last twenty years. A combination of the Occupation, the Second Intifada, and the construction of the Separation Barrier has driven both Palestinians and Israelis away from the Old City market and into areas deeper in their respective territories, mainly Ramallah and West Jerusalem. This has been compounded by a cultural shift among the youth of both populations, who prefer upscale malls, and online shopping to the atmosphere of the souq.
With local markets evaporating, the souq has become increasingly dependent on foreign tourists. Tariq, a Palestinian Muslim who owns a shop near Jaffa Gate, explained to me the ramifications of this change. He is no stranger to adapting to market demand (his store has been in the family for more than fifty years), but he told me that the current tourist market is capricious and unreliable. Prior to the 1967 War, he said, tourists in the Old City came also from the Arab world. The souq back then catered to such tourists, and had more restaurants and cafes. Today’s tourists are different; they come largely from the West, he says, with hardly any arriving from the Arab world. Furthermore, they come in increasing numbers from Asia and Eastern Europe. These tourists fear violence in the Middle East, and the slightest tension, even as far away as Iraq or Yemen, provokes a decline in the number of visitors. Worse, these new tourists don’t shop in the Old City. The tour guides-- Israeli, Palestinian, and international alike-- typically have commission arrangements with souvenirs shops (often ones owned by non-Palestinians), and convince the tourists that they will be cheated if they shop anywhere else. Tariq estimated that 95 percent of tourists passing through the Old City never purchase anything there.
As a result of the economic downturn and these major shifts in their customer base, the souq’s vendors have been increasingly forced to shift their offerings to match demand. This typically leads to an offering of a wide range of mass-appeal, low-quality items-- mostly cheap items aimed at wary tourists. Tariq offered an anecdotal illustration: the advent of airline regulations on the weight of passengers’ luggage has caused tourists to buy lighter (and therefore typically cheaper) products, causing shopkeepers like him to stop selling many heavier items, like silver or gold ornaments. In light of this situation, the conflicting merchandising choices make sense. Vendors are simply selling what the (now very limited and volatile) market demands.
Yet business choices in the souq aren’t simply a matter of economic efficacy; personal ideology also plays a large role. Many of the souq’s merchants are simply open-minded. They’re entirely willing to sell an ideologically varied set of items, and equally willing to sell to or work with someone of a different ideological or national background. One Palestinian grocery store owner said he sold “anything” to “whoever comes to buy”. When I asked him if he would work with an Israeli, he said no, before going on to explain that it was simply because he didn’t need investors or employees, not because he was opposed to the concept. This proved a very common response, as most owners said they would have no problem investing or working with someone from the other side of the aisle. Some even explained that they sought it out; Abdullah told me about his plans to convert his store into a coffee shop, and how he wanted an Israeli consultant to help him understand the best way to approach it.
Despite the political and economic challenges facing the Old City, the attitudes of its merchants and the atmosphere of its market are cause for optimism. It is clear that their business practices stem not only from a keen sales sense, but also from a genuine openness. There is much work to be done to rectify the difficulties facing its merchants, and many of it can only come with peace. There must be a regulation of the tourist market and an end to unfair practices among those involved. Moreover, the market must be reinvigorated by permitting and encouraging local residents, both Israeli and Palestinian, to shop there. In the meantime, however, the pragmatism and open-mindedness of the souq’s businesspeople offers hope and real potential for advancement. | http://pij.org/blogs/449 |
Humans have been drawing and writing for awhile. As McCloud references, 17,000 years ago we painted the caves at Lascaux, and early written languages used images, then a combination of words and images. Cartoons, just over a century old, and emoji, only two decades old, both major cultural phenomena, are just modern incarnations of this combination.
In digital media, the early days of the internet established a few basic building blocks for content on the web: text, lists, images, and most interestingly, links. This was hypertext:
Hypertext is text which is not constrained to be linear.
Hypertext is text which contains links to other texts.
Hypertext on the internet allowed for Wikipedia. Even ignoring the other innovative parts of Wikipedia—its crowdsourced, distributed-authorship, & constantly-updating nature—the links make it a wildly better experience for readers than its analog equivalents. Links introduce a superpower for your curiosity, dramatically lowering the barrier to learning more.
This hypertext is not new—it was described in 1945, then created in the 1960s. Nonetheless, it often feels like even with all the companies, publishers, authors, web designers, and developers working so hard right now, our capabilities for storytelling have barely advanced.
Likely due to the enormous input of money and talent required, there have been few truly next-level reader-directed storytelling experiences made in the last decade. One that especially stands out to me is Our Choice, a book written by Al Gore published as an interactive iPad and iPhone app back in 2010.1
More recently, the now-defunct iPhone app Hardbound tried a similar concept, but for smaller stories more in the (now-prevalent) format of Instagram Stories. Unfortunately, neither have lasted more than a few years.
The web is the most distributed, powerful, accessible, lowest-barrier platform humanity has ever had for shared storytelling. But in the last two decades, even with the explosion of browsers and web platform APIs, and the introduction and significant maturation of CSS & JavaScript, storytelling on the web has only been refined, not redefined.
In fact, all the most interesting forms of storytelling have only been distributed via the web, not built on top of it: podcasts, YouTube vlogging, Instagram Stories. Meanwhile on the web, 30% of the web runs on WordPress, and probably half runs on a similar, if not more rudimentary, CMS—pages which largely have not fundamentally moved on from the internet of the late 1990s.2 Pages with text, lists, images, links, maybe occasionally an iframe.
While making publishing on the web easier than ever, CMSs limit the flexibility of authors and encourage boring, templated, wholly stale and uninteresting storytelling. There is an unfortunate paradox here: making websites more interesting typically requires coding skills, limiting their accessibility. In order to raise the bar, we need to use less code, or make the code easier.
With no code, Notion is a commercial alternative to Word or Google Docs, trying to use “content blocks” to turn static text documents into rich pages. On the code side, Markdown is undoubtedly one of the most interesting, lasting improvements on web content authorship, allowing the generation of HTML text formatting through a suit of simple plain text characters. MDX, which seamlessly combines Markdown/HTML with React components, is making it far more flexible, allowing the integration of arbitrary web content and the infinite possibilities of components on npm right alongside simply formatted prose. Meanwhile, Gatsby, a static-site-generator-turned-WordPress-competitor, is trying to dramatically simplify self-coding a content-based website. (This very website is built on MDX + Gatsby.) So we can take the power back, one might say.
If writing existed continuously for a good 10,000 years before the hyperlink existed, I refuse to believe for a second there is not something significant to be gained in storytelling by pushing the medium forward. The work happening at Dynamicland and other studios pushing interaction design forward, though they haven’t yet resulted in widespread commercial products, prove there is absolutely more (absolutely fascinating) work to do here.
Scott McCloud proved in Understanding Comics there is unquestionably value in the simple act of continually combining text with drawings, one that many authors and publishers already devalue. Our Choice, Hardbound, and similar experiments prove there is so much more to explore. Storytelling and building technologies to enhance our abilities are two of humans’ greatest skills, and I can’t wait to see where we push them toward next.
Our Choice will forever hold a special place in my heart. It’s one of my favorite iPad apps ever made, my introduction to the climate crisis, back in third grade (2010), and still influences how I think about digital design.↩
There’s completely an argument to be made that the evolution of the web in the last decade has been more of a decline. Websites are slower-loading and more ad-filled, more eager than ever to invade our privacy at every turn.↩
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What is Cotard’s Delusion?
Cotard’s Delusion (also known as walking dead syndrome) is a very rare mental disorder in which the person feels as though they are literally dead. Often these people walk around believing that they are invisible, cannot be killed because they are already dead, that they have no blood in their body and that their body is rotting somewhere in the ground.
As a paramedic, is is very rare to see Cotard’s Delusion, however, it is important to be aware of it, because some of the apparent suicide attempts that we attend are not suicide attempts at all but persons with Cotard’s Delusion who walk in front of trains, cars, or off cliffs because they literally believe that they are already dead.
These people are not necessarily depressed, but will often inadvertently injure themselves believing that they are already dead and therefore immortal.
Pathophysiology of Cotard’s Delusion
Neurologically Cotard’s delusion is thought to be closely related to Capgras Syndrome as both conditions appear to involve a disconnection between the areas of the brain that recognise faces and emotions. Psychologically, Cotard’s delusion is often related to schizophrenia and an acute psychosis (often causes by certain drug use).
Constant reassurance in a calm and confident tone is important for these patients. Within the hospital system, treatment aims at mood stabilisation through antidepressant therapies, antipsychotic medications, and in severe cases, electro-convulsive therapy has been seen to improve the person’s condition. | http://www.emergencymedicalparamedic.com/what-is-cotards-delusion/ |
Moebius syndrome is a rare neurological disorder characterized by weakness or paralysis (palsy) of multiple cranial nerves, most often the 6th (abducens) and 7th (facial) nerves. Other cranial nerves are sometimes affected. The disorder is present at birth (congenital). If the 7th nerve is involved, the individual with Moebius syndrome is unable to smile, frown, pucker the lips, raise the eyebrows, or close the eyelids. If the 6th nerve is affected, the eye cannot turn outward past the midline. Other abnormalities include underdevelopment of the pectoral muscles and defects of the limbs. Moebius syndrome is not progressive. The exact cause is unknown. It appears to occur randomly (sporadically) in most cases; however, some cases occur in families suggesting that there may be a genetic component.
Introduction:
Congenital facial and abducens palsy was first described by Von Graefe (1880) and Moebius (1888), a German neurologist after whom the syndrome was later named.
The abnormalities and severity of Moebius syndrome vary greatly from one person-to-another. The classically accepted diagnostic criteria include: 1) facial paralysis or weakness affecting at least one but usually both sides of the face (7th cranial nerve), 2) paralysis of sideways (lateral) movement of the eyes (6th cranial nerve); and 3) preservation of vertical movements of the eyes. Less often, other cranial nerves, including the 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th may be affected.
Infants with Moebius syndrome may drool excessively and exhibit crossed eyes (strabismus). Because the eyes do not move from side-to-side (laterally), the child is forced to turn the head to follow objects. Infants who lack facial expression often are described as having a “mask-like” face that is especially obvious when laughing or crying. Affected infants may also have difficulties feeding, including problems swallowing and poor sucking. Corneal ulceration may occur because the eyelids remain open during sleep.
There are a wide variety of additional abnormalities. Some children with Moebius syndrome have a short, malformed tongue and/or an abnormally small jaw (micrognathia). Cleft palate may also be present. These abnormalities contribute to feeding and breathing difficulties. Children with cleft palate are prone to ear infections (otitis media). There may be external ear anomalies including underdevelopment of the outer portion of the ear (microtia) or total absence of the outer portion of the ear (anotia). If the 8th cranial nerve is affected, there is likely hearing loss. Dental abnormalities are not uncommon. There is an increased risk for childhood cavities. Some affected children have difficulties with speech and delays in speech development.
Skeletal malformations of the limbs occur in over half of children with Moebius sydrome. Lower limb malformations include clubbed feet and underdevelopment of the lower legs; upper extremities may have webbing of the fingers (syndactyly), underdevelopment or absence of the fingers, and/or underdevelopment of the hand. In a few children there may be abnormal side-to-side curvature of the spine (scoliosis), and in approximately 15% of patients underdevelopment of the chest (pectoral) muscles and the breast on one side of the body also occur (see Poland-Moebius syndrome in the Related Disorder section below).
Some affected children exhibit delay in attaining certain milestones such as crawling or walking, most likely due to upper body weakness; however, most children eventually catch-up. Moebius syndrome rarely is associated with minor intellectual disability. Some children have been classified as being on the “autistic spectrum”. The exact relationship between Moebius syndrome and autism is unknown. Some studies have suggested that autism spectrum disorders occur with greater frequency in children with Moebius syndrome; other studies have not confirmed this and suggest that any such relationship is overstated. Moebius syndrome is often associated with a variety of social and psychological consequences. The lack of facial expressions and the inability to smile can cause observers to misinterpret what an affected individual is thinking or feeling or intends. Although clinical anxiety and depression are not more common in children and adolescents with Moebius syndrome, affected individuals may avoid social situations due to apprehension and frustration.
“Once I overcame breast cancer, I wasn’t afraid of anything anymore.”
Melissa Etheridge
“Staying at a healthy weight, being physically active, and limiting how much alcohol you drink can help reduce your risk of breast cancer.”
American Cancer Society
“Winter can be brutal, but research shows you might get some health benefits during the colder months. When it’s cold, your body has to work harder to maintain its core body temperature — and as a result, you might burn more calories. Colder temperatures can help reduce both allergies and inflammation.”
Harvard Health Publishing
It depends. Cold weather can be hard on your health in some ways, but it also be good for it, reports the January 2010 issue of the Harvard Health Letter. Most of us spend the winter trying to stay warm, but a little bit of exposure to cold may not be such a bad thing. There are two types of fat in the human body: white fat and brown fat. Brown fat is the heat-producing, calorie-burning fat that babies need to regulate their body temperatures. Most of it disappears with age, but adults retain some brown fat. Dutch researchers reported findings last year that showed that moderately cool temperatures of 61° F activated brown fat in 23 of 24 study volunteers. This is a good thing because brown fat burns calories more efficiently than white fat, and so may help control weight.
It can be tempting to spend the coldest mornings safely tucked under the covers; it’s only natural to want to avoid the most brutal temps. But during periods of such weather-induced isolation, we tend to reach out to contact our closest friends and family on the phone, and end up chatting with them for longer than usual, according to studies of 2012.
For some insects and even animals the freezing cold is not suitable for them and regarding our health well look here; during the summer of 2012 — when West Nile cases were climbing — much was made of the milder 2011-2012 winter and its effect on the disease-spreading mosquito population. The pests thrive in milder climates, meaning they were able to survive — and breed — all winter, just waiting to feast come spring. Freezing or below-freezing temps might kill off some skeeters (and ticks), thereby protecting you from the illnesses they are known to spread.
Through Psychology Today, some research suggests that if the weather never changes, you start taking that sunshine for granted. Shivering through the cold makes those warm spring days seem even better when they finally come along.
There’s a reason putting ice on an injury works. That drop in temperature reduces inflammation in, say, a sprained ankle or stubbed toe. But the theory works on a much grander scale, too — cold temperatures can reduce inflammation and pain all over. In one recent study, researchers in Finland studied 10 women as they took 20-second plunges into near-freezing water, and also partook in sessions of cold-body cryotherapy (exposing the body to ultra-low temps for brief periods). After being exposed to the cold, participants’ blood showed three times as much norepinephrine, a naturally occurring chemical that may help suppress pain. In fact, athletes and spa-goers even have a remedy of sorts available for muscle recovery. A 2011 study found that, at extremely low temperatures, such treatments, called cryotherapy, did more for athletes to recover from physical activity than simply resting. Runners who were exposed to temperatures as low as -166 degrees F recovered from exercise faster than those who given other therapies or told to rest, The Atlantic reported. Live in a cold-weather climate? Then you’re well aware that we’ve got a few more weeks of icy temps to endure. But those bitter winds could be doing you more good than you’d think: Preliminary research shows they may lead to a longer life.
In a study published in a recent issue of cell, researchers from the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the University of Michigan discovered that worms exposed to cold temperatures demonstrate a genetic response that triggers longer life spans.
Studies have shown that exposure to freezing temperatures, even for short periods, can significantly increase your energy expenditure for hours afterward. Swim a few laps in cool water, or take a power walk in winter weather, to enjoy the perk up for your workout.
So enjoy the cold!
“Cotard delusion, also known as or nihilistic delusion or walking corpse syndrome or Cotard’s syndrome , is a rare mental disorder in which the affected person holds the delusional belief that they are already dead, do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs.”
Healthline.com
Cotard delusion, also known as or nihilistic delusion or walking corpse syndrome or Cotard’s syndrome , is a rare mental disorder in which the affected person holds the delusional belief that they are already dead, do not exist, are putrefying, or have lost their blood or internal organs.
One of the main symptoms of Cotard delusion is nihilism. Nihilism is the belief that nothing has any value or meaning. It can also include the belief that nothing really exists. People with Cotard delusion feel as if they’re dead or rotting away. In some cases, they might feel like they’ve never existed.
While some people feel this way about their entire body, others only feel it in regard to specific organs, limbs, or even their soul.
Depression is also closely related to Cotard delusion. A 2011 review of existing research about Cotard delusion notes that 89% of documented cases include depression as a symptom.
Other symptoms include:
Researchers aren’t sure what causes Cotard delusion, but there are a few possible risk factors. Several studies indicate that the average age of people with Cotard delusion is about 50. It can also occur in children and teenagers. People under the age of 25 with Cotard delusion tend to also have bipolar depression. Women also seem to be more likely to develop Cotard delusion.
In addition, Cotard delusion seems to occur more often in people who think their personal characteristics, rather than their environment, cause their behavior. People who believe that their environment causes their behavior are more likely to have a related condition called Capgras syndrome. This syndrome causes people to think their family and friends have been replaced by imposters. Cotard delusion and Capgras syndrome can also appear together.
Other mental health conditions that might increase someone’s risk of developing Cotard delusion include:
Cotard delusion also seems to be associated with certain neurological conditions, including:
“Stone Man Syndrome. Extremely rare disease of connective tissue. A mutation of the body’s repair mechanism causes fibrous tissue (muscle, tendon, ligament) to be ossified when damaged. In some cases, injuries can cause joints to become permanently frozen in place. The gene that causes ossification is normally deactivated after a fetus bones are formed in the womb, but in patients with FOP, the gene keeps working.”
MAYO CLINIC
It is a disorder in which skeletal muscle and connective tissue, such as tendons and ligaments, are gradually replaced by bone (ossified). This condition leads to bone formation outside the skeleton (extra-skeletal or heterotopic bone) that restricts movement.
This process generally becomes noticeable in early childhood, starting with the neck and shoulders and moving down the body and into the limbs. People with FOP are born with abnormal big toes (hallux valgus) which can be helpful in making the diagnosis. Trauma, such as a fall or invasive medical procedure, or a viral illness may trigger episodes of muscle swelling and inflammation (myositis). These flareups lasts for several days to months and often result in permanent bone growth in the injured area.
FOP is almost always caused by a mutation at the same place in the ACVR1 gene (The ACVR1 gene provides instructions for making the activin receptor type-1 (ACVR1) protein, which is a member of a protein family called bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) type I receptors.) and is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner. This condition occurs in about 1 in 1,600,000 newborns and about 800 people worldwide are known to have FOP.
-Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is characterized by the gradual replacement of muscle tissue and connective tissue (such as tendons and ligaments) by bone, restricting movement. This process generally becomes noticeable in early childhood, starting with the neck and shoulders and proceeding down the body and into the limbs.
-The formation of extra-skeletal bone causes progressive loss of mobility as the joints become affected. Speaking and eating may also become difficult as the mouth becomes affected. Over time, people with FOP may become malnourished because of the inability to eat. They may also develop breathing difficulties as a result of extra bone formation around the rib cage that restricts expansion of the lungs.
-Any trauma to the muscles of an individual with FOP (a fall or an invasive medical procedure) may trigger episodes of muscle swelling and inflammation followed by more rapid ossification in the injured area. Flare-ups may also be caused by viral illnesses such as the flu.
-Affected individuals may also have short thumbs and other skeletal abnormalities.
-Fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva is inherited in an autosomal dominant pattern, which means one copy of the altered gene in each cell is sufficient to cause the disorder.
-Most cases of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva result from new mutations in the gene. These cases occur in people with no history of the disorder in their family. In only a small number of cases, an affected person has inherited the mutation from one affected parent.
-Making a diagnosis for a genetic or rare disease can often be challenging. Healthcare professionals typically look at a person’s medical history, symptoms, physical exam, and laboratory test results in order to make a diagnosis. The following resources provide information relating to diagnosis and testing for this condition. If you have questions about getting a diagnosis, you should contact a healthcare professional.
-The Genetic Testing Registry (GTR) provides information about the genetic tests for this condition. The intended audience for the GTR is health care providers and researchers. Patients and consumers with specific questions about a genetic test should contact a health care provider or a genetics professional.
There is currently no definitive treatment. However, a brief course of high-dose corticosteroids, such as Prednisone, started within the first 24 hours of a flare-up, may help reduce the intense inflammation and tissue swelling seen in the early stages of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. Other medications, such as muscle relaxants, mast cell inhibitors, and aminobisphosphonates, if appropriate, should be closely monitored by a physician. Surgery to remove heterotopic and extra-skeletal bone is risky and can potentially cause painful new bone growth.
References: | http://www.striveforgoodhealth.com/archives/date/2020/01 |
The BIST Advanced Optical Microscopy Programme (AOM@BIST) was launched two years ago with the aim of building collaborative activities within the BIST centres to maintain our leading position in this field.
The joint effort of BIST and the participating BIST centres has already allowed for the implementation of several collaborative projects targeted at sharing know-how and expertise among their researchers and technicians working in this strategic area.
The centres currently representing the AOM@BIST are: CRG, IBEC, ICFO, and IRB Barcelona. These centres have the most complete and cutting-edge portfolio of advanced optical microscopy techniques in Catalonia and in Spain, with world-class facilities highly competitive at the international level. Their range of imaging technologies spans from single molecule imaging in living cells, various types of super-resolution microscopes, light sheet microscopy, and optical tomography for 3D-full organ imaging to multi-photon approaches for in-vivo imaging of small organisms. A unique added value of the BIST centres is that they combine basic research in optical imaging technology with new concepts for probe development and novel image analysis strategies, all targeted to potential users and scientific collaborations within the life sciences community.
More information about the AOM research done at the BIST centres can be found through the below links:
Advanced Digital Microscopy at IRB Barcelona
Super-resolution light nanoscopy facility at ICFO
Advanced Light Microscopy Unit at CRG
Albertazzi’s Group at IBEC
Garcia-Parajo’s Group at ICFO
Within the AOM@BIST programme, we are currently implementing a common virtual space for sharing protocols for sample preparation, which will be used by researchers of the different BIST centres as well as external collaborators. We have also organized different courses and seminars at the different BIST centres, as well as two different mini-retreats (one in autumn 2017 and a second one in autumn 2018 with over 30 participants each) to exchange experiences, share new developments in the field and elaborate on a common plan of actions with the AOM@BIST programme. Finally, we conduct regular exchange visits of the facility personnel to the different facilities (CRG, ICFO and IRB) in order to share ongoing activities, know-how on specific techniques and associated sample preparation protocols and developments first hand. These visits have led to the establishment of most of the collaborations that we now have.
In addition, BIST recently established a number of transversal collaborative research and development projects within the BIST centres to facilitate and increase the collaboration within BIST research groups and to capitalize on their know-how and complementarity. One of the projects focusses on the design of an excitation-multiplexed, multicolor imaging capable of single molecule imaging in living cells to super-resolution microscopy; and a second project aimed by generating high-content 3D Live imaging: oblique illumination platform for 0.05-0.5mm organoid samples.
As part of our involvement with science and education, BIST and the participating BIST centres also co-organize the annual Winter School in Advanced Microscopy, part of the BIST-UPF Master of Multidisciplinary Research in Experimental Sciences. This two-week school includes lectures and seminars about theory, as well as hands-on training in specific experimental techniques at the AOM facilities of the participating BIST centres. This cutting edge training prepares young researchers for the multidisciplinary techniques that are vital in scientific research today and in the future.
The BIST Advanced Optical Microscopy Programme is now heading into its third year with more projects and collaborations on the horizon.
More about advanced optical microscopy at BIST
Optical microscopy has become an indispensable tool in the life sciences. The development and application of different forms of optical microscopy, and in particular of fluorescence, is progressing rapidly and in a truly interdisciplinary fashion. Progress on multiple technological fronts are currently allowing researchers to interrogate biological systems across multiple spatial and temporal scales, from the molecular level to visualization of cellular dynamics in whole organisms during development. Imaging technologies are therefore core disciplines of tomorrow’s biology and medicine, and represent essential new research infrastructures for the life sciences.
The instruments currently used at the BIST centres that work in microscopy include world-class competitive equipment include commercial systems, mostly placed in dedicated imaging facilities at the BIST centres, as well as custom-made set-ups being developed by research groups and/or within the facilities. The facilities provide dedicated space and equipment for sample preparation and maintenance prior to imaging and resources for subsequent image processing and analysis. | https://bist.eu/bist-advanced-optical-microscopy-programme-makes-big-strides-in-its-first-year/ |
- Is service learning about what we teach or is it about how we teach it?
- When we emphasize the importance of reflection, are we speaking of the content of the discussion or the methods used during a session?
- How can I make the service learning component an integral part of the course and not just another add-on assignment?
Step Two: Start with the Basics: who, what, when, where, why, and how questions
- Who are we teaching?
- What content and information will we be teaching them?
- When is the most appropriate time to teach this in the context of their education?
- In what setting can students best learn this course material?
- Why is it important to teach this content and to teach them in this manner?
- And how can we be most successful in teaching this information?
Step Three: Identifying Course Competencies
- Review the existing competencies and learning expectations (objectives) in the course. Look at areas where your current design and methods may not be the best fit for today’s community college students. Students want to be able to see a visible connection between what they are learning and how that affects their daily lives.
- Most times, the course objectives are perfectly relevant, but the means by which we are “teaching” and the student is “learning” fails in terms of “connectivity.”
Step Four: Decide Which Objectives are Best Suited to Service Learning
- Competencies and objectives best learned via active learning are better suited than those that remain in theoretical or intellectual mode. Demonstration of rote memorization of content is less suited to service learning than demonstration of an applied comprehension of the concept.
- Each instructor must determine the fit of service learning to the particular course. The degree of importance of the course objective you choose may dictate the amount of service time required of the student. (But keep in mind that it is the LEARNING that matters, not the TIME.
TTU has partnered with Campus Compact to provide resources for faculty. Please visit the Campus Compact web site for example syllabi organized by discipline in the Resource Links of the Service Center web site.
Liability Concerns: Acknowledgement, Indemnification & Consent Forms
Choose the statement of acknowledgement form below that best fits the service your students will be doing. Collect the forms BEFORE they begin their service. You are not required to acknowledge hours done BEFORE students turn their forms in. It has been successful for other faculty offering a grade for having completed the form and turning it in. On the same note, it may be a good idea to have an alternative project in mind for students who have an objection to a particular project for some reason you may deem plausible. Lastly, faculty implementing service into their courses and using these forms are only required to keep the signed copies in student files for one year after project ends. Forms are below:
For Inside Type of Work
For Outside Type of Work
For Construction and Disaster Relief Type of Work
Recommendations for Student Assessment
In order to ensure academic integrity, it is essential that service learning be used in conjunction with rigorous evaluation. Assessment should be based on students’ demonstration of how they are integrating the service experience to course content. The following recommendations are guidelines for how to conduct assessment for service learners.
- An assignment or activity, such as a journal, is needed to provide evidence of how the student connects the service to the course content.
- By helping students to distinguish between description and analysis, between emotional reactions and cognitive observations, faculty helps them to transform service experiences into learning experiences.
- Evaluation of service learning occasionally makes use of subjective evaluation in the same way that traditional courses sometimes make use of subjective evaluation.
- There is not a one-on-one correspondence between hours served and knowledge gained or credit earned.
- Nevertheless, a certain minimum or service hours may be needed to provide an experience of significant depth.
- To preserve the academic integrity or service-learning, credit is not awarded for hours of service but rather for demonstrated learning based on that service.
- Extra hours of service should not necessarily yield extra credit.
- Giving early and regular feedback on students’ journal entries is a critical part of teaching students how to develop their reflection skills.
Authentic Assessment
- Pre/Post Surveys
- Oral Interviews
- Stories
- Journal Writing
- Project Presentations
- Exhibitions
- Exams on Theory in Action
- Constructed Response Items
- Observation in the field
- Portfolios
- Movies
- Pictures Slide shows
- Other Multimedia Projects
You are welcome to consult with Service Center Staff for advisement on assessment. | https://www.tntech.edu/volunteer/faculty-tool.php |
Steven Johnson uses the history of science to analyze and explain innovation, giving us an understanding of the critical paths that forms ideas. Great read.
We are often better served by connecting ideas than we are by protecting them. When one looks at innovation in nature and in culture, environments that build walls around good ideas tend to be less innovative in the long run than more open-ended environments. Good ideas may not want to be free, but they do want to connect, fuse, recombine. They want to reinvent themselves by crossing conceptual borders. They want to complete each other as much as they want to compete.
Good ideas are not conjured out of thin air; they are built out of a collection of existing parts, the composition of which expands (and, occasionally, contracts) over time. Some of those parts are conceptual: ways of solving problems, or new definitions of what constitutes a problem in the first place. Some of them are, literally, mechanical parts.
The trick to having good ideas is not to, sit around in glorious isolation and try to think big thoughts. The trick is to get more parts on the table.
A good idea is a network. A specific constellation of neurons—thousands of them—fire in sync with each other for the first time in your brain, and an idea pops into your consciousness. A new idea is a network of cells exploring the adjacent possible of connections that they can make in your mind.
To make your mind more innovative, you have to place it inside environments that share that same network signature: networks of ideas or people that mimic the neural networks of a mind exploring the boundaries of the adjacent possible.
tween all the elements in the system.
Protecting ideas from copycatsand competitors also protects them from other ideas that might improve them, might transform them from hints and hunches to true innovations.
Being wrong forces you to explore.
Emergent platforms derive much of their creativity from the inventive and economical reuse of existing resources, and, as any urbanite will tell you, the most expensive resource in a big city is real estate.
In a funny way,the real benefit of stacked platforms lies in the knowledge you no longer need to have. Youdon’t need to know how to send signals to satellites or parse geo-data to send that tweet circulating through the Web’s ecosystem.
Ideas rise in crowds. They rise in liquid networks where connection is valued more than protection. So if we want to build environments that generate good ideas, we need to keep that in mind, and not fall back on the easy assumptions that competitive markets are the only reliable source of good ideas. | https://borjamoya.com/book/good-ideas/ |
What is the nature of the scientifi c attitude, the attitude of the man or woman who studies and applies physics, chemistry, geology, engineering, medical or any other science? We all know that science plays an important role in the societies in which we live. Many people believe, however, that our progress depends on two different aspects of science. The fi rst of these is the application of the machines and products that scientists and technologists develop. New drugs, faster and safer means of transport, new systems of applied knowledge are some examples of this aspect of science.
The second aspect is the application of the special methods of thought and action that scientists use in their work. What are these special methods of thinking and acting? First of all, it seems that a successful scientist is full of curiosity — he wants to fi nd out how and why the universe works. He usually directs his attention towards problems which he notices have no satisfactory explanation, and his curiosity makes him look for underlying relationships even if the data available seem to be unconnected. Moreover, he thinks he can improve the existing conditions, whether of pure or applied knowledge, and enjoys trying to solve the problems which this involves.
He is a good observer, accurate, patient and objective and applies persistent and logical thought to the observations he makes. He utilizes the facts he observes to the full extent. For example, trained observers obtain a very large amount of information about a star mainly from the accurate analysis of the simple lines that appear in a spectrum.
He is skeptical — he does not accept statements which are not based on the most complete evidence available — and therefore rejects authority as the sole basis for truth.
Furthermore, he is not only critical of the work of others, but also of his own. Since he knows that man is the least reliable of scientifi c instruments and that a number of factors tend to disturb objective investigation.
Lastly, he is highly imaginative since he often has to look for relationships in data, which are not only complex but also frequently incomplete. Furthermore, he needs imagination if he wants to make hypotheses of how processes work and how events take place.
These seem to be some of the ways in which a successful scientist or technologist thinks and acts.
81. Many people believe that science helps society to progress through .
A. applied knowledge B. more than one aspect
C. technology only D. the use of machines
82. Which of the following statements is INCORRECT about curiosity?
A. It gives the scientist confi dence and pleasure in work.
B. It gives rise to interest in problem that are unexplained.
C. It leads to efforts to investigate potential connections.
D. It encourages the scientists to look for new ways of acting.
83. According to the passage, a successful scientist would not .
A. easily believe in unchecked statements
B. easily criticize others’ research work
C. always use his imagination in work
D. always use evidence from observation
84. What does the passage mainly discuss?
A. Application of technology.
B. Progress in modern society.
C. Scientists’ way of thinking and acting.
D. How to become a successful scientist.
85. What is the author’s attitude towards the topic?
A. Critical. B. Objective. C. Biased. D. Unclear. | https://m.hujiang.com/en/p469600/ |
The discovery that Gauss was most proud of – 07/27/2021 – Marcelo Viana
Draw a circle on the paper with a compass. Then, without changing the opening of the compass, draw another circle centered somewhere in the first one. Finally, use a ruler to connect the centers of the two circles to one of the points where they intersect. The figure obtained in this way is an equilateral triangle, that is, the sides of which are all of the same length.
The ancient Greeks knew how to use a ruler and compass to build regular polygons with 3, 4, 5 and 15 sides. They also knew how to get from one regular polygon to another with double sides. So they knew how to build the regular hexagon (6 sides) from the equilateral triangle. Can all regular polygons with any number of N sides be constructed with a ruler and compass?
The answer is no, but that wasn’t understood until the 18th century when it was proven that regular 7- and 13-sided polygons couldn’t be constructed this way. So what are the constructible values of N, ie so that the regular polygon with N sides can only be constructed with a ruler and compass?
The problem caught the attention of none other than the great Carl Friedrich Gauss. In 1796 he showed how to build the regular heptagon (17 pages) with a ruler and compass. This was a discovery Gauss was most proud of. In his great work “Disquisitiones Arithmeticae” he went even further and came to the conclusion that for the construction of a regular polygon it is sufficient that the number N of sides is the product of a power of 2 divided by different Fermat prime numbers. He also stated that this condition would be sufficient, but this was only proven in 1837 by the Frenchman Pierre Wantzel.
Pierre de Fermat calculated the numbers of the form 1 plus 2 to 2n for n values from 0 to 4, found them to be prime numbers and held this for all n values. But a few years later Leonhard Euler pointed out that the Fermat number with n = 5 is not a prime number and ironically, until today it has found none other than the five originals he discovered.
Since there are 31 different Fermat prime number products, the Gauss-Wantzel theorem gives 31 odd N numbers that can be constructed, and this is the best result known so far.
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